GETTING A TAN - BUT IN THE MOUNTAINS?

Last weekend (april 11st - 13th), me and Kristy went to Zacopane, a wonderful city in the south right in the border with Slovakia, where are the Tratra mountains. The picture is almost unbeliaveble, really beautiful, because the mountains are very high, covered with snow and showing people how small and fragil we are.

We arrived on Friday in the evening and took a cab to the house the teacher from Gorlice found for us, supposely 1,5km from the bus station. Actually, it was much further and we almost needed to climb to get there. Although it was far, it was very nice.

When we arrived, it was raining. But soon later, it started snowing and we decided to explore te city. It took us 40 minutes to get there, almost hiking. Then, we walked a lot, took some pictures, saw the characteristic wooden architecture and had some coffee. For coming back, we took a cab and - surprise - it was for free! Exactly, for free! Don`t ask why.

Before sleeping, I cooked some cheese bread, which took a while to get ready (cultural differences on ovens) but was great!

The next day was very beautiful, pleasant and sunny. In the morning, we met Jana and 2 other AIESECers from Nowy S¹nz, who came to the city. We went up the mountains in a turistic train, but didn`t ski, because the avalanche risk was too high. I think I don`t need to say that the picture from there is wonderful! In one of the mountains, there`s a huge cross, which was built by citizens from Zacopane a long time ago. They brought by themselves all the material needed to build the cross, which was a great effort. Actually, some people died because of avalanches in some of these trips.

Another very impressing thing was seeing people getting a tan, without their shirts, right in the top of the mountains. Detail: the temperature was around 2 degrees!

In the evening, we went to the cinema and then to a very nice restaurant, with folk mountain music and good food. We talked a lot, celebrated the birth of Kristy`s first nephew and drank a whole bottle of wine. Unfortunately, we didn`t meet interesting people to talk too, neither polish nor foreigners. This time, the taxi cab wasn`t for free :o(

On Sunday, we slept a little more, walked around the city and went to Jas³o, our last city. The exectations are high, because another gruop had been in the city in the first month of the project and they enjoyed the city and people a lot.

POLISH MUSIC

Polish music is interesting, although less diversified than brazilian. They have some characteristical rythms from each region - folk songs; some popular pop, rock and hip hop songs; and a lot of external influence, from US and Europe. A brazilian heavy metal band is very famous here - Sepultura. But other rythms are not known, except from lambada, which was very popular some years ago. Nowadays, hip hop seems to be in the top, regarding popularity; and techno music is popular as well. Actually, this is one of themost interesting thongs: there`s a very simple techno music called Discopolo, that used to be very, very common and today is seen like naco. I liked it!

LINGUISTIC CHALLENGES IN GORLICE

My time in Gorlice started a little bit strange. My host - Kamila - is very nice. However, she doesn`t speak english and we needed a translator, dictionary or computer to perfectly understand each other. The family is very nice, specially the father and the 6-year-old brother. But, once more, communication is quite hard.

Our classes in school are ok. The school received other foreigners before (trainees and students from Algeria, US, Japan and Romenia) and the students are interested in the subject. We also had classes in German and in another school, with students from gymnasium, from 13 to 16 years old. Both were great.

Our week was quite calm, as the school didn`t prepare afternoon activities. So, we went to pubs and walked around with students, but nothing very special. Something that contribute to that was the weather - extremely cold! It started snowing on Sunday (April 6th) in many cities in Poland and it didn`t stop till wednesday. The winter really came back and the city was totally white, covered with snow.

Now, we are leaving Gorlice, headed to Zacopane, a very charmy city near the mountains, in the south. This is the last weekend before Easter and the last of the project :o( So, let`s enjoy ;o)

FREEZING, BUT GREAT GDAÑSK

We arrived in Gdañsk about 6p.m. on friday. In the way, between Krakow and Warsaw, we met a really nice guy - Greg - that was very interested in south america, spent 1 year in the Netherlands and studied in the same high school we are going to work in our last week, in Jas³o. Small world!

Before arriving, another group of trainees (Angie, from Australia; Silke, from Austria; Makis, from Greece; and Karlijn, from the Netherlands) sent us a message saying that they booked 2 more beds in the youth hostel they were going to stay. So it was perfect! We left out bags there and went to the certer of the city, which was rebuilt after the World War II in a wonderful way. The building are very pretty, with paitings and sculptures. There`s also a sculpture of Neptune in the main square.

While visiting this center, we met Angie`s group, had a coffee together and came back to the hostel, which is cheap and comfortable.

