Message of the day (by Pat): You have brains in your head and shoes on your feet you can go anywhere. Dr. Seuss (paraphrased)

After a restful night’s sleep, the volunteers were ready for another hearty breakfast comprised of apple fritters, various cold cuts, veggies, coffee and tea. Um, um, GOOD!

The Cisie drivers arrived on time, as usual, and we were driven to our teaching assignments. The Cisie children were anxiously awaiting our arrival greeting us with “Good morning!” at every turn. The classes went smoothly, and before long we were taken in Andrzej’s taxi to Spoleczna, the semi-private school in Siedlce.

After spending a week with my fellow volunteers, I get a kick out of the various pronunciations of Siedlce. Don’t worry volunteers, there will be many more after us who will have difficulty pronouncing Siedlce. Maybe we should consider changing it to Shuttletown or something.
In my estimation, the children at Spoleczna appear to be a little more advanced than the children I taught in other schools in the past. The majority of my fourth graders are smart, responsive, and eager to learn. I have one kid in my class, Filip, who reads better than I do…well, come to think of it, that ain’t sayin’ much since I’m from New Jersey.

We returned to Reymontowka for yet another delicious meal: Vegetable soup, pork with a delicious honey-mustard sauce, french fries and veggies. Oh man, was that good!

After lunch, we remained in the dining room to discuss weekend travel arrangements for Carol, Rita, and Jim’s weekend trip to Lublin. I knew this was going to be an interesting trip for this adventuresome threesome when one of them asked, “I thought we were going West to Lublin?” You see, folks, Lublin is in the other direction and South of Siedlce.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Pat and Jim went across the street to pick some raspberries for their cereals the next morning. Unfortunately, Jim won’t have any for breakfast because he ate all of his already.

Pat was making plans to go to Warsaw with Gosia. Poor Ed had to stay at Reymontowka and monitor the decibel levels of the music at the wedding that’s taking place on Saturday. Don’t feel too sorry for Ed, however, he has plans to have lunch with the new Kasia/Kate and her husband and two children on Saturday, and another lunch on Sunday with Jola and former Cisie Pani Dyrektor, Bozena.

After a refreshing break on the patio, we sat down for our final meal of the day. Jim finally got his potato pancakes which he has been anxiously awaiting since he arrived here on Saturday, which, I might add, he devoured voraciously. There wasn’t a single potato pancake left on the platters.

I am sure I’m speaking for the rest of the volunteers when I say I’m having a blast here in Poland. Thank you Dorota for making it all possible. Jeszcze Polska nie zginela.