Where to begin?

It's crazy to think that I've now been in Poland for over 6 weeks - time flies! 

I spent three weeks of July as an assistant music teacher at an Arts-Enriched English Camp at Nadwarciański Gród. The park, located in Załęcze Wielkie (in the south western corner of Poland), was absolutely beautiful. And the students and staff alike were wonderful! Afterward, the American staff spent a week in Krakow, which is an amazing city. More details to come on that if I get a chance, but right now I'm working on updating a separate blog specific to the camp, so check that out at: http://teipartsnews.blogspot.com/

Since our tour in Krakow ended, I met up with my Dziadzi and brother to start the third phase of my Pierogi Pilgrimidge - meeting some of my maternal grandparents' family members in their various villages and cities.

First up on our list? We made a quick stop at Dziadzi's sister Ciocia Irka's house to drop off some luggage, and then headed over to their brother Edek's farm in a village called Cupel. We were particularly excited to see Cupel because it was the birthplace and first home of my grandfather, and his brother kept the land and has continued to farm it with his family all these years.

Upon our arrival in Cupel, we were first greeted by the dogs there. One was particularly apprehensive about the unfamiliar visitors to his home, but he eventually warmed up to Dziadzi (or perhaps vice versa). Similarly, Dziadzi had plenty of time to hang out with the cows here, because it turns out that Wujek Edek has a dairy farm and owns about 60 cows, in addition to a few chickens. Here's a few farm photos:  

Having been on a farm for several days, Ryan and I were eager to try our hand at various farming activities. For Ry, that meant climbing up a tractor - particularly Wujek Edek and his son Gregor's enormous yellow one - every chance he got. For me, it meant attempting to milk a cow since we were on a dairy farm! Back in the day, they used to have to milk whatever cows they had by hand. But now, they have a full barn full of stalls. The cows file in (and even know to get to their own stall!) and are clipped to a pole for safety's sake. Then, one by one, each are now milked by a machine. The whole family goes out twice a day to help milk the 30-something cows that they milk - including Wujek Edek's very pregnant daughter-in-law Marta!

I also was particularly eager to use the traditional Polish well contraption on Wujek's farm, a little model of which I played with as a child at my grandparent's house. However, it turns out that I was doing it incorrectly all these years! Rather than using the pole like a lever to raise and lower the bucket into the well, it's used as a counterbalance as you stand over the well and lower the bucket in. The family thought it was obvious that you would stand near the bucket, but it wasn't obvious for this "city" girl! 

Also of note: during our Sunday in Cupel, we went to mass at the church where Dziadzi used to go when he was growing up. Because it was located about 5 or 6 kilometers away from his house, Dziadzi and his family generally walked to church. He previously described it as not being nearly as decorative as the church where they got married, but it also was very tall and beautiful.

Even more kilometers away was the area that Dziadzi and his family used to sell cows every once in a while. In order to do so, they had to leave the previous night and walk the cow all night in order to make it to the market on time the next morning. I snapped a shot of the area as we drove by. If nothing else, it shows how towns have really become developed in the past few decades.

So now, a word about the family. Wujek Edek and his wife Danuta live with their son Gregor and his wife Marta. They have one four-year-old daughter, Emilia, and another child on the way. Though shy at first, Emilia soon warmed up to me. In no time, she followed me around and requested that I play with Barbie dolls, hula-hoop, or examine her rock collection with her. She was so eager to play with me that on the last night, when her mom told her I needed to go to bed (aka pack my suitcase), she sighed and said something to the effect of, "All right, if she HAS to." Anyways, the family in general was very nice to us. Cioicia Danka was a great cook - she made the best apple cake that I've ever had! Also, the family obviously works very hard to maintain their land. In addition to huge fields of hay and several cows, they also keep a large garden (complete with cucumbers and tomatoes just like my grandparents grow in their garden back home) and some beautiful flower bushes. It was obvious that Dziadzi was happy to see his brother was doing well for himself and enjoyed walking around the yard.

Long story short: we enjoyed our stay with Dziadzi's brother Edek. To the right is a picture of his son Gregor and his granddaughter Emilia.
Below is a pic of the entire family and their visitors in front of their house, and to the left, a picture of their land from the road leading up to it:

Before I address the rest of our week with Babci and Dziadzi's families, I'd like to backtrack for just a second. On our way to Cupel, we stopped by the church where my Babci and Dziadzi got married. We had both good and bad timing - good, because we arrived there just as a wedding was starting and it was cool to see a wedding while visiting the place my grandparents got married over 50 years ago, bad because that meant we didn't have the opportunity to explore much inside. Regardless, it was a beautiful big church - much larger than I, having heard about the fact that my grandparents grew up in pretty small villages, ever anticipated.






