Poland Meeting
The project meeting took place in the city of Puchaczów. This meeting was attended by 22 teachers from all partners schools that form this partnership and students from Croatian, English, Turkish and Latvian schools. The host school had scheduled the following activities:
On October 15th we visited the Puchaczów school. This is a public elementary school located in the Province of Lublin. At this school, we had the opportunity to meet the classes, the teachers group and the school facilities. We also witnessed a reception that comprised choreography and songs related to the culture of the host school. In this assembly of students and teachers, all schools had the opportunity to present the projects they developed – both the company logo and the final product. The work done by our students can be seen on our site.
On the afternoon of that day, the coordinators of each of the schools met in order to take stock of the activities and plan, in more detail, the activities that will be developed until December.
On October 16th we participated in different workshops on crafts and folk art and attended an event related to the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the host school. On the afternoon of the same day, we visited the Zamoyskich museum
This museum, originally owned by the Zamoyski family, is located in the province of Lublin and is considered one of the seven wonders of Poland. On this visit, we were able to witness the ties that the Polish educational system establishes with the cultural institutions, a practice which all of us seemed to approve of and that should be replicated. »»
In the 17th and 18th of October, the group was offered various activities related to the exploration the local environment, including a visit to Kazimierz Donley and to Lublin. Kazimierz Donley is a small town located on the east bank of the Vistula River, in the Province of Lublin. This city was extremely prosperous during the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century due to the grain trade made along the Vistula River.
In the nineteenth century, it became a center of artistic attraction, a specific trait that the town continues to hold today. The students of the local school community are granted a meaningful interaction and integration in the huge array of artistic activities implemented by the artistic community of the city, a practice that the group considered very constructive and stimulating.
In Lubblin, the working group was offered a visit to the concentration camp of Majdanek
Earlier, in 1941, this was a field with 50 000 war prisoners. The field gradually increased its capacity until it was able to accommodate 250 000 prisoners, who used to manufacture weapons and ammunition for the German army. From April 1942 until the camp’s shut down in July 1944, the site was transformed into a killing field. Majdanek and Auschwitz (the latter being the largest of all camps) were the only two to use the exterminator Zyklon B. The visit to these sites is often conducted by the Polish school population in order to raise awareness among young students for the dramatic consequences of anti-Semitism and practices carried out by ideologies that extol political violence, extreme nationalism and undemocratic forms of government.
Still in Lublin, we also visited the old town and the folk art museum (an open -air musem, the Lublin village) and the castle of Lublin (The Donjon). In this context, the goal of the Polish educational and cultural authorities is to transmit and preserve national identity, something to which Poles attach great importance, taking into account that Poland lost its political independence in the eighteenth century and only retrieved it in twentieth century.
We really believe that this kind of activities deeply enriches, as it is through this sharing process that it is possible to see how other European schools are organized, which methods are used in their classes and what activities are develop with the students.
The program of this meeting project provided us with a diverse range of experiences and knowledge, which underlies the spirit of this project: lifelong learning and learning across borders, as intended by the Czech educator and pedagogue Jan Amos Comenius.
To establish contacts between distant partners and to divulge project activities, our school created a workspace on the moodle platform . It was also our responsibility to maintain the internet site where schools will disclose their activities.
Fedra's chronicle
Disclaimer: This report does not present a formal, rigorous and academic writing such as the one used in reports. It is a personal account, similar to a chronicle, so any criticism regarding the language and/or form of exposure of the events will be, without more ado, redirected to this disclaimer. Furthermore, it will not be an exhaustive account, but only a small gathering of the great beautiful patchwork mantle that was our trip to Poland.
It started with the plane dance. The plane dance is a very typical dance of the western group of islands of the Azores and it consists on taking one´s hand to the forehead and wistfully saying "I wonder if the plane is coming tomorrow?" It's a very common dance since flight cancellation in these two islands is just like drinking water: frequent and natural. We were lucky: the plane came. Off we went to Poland. It was the 13th of October.
Before Poland itself, we had to do all these stops: Corvo - Ponta Delgada; Ponta Delgada - Lisbon; Lisbon - Vienna; Vienna - Warsaw; Warsaw - Puchakzów. Almost two days traveling. What a drain… It is an ordeal that seems to have no end, no doubt, but it is the price to pay for if you live in a remote paradise. Yes, say what you will, but I believe that we are remote!
Up until Lisbon, where we landed on the night of the 14th, everything went smooth and according to expected. It was then that the plane was delayed and that we had a very close call. We almost lost the connection from Vienna to Warsaw. We run like we stole something up to our departure gate. Me… Someone who never ever, under no circumstance, runs. I can say that was a new experience because I did something that I’m really not used to, which is moving really fast. And different it was too for my two traveling companions because one of them told me later I would have enjoyed seeing you run...
We didn´t miss the flight, but Deolinda’s suitcase got lost in the meantime. Upon arrival in Warsaw, we visited the lost and found facilities, the missing baggage was located in Vienna and we were asked our final destination in Poland, so that the bag could be sent to us once it was done with its forced expedition through the Austrian capital. I pronounced the name of the city with spectacle, sure that my Polish accent was on its best shape: "Puchakzów". I pronounced "Puxákzau", certain that I was doing an oral exercise in which I would pass with flying colors. And then my interlocutor shook her head. Three times I insisted on the name (what do you mean? I don´t know the name of the town where I am going?!); three times the lady shook her head. I came to know later that the city’s name reads "Purrátxou". If it were up to me, Deolinda would still be waiting for her bag.
At school, it was the 16th of October, we witnessed the celebrations of the 15th anniversary of the welcoming school. And considering the number of representatives of illustrious, varied entities; considering the amount of people who discoursed; considering the amount of presents and flowers that the head teacher was showered with; considering the massive clapping; considering the obvious investment made by the school in that specific celebration; we have no doubt that that school´s work is truly valued by the surrounding society.
On the 17th, we visited Kazimierz Dolny, the most rustic and lovely little town ever. The weather was superb - dark and threatening to rain - which contributed to the aura of profound stillness and dream that I found there. In this city we found a bronze sculpture of a dog. Legend has it that those who rub the dog´s nose will return to Kazimierz. The dog was clearly cherished by the tourists, since the canid´s muzzle was visibly outworn and very shiny when compared to the rest of the dog´s body. There was also another part of the dog´s anatomy that seems to have been seriously stroked over time. However, according to Pietrok, one of Polish teachers, fondling that other limb wasn´t as effective in guaranteeing the tourist’s return to the city.
A visit to the Lublin´s concentration camp was one of the highlights of the visit to Poland. Of course no one rejoices with the atrocities that occurred there; in this context, the word highlights is justified as this is a visit that forces us to observe the historical reality and to reflect on it. The analysis of the past is essential to make us shape the future. That is not always the case, but it should always be so. Direct contact with those facilities allows for a much more powerful experience than learning about it through the TV.
This representation would not be complete without a quick overlook on the Polish cuisine. The fact that I, as soon as I landed at Corvo, begun screaming someone get me a scale NOW! says a lot about the excellence (and the amount!) of the food we were served. The fact that the desserts were rich in cottage cheese - which is healthy - provided us with a delicious excuse to engorge ridiculous amounts of desserts. Most of the soups were so rich that could be served as the main course. We ate goose, cheese with onions in it, things which, for us, were new ... The final dinner, well… That was pure and exquisite exuberance!
If I would go back? Right now and again tomorrow! Thanks to those who made it possible!
Fedra
