A Complete Team of 4

Kathy had arrived in the dark of the night by cab from Warsaw. So by Sunday we were a complete team of four, on Polish time and joyfully in Polish cuisine. We had shared Reymontowka with a wedding party of 140. Band music echoed through the night and morning hours. We would have loved to peek in on the dancing and traditional five course celebration-the last of the season.

 

Breakfast pancakes folded to hold fruit, topped with freshly whipped cream started us off. The table was an array of choice beverages, fruit, a meat platter and vegetables. ….

 

We followed Dorota to the resource room-evolving developing team goals and discussing the school assignments and expectations-theirs and ours.

 

The van delivered all five of us to a 1776 wooden Catholic church. The sunlight glanced off the open fields to the right as parishioners streamed from the village at the left just as families had done for centuries. The old, unheated frame building was filled to capacity. The choir director thoughtfully had provided words to the hymns on a high screen. I could barely follow the singing but was relieved to note that the individual “zs” and they’re everywhere never command a “z” sound-always coupled with a c/s for a new sound.

 

The second wave of church goers was filing by as we headed back to the van. We detoured to visit a nearby town with train access to Warsaw/Siedlce and then we were introduced to Carlos store which is one-stop shopping in the broadest terms-excluding caskets which are available next door.

 

Late in the afternoon of a perfect fall day faculty from each of the school using Global Volunteers team came and explained our scheduling. The Kotun Middle School (14-16) requested a teacher for the first time. The major premise is, as always, eliciting conversation within the framework of their English work book. So as I put down this pen I shall pick up my pages of homework. One suggestion was to discuss current American music. I of the big band, Sinatra, Cosby era could only roll my eyes.

 

In the have before dinner, local customs were aired, particularly the reluctance for adults to make eye contact with strangers as a result of the wartime occupation perhaps.

 

Monday is to be a teacher planning day- no classes for us. We will be going to Siedlce to change dollars to zloty which led to lively discussion of a possible Krakow expedition-leaving by train early afternoon on Friday, returning Sunday evening. Specifics are still being worked out.