A Mano a Mano Day

It is often said that when one volunteers one receives more than what one gives. That proved to be true yesterday. The first event of the day was to act as a co-host for a prairie style garden along the fence at the Mano a Mano office site that was part of the Frogtown (a neighborhood in St. Paul) Garden tour.

My co-host, Ellen, is a major volunteer for this garden. She calls it prairie style because all the plants in the garden were donated from gardens by other volunteer and so not every plant is truly a native American plant. But is has turned out to be a beautiful garden.

The garden tour ended at 2:00 and I came home for a bite to eat and a nap. Then about 4:30 I headed off for a picnic for those of us from my church who do activities to support Mano a Mano. The hosts for this event live along Turtle Lake in Shoreview.

Last year I had missed this event because I was in Poland. Thus, I was searching for a place new to me. When I finally got there I found one had to drive down a lane away from the street. The house is built at the edge of hillside that leads down to Turtle Lake. The drive in was beautiful with wild flowers in the fields along the lane.

It was an evening of good food, great conversation, and thankfully few mosquitoes.

When I was leaving, and driving down that lane again, a deer ran across the lane in front of me. That causes me to wonder how on earth our hosts manage to have such nice flowers and also a vegetable garden.  Deers are usually all over those things.

All and all a very good day. And surely with all the good fellowship during the garden tour and then the evening event, I got more than I gave.

A very quiet July 4

This July 4th holiday was the first time I have in the United States since 2006! From 2007 - 2014 I have been in Poland teaching English. However, the American volunteers from Global Volunteers always celebrate this holiday in Poland. I remember one year when we decorated the columns at Reymontowka with banners and bunting in red, white, and blue. Then they stayed there for the next camp because this camp had students from France and Germany in areas that sister counties for the County (powiat) Siedlce. The French students used the same decorative colors to celebrate July 14 which in English we called Bastille Day.

However, this year due to my sore leg I had to stay home from the Zakopane language camp because there was no way I could handle the stairs at the hotel used for this camp. Also in April I encountered a troublesome tooth as well. On June 30 and July 6 I am working with a specialist dentist for this with another appointment on July 20 which wrecked my participation for another language camp.

Also this was not to going to be a family event. My older daughter, the one with disabilities, was getting ready to go to a camp for a week so she needed to stay at her home to pack and then get a good night's sleep. My younger daughter had a plan to first have me join them for a barbecue at a nearby lake. But then her husband got offered the chance to work on July 4 and I'm sure he earned double if not triple overtime pay. Too much to pass by. My daughter is taking a summer course for her graduate degree and decided it would then be a good day to do homework for her class.

In Saint Paul this is always a quiet day. Other cities and towns often have parades and other events, but this doesn't happen in the Twin Cities. I think is because so many people leave the Cities to go "up north" to lake homes.

The day started with very a hazy sky.

This is smoke coming to Minnesota from wild fires in Canada.

I turned out to disappointed with the TV program of the music in Washington D.C. It was too much pop music rather than traditional music for the July 4 holiday.

About the time darkness came to Minnesota, a few minutes after 9:00 PM, I started out hearing fireworks. I went to my balcony and noticed I could see fireworks from about 4 or 5 locations at one time. My view is from the what Americans would call the 7th floor, floor 6 in this building, since this building numbers the floors in the European manner with ground floor being Floor 0.

The official Saint Paul fireworks were to come from the nearby new baseball field. This is because the Capitol building in under renovation so it could not a site for fireworks this year. I have seen fireworks from there now on several Friday nights at the end of the baseball game, so I knew all I had to do was stand on the balcony. The fireworks were expected about 10 PM.

While standing there waiting I saw a helicopter fly into the area and land at the nearby Regions Hospital. This happens about 3-4 times a week -- maybe oftener, but that is how many times I see this. Regions Hospital is designated as a high level trauma hospital and also serves as a burn center for several Midwest states.

Finally the fireworks started about 11: 00 PM. I learned today the fireworks were so very late because the baseball game went to 11 innings rather than the usual expected 9 innings.

Here's a bit of video for this:

Unless miracles happen during the coming year I will probably also have to skip the Zakopane language camp. Perhaps I will do something different next year for July 4.

Adventures with Arthritis

My blog has been quiet because primarily I've been quiet. As I wrote while in Poland, my right leg became very painful. When I got home I saw the orthopedics office again and was told the first diagnosis of hip flexor strain was out the window, and I have arthritis, instead, to live with forever.

That wasn't good news. The doctor wanted me to try a new med regime for control and told me it might take 2 month to know if it was working. I couldn't imagine living with that much pain for 2 months. So that very day a cortisone injection was put into my right knee. That plus a new med regime for dealing with pain has been helpful, but I'm a long way from normal.

Tonight I did a three block walk, starting to work on walking 30 minutes every day. It took me 19 minutes from the time I walked out of the apartment door until I returned. Before this I could walk a 5k in about one hour depending on how many photos I had to take during the walk. Now it is nearly 20 minutes just for 3 blocks!  I sure would like to get the leg rehabbed enough to get back to doing a 5 k walk!

