We should have arrived in Poland on August 1, but due to flooding in Warsaw our flight out of Chicago that evening was canceled. The airline put us up for the night in Chicago, which was a great adventure for the kids. For Renata and I it was a night in limbo between the old and the new. We were leaving behind job, friends, my side of the family and dreams of a new house. We weren't sure we had made the right decision.
We finally arrived in Zarczyce Duze in Poland, to Renata's childhood home where her mother still lives, on August 2. Grandma was excited to see the kids and the kids were excited to be in their new home. Adam exclaimed, "Grandma, you can live here too!"
What can I say about our first year here? It's been stressful, fun, frustrating, difficult, interesting, joyful and dull. Life in Poland is very different from life in the USA. Just one example: to get a fishing license in the USA you go to any Walmart sporting goods department, fill out a form, pay your money (a mere $35 in Texas) and in about 20 minutes you walk out with your license. In Poland you have to locate the one office in the city that issues fishing licenses. You have to take a test (which involves identifying species of fish). You have to fill out forms (plural). You pay your money (180 PLN, or about $50). And that's not the end of the bureaucracy. With your license comes a strip of paper where, each time you go fishing, you write the date and place where you fish and the number and type of any fish you catch. If a game warden checks and you haven't filled out the paper for that particular day you will be fined. As a foreigner I was able to avoid taking the test, but everything else applies.
We miss the USA, even the Texas heat. We miss family and friends. We miss our old parish church. We miss the general ease of living in the USA. I miss being able to talk to people in English and going to an English library. Since I don't speak Polish so well I often feel at a loss and less in control of my life here than in the USA. The house we live in requires a disheartening amount of time and money in renovation.
But on the plus side of the ledger: living in the same house with grandma has been great for Emilia and Adam. They've grown very close to grandma as well as to aunts, uncles and cousins who all live relatively close (most of my family in the USA lived far from us and we rarely, if ever, saw them). We have a large yard which includes a garden, orchard, chickens and a barn with rabbits. There's a large forest just 5 minutes walk from our back fence. The kids' primary school is a 10-minute walk down the road. There's lots of home-grown food from the garden, orchard and animals as well as various berries and mushrooms from the forest; not to mention all the wonderful cakes and sweet rolls that grandma bakes. We buy fresh milk from the neighbors, honey from beekeepers up the road and fresh locally baked bread from the little store just a few houses down the street. Emilia and Adam can now speak Polish. My own facility with the language is improving.
I enjoy teaching English more than "chasing trucks" like I did in my transportation logistics job in Texas. My students come from many walks of life and talking with them as I teach them English has enriched my life. Renata studied for and received her teaching license this year. She will start teaching English in the local primary school in September. I think she will find this work fulfilling.
We have so many priceless memories from the past year. There was Emilia and Adam's first day at school. Emilia memorized lines of poems for various school presentations, including one for Christmas where Emilia spoke of "welcoming baby Jesus with carols." I bet you'll never hear that at a public school in the USA! There have been walks in the forest where Emilia loves to gather autumn leaves or spring and summer wildflowers, pedal-boat rides in a small lake at a nearby park, hours at an indoor swimming pool with a great big water slide, sledding down a hill and building snowmen, sausage roasts at a fire in the orchard, Adam trying to kick a soccer ball like his older cousins . . .
If the truth be told, Renata and I would not choose to move here again if we could rewind time. But then none of those memories listed in the previous paragraph would have happened if we hadn't moved here.
All in all, this past year has required patience and reliance on the Lord. It's been hard not having as much control over things as I'd like. I'm not where I ought to be yet, but God is working on me. I'm having to learn to cooperate with Him like never before.
No comments:
Post a Comment