£UKOW

Our third week in schools just happenned in £ukow, a town of about 40.000 inhabitants. We arrived here on Sunday (March 16th) and many young teachers were waiting for us in a pub near the school. We stayed in the school`s dormitory, which was very, very good. Quickly, we made many friends and talked to many students, as well as I learnt how to play table tennis, or ping pong. During the first days, we had the wonderful opportunity of practicing some sports, either in students` competitions or in the city swimming pool, that has warm water and super hair driers in the bathrooms. It was very nice!

The teachers here are very nice and organised a special reception for us with speaches, welcome signs and many brazilian, american, dutch and polish flags. Besides, we met the Mayor of the city and went to some villages nearby, where we got to know some famous polish writers books and lives and also tasted good food, while hearing folk songs. I enjoyed it very much, specially the old ladiers folk group. Amazing!

Other nice things were to have dinner in students` house; watch some talented students playing the piano, singing and dancing; and join the Spring party.

Regarding our lessons, it was more difficult to teach, because the level of english of students was lower. On the other hand, we are more enperienced and could handle well with the situation. In the end of the week, some students came to me to say that they intend to study english harder, in order to reach university and travel abroad, too. When I heard that, I realized that our week was really worthwhile!

This afternoon (March 21st), we are leaving to Warsaw, where we`ll spend the weekend with all peace trainees and some members of AIESEC. I`m eager to see them all and to share some experiences. At the same time, I`m noticing that my time here is passing really fastly. I`d better remain enjoying as much as I can.

NEVER ENDING WINTER

The Spring is beginning today. Really? Just in the calendar! Yesterday we had heavy snow during the whole night and morning. Today, first day of Spring, it was very, very cold and windy, but the sun appeared and we had a great party in School, to welcome the flower`s season. Students made buquets, put flowers in their clothes and hair, participated in a playback singing competition and had a lot fun, just like I did. I taught them some folk songs and dances from RS and received many presents. It was really special!

DIFFERENCES

Last week, AIESEC in Florianopolis asked me to sent 7 differences between Brazil and Poland, that I had notices so far. Here comes the result:

"Ainda nao consegui enxergar o fundo do iceberg. Posso dizer que, ateh agora, tenho encontrado mais semelhancas que diferencas.
As escolas, por exemplo, tem um sistema bem semelhante ao nosso, inclusive com vestibular para entrar na universidade. As pessoas sao super
acolhedoras e sinceramente gentis, muito mais do que eu poderia esperar. Alguns problemas tambem sao parecidos: desemprego, privatizacoes e o "jeitinho" atenuado.

Bem, vamos aas diferencas:

-> educacao: as criancas aprendem ingles desde muito cedo, mais ou menos (depende da escola) na 2a serie. Isso significa que elas se comunicam perfeitamente bem jah na 4a serie, isso soh estudando em escolas publicas, sem aulas particulares em escolas de idiomas;

-> transporte publico: em geral, eh mais organizado que no Brasil. Hah onibus, trens, bondes e metro (nas grandes cidades) e o sistema eh todo integrado, ou seja, apenas um ticket eh necessario para utilizar todos os meios de transporte. Alem disso, nao hah cobrador, mas a maioria das pessoas paga passagem direitinho.

-> arquitetura: os predios, em geral, sao bem antigos. Varsovia, por ser a capital, eh uma cidade mais moderna, mas a maioria das outras nao tem construcoes muito novas. Na regiao que estou agora, os predios de moradores lembram muito o comunismo, pois sao bem parecidos (tipo COHAB), com janelas pequenas e apartamentos pequenos. Aqui eh comum encontrar igrejas ou predios do seculo X a XIII, bem antes de os portugueses pensarem em ir para o Brasil.

-> organizacao da casa: como disse, os apartamentos sao pequenos. Entao, os pais costumam dormir na sala (que tambem eh sala de jantar) e a maquina de lavar, assim como o varal, ficam no banheiro.

