A Very Full Beginning
Wednesday: We flew for two hours from Helsinki to Krakow, Poland. From Krakow we took a two-hour train and an hour bus to Rzeszow. Then we took a town bus and rented a tiny car. Considering that gas here is over $8 per gallon, a small car is a blessing! Finally, we landed at an artist studio in a village on the outskirts of town. The church bell wakes us (and everyone else!) at 6AM every morning, Sunday included. There is a nice mix of suburban and rural with chickens and very compact and beautiful vegetable gardens amongst multistory apartment buildings. There is a very sweet dog who visits us at his fence in the mornings when we leave and again in the evenings when. we return. Rzeszow is a small, dense town which had a population of 180,000 prior to the war. This has increased to twice its size with refugees. Interesting to note that a town of this size would have many times the footprint back in the US, but because most people live in multistory apartment buildings it is very compact. The town is situated in a sub-Karpatsky (Karpat Mountains) region with a small river Wislok flowing through the center and an old town formed around the castle. Twenty thousand Jews were deported and killed in Auschwitz from Rzeszow by the Nazis. This part of Poland is further removed from Western Europe. Young people generally speak some English. Polish language has certain similarities to Russian, so we are able to get around, not without difficulties, however. Poland is a very catholic country. There are noticeably many young families with babies.
Thursday: We met with Natalie, one of Topaz’s program director. She teaches Gender and Mixed Marriages at Ben Gurion University in Negev, Israel. We had tea with her, and another Topaz volunteer Naami (and Naami’s 12-year old daughter) at a tiny flat which is donated to Topaz for some of the volunteers to live at while in Rzeszow, by a local. resident. We do not live there. It is 2 rooms one with a few beds for sleeping. They are all women so not a good place for Misha. Over tea and Israeli sweets we learned about their work and its many challenges. There are 7 million refugees, majority being m others with children. When they fled Ukraine, everyone thought it would be just for a short time, but the war is likely to last a long time. They now need permanent housing, jobs, education, language and emotional support. Problems are enormous! Poland is doing a commendable job; all the refugees are housed by families, but the government assistance is not adequate and the crisis is putting a sizeable strain on resources here. It is summer now. The concern is how will they continue services when the cold weather season comes in September. Over 100,000 women and girls have been trafficked to prostitution since the beginning of war. It is very sad what some humans are capable of. At 11AM, we had a meeting at UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees). It was interesting and very official. When we shared our ideas for a camp for the children, they told us we would need a local organization willing to sponsor our program. We spent afternoon getting our bearings around town, peering at maps and making connections. The breakthrough of the day was meeting with a local bike rental shop, which was sympathetic to our cause and offered free bike rentals. Natalie made a connection for us at Bada Boom, a local refugee aid organization. This was a great find!
Friday: We met with Nadia and Bogumil at Bada Boom which is a combined café and natural/magical play space they opened in 2018, in a new residential neighborhood. When the war started, they turned their café into a refugee aid center distributing food, clothing, warm meals with offerings of language and crafts classes and a safe space for mothers and children. After couple of hours of conversation, over a very good cappuccino, they were on board. Nadia is very much like Misha (Nothing is impossible especially when it is helping the other!). We (Lynne and Misha) wrote a program description and it went out via social media with an invitation to an informational meeting, that afternoon, on Saturday. We got our bikes and began scouting! Bike trails in Rzeszow are the same as in any other place. Outside the official paved bike paths, there is a network of unmarked dirt roads and single track and about the only way to understand it is by poking around, which is what we did until Misha got a flat tire at the furthest point away from town, late in the evening and, of course, the bike shop sent us out without a repair kit or pump (“We never get flats,” the guy told us!) Well, a long walk (5 miles), pushing your bike, is another way of getting to know the country side!
Sunday: In the morning, we did administrative work (we were wishing Sasha was here!), a nightmare of communicating in between Russian, Ukrainian and English, emails, phone calls, and Whats App… not our favorite kind of work but had to be done. Finally we were off for another day of scouting and program prep. Misha amazingly connected a bunch of trails (through, paved trials, muddy trails, tall grass and stinging nettle) into an all-day loop with many fun stops including ice cream, pizza and swimming. The weather continues to be in the low 60s with daily rain that turns local trails into an oozy mess of clay. Program starts tomorrow!
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