Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Day no. 7

This was a day full of philosophical discussions.
Kecskéd. I was 20 minutes early on this first appointment of the day. Nevertheless mayor Grúber Zoltán already awaited me outside in the blazing sun. That show of gracious hospitality continued during our talks together with the alpolgármester and the jegyző. I look forward to take up the kind invitation to return for a bit of sightseeing and for luncheon. But first things first: five members are expected in this village of 2.000 inhabitants. Wonderful goal!
Bokod. Although I was much on time (after letter, e-mail and tel. calls to arrange meeting), no mayor. You can't win them all. Hopefully his secreatary will be able to convince mayor and others taking up at least two memberships.
Oroszlány. Too little time for an exchange of philosophical thoughts with alpolgármester Rajnai Gábor. Yesterday Mr Rajnai enjoyed picking berries in the forest and fishing this early morning, while I am racing around to meet mayors and sitting behind my computer in evening hours. Who is more happy in life? We were not able to answer the question, but for now I hope that the most supportive Mr Rajnai will as much enjoy catching berries and fish as he will "catch" 20 new members for the Order of the Smiling Knights. I wish him all the best and good luck!
Várgesztes. With the mayor, Mrs Memoni Gabriella, I had an other exchange of deep thoughts, even in French (mayor speaks far better French then I speak Hungarian). What is more enjoyable: to try to find your mission in life and having enough time for other things to do or to be fully involved with your found mission and having no time for anything else. I left without the answer, but with the jope that two more members are on the way.
Vértessomló. A most kind jegyző, Mr Szennay István, was waiting when I arrived late. We talked about personal matters and I realised that a serious sickness in the family is far over-shadowing the importance of the right choice between two happy alternatives.

If all goes well, we will have an other 32 members originating from the discussions today.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Day no. 6

Bakonyszombathely. Mayor Pintér Lajos made clear that three members will sign up from his municipality. I left gratefully not only because of the doubling of members compared to our general goal (the village has only 1.500 inhabitants), but also for what the mayor wrote in our large green book.
Bakonybánk. Kind mayor Major László, who clearly showed heart and soul for our project. One member to be expected in this small village of 520 inhabitants.
Réde. Received with a smile on the face of mayor Pölöskei József as one could see so well in Thailand, where the mayor had been and I so often (during my 17 years living in Singapore). Three members for a population of only 1.500. Wonderful support from the mayor!
Súr. This was one of the two highlights of the day! Szluka Zsuzsanna welcomed me in the Teleház. She had also invited three young girls, who would like to see our artists in action in one of the hospitals (will be arranged). While the village of Súr has only 1.400 inhabitants, Zsuzsa is confident that ten members will be recruited. This is again a clear proof that only personal contacts will be the source of success. Thank you, Zsuzsa!
Ácsteszér and Csatka. The mayor of Ácsteszér and the notary public of both Ácsteszér and Csatka received me graciously in the meeting room. Three members are likely to come from these two intertwined villages.
Aka. The mayor, Mór Antal, had forgotten our appointment. Luckily he lived next to the Köszség Ház. If he is indeed able and willing to find five members in this small village of 264 people, not only will he be totally excused for his forgetfulness, but Aka will also make a chance to be one of the very best performing municipalities in Komárom Esztergom Megye. Thank you very much for your kind intentions, Mayor Mór Antal.
Bakonysárkány. A pleasant meeting with mayor Weilandits István and képviselő, Székely Márton. What better result is possible than to expect ten members in a village of only 1.000 inhabitants. I want to thank both very much for their great support! It was the second high point of the day.
Vérteskethely. Last and least :-). After 45 minutes waiting, I was finally directed to meet at a petrol station. There a good meeting took place with mayor Petkovics Gyula and one of the képviselők. I hope they are able to find at least one new member....