-> refeicoes: a comida aqui eh um pouco diferente. Eles comem bastante batata (praticamente todo dia, de diferentes formas) e pouquissimas frutas, o que me deixa com muita saudade. Alem disso, os horarios sao meio estranhos: cafe da manha cedinho, almoco aas 3 da tarde e jantar aas 7. Os pratos tipicos sao bem gostosos, mas mais apimentados e gordurosos que os brasileiros.

-> temperatura: nao podia faltar. Afinal, quando cheguei, era comum termos temperaturas de - 9oC, assim como muita neve. Agora, 3 semanas depois, a neve comeca a derreter, os rios voltam a correr (e transbordar) e estah agradavel ficar fora de casa.

-> pensamento politico: esse aspecto eh tri interessante. A Polonia, como voces sabem, foi comunista durante um bom tempo. Mas atualmente, hah uma estranha aproximacao com o oeste e um concordancia com quase tudo que vem de lah, assim como negacao das coisas russas. Isso se reflete em varias situacoes: a maioria das escolas nao ensina mais russo; os estudantes, sem muito argumento, concordam totalmente com as atuais mudancas, mesmo sabendo que elas trazem grandes problemas, como o desemprego; e ateh mesmo o apoio do presidente da Polonia aos Estados Unidos, em caso de guerra no Iraque."

SHOCKING EXPERIENCE

Besides havng fun, we also had a shocking experience in Lublin: we went to Majdanek, the second biggest concentration camp in Europe during II World War. The camp has about 270 hectares and received more than 50.000 (!) jewish people between 1939 and 1944. It was very, very impressive and sad. This camp is in the Russian part of Poland (during II WW, Poland was divided between Germany and Russia) and had many different places: dormitories (small, many beds together and without bathrooms); gas rooms (in which they killed sick people as soon as they arrived); a crematory (built in 1943 for burning the bodies - about 1000 bodies were burnt a day!); many fences; and observation poits, with armed soldiers.
Not only polish jewish were killed, but people from many nationalities: Italy, Croatia, Holland,... almost every country in Europa, China and USA.
The atmosphere in such a place is undescribable, specialy now, during winter. A very sad places, with black birds, flowers to remember dead people and a very cold wind, all the time.

WEEKEND IN LUBLIN

For the weekend (March 15th and 16th), we went to Lublin, the biggest city in this East State - about 400.000 people. It`s a pretty interesting city, with a high tower, old cathedral and a very artistic Castle, in which the King use to live many centures ago and where, nowadays, there are art exibitions and a very beautiful chapel, in bizantine style.

But the most attractive thing was, without any doubt, AIESECers spirit in taht city. The Local Commitee has about 30 members and 3 trainees now. Our hostess was really amazing and happy (thanks Szumi!!!), and fastly learnt brazilian, italian and AIESEC songs and dances. We went out with them on friday and saturday and got in touch with almost the whole committe. On saturday, they prepared traditional food - strawberry pierogi - and tried some brazilian caipirinha. Fantastic!!!

MORE ABOUT KRAŒNIK

On Wednesday (March, 12th), we had a meeting with the Mayor of the city, a very competent man, but with liberal ideas that I don`t agree with. The impression I have is that his inspiration is Tony Blair, because he looks and acts a little bit like him. He had a special presentation about the town in the City Hall and went out for a fancy supper after that. I think he saw that we have very interesting things in Brazil, not only in cultural but also in technological and economical fields.

On Thurday, in the afternoon (March, 13th), his personal secretary took us to visit some places in the city: a public park with swimming pool, the theather and cinema, an orphanage and the fire department. It was nice.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN KRAŒNIK

Since Sunday evening (March 9th), we are in a small city called Kraœnik. This city has about 38.000 inhabitants and a few attractions like a XII century cathedral.

The first two nights, we slept in the school dormitory and it was pretty nice. The students came to our room and we had a party with samba, polish language classes and hip hop. Now, we moved to our hosts` houses, and they seem nice, too.

