Second Language Picnic

Hello everyone

It’s time to prepare the second Language Picnic, for the time to come we started to prepare different things, it’s an event where culture as well as ideas and languages from different countries are shared among the population of Pultusk and whoever wants to come close to the fountain in the main square to get to know the experiences of the different members of it.

It started at 16:00 giving time to everyone to rest after the lunch and go there full of energy to improve their knowledge about interesting things that we are happily sharing, the first 15 minutes there was almost no one, but as the time was passing more and more people were gathering there, sitting in the different blankets we had prepared according to their preferences and changing from one to another as they were knowing that they wanted of the different countries, in this case we had Spain, Korea, Hungary and France, as well as an international one for English.

Different things that were teaching in the different blankets were language twistters, basics of every language and history and culture from the countries, we had as well several games that were play with the people assisting there, also people from Pultusk and other parts of Poland that happen to be there that day were sharing their experiences with us as well.

In the peak of the afternoon we were around 20 people, so it was quite acceptable, and the ideas were flowing from one way to another, people were laughing and enjoying the time with the volunteers and even talking about going somewhere after the picnic ends.

There weren’t only blankets and people, there was as well lemonade for the visitors, fruits and candies, to pleasure everyone that wanted to pass by, almost everything was finished at the end of the Picnic so it was quite a success, and after that things were putting again in the cars and volunteers along with the locals of Pultusk went to have a drink in a pub close to the place

But it was nothing but the beggining of the language picnic, there was Spanish, Korean and Hungarian food prepared in the volunteers flat welcoming the people to sing in different languages and to play different games if they didn’t have enough with the picnic, as it only last two hours. At least 15 people were reunited in the place, enjoying the end of the day and telling to us that for sure they were going to come to the next one. We will look foward to it.

Thanks.

Hansol from South Korea.

Hello people!

I will write a bit about Hansol, one of my volunteers.

She is a girl from South Korea, even when we had a lot of jokes about her being fom North Korea because some strange phone she has, so me along with Kien were telling her that she uses that machine to spy on Poland, but jokes asides she was really nice as he was always smiling of them

At the begging she was a bit more close but it only took her 1-2 days to be open, she was comming before from a workcamp in Germany, its a girl who likes Fashion things as when we were playing “guess who” she usually write names of famous models that noone of us knows

She was interested in teaching kids something about her language and also she likes to sing different songs, most of the time in the nights she was singing with Dawid and the rest of the people in the flat, one of the things I will rememer the most was when we came to eat in an Chinese restaurant and we order a coconut soup (really spicy one), she said that it was level 1 in Korea and there are 5 leves, I don’t want to imagine the 5th level as after 5 spoons of that soup I only wanted to drink water and more water

She is a really sociable person and even though the first time she asked when she came to the flat was the WI-FI password she spent quite a lot time with the rest of us, after that every day that someone was using the phone whie eating we called it Korean day, in honor to Hansol!

For me it was nice to be able to meet her.

Thanks.

Arrival of some volunteers 3rd of August

 Hi everyone!

I guess  I was a bit nervous today, you may ask why, well it is my first workcamp as a leader and my two volunteers came today, Hansol a girl from Korea, and Renata, a Hungarian girl who is living currently in France.

I was sitting in my flat waiting for them, as I didn’t know exactly at what time they may come I couldn’t do anything else, good thing that Dawid came to spend there sometime with me, I was with my computer when suddenly someone knocked the door, as usual, I said, “door is open, come inside” as I though it was one of my friends, although in that moment that girl appeared, Hansol from Korea.

I introduced myself and we were talking for a bit, after that Dawid offered her to go through the city and show something of Pultusk, so there I was alone again, as I couldn’t go far away as I had to wait for Renata arrival. I started to focus on my things and the time went away, Dawid and Hansol came back and Renata was still not there, but after sometime, someone was calling me from outside, I went to the balcony and there was Renata with two people from Pultusk that helped her to arrive to the place, with a really heavy suitcase by the way!

Finally we were all in the place, beds were distributed among them and we talked a bit about what we should do on Monday in the place we were going to work with children, I didn’t know too much as it was my first time going there, so I tried to explain to them as much as I could, in the end we went to rest to get ready for the next day work!

Thanks everyone.

Warsaw Uprising

Hello everyone.

Today I will change a bit the topic and I will write about something really great that I saw in Warsaw on the 1st of August. I was told one year ago, by a friend who came to visit me that “please, call me at 5 pm.” So I did. She standed u and started to look in the direction of her country and stayed silent for one minute.

I asked why was that as I didn’t know much about Poland History, and she started to explain the meaning of it and that it was because the uprising that hapened in the Second World War when the people from Poland attacked Germans to give the welcome to the Russians who were entering in the city of Warsaw, some friend also told me that because of that, when Polish people lost, the German army destroyed almost all the city of Warsaw as a revenge, they couldn’t do it with the part of Prague as the Russian army was waiting at the other side of Vistula.

I made the decision to go to see it by myself, as I am an EVS volunteer currently actively in Pultusk it was quite easy for me to move to Warsaw, so I did. I used the chance as well to visit some friends, at 4:30 pm. we finished eating and talking so we went to the car, on our way to the city center, surprise, it was 4:59, and when the clock turned to 5:00 a siren could be listened in all the city, everyone stop theirs cars, even trams, busses, everything was stopped, people in bikes went down their bikes and runners stopped to run,  there was not a single person moving in that momento in the city.

Some ballons appears in the horizon, with the colours red and white as the Polish flag, and people were using “BENGALAS” close to Foksal, my friends were trembling, and something went through my spine and made me feel myself a small part of what happened that day in Warsaw. I was really happy that I could go there and if I have the chance again I will go without a doubt, it doesn’t matter if you are from Warsaw, or from any other city, town, or village in Poland, is something worth seeing, so if you have the chance, I will wait for you next year in the streets of Warsaw, on the 1st of August, at 5pm.

Thanks.