Our first order of business with the new mentored and mentors was to play a card game of Solo, which is a simple game where you have to match numbers and colors, plus it has some twist, etc. We’ve played at least for an hour the first day, then we’ve repeated it on the second and third days. Around this point, Gergő’s idea to raise the stakes struck: the loser washes the dishes the next day after all of the three meals. Everybody got so enthusiastic that we knew by the next day that we’ve got a new tradition for us here. This became the method to determine who’s doing which chore the next day: who washes the dishes in the morning/noon/night, who covers the table, who folds the laundry, who’s mopping. The game is mostly based on luck, there’s no real chance to play tactics, and the 6-7 games every night are mostly lost by different people (or won, based on the point of view). If somebody’s not in the mood to play, he has to choose one chore for the next day. This is a pretty time-consuming method of decision, we play for 1,5 hours every night, but we have loads of fun in return.

Günther’s mother, Adél arrived to us on the 9^th of August (these are not real names of them, just as I changed the names in every previous blog post), and she stays until the very end of the turn. Pál Vaskuti conducts intensive family therapy with the two of them, and Adél joins us on our group therapies too, where she shared her and her son’s story with us. Our discussions are quite intense, we have many new people – five people out of 11 came in August -, everyday somebody new introduces him/herself. We talk around 1 hour about every participant. After the introduction, we can ask questions and reflect. Honesty and being detailed are important – it’s pointless otherwise.

Adél is the first parent who’s here with us. Adél really feels how to be present in the therapy: she hid behind no veil but revealed their relationship with Günther uncompromised, uncensored. Two kids in our group are adopted and this was the first time for them to see directly how a relationship between even blood relatives can go wrong, and can the relationship between the adopted child and the parent be less problematic.

Originally we wanted to prepare a theatrical play, then later we decided together with the kids to make a movie instead of theatre play. After long hours with the screen-play and loads of planning, we started to shoot the movie a few weeks ago – now we are done with 95% of the planned recordings. We even have enough shots to make several short films, so we film a few more scenes during the week and when the most of the group goes on a trip on the 18^th, Pisti and I will cut the movie so we can get done with it before we depart home.

Bence’s mother and father are coming on the 14^th – that increases the headcount to 13. After that, the group’s consistence is final until the end of the turn.