Thought for the Day: A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

As we gathered for breakfast this morning it was clear that today was different. The cheese crepes were delicious but somehow everyone seemed a little more restrained. Was it that the bountiful meals were catching up with us? Perhaps. But after two days of nervous anticipation, I think it was the reality that our first full day of teaching was finally before us. Alice read our first journal entry; Marianne shared the thought for the day; then Dorota, with her many years experience preparing nervous volunteers, wisely brought out extra worksheets and suggestions on additional activities for the students, should we need them. Aided by this additional boost of confidence we headed outdoors to meet with our student groups, knowing we could at least get through the first couple of sessions. And so it was. After the first session there was a lot of self-congratulation on having “survived.” After each subsequent session there was a quick exchange of helpful tips among ourselves. This included our younger volunteers Eli (14), Mira (13), and Isaac (9), who were highly valued “assistants” to the Polish teachers. When the fourth and final session was over we gathered for lunch, the main meal of the day, which started with yet another excellent soup. The three Polish teachers joined us and we exchanged tips on what worked and what didn’t work with our groups. We all agreed that the students were wonderful but now that we know our groups better we could do some fine-tuning of the activities. The biggest surprise really was that many of the students had English skills that were quite good. We then talked about combining our groups for the fourth session on the following day so that we could each take a turn teaching them an American folk song. Finally, Dorota briefed us on some of the upcoming activities for the week, including a trip to meet the deputy mayor of Siedlce, a folk dance demonstration, and a trip to an open air museum. Dorota also offered to drive us to the nearby tiny town of Kotun from which we could walk back. Ivy and Marianne took advantage of this chance to get some exercise and confirmed that it’s a doable 35 minute walk back to Reymontowka. Good to know because there’s a grocery store, ice cream shop and bankomat there. In the evening we were invited to watch the initiation ceremony for the first time campers. Marianne and Marvin served as queen and king delivering a certificate of welcome to each child. At evening’s end, we headed through the corridors to our rooms, with the students already feeling comfortable enough to speak to us in passing. We went to sleep with visions of the next day’s lesson plan in our heads and here and there the sounds of happy chatter coming from the campers’ rooms. I for sure was tired enough that I knew I would sleep through the rooster crowing at 4:30am.