The true journey begins

Tomorrow morning at 6am, Julie, Ala and I will depart on our two week(+) trip through Central Eastern Europe. The purpose of this trip is to conduct a 10-day workshop in a village on the Serbian/Bulgarian border, as well as another 2-day workshop in Ternopil, Ukraine. Our plan for the journey includes traveling through Poland (of course), Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. Though I will see much of these countries from the backseat of a car, I am nonetheless filled with excitement and anticipation for what we will experience during our travels.

The first leg of our trip will take us across the border into Slovakia where we will stop along the way for a swim. I have been assured that there is an ideal swimming spot that we must visit! Then, we will take the scenic route through the mountains (purely for my benefit) and enter Hungary. We will press on through Hungary, just barely bypassing Budapest, and arrive in a small town in Serbia called Subotica where we will spend our first night with some friends of MTO. The next day, we will continue our drive through Serbia with a stop in Belgrade, and we will spend the night in the town of Svrlijg with another friend. On our third day of driving, we will cross the border to Bulgaria and arrive in Vidin, a town which is very close to the village where we will be hosting our first workshops. For the next 7 days or so, we will be conducting workshops in Dunavci - these workshops will explore issues of social responsibility, group decision-making and teamwork by tasking the participants with creating and running their own village. The participants, all educators, will then take their skills back to their schools and teach their students about what they have learned. Most of the people planning to attend the workshops are Serbians and Bulgarians who live in the area and who have been ensconced in an ethnic conflict for some time now. It will be interesting to experience the group dynamics in this situation and to see how successful they are at bridging their differences. (To learn more about the subjects we will be presenting at the workshop, please visit the link to the Village Project on the left side of this page.)

After this workshop, we will move on to Ukraine, by way of Romania. On our first day of driving we will stop in Timisoara and visit with some more folks who have ties to MTO. Then I think we will drive directly to Lvov, Ukraine where we will spend an evening relaxing in a lively, modern city. The next day we will travel to Ternopil where we will conduct workshops on the Public Achievement program model (see link on the left). This program teaches young people to identify common problems in the community and to take the necessary steps to solve them. We may take a third day to do a monitoring visit in another village nearby or we may simply head back to Poland. Ultimately, we expect to arrive back in Nowy Sacz on either June 15 or 16. Whew!

Now that I have had a few days to adjust to the change in time and a different way of living, I am looking forward to this next part of my adventure. I have enjoyed spending time with Julie and Ala over these past few days, even though all we've been doing is preparing to leave! It has been an eye-opening experience for me to see where MTO is, who plays a role in their programs and how the organization functions. I am impressed by their hard work and commitment to helping people.

During these next few weeks, I expect to have limited access to the Internet. I will post as I am able, but please do not be alarmed (mom!) if I don't write as regularly as I have been. I will report back when I can with pictures and stories so, hopefully, you can get a feel for my experience.

Arrival in Nowy Sacz

After a 7 hour flight to Munich, a 6 hour layover in the airport, another shorter flight to Krakow, a 30 minute taxi ride to the bus station and a 2 hour bus ride, I finally arrived in Nowy Sacz (pronounced No-vee Saunch). OK - so the length of time it took to get here was nothing compared to Marc's 41 hour trip, but I'm definitely worn out.

When I arrived at the bus station in Nowy Sacz, Ala was there to meet me. It has been almost two years since we last met in Moldova during one of MTO's monitoring visits. After receiving the warmest of embraces and briefly catching up, Ala whisked me away to the home of one of her friends, Ioana, where many were gathered to celebrate Ioana's name day. (In Poland, birthdays are not celebrated. Instead, they celebrate name days that are tied to Catholic saints days.) There I enjoyed a feast of salads, meat, fruit, vodka, wine and Ioana's famous dessert - layers of meringue and mocha frosting. It was such a great introduction into Polish life. I wish I could eat dinner there every night!

Despite the fact that most of Ala's friends were speaking Polish, I felt surprisingly comfortable in this situation, thanks in large part to my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova (and Ala's kind attention, too). Having people speak to me or around me in different languages is something that was very commonplace as an American in Moldova. Plus Polish can sound very similar to Russian, so I was able to pick up on the context of a few conversations last night.

After dinner, I was brought back to the MTO dorms and was able to get settled in. I will stay here for the first few days of my visit and then will move to a host family when we return from Bulgaria. The dorm is located in a beautiful building with all the modern amenities such as a shower with hot water and computers with Internet access. I really am feeling quite spoiled.

This morning, Ala took me on a basic walking tour of Nowy Sacz. The town has some beautiful architecture, including many churches and municipal buildings. Since the weather was so nice, there were many families out taking walks together and enjoying the sun. Ice cream seems to be a popular food item - at least in the summer time. In fact, Ala told me that the richest man in Nowy Sacz is an ice cream manufacturer. Evidently his ice cream is very popular in Russia. I guess I'll have to sample it before I leave.

Tomorrow I will spend some time learning about the school and meeting some of the kids, teachers and parents. Unfortunately, my Polish is minimal, so I hope everyone will be interested in practicing their English with me. I also hope to continue my conversation about MTO and SPLOT (their school) with the people who live and work here.

Trying to keep busy

Just a few hours ago, I said good-bye to Marc at the airport. It's hard to believe that this moment has finally arrived. We've known for a few months now that we would be spending our summer apart. Despite this, I can't say it has been an easy concept to grasp. Since I dropped him off this morning, I have been doing everything in my power to keep busy - making lists, packing, eating, running errands, doing chores, taking walks, writing letters... But he is on his way to Indonesia - to a new adventure. And I, too, will be leaving shortly on my new adventure.

I will be traveling to Poland, then Bulgaria and Ukraine to work with Julie and Ala from the Educational Society for Malopolska (MTO) - an organization that supported (and continues to support) "Speranta", the organization I worked with while serving in the Peace Corps. I am so excited to have this chance to work with them by implementing workshops and monitoring some of the organizations they have helped establish. I am looking forward to the chance to see MTO in action and to learn about their history. In addition to gaining this knowledge and experience, I also am impatiently awaiting my reunion with Galina and Mariana, my counterpart and host mom from Cahul. When I called Mariana earlier this week to say good-bye, Ana , my host sister, mistakenly shared the secret that they would be meeting me in Bulgaria! I still can't believe this is going to happen!

I am hoping to be able to post on my blog from time to time, but I have to say that these things are not my forte. Marc is by far a better writer than I, but I will do my best to bring news of my whereabouts and experiences to you in a timely fashion. So I will check in again on the other side of the ocean.