If all will go according to plan, an other 36 members will join the Order of the Smiling Knights.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Day no. 5

An exhilarating day it was! In many places a show of lots of heart and soul from mayors, képviselők and jegyzők.
The day started in Környe. Mayor had not much time, because of festival in his city. But enough time to agree that four members could well be reached.
Mayor of Kömlőd interrupted his own holiday to meet me in his office. Two members may be realistic.
The mayor of Dad was exceptionally hospitable. If her charm and dedication to our project reflects the nature of her small village, then 3 members may well be the result.
A meeting together with the mayor of Bársongyos and the jegyző of both Bársonyos and Kerékteleki. Both were very forthcoming and I much appreciated their clear support. In each village likely to find three members.
Tárkány was one of the two high points of the day. When I arrived at the municipality, mayor Fúto Lajos Sándor was waiting at the front door and led me in the meeting room, where nine képviselők were already waiting. Brief speeches, picture taking and also reminiscing the time when I had arrived in Tárkány on the bicycle five years ago. With a population of only 1.616, are they indeed able to get ten members? If so, perhaps one of the best ratios of all 3.200 municipalities!
In Szákszend again a kind polgármester, who only came to office to welcome me and to discuss to receive three membership cards.
Kisbér was the other high point of the day. Two very kind képviselők, Szabó Sándorné Erzsébet and Vaderna Tamás, arranged our meeting in the local hospital and later invited me for drinks in Hotel Kincsem. More pleasant talks about our families than about memberships. But if their wonderful intentions to support us, are as successful as the races of "Kincsem", we will be great winners in Kisbér!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Day no. 4

Most mayors "make my day" through their own enthusiasm and very few disappoint me (as happened today once).

In Csolnok, it was a great pleasure to meet with mayor Bérces József. His assessment is totally in line with my own: "one has to make personal contacts in order to make such large project a success. The opposite from Direct Mailing". Thank you Mr Mayor for these encouraging words.

In Sárisáp, I met with the notary public, Mrs Klórián Józsefné. A lady of few words, but probably many actions. Great to hear that the mayor already had decided for the municipality to become a member in the Order of the Smiling Knights with an amount of HUF 10.000. And perhaps some more members from Sárisáp will join the mayor.

In Kesztölc, the mayor was not available. But three ladies warmed up to the concept of the Order of the Smiling Knights. I have all hopes that these "Three Musketeers" will help us with at least three members.

Esztergom was the high point of the day. A meeting in the local hospital; could not be more fitting. Dr Osvai László and Mrs Bártfainé Borz Gyöngyi were clearly planning to use all possible media sources in Esztergom (30.000 inhabitants) to help try finding at least 30 members. With such personal support such goal may well be reached.

The mayor of Tokod, Pánczel Mihály was very forthcoming and assured me to help realise four members from his village.

This time a variation of "last, but not least", namely: last and very least, the mayor of Tokodaltáró, who made clear in one minute that he had no time, the municipality no money and his secretary would further talk to me as he had other meetings to attend to. For us, a gracious secretary may be more valuable then a non-interested mayor; hopefully she will still be able to get us three members.

All in all, a very good day!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Day no. 3.

A hard and tiring day, mainly because of mistakes we made in the preparations for this project. It becomes clear that it will not be possible for me to meet 12 or even 13 mayors a day and neither to drive always within 20 minutes from one meeting to another. This is a mad-race, creating tension for me (as I hate being late) and is not fair for the mayors where I arrive late. Mea culpa; hopefully my assistant Gyula will protect me from any further hubris on my part. The schedule for the first county (seven days) could not be changed anymore, but for the other 18 counties we should change in a way to have only 8 meetings a day and to carefully calculate the kilometers between the places of the meetings. Never too old to learn!

The positive side of the day were the pleasant and constructive meetings in the mayors' offices.
The first appointment was in Tatabánya and also the most important one as the city has about 75.000 inhabitants. A very kind welcome by Mr Takács János, képviselő and Mr László Ferenc, aljegyző, while Barbara Botos with her fluent English was the best possible interpreter. Local television was waiting for an interview and local newspapers will write about our project. I believe it will be extremely difficult to get 75.000 members from Tatabánya and any success will much depend on the personal input and guiding from the municipality. I am very curious.