Today, after classes, we had a meeting with the mayor of Kraœnik. Important people... It was nice, and he asked many things about elections in Brazil. Tonight, after having dinner with the english teacher, we are going to a presentation prepared by the mayor and I intend to ask some questions in order to understand the challenges they face here and some solutions. Maybe tomorrow we`ll visit some important companies for the city`s economy - obviosly after some classes.

LESSON IN SINAGOGUE

On Sunday morning (March, 9th), we woke up early, because we wanted to enjoy the most the city. After walking around the old Jewish center (a part of Krakow where Jewish people used to live before the Scond World War), we got into a sinagogue. In a room next to the sinagogue, there was an exposition of pictures about important moments on Jewish jouney, specially about the Second World War. Some of the pictures had really strong scenes, what make us think about human`s awful actions and decision during our history. Nowadays, the place doesn`t have many Jewish living there, mainly because most of them were killed during the war.

Besides this feelings, another thing caught my attention when I came back. An old Rabbi, called Symcha Bunam, telling some histories of Bible, once sad:

"There are things you may look for all over the world, and yet find in your own home. Before you realize this, you usually have to travel far and wide, searching for this elusive thing far from your home."

KRAKOW`S DRAGON

Have you heard about a Dragon, that used to live in a basement of a big castle in Krakow? During this weekend, we had the opportunity of knowing his story better, as well as experience it. We visited the castle where the Dragon used to live. The legend says that it used to eat everything in the kingdom and annoy the king, that didn`t feel happy. When the princess was kidnapped, the king decided to kill the Dragon. Then, he filled a dead sheep with sulfur and gave to the Dragon, taht ate, drank a good part of Vistula River (the biggest in Poland) and died.

While travalling from Pu³awy to Krakow, we met the Dragon. He was a 21 years old guy, who was totally drunk and had just left prision. After talking a lot with him, we decided to change seats, but unfortunately I forgot my food near him. When I realized, he had already eaten everything and fallen asleep.

Besides this incovenient, the trip was excelent! The weather was nice - blue sky and sun - and Krakow is really a great city. We visited the Dragon`s castle, a place called Wawel. Actually, it`s not only a castle, but a whole complex, with many museums, squares and a big church. There, we could see how the real family used to live many centuries ago (Krakow was the previous capital of Poland) and also understand better polish history. It was wonderful!

Besides Wawel, another interesting place is the central square, a kind of public market, with artists, stores, restaurants and many people walking and meeting other people.

The city is pretty old - the oldest buildings are from X century. As it wasn`t very harmed by the wars, almost all the city has old constructions and it`s difficult to see modern or high buildings. This is very charmy, in my opinion. Krakow has also a happy atmosphere and many small and old cars. Our taxi, for example, was a 1929 car.

As we just spent one day in Krakow, we could see much more or go to Zacopane - the mountains, about 2 hours by bus to the south. But it was really worthwile!

COOKING PIEROGI

My host family in Pu³awy is wonderful! Yesterday, the father os my house cooked some pierogi for me, because I needed to taste and also learn how to do it. The recipie is easy: potato, white cheese, pepper, salt, onions, oil, flour and water, but the result is very impressive! My friends, you can wait for a complete polish night when I come back, with stories, personal experiences and pierogi!

FIRST WEEK IN SCHOOLS

The first week in school is over! During this week, we had the opportunity of getting in contact with many students and teachers, who had been always friendly and helpful.

On monday, tuesday and wednesday, we worked with juniors high and high school students of one of Pilawy`s public schools, whose age was between 14 and 19 years old. On friday, we worked with students of a primary school, from 8 to 11 years old. Their education system is very similar to brazilian system, but this school is much more organised than the majority of brazilian public schools. Almost all classes could perfectly understand and could communicate very well with us in english, what surprised me a lot. Besides that, teachers and students organised activities for us in the afternoons, in which they explained their education system, showed some artistic activities they develop (such as singing, dancing, acting and practicing sports) and prepared polish dishes (such as pierogi, bigos, beetroot soup and apple pie - delicious!).

During the week, we felt a little bit famous, too. Besides being known by almost all students, a TV channel and a local newspaper came to interview us and take pictures. Obviouly, I had my brazilian flag with me.