On Saturday (April 5th), it started snowing heavily. Actually, we saw that was going to happen in the weather forecast, but we didn`t believe it would really happen intensively. Anyway, we went to downtown, bought some cheap and beautiful amber jewerly, saw the famous church with zodiac clock and symbols, met another group of trainees (Ben, from US; Nicole, from China; Barbara, from Brazil; and Oksana, from Ucraine), had dinner together and came back to the hostel, where we talked a lot and played drinking games.

They just left us about 9:30 p.m. Then, me, Kristy and Angie dyed our hair (mine is wuite orange by now) and packed, because we wanted to enjoy a little bit the next morning. We could walk a little on Sunday morning, but nobody was on the streets, as it was extremely cold and windy, a perfect scenario for a horror movie. We took the train to Krakow at 11:45 and the bus to Gorlice at 8:05 p.m, where we arrived at 11:15 p.m. for another week of work.

CHAMPIONS IN LOSING TRAINS

We arrived in Kolbuszowa on March 30th several hours later than we were supposed to. That happened because we lost the train, as we didn`t realize that the time changed, because of the beginning of summer time. But this is not all. We should live Kolbuszowa on friday at 5a.m. in order to catch the 6:25 train in Rzeszow. As we had a good party the previous day, my hostess (who had the alarm clock) didn`t wake up before 6:15. Then, as it was impossible to get in time, we decided to cach the next (and last!) train, which leaves at 8:39. As Joanna`s brother was with the car, it didn`t have enough gas, and she drives very slowly, we reached the station at 8:35. Fortunalety, we had time to buy tickets and catch the train.

This trip was headed to Gdañsk, a city in the north of Poland, next to Baltic Sea. It`s very far from where we were - about 10 hours by train - and that`s why just me and Kristy decided to go. Jana prefered to visit Lublin, while Domenico went in a praying trip with last year students, who will take the matura exam in some weeks.

Ah, I forgot to say why we chose Gdaœnk instead of other countries. To go to Czech Republic or Slovakia, I need a visa that take some time and effort. Differently, it``s possible to go to Berlim up to 90 days, but the train schedule wasn`t and we would spend more time travelling than in the city. So we decided to visit another beatiful polish city - the capital of ambar in the world - and let Berlim for the last days in Poland.

SCHOOLS

After many weeks working in polish schools, it`s possible to identify some common characteristics. I`ve have already put some very nice in some parts of this blog: generally, the level of english is very nice, schools are very organised, and there is programs in sports and arts.

Besides those things, there are others that show that polish schools need to delevop a lot, specially if the theme is tolerance. For example, all classrooms have a cross, representing christians faith. Another religion issue is that everybody has religion class once a week, probably with the priest, what means that in practice they just talk about catholic religion. Some time ago, there was a project that aimed to introduce sexual education in schools. It was aproved, but with essential changes. Attending to these classes is an option and the name of it is "how to be a good family member". Once more, is common to have priest teaching the subject, what means that they don`t really talk openly about sex and don`t have really experience in family issues.

As we can see, catholic religion, till nowadays, has a big influence in polish education, specially in small towns. One of the reasons is that about 96% of polish population is catholic and a good porcentage of the others are christians. This lack of diversity happens also in other fields: almost everybody is polish and white (until now, I didn`t find any foreign or black in high schools). All these things bring some kind of reaction against different people. For example, the prejudice against homossexuals is really strong, and not only among old people.

It`s amazing how a country that suffered a lot with lack of understanding and respect, specially with the holocaust during the World War II, still have big issues concerning acceptance and tolerance.

KOLBUSZOWA

This is the name of our next town. In there, there are 10.000 inhabitants, 1 pub, 1 river (Nile!), 1 square and 4 motivated trainees. AAEEHH!

I stayed in Joanna`s house, a very nice house - much more modern and confortable that the average of polish houses. Joanna is very nice, tto. She lives with her brother in Kolbuszowa, while their parents work in New York/US as security guard and made to make some money. They see each other every year, but I feel that this distance is very hard, specially for Joanna. She is 18 years old and miss a lot her parents. She probably needs them at her side much more than the extra money.

Besides working, we visited interesting places around Kolbuszowa. In the first night, we went to Rzeszow, the closest relatively big city. We went to the movies to see Chicago and then hanged out in a pub near.

On Tuesday (April 1st), we visit Sandomiesz, a very interesting and charmy city, 90 minutes far. We saw some old churches and saw the place where the Pope prayed a mass for young catholic people some years ago. We also walked a little and climbed a tower, from which we could see the whole city. The most interesting thing was our guide, an old man, who lived in US for some time and had a brazilian friend - Sergio. He spoke a lot, but really a lot, and said some things like: "the owner of the castle became very unhappy when the swedish soldiers destroyed his castle."