So basically the blog has been silent because I've not been doing much.

Catching Up on Teaching English

The last week we were in Poland teaching English was a week with "no down time" as one of my fellow volunteers said.

While others spent the final weekend away in Krakow, I knew my leg was no up to such a trip. Just getting up and down the steps at Reymontowka was a challenge. Instead I stayed at Reymontowka and did more work in the teachers' resource room.

There was one set of shelves way back in the corner. This one contained workbooks we used when I was there in 2004 and 2006, but we don't use those anymore so they went into the trash. I find a lot of textbooks from a school district in Wisconsin that were dated in the 1970s. Since the first volunteers stayed at Reymontowka in 1991, these would have been at least 20 years old when they arrived. But the most useless thing I found were math books from the "California series" with a copyright of 1959. How anyone in their wildest dream thought bringing such books to Poland to teach English would help escapes my imagination.

On Monday we were now down to 5 volunteers. Life got exciting on the Tuesday of this week. First May 26 is Mothers' Day in Poland so those of us at Cisie School taught only one class. Then we went to the auditorium in the school for the program. First I took this picture.

Then I discovered my camera battery was dead. I am still not used to how my new camera works. Apparently even when I don't use it, the battery somehow is powering some feature and running down. I used my camera to take a couple of pictures.

The students did dancing and singing. Their performances are always excellent.

Notice the 6th graders are wearing letter jackets for the dance they did. There is a huge misconception that the only dances done in Poland are folk dances. Nothing could be further than the truth. These are 21st century kids!

We really enjoyed seeing this. When the program was over the students all returned to their classrooms and then met their mothers there to give them the cards they had made for them.

Back at Reymontowka a group of professors from many places in Europe arrived for a conference. When we returned from our morning teaching we joined them for a luncheon. Then we all went into the what I called the Great Room and all were introduced, including the 5 of us. In reviewing the program which included my name

I found there were professors from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic, and obviously Poland. The program listed research with professors from Romania and Latvia, but I don't think they were there. And the professor from Hungary was unable to attend at the last moment.

When we could excuse ourselves I went upstairs to plan my afternoon classes for the after-school program.

Then back at Reymontowka we changed clothing to dress up for a formal dinner held in the lavishly decorated tent. When I went down for the evening meal I didn't notice any of my fellow volunteers and thought I was first. I sat along side the wall waiting for others. Then one of the conference organizers came over to me and lead me to table where my fellow volunteers were present. Dorota explained this professor said to her, "This one (meaning me) is mine."

It was quite an evening meal with fancy food and drinks. The vodka was on the table along with soft drinks. Since I was taking ibuprofen I didn't drink any vodka. Once I put a picture on Facebook of a table ready for a formal dinner and people argued what was the red soda, thinking it was compote in the bottle. They recognized orange soda along with Sprint and Coke. So for this dinner I tried the red soda and found it was sparkling water with a little taste of strawberries. Very good.

Here I am at the dinner. Another volunteer took my picture but it is nice to have some proof I was actually in Poland.

The professor who said "She is mine" then arranged for me to dance with another professor and she told him to dance slow because my leg was a problem. That is exactly what it did. Another volunteer later said he was worrying about me dancing for a bit because of my leg problem. Another person took a picture of this and sent it to me via e-mail, but I've searched and searched and can't find it.

Both of us stayed at the party and watched the dancing, although later he was gathered up by Russian women who wanted him to dance with him. We enjoyed listening to the band that was playing. My fellow volunteer, who is 100% Polish background but coming to Poland for the first time,, was surprised that I could sing one of the most favorite folk songs in Poland which is as common in Poland as "this land is your land" is in the United States.

We had fun at the party. And it was amazing to see people from countries from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States all together because our governments do not agree with each other.

And a final note. In the United States many Polish-American communities spend a great deal of time teaching the Polka and doing Polka events, but I know the Polka is not a dance in Poland! It actually is a dance that started in Bavaria, which in now present day Czech Republic.  I saw proof. When the band played a polka the only person who knew how to do the Polka was a professor from the Czech Republic. All the people from the other countries danced, but did it differently than the polka steps.

An Interesting Night around Siedlce

One of the Polish English teachers for whom I taught only two classes last year at her school invited me along with the volunteer who is teaching there this year to go to supper at a restaurant in Siedlce. This teacher has a friend and teacher colleague who is also a friend of another volunteer here this time, so it was 5 of us who gathered in Siedlce for supper.

We waited in this small park in front of the restaurant until all had arrived.

Then we started for the inside of the restaurant to ask for a table. I lingered to take the picture below showing the name of the restaurant. I had been hearing about the name this new place and was delighted to being going there.

 When I entered the restaurant I realized we had to go to the upper level and was faced with about 30 stairs. I assured everyone I could do this, but slowly. No, no, no! The manager was coming with the key to make the handicapped lift work, so I had the great pleasure of floating up the stairs on the lift instead of having to walk those stairs.