So, in the end of the first week of actual work with students, I feel very well, because I think they enjoyed the opportunity of getting closer to other cultures - and started thinking about some prejudices and stereotypes they had - and also I had the great experience of teaching, knowing more about Brazil and having close contact with a typical polish family.

KAZIMIERZ

On Thursday (March 6th), we went to some cities near Pu³awy with teacher Sonia and some students. One of this cities is called Kazimierz and is really, really lovely. It`s a small city - about 5.000 people - and has a special arquitecture and spirit. There is a beatiful church in the village and a big square in the middle of the town, in which we can find artists, art galleries, souveriers stores and wonderful bakeries. This small city is near the Vistula river, the biggest river in Poland, which was frozen during our visit. We could see a man making a whole in the ice in order to fish, but as far as I noticed he didn`t have success.

Everybody says that Kazimierz is wonderful during the summer, because the temperature is nice and many people go there to enjoy the good air with their families. Maybe I come back in the summer ;o)

FUNNY SITUATIONS

During these 2 weeks that I`ve been in Poland, many funny situations happened, mainly because of the language and cultural differences.

I saw one of these differences reading the warning messages in the trains. Do you know what was written in trains` windows? "Nie skakaæ przez okno" or "Don`t jump out of the window"!

Another interesting situation ocurred when I and Corin (another Peace trainee) were talking in the University, in Warsaw. Some girls came in our direction and started to say a lot of things - in polish! The end of their speech was a question and, as we didn`t understand, Corin, instead of saying "I don`t understand", or "nie moviê po polsku" or "do you speak english?", just said "No". Then the girls said OK, and went out. Afterwards, we got to know that "no" means "yeah" in polish. So, we agreed with something that we don`t know till now.

Talking about not speaking polish, when I was taking my bags to the School in order to come to Pulawy, I went out of the subway and started looking to see if I found any AIESECer taht could help me. A gentle man, seeing the scene, asked me if I wanted help (in polish), and I just said "tak" (yes). He took my bags till the university and said many things in the way, while I just agreed with my head and with some "tak`s".

Finally, one last situation concerning languages. The director of the school we are now don`t speak english, just polish and german. So, during a coffee break, we talked a lot: she in german or polish (Karlijn understand and speak german and I understand a little, too; and Marc understands polish well) and we in english, german or bad polish. The best thing was that we could perfectly communicate. AAEEHH!

FIRST DAY OF CLASSES

On Sunday (March, 2nd), me, Karlijn and Marc arrived in Polawy, a town of 50.000 inhabitants, where we`re going to live during this week. Our hosts were waiting for us in the train station and took us home. I`m staying in Agnieszka`s house. She is a 17 years old high student, really nice. She lives with her parents - Wieslaw and Maria - in a simple and kind apartment, near to the school in which she studies and where I`m going to work during the week.

On Monday (March, 3rd), we had our first day of classes. It was nice. The children were interested in our countries and we could talk a lot about history, geography, sports and so on. We had an interesting discussion about war in Iraq, too, which was were nice, because we had an american in the group and also many polish children, whose president is supporting US action.

During the afternoon, the children prepared presentations about polish education system and also theather, music and sports. Finally, I gave them a practical lesson on samba, what made me remember a little bit about carnaval`s environment.

CARNAVAL IN WARSAW

It`s carnaval all over the world, right? Yeah, but I couldn`t tell that living in Warsaw. They have some typical celebration, but it`s not a big event at all. Anyway, it`s being a new experience.

On Friday (Feb, 28th), we went to a concert, really nice! They played Chopin and Shumman`s music - both musicians from XIX century. Wonderful! After that, we went to a pub and had much fun.

On Saturday (March, 1st), we had our last day of training. We had some activities for integration, for knowing ourselves better and also about leadership. In my opinion, was one of the nicest days! In the end of the days, we were splited into 7 groups. Mine is formed by Karlijn (Netherland), Marc (USA) and me and we`re going to the east.