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Present situation:

The next step in building bridges to young people in Mosonmagyarovar is to strengthen the Regional Support Team already started there. We need to find a western European partner for our Trilateral Partnership, either from England, the Netherlands or Germany. We have a new Bridgebuilders Club starting in the autumn and they would like to host (or travel to) a western European country. We also want to build our Regional Support Team stronger as we will probably have two new Bridgebuilders clubs in the coming year. But first, there are 25 youth from the Kossuth Gimnazium that will go to the International Youth Festival this summer. Our present ‘older’ BB Club is looking forward already to going to the USA in the summer of 2010 to be hosted by our friends in the partner egion of Marshallton Pennsylvania where a Regional Support Team is led by Jackie Kennedy, our first lady!

AB History:

Atlantic Bridge work in this region started with a short visit from John in 2002 when he was looking for schools who could host Maori artist, Steve Apirana. The success of Steve’s tour opened up possibilities for building bridges in this region. The English departments were very keen to cooperate with us and bring native English speakers to their schools. Especially the Kossuth Gimnazium became our ally, but not until they first confronted us about being a Christian organization and possibly ‘indoctrinating’ their youth with Christianity. When it was clear to them that we were an open group, yet clear about our faith, they welcomed us more and more each year. Teachers Barbara and Timea took several teams of students to the International Youth Festival in the summer of 2003. And from then on a group of youth from this region attended our festival every year.
In the spring of 2006 the Kossuth Gimnazium welcomed a team of 20 Americans from the Marshallton United Methodist church in PA to their school for a whole week. In the summer of 2007 the reciprocal exchange took place when 17 students and teachers from this school travelled to Marshallton PA. Also as a result of this exchange, the friendship with the teachers and administration at this school keeps getting better. As an English-speaking international organization, we have much to offer the schools in this region. English departments of schools in this town and region will be our focus as we increase the bridges in this region in the coming years.
The link with churches in Mosonmagyarovar is our greater challenge. Early on, we discovered that in the Protestant and ‘free’ churches the youth were almost totally absent. And whereas we prefer to partner with various churches, we have been welcomed primarily by the Baptist church. The Lutheran and Calvinist church have no young people and no means of finding them, while the Roman Catholic church, from the beginning, has declined the honor of a cooperation. So we have a rather unique situation in this region where young people are enthusiastic, but the churches are not connected to this enthusiasm.

Geography:

Mosonmargyarovar is a town of about 33.000 people in the very north-western part of Hungary in the Movar region. The Danube river floats just very close to this town and influences its geography and life. The next thing you notice in this town are the great number of dentists. So you wonder how it is with the teeth of the Hungarians while actually it is all about Austrians that cross the border looking for cheap teeth service. Mosonmagyarovar may not be the most beautiful town in Hungary, but it has a castle and hot baths for healing your body and it is the closest town to the Dutch border which is 1066 kilometres. There is lots of shopping, also at Tesco, and there is a really cool restaurant on the main road into town with stuff from the Sixties, including an old Cadillac where you can sit and drink your milkshake. And, last but not least, Movar people are wonderful, warm and welcoming.