The next day, we had a really great guide in £ancut, where we visit one of the most beautiful castles I`ve seen in Poland. This castle was owned by a polish noble family, is very big and rich. Inside, we see lots of pictures, statues, house objects and furniture, with different influences: westerm european, greek and even chinese (but this is a controversial point!). The ball room is wonderful, with the sky paited on the celling, giving the impression we`re outdoors. Unfortunalety, many of the objects shown are copies, because the original ones are in other museums nowadays.

On Thursday (April 3rd), we went to an open museum, to see how polish villages looked like in the countryside. At night, we met manystudents in my host`s house, where we danced, talked and drank some zubruwka.

SKIN HEADS

It`s been very interesting to talk about Tolerance in a country like Poland, where you almost just find polish, white and catholic people. Generally, we feel really comfortable to talk about controversial issues, like discrimination based on sexual orientation, races, religion and others, specially because people are waiting for us, eager to hear and participate. But we also felt very discriminated.

During our time in Jêdrejow, they told us to take care with Skin Heads, a group of radical young people that don`t accept foreiners and ther minorities, specilly black people. They told us not to walk alone at night, specially near bus stops and with clear indications of being from abroad - flags, language, etc. In the beginning we smiled, but actually could fell a little bit scared, discriminated jus for being different in the city. Now our mission became even more important.

Actually, this problem is one of the biggest motivations for the Peace Project. Below you can read an email written by one of founders of the project.

"Dear Peace list members

Especially Peace trainees and OC. I got access to this list only a few hours ago and since then I already read all 149 emails, watched all the photos and thought a lot about many things in connection with all this.

However first I want to thank the OC for their motivation and believe in this project. And to you Peace trainees. Thank you for coming from all over the World to Poland to work for Peace. Thank you for believing in this project and the effects of it. I hope that not just you, but the students, AIESECers, your hosts and your families and friends at home will learn a lot from this.

The idea to this project started getting into shape almost 2 years ago. At that time most people did not believe in it. They were afraid about the language barriers you would face, if the hosts, schools etc. would treat you right, if the project would have the impact it was suppose to etc. How would we raise the money for running the project and much more..... Somehow the Executive Board at that time was convinced about the project and it was started.

You may have read about the idea on the web page and heard from the OC about the idea of the project and I can see from the emails that you feel it and that makes me sooooo happy. But I would like to give you some of the more personal reflections I have on this project, plus some of the expeciences we had in the last edition.

Over the past years I have seen more and more skinheads in Poland and I have sometimes had to really step on my own toes in order not to start discussions with them, but as I am Danish and my Polish is not perfect I was never sure how they would react, despite the fact that I am blond, as most Scandinavian people. I am not sure how much we can do to change them, though I dont think we should give up that easy. BUT one thing I know for sure is that it will be so much harder to recruite new skinheads among the students that you made a presentation for! Why? Because they have meet the person behind the skin, no matter what colour you have. They will in many cases always remember you and it will be hard to convince them to hate all people with different skin colour or culture, just because of the colour.

I have travelled a lot to other countries and I have tried myself to look different and hear people shouting after me in Asia and Africa. In a disco in Africa the DJ had to announce that I was NOT South African, as otherwise they would have beaten me up. I have walked on the streets of Warsaw & Gdansk with black trainees and had to see them being spit at. It is not nice to be different, but by meeting people in Poland and telling them about you, your culture and the mission behind the Peace project I know YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

A great side effect is the fact that we know some of the students last year, started learning English/German more seriously. They now understand the need for learning languages and got a completely new motivation to learn. Other students set new goals in their lives, like eg. getting a high education, so they could go to university and get to travel one day, as the PEACE trainees they had meet. And some of the students became AIESECers, when joining the university during the fall.

There is no doubt that YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Believe in it and do your best. Last year one of our American trainees faced a guy that tried to disturb her class in all possible ways. Finally she decided to stop the planned agenda and challenge the guy. He kept telling her how bad the American culture was and she should stop her propaganda for America. I could tell the whole story, but at the end of the class they had come to an agreement and she among other things told him: I dont want you to become American or even like my culture, but I want you to know the differences between our cultures and then try to understand what we have in common.

When I read the stories about food, amazing presentations, great Polish hospitality etc. Then it was like reading the stories of the trainees from last year. And this may not be funny, but most of them gained a lot of weight during their 2 months traineeship ;-) I made a picture before and after their trips.....

