We had been in Poland about 3 days, but had barely begun to experience it. We'd still been surrounded by Americans. So when we got on the 4-hour bus ride from the h2o training facility to the church we would be serving at in Piotrków, we still had no idea what we were in for.
For me, the first real taste of being in a foreign country actually hit me when we took a pit stop at McDonald's. The menu was in Polish, everyone was speaking Polish, and everyone was staring at our group of loud Americans. By this point, I was feeling a lot of anxiety about teaching and the language barrier, having no idea what level the kids would be at or if I'd be competent enough to teach them anything. But I tried to push past it and just remember that if we're having fun, they'll have fun.
After we got settled into our hotel, we met the assistant pastor, Mark, and his family. Mark and his wife Naomi were originally from the US, but have been serving in Poland for over 23 years. Their youngest daughters, Lydia and Jessica, were both born in Poland. The family took our team out to pizza about a block from our hotel. The pizza was MASSIVE. I admired it from a distance and had some very tasty baked chicken. It was a great time of everyone getting to know each other.
The following day, we set out on the first walk that we would come to know and love in the coming week, the walk to the church. The church itself was not what I had expected in a lot of ways. The ground floor was largely unfinished, but it had 3 more floors above ground for extra housing. The main part of the church where the operation mostly takes place is in the basement, with seemingly endless halls and extra rooms every way you turn.
There was a lot of cleaning up that needed to be done to prepare for the arrival of the campers, mainly on the ground floor. I actually kind of love that kind of work, especially with a group of other enthusiastic people. We made really good progress!
That afternoon, our team split up into groups to go to various Polish team members' homes for dinner to strengthen the connection between the teams and to really get to know Polish culture. Peggy, Alva, Tracie, and I went to Mark and Naomi's. They have a beautiful home, delicious food, and hanging out with the girls was a blast!
That evening, a group of us got to go watch Lydia run in a half marathon in Old Town Piotrków. And she finished! Yay!!! Before the race, there were these historical reenactment people doing medieval fighting, and several of us got to use a mace! It was great being in the middle of this big town event, and it was the first time I really started to feel connected with the city. I also got to use a few Polish phrases I'd picked up! (Mainly przepraszam - sorry :P )
The following day was described in my journal as "STRESS but also AMAAAAAZE!!!" The morning was spent in the first formal meeting between the American and Polish teams, and there were a lot of things we still had to plan and coordinate and not a lot of time until the campers would arrive. But, somehow, through the din of different voices and ideas being tossed back and forth, we managed to get a road map of what the camp was going to look like.
That was the stress part, and with that over, came all the amaze.
Lydia, and Pastor Daniel's daughter, Marta invited me to play my mandolin with them for their church's worship service, and we got to practice after the meeting. It already sounded great, and it was beyond cool to be able to play along with them singing in Polish.
Our team once again split up to go to various Polish homes for dinner. Tracie, Ron, Nancy, and I went to Pastor Daniel's home. We were able to catch the last few minutes of a very important Polish football match, and they won! Yay!!! His wife, Anja, made an absolutely delicious meal, and we learned a new card game called Dobble with Marta and Łukasz, which I was not terribly good at, but it was buckets of fun. Lovely doesn't even begin to describe their home, their food, and all their hearts.
I was still pretty anxious about what the next day would hold when we'd finally meet the campers, but after that day I felt more and more excited.
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