The meeting with Dr Sándor Nagy, the mayor of Vértesszőlős, was exceptionally inspirational. It is wonderful to hear and feel so much support (asking for extra posters to hang at strategic places in the city; the offer of local television and radio "to spread the word", etc.). The fact that Dr Nagy could speak in English, made the conversation a lot easier for both. The number of inhabitants of 3.000 would justify only 3 membership cards; however ten cards were requested!I am very grateful for his kind support.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Second Day of the "Driving Tour of Hungary"

In spite of holidays, eight of the 12 mayors in my schedule were able to welcome me to their office. Each time, there is a brief, but nice discussion. All mayors sofar seem quite receptive to our concept of "entertainment for children in hospitals" and clearly state their support. The actual memberships from each municipality will show whether they succeeded as well.
A special thanks to mayor Horváth Béla, who came to greet me for a short moment and then had to return to the place of catastrophe (a collapse of a bridge because of the bad weather the day before).
The happy face of the Notary Public from Nyergesújfalu, Mrs Adolf Józsefné, and her charming daughter, Livia, will be a long remembered. The daughter acted as interpreter, when her Mother mentioned to remember me from the biking tour through Hungary five years ago. But more importantly, Mrs Adolf Józsefné together with Fleith Péterné and Havasi Sándorné were quite convinced that 14 members (instead of the 8 representing the 7.700 inhabitants) would be identified from their city. If all mayors would be that active and supportive, we would have 15.000 members by the end of next year..................
A most interesting discussion with Mr Czermann János, the mayor of Süttő. From this city the limestone (mézkő) originates for the building materials of many historic buildings in Hungary, such as the Gellért Hotel and the Máttyás Church. The parliament building, however, was built from sandstone (homokkő) and this material proved to be too soft and porous; hence the total rebuilding of the parliament from sandstone to limeston; a project, which started in 1930 and will take an other ten years. I hope to have understood the story well with my limited knowledge of Hungarian..........
My goal is simply to raise as many memberships as I can within the next twelve months. The good discussions with the mayors is a wonderful source of inspiration for keeping up such drive.

Monday, July 6, 2009

First Day, July 6, 2009

The first day has started! Strangly enough I find walking 2.000 km and biking 6.000 km less tiring than taking the car. But that may be just the impression for the first day.

I met today seven mayors (five on our schedule were on holidays; good for them!). I like to mention three exceptionally happy experiences:

a) The deputy-mayor of Tata very kindly received me as the first of the 3.200 persons representing all municipalities in Hungary. I showed him a nice and very big book and asked for his signature. He graciously obliged and asked to be allowed to write a few sentences as well. This seems to set the example, because the next six mayors also wrote something nice in the big green book. And I now expect to need quite a few more big green books to cover all 3.200 mayors. This is the right spirit for our Tour of Hungary. Thank you Mr Lóránt Horváthy. And we will be even more grateful if you are indeed able and willing to help us with 24 members from Tata for our "Order of the Smiling Knights". Your good intentions are much appreciated.

b) The mayor of Bábolna is an old friend of ours. She already has supported our activities a lot in the past. Her beautiful appearance is wonderfully representing the beautiful city of Bábolna. But appearance and friendship is one thing............., result is what counts and we much hope that Dr Klára Horváth could help us with five new members from Bábolna.

c) A mayor of the small village Mocsa had his daughter ready to be an interpreter (my Hungarian knowledge certainly not good enough for a meaningful discussion). Mayor Áy József explained his wonderful support in many ways. First, he will make copies of the poster I gave him and will hang these copies at strategic places, like the bus-stop, the school and the notice-board at his municipality. Then he will introduce us also to the Red Cross in which he plays an important role. In total, he will try hard to get ten new members in the Order of the Smiling Knights, while his villige of 2.400 inhabitants would require only three members. Thanks to his charming daughter, I was able to understand all this perfectly well :-).

All my thanks to the other four mayors as well. But it would be too long for my blog to describe all beautiful personal experiences of today.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Smiling Hospital soon in Croatia.

On June 28, the Founder of the Smiling Hospital Foundation, Countess Éva Csáky Bornemisza and I made a trip to Croatia for a week. Purpose was to prepare our "smiling hospital activities" in both Zagreb and Vukovar. We met with hospital directors, artists and potential sponsors. It looks that Croatia will be on our map before the end of the year. Especially great support we got from the Regent Hotel and from Nike.

We were quite impressed by the beauty of Zagreb and very moved by the tragic history of Vukovar. This last point being a reason to start first our activities in Vukovar.

Tomorrow will be the first day of the "Driving Tour through Hungary" visiting 3.200 mayors.