The restaurant is on the upper level of very old building which once upon a time was a major market building in Siedlce.  The decor was beautiful. And as the home decorator TV programs would say, "It has character" with much charming reclaimed brick.

This restaurant has is what we call in America a craft brew place. I started out with a small glass of very good beer. I could order this in Polish but then got stumped on a question. My Polish friends had to rescue me. The question was "Do you want light beer or dark beer?"  I often say I speak just enough Polish to get into trouble.

The menu was totally in Polish, too, so that presented an interesting challenge as well.  For example, under the seafood menu I found mule. My Polish friends could not translate that word nor could Google Translate, so I did not order it!

Our meal began with an appetizer.

  I am not certain what it was, but it was good.

Here's my main dish.

Again this was very good. The small white dish holds what we might call potato salad in the United States. And the photo show just a bit of my beer.

We had no room for dessert. So the waitress brought us instead a very small glass of cherry liquor. Oh my! That was good too.

As we left the restaurant to start the trip back to Reymontowka we noticed blue-black clouds in the distance. When we were about half-way there, one of my fellow volunteers remarked, "Is that hail?" Along the roadway in the grass we could see white patches. The signs of a storm became more intense as we turned off the highway. There was more and more hail collected along and in the roadway. Thousands of leaves had apparently been pounded off the trees and were covering the road.  The fields were steaming because the ground was warmer than the air above them. When we got to Kotun, there was intense fog.

We made the turn to Reymontowka and it looked as if nothing had happened. No remains of the hail or leaves on the roadway. But at breakfast, our fellow volunteers assured they too had experienced a bit of hail storm.

And so it was a highly pleasurable evening in Siedlce and very exciting ride back to Reymontowka.

Learning Can Be Fun!

One time,when meeting with the Governor of County of Siedlce, he remarked that early in the time of Global Volunteers here they were puzzled by the fact that the volunteers taught English using games and songs, having fun. But after awhile they began to see that it worked.

Here are some of my beginner students that I see in the afternoon at the Kotun Community Center. They are working on learning body parts. When this picture was taken they were busy coloring a clown with labeled body parts. When they are finished they bring the paper to me and we pronounce the words and point out body parts such as shoulder, leg, foot, and back.

Today I tried Hokey-Pokey for the first time with this group. I always start it and then we go around the circle and each child selects something to put in. I was really pleased today when words like hair and shoulder were offered.

The above photo is the fourth grade students I teach one hour each morning. Here we are doing a game. Each rolls dice and the number matches a body part they may match to their drawing of a robot. The paper you can see best shows multiple heads, multiple bodies, and multiple legs. This student just kept adding things as he rolled the same number over and over. They didn't realize they were practicing saying numbers and body parts in English. They were just having fun.

But Polish schools also know how to teach children with fun.

Today we were invited to go outdoors with the children to a concert by Limbos, a group that specializes in school performances.

When I put something on Facebook about this group, one of my former students, now a university student commented this group is a great favorite of all school children in Siedlce County. 

Here are a couple of photos of the kindergarten group that I worked with on Friday.

The children are just totally engaged.

The video below is a very short view of one selection in the concert. I was surprised to hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow. 

For we American guests they played Rock Around the Clock. I surely hadn't heard that song for a long time.

When the concert was over I realized the kindergarten students had been sitting on mats taken from the nearby gymnasium, while the older children were sitting on benches and chairs. And look, they all had removed their shoes before stepping on the mats.

Celebration Day 2

25 years of cooperative work between Global Volunteers and the County of Siedlce. That is what the sign says.

And what a wonderful celebration it turned out to be. I wanted to be here so badly for this because I have done 28 programs in Poland and have seen how the country has changed as well as how the teaching of English has changed in this country.

The program started with a number of speeches. This certainly, in my experience, is the European way. Distinguished guests must be recognized, but what pleased me was the several of those providing such recognitions included in the list the school teachers with which volunteers have worked, the parents who have driven volunteers to and from schools, the summer language camp staff, and the students themselves.

Some people are put off by speeches but I enjoyed them for the Polish host representatives expressed ideas that were both novel and heart-warming. One, for example, talked about this partnership being very unique. Others spoke about how the volunteers have brought optimism.

Then the fun began. Many students from a dance school in Siedlce entertained us with great dances.

Above is a video of one dance that carried hints of being a Cinderella story.

The boys below look like they are having great fun with their routine. The boy on the right began to come to language camp last year. I remember him from when he was a toddler and his big brother, who then was one of my students, introduced me to him. I had the great pleasure too of seeing the "big brother" dance in several routines that featured high school students.

And the girls above look like dance is fun, too.

The dance was followed by a musical group.

 The woman on the right has been a language camp director many times. It was great to see her. The young man on the left has come to language camps as a young boy. He was playing the keyboard when he barely able to peek over the top. When I was here last year in May I saw him on a musical competition TV show called Must be the Music. He is almost ready to go pro as a musician.

Next we were treated to a rock band, Runaway Train.

I have known the man in the center for some time and we chatted for a bit after their performance was done.

That really sums up the day. I saw so very many that I know in Poland. It was simply one of the best days of my life.