A First for Jim... Hot Milk Soup!!

October 14, 2010

We started the day with our usual Polish breakfast, but this one was totally different from what I ever experienced before. For breakfast we had hot milk soup! It was a hot soup made with milk which also contained noodles in the recipe. In my previous four years in Poland, this was a first.

After breakfast, Dorota asked her usual questions. Who’s going where? Who’s coming back when? Who needs a box lunch? If Dorota should ever decide to leave her position as Program Manager in Poland, she would have little problem securing a position as a concierge at a five star hotel in Poland.

After breakfast, we all proceeded to our respective teaching assignments, mine being at Spoleczna along with Mike, Vicki, and Dr. Michael. The traffic going to Spoleczna was unusually light today because it was Teacher’s Day and many schools did not have classes. We arrived at our school in record time, and were 15 minutes early for class, which was record time. Because it was Teacher’s Day today, many of the teachers received gifts of flowers, candy and other goodies from our students.

After completion of our formal classes, we had lunch and then prepared for our next day’s teaching assignments, while some of us continued our day with tutoring assignments at Reymontowka. Later that afternoon, two local wood carvers arrived exhibiting their amazing wood carvings. They were available for viewing, and three of the volunteers purchased some of the carvings to take back to the U.S.

Before dinner, a group of us went down to the bar for some fellowship and refreshments. Well, who was down in the bar conducting classes? I bet you’d never guess! You guessed it, it was non-other than old Ralph who was conducting his classes in the bar. It’s little wonder that Ralph looks forward to his afternoon classes at Reymontowka :)

After a quick beer and some welcome fellowship, it was time for dinner again. While having dinner, I was struck with a twinge of sadness because very soon many of my fellow volunteers would be departing for home on the weekend. I fought back my sadness with the happy thought that I’d still be around for another week with the remaining eight volunteers to continue to enjoy each other, our students, and the wonderful Polish people and their culture.

Written by: JIM PODRAZA