videkkaland's blog

A nice and smiling young lady is enthusiastically telling the story of the week she spent on Gábor Pál's homestead in Balmazújváros during the Rural Adventure Programme. Who would think that she is a member of the Parliament, who is – being aware that she has been elected to Parliament from the list of Hajdú-Bihar county – eager to grab each and every opportunity to learn about the daily life of those who voted for her.

Dániel Bakó is a young but not a 'rookie' farmer from Szentes. He has been cultivating pepper for almost a decade on 0.9 hectares. He has received the opportunity and the commitment from his father, and performs his everyday tasks with enviable enthusiasm. I was able to witness this with my own eyes while I spent a week at his farm during AGRYA's programme for urban youth.

Urban people often have a superficial image about rural life and agriculture, so Rural Adventure Programme offers a great opportunity for young city-dwellers to have a taste of the work that is done in village farms – said Undersecretary for Rural Development Zsolt V. Németh, the patron of the programme.

Prior to my report of experiences and lining up the most important pieces of my remarks  Gilicze, I would like to say thank you to the familiy's members I got to know, Zsolti, Uncle Feri and Aunt Jutka, who received us with impeccable love with my friend Gábor Király.

In my opinion, such an act means a big sacrifice and huge undertaking for everyone, especially at a “tanya” [typical Hungarian homestead and farm mostly at scarcely populated areas of the Great Hungarian Plain].

I don't even have to mention how surprised I was when I read this description beside my name in the Countryside – Adventure timetable. Sheep farm and four hundred brood-rams.....

Gábor Király spent only six days at the Gilicze farm, bit the experiences he gained there will remain forever. As a sociologist, he was looking at the countryside and people living there with scientific curiosity.

For a long time, I could not bear the cliché entitled „Know your country first, then go abroad”, while at the first day of the programme, I felt that if one wants to know the world, there is really no need at all costs to desire going to exotic places. A lot more can be provided if he or she is getting to know a non-urban way of life better that is exotic to him, here in Hungary. The first dose of this was for me.

We have been living at the inner city of Budapest since we have been born, and as university students, working is not the primary activity for us during the summer! This is apparent from that we have returned from our adventure at Hódmezővásárhely 2 weeks ago, and we report on it just now!
Summer holidays after summer holidays in the middle of the summer, but we have been engaging ourselves in Countryside – Adventure for experience and adventure!

Countryside – Adventure Programme – The beginning

As newlyweds, we applied for this programme because we want – besides our “ordinary” job – to do a bit of household farming somewhere around Pest. Therefore, we wanted to see it from arms' reach, to try how many days of work is spent on making such a farm work. We volunteered to a “tanya” [typical farm and place for living mostly in scarcely populated areas of the Great Hungarian Plain] because it was closest to what we have envisioned. And now, the report.

Day 1 (Sunday evening)