A WEEK IN THE MOUNTAINS
We began scouting for our first expedition. Arriving to the mountains after dark, we stumbled upon Schronisko Pod Wysoka Polonina “A Refuge Under the High Alpine Meadow", an authentic campground and hostel operated by Tomek Ostrowscy and his wife Agneshka. Tomek is the 3rd generation to be managing Schronisko. https://podwysoka.pl/
In addition to running the refuge, Tomek is an avid ski mountaineer and works on the mountain rescue team. It is a very special place! It is obvious that many of the guests have been coming there for years and have a personal relationship with them. Cars are parked at the entrance and you walk to the campground. Tents are pitched without assigned sites on a meadow with a community fire circle. Little wooden-roofed homes, resembling Kroka hobbit houses, are scattered in the forest each housing 4 people with simple beds. There is a central bathhouse for everyone to share and a beautiful log lodge that serves high-quality traditional food at very reasonable prices.
Tomek and Agneshka understood our mission in 30 seconds and offered full support and advice on routes and logistics for the following two weeks, as well as free lodging while we scouted and when we had the students there. Early in the morning we were off to scout the 26K border trail and find a remote shepherd’s cabin, where one can camp on the Slovakian side of the border. Trotting 26K in one day in the steep mountain terrain would have been easy for us a few years back. We did it cheerfully, but felt it in our thighs quite painfully for the next few days! Mission accomplished, and after tasting some amazing local food (rabbit wrapped in cabbage leaves and wild boar stew (for Misha) while Lynne had vegetarian Varenniky, we were back in the city, with one day to get ready for expedition.
By now, we’ve become very familiar with the local Decathlon store (a French outdoor equipment chain, somewhat similar to REI that sells a “Quechua?!?” brand). Fortunately for our project, the equipment and food prices in Poland are ½ of that at home and the US dollar has strong purchasing power, so water bottles, dromedaries, sleeping bags, pads and tents, although of a sub-standard quality are, never the less, attainable. After purchasing necessary gear (families are not equipped with expedition gear), we were off to food shopping at a local discount food chain, Bedroinka, and finally in search of a passenger van. On the transportation front, we scored a major victory! Our host, Bogumil, from the refugee center, Bada Boom, pointed out that the cost of a 9-passenger van rental (9-passengers is a legal limit in Poland before one needs a commercial license) is similar to the cost of used van purchase. Bada Boom really needed a van to transport mothers and children. Bogumil, prior to the war ran a used car business, can easily find one in a day! So that was the deal. We pledged $2500 (which was the cost to rent a van for the time we needed it) towards the purchase and by Monday morning, we had a beautiful red Opel van with a super-efficient little diesel engine, standard transmission, nine seats and room for gear! This is a long-term impact for the refugee community and feels really good!
Finally, after much running around and getting completely worn out from logistics, we were off to the mountains with a group of kids ages 11 – 14 doing what we love and know the best! We had a great expedition with challenging climbs, breathtaking views, sweat and tears, heartfelt moments around the fire, laughter and many adventures with real mice and imaginary bears!
While the children understand Russian, Misha’s fluency, after over 30 years of speaking mostly English, is barely adequate to communicate concepts of community building, empathy and compassion. Translating back and forth slows things down (and can be brain tiring, in addition to everything else Misha is doing!). Culturally, Kroka’s norms of gender equality, inclusion and cooperative leadership are challenging and group processing is not something Ukrainians are used to. What they are very used to, and insistent on, is constant phone contact and our foremost challenge has been persuading parents that they can trust their children to us for a week without checking on the phone every few minutes.
Fortunately, the weather has cooperated and we, fortunately, managed, during the beautiful sunny week without wool socks and long underwear.
Hiking along the ridge between Ukrainian and Polish borders
(The children were so happy to be back in Ukraine and to see it's beautiful land!)
In many ways, these children are like all the children we have worked with: where, generally speaking, the boys are out chasing everything that moves, catching snakes, lizards, frogs and cray fish and resisting the idea of a non-consumptive relationship with nature while the girls are more in the thick of being a teenager, with concerns for their appearance and their perception of how they perceive others to see them. A sad human condition! This can distract them from the joy of living in the moment. And, gratefully, as usual, we did see some of that shed when we had them in the mountains (as we know that this is one of the great gifts of nature)!
The children were given "big jobs" which they took very seriously. We sat around the fire singing songs, making bread on a stick and lots of laughter!
We have also seen striking differences. When asked to journal, the entire group goes on to writing and drawing without a single complaint and you have to encourage them to stop after an hour of quiet concentrated work.
While they may resist work, like many their age, once they start working, be it cooking, gathering firewood or getting water from a spring, they exhibit strong work ethics and skills. The former may be explained by their very different educational system (a typical 8th grader has eight 45-minute periods per day in school)! The latter may be explained by the fact that while most of our students live in the city (most come from Kharkov, Kiev or Lviv) they all have grandparents in the country and have been asked to work in the gardens and help with chores.
Finally, we were really impressed by the almost immediate family like closeness the group developed, just after 12-hours together.
Working together!
They took what we asked of them to heart and everyone was included! Perhaps the cultural difference most evident was during wild blueberry picking (the small low bush berries) in the mountains: they picked for hours without a single complaint returning with blue lips, hands and teeth!
We were back in Rzeszow on Friday evening for a skit (created with no resistance and about 4, loosely unsupervised, hours into a fairly cohesive performance, complete with Pushkin-style poetry); slide show and parent meeting. The gratitude of the children’s mothers was deeply touching. They have to work menial jobs, many starting at 5AM and having their teenager away for a week gives them a little reprieve and gratitude that their children are experiencing joy.
We have moved into yet another Airbnb apartment. Lynne is amazing at finding homes for us, as well as the added task of running the Airbnb in Londonderry from afar (thanks to Danya's help and support). Ahead of us are 2 days of re-provisioning and preparing for our third, and final week of expedition. Back to the mountains we go, with a mix of new and returning students, to explore new routes we have not yet been!
Thanks for the update Lynne and Misha! You are doing extraordinary work and I am sure the children appreciate you so much. I love the look of the mountains and cabins.
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