Once again, thank you for being a part of the Peace project. I wish I could have been their during your introduction week, to meet all of you and thank you in person for the great job you are doing. And remember that no matter if you have a shity day, stupid kids, bad hosts or something worse then there is always a day tomorrow and all the nice people you meet on your way deserves your motivation to last till the end. I guess you meet something like 1000 people on your way - students, parents, teachers, AIESECers, shop keepers, train passengers etc. and without saying too much then 7 groups times 1000 people = 7000, from where some of them will tell their families and friends about you then the effect of what you are doing is quiet amazing.... You may calculate it in a different way, but adding the amounts of people watching you on TV, listening to you on the radio and reading about you in the paper then the number seems much greater. So spread the words of PEACE, as you are making A HELL OF A DIFFERENCE just by being here right now.

All the best to you from one of the organisers last year. Or in other words: I was the person matching people last year and some trainees called me MAMA. Magda was helping me a lot last year and I know she is a really great MAMA! So listen to her carefully. She is wise woman ;-)

Peace to all of you from

Anja Svensson Denmark"

PLANS

As we don`t have much time left - unfortunalety, we are planning well our last weekends. Probably, we`ll go to Zacopane for the next one, a city in the south, very typical, with mountains, ideal to relz, ski and have a good time. In the other, we either eant to go to Prague, Budapest, Berlin or Gdañsk (in this order). The problem is that I always have problems with visa, differenty from my partners (americans and europeans) that just need their passports.

UNFORGETABLE KRAKOW

On Friday (March 29th), we said bye bye to our great hosts and went to Krakow, the most beatiful city in Poland, in my opinion. As soon as we got there, we let our things in an AIESEC member`s apartment and went t the Market Square to meet some other trainees from Holland, Germany and Austria. After going to a pub, we went home and played some drinking games with ¿ubruwka, a special type of vodka.

On Saturday, we went to a Salt Mine called Wieliczka, about 90 minutes away from Krakow. When we were in the bus waiting to leave, an unbelievable thing happened: we met another Peace trainee in the sidewalk - Javier, from Peru. Of course, we went together.

In the afternoon, e visited Wawel, the old and fantastic Castle from the times Krakow usd to be Poland`s capital. As the temparature was pleasant (about 10-12 oC), it was a great walk, full of history an fun.

At night, more ¿ubruwka, drinking games and meeting with Corin (USA) and Eszter (Hungary), also Peace trainees in Krakow.

On Sunday, we went to Auchwitz, probably the most famous concentration camp during II World War. It`s always impressive, but as I know the history and have alredy been in another concentration camp, the impact wasn`t that big this time. But something really called my attention: we saw many groups of people from Israel, with their flags and songs, remembering the past. In my opinion, it`s very important to know the history, but, more than that, act for a fair world today - in this case, respect palestinians and act positively towards peace and agreement, not making other people suffer what they have suffered in the past.

REVOLUTION IN ITS FIRST WEEK

The name of our group is Revolution, because we changed some plans in the very beginning in order to have a great time, either in our weekends and in classes. Now, we are totally focused on the suject Tolerance, and the results have been much better, because students really think and discuss directly about this issue with us.

Our first city was Jêdrejow, a small town with not more than 20.000 inhabitants. The town is very small, but there are nice places to visit. We went, for exampl, to an old tower and to a Knight`s Castle. In the last ne, we are traditional food and rode horses. It was really, really spoko (cool)!!! Besides that, we went to an old life museum and a restaurant with teachers. We also met students in pubs and learnt some forbiden expressions, like zajebiœcie (fucking awesome). The problem is that pubs close at 11:30 here.

During the week, we were treated as celebrities: interviews to local and regional newspapers, many pictures and TV. Ah, the president of the most importatnt company of the city (transportation company) received us personaly in his office and private floor.

The most impressive thin, although, were our hosts. They were simply great! Really hositable, wanting to know about our countries and ourselves and doing whatever they could to feel us feel nice. Diênkujê (thank you)!!!

WEEKEND IN WARSAW

During the weekend (March 21-23rd), all trainees came back to Warsaw for evaluation and swiching groups. Meeting everybody again was wonderful, because we were really missing the whole group, with its joy and diversity. The problem was that we just ha a little bit more than 1 day to spend together. During Saturday, we had activities with AIESEC, in which we evaluate our experiences, shared sme best practices and discussed really important issues, like the real focus of our classes. Besides, we gave AIESEC a bunch of feedback, regarding organisation and purpose of the project.

My new group is going to Craco reagion, probably the most beautiful in Poland. Now we are 4 people:
- Kristy: from USA; studies international affair and middle east and is very inteligent;
- Iana: from Latvia; studies Economics and can speak good polish;
- Domenico: italian; studies Economics and is one of the most funny and friendly guys that I`ve ever met;
- me ;o)

I`m sure we`ll have a great time together!