After spending some time exploring as much of the church as possible without interrupting the wedding, we headed across the street to the nearby parish cemetery where Babci's relatives were buried. 


It was a pretty large cemetery located on a nice hill. Again, you can tell that Poles generally care about their family, because they certainly take good care of their loved ones' graves.























We had to laugh and get a picture on the way back to the church as Dziadzi admired his favorite thing: the bushes along the road. 


Then, we headed for Babci's childhood home. Just like with Dziadzi's house in Cupel, the original house is no longer there - since my grandparents left, they have rebuilt homes on the properties. But in Babci's house, they kept some of the same barns up. No one was home when we stopped by, but nonetheless we decided to take a quick peek from the front yard. It was good to see that the property is well-maintained and that they too keep a huge garden. To the left is a pic of said garden and barns.
Also, they kept the cross up in front of the house that Dziadzi believes may have been there when Babci lived at the house. Though it was a little crooked, it was very cool to see (it's pictured above). 



I must say, the roads around this area were some of the narrowest dirt roads yet. I took a shot of one of them through the back window of Wujek Edek's car. Talk about off-roading!






Anyway, after visiting Cupel for a few days, we made our way up to Gdansk to visit some of Babci's brothers  there. On the first night, we stopped by her brother Jozef's office where he works as a parking attendant. He invited us over the next day for obiad. Next, we went to her brother Genek's son Waldek's house, where Genek was looking over the house because his son was on vacation. We picked up Genek and returned to his apartment in Gdansk. He and his wife Janina were so hospitable - they took us in and arranged places for us to sleep for the night. My aunt was so sweet and particularly eager to make sure that we were comfortable - I loved her. She was even spotted waving to us as we were leaving the parking lot.


The next day, we went to Babci's brother Jozef and his wife Hildegada's house for obiad. His niece/ adoptive daughter Ania came over with her son. She was very friendly and we talked to her son a little because he, like all kids in Poland, learn English in school. Although he was 2 years younger than Ryan, he was the same height! See left for the proof.

Up next was Babci's brother Edek, also from Gdansk. His family was also very nice. His two sons Lukasz and Jakub, both around my age, spoke English very well and talked to us for a while.

After all those visits, we headed back to Dziadzi's sister Ciocia Irka's house late that night. All in all, it was wonderful to see Ciocia Irka, who visited us in the U.S. twice in the past few years, again. She is so sweet and was amongst the most hospitable people of the entire trip. She was so concerned about giving us the best accommodations, she herself insisted on giving up her room for me. And she made sure we had a ton of food at every meal - perhaps the most interesting dish of which was a soup made of chunks of pig's head (since they did, in fact, raise some pigs.) Speaking of pigs, they eat - a lot. So by the end of the week, Ryan was helping the uncles shovel up the grain they harvested (for the pigs to eat) into a pile in the barn. All the Wujeks got a kick out of the fact that the American kid was doing their farm work for them, but for Ryan, it was no big deal. Or should I say, no "pig" deal?

And now, a word about Ciocia Irka's family. She has three sons (Krzysztof, Andzej, and Edward) and two daughters (Elzbieta and Ewa), all grown and most married with kids. I was so impressed by how close all her family is. Most of her grandchildren live a few miles away from her house, but they often bike over to hang out on the farm. I was glad to see all the cousins hang out with each other - they generally act more like siblings than anything. The oldest, Karolina, spoke to me for a while. She's eager to visit the U.S. - I just requested that she calls me up when she does so we can go to New York or Washington D.C.! 

Meanwhile, Ryan spent some of his time hanging out with the littlest grandchild, Oliwier. He was so funny. He always wanted to play soccer with Ryan and often asked Ryan why he didn't understand or wasn't responding (which in and of itself Ryan didn't understand because it was all in Polish). Overall, I absolutely loved hanging out with Ciocia Irka's family and of course, loved her food. At one point, I commented that I liked the pierogi she served, and she responded that she would just have to make them for me the next time she visited the states.

Before heading back to Warsaw, we met with one other set of relatives: Dziadzi's late brother Ryszaud's wife Elzbieta, daughter Ania, and son-in-law. They were very excited to meet me and see Dziadzi and Ryan again (since they had met them earlier before I joined them). His daughter, Ania, was also very pregnant and so adorable! She said that I should stay with her for a few years and eventually I'd improve my Polish and she'd work on her English.

Okay, that's all for now. More to come about our whirlwind cross-country tour of Poland, which so far has been great!
Pokój,
Rach