Our first few days in Poland have been filled with both beauty and busyness. First of all, the landscape is enchanting, whether it is the forested hills, the sprawling beaches, the quaint modern city or the old city centers. But most of all, the kindheartedness of the people stands out. Our host family is incredibly generous, it seems that they would feed us all day if they could. Amd I would be ok with that. Polish food is great! Tonight, also, we were playing the card game bridge, and one of our hosts, Andrje, joined in. The only difficultly was that he doesnt speak much english and had to use his wife as a translator. It made for a very fun evening.
It has been nice to be among such a large group, where I can move among its members and talk with old friends, acquaintances, and new faces. But with such a large group I’ve also had to surrender some of my freedom. It is odd to be more limited and told where to go after about 50 days of traveling at my leisure, making decisions with Luke and maybe a few others, but always retaining my autonomy. It’s a little hard to even find free time to sit and reflect.
Speaking of autonomy, today we visited the Solidarity Museum. It records the events of the worker strikes against the communist party that started here in Gdansk, about 20 minutes from whete we are staying Sopot, but it is all badicly considered one city. Anyway, it was pretty intense to walk through the exhibit and watch/read the events as they unfolded through the years. I was very touched by the role Pope John Paul II played, giving hope to the Polish people during a time of great despair and attack against human dignity. I knew of this in theory before, but walking through the museum made it a lot more concrete. It is a little hard to understand exactly what the Polish people went through, and I’m happy for this chance to get a little glimpse.
Besides the museum, we walked around the old town and visited the oldest church, now a basilica. Many of us climbed to the top of the tower. The view wasn’t great on such a foggy day but the experience was cool. At one point we were walking on boards on top of the ceiling, and another on a stair case that wrapped around the inside of the massive tower.
Lastly, I’d like to note how nice it has been to attend Mass in english, and the homily too! I know this won’t last very long as we will be joining some international celebrations. Nevertheless, after sitting through many foreign homilies, it is nice to be instructed in language I can understand, rather than trying to guess what the priest is saying or further meditating on the word of God myself.
I assume that the rest of the trip will only get busier, but there is also much beauty ahead.
-Michael