Meet the Work Camp

August 4, 2007. Smoszewo. Or, tiny village about 50 km from Warsaw. Population 150, with about 160 refugees, and now plus 8—our little contingency of work campers. So, I left Krakow early this morning. Krakow was really a beautiful city, and I so enjoyed wandering about on my own, just soaking in the city, and stopping by periodically of my street musician friend, Marek, to chat until he had to start performing again.

I arrived at the train station in Warsaw, and wandered outside, not really sure what I was looking for (the directions were to look for a bus out front of the station and which should leave at 10:50 for this village. Why a bus was going directly to this village of 150 four times a day I do not know. But I am glad that it did because the other option was to get off at the next closest village a few miles away and walk, and I think I would have dropped down dead on the side of the road.) Anyways, while looking for the bus I saw a girl with a large backpack looking equally lost, and so I figured she must be going to the same place. I stammered out “Are you going to Smoshosomsmm….” And she, understanding this mishmash of sounds, said yes. Meet Tina, from Slovenia. She had just arrived from a few days in Prague and is currently a student in Slovenia, studying Social Pedagogy (which is like psychology and Social Work). Super nice, laid back girl. We finally found the bus (really, just in front of the station like we had been told, but still, you know when you are in a foreign country and you don’t know where you are going, you get totally panicked that you are going to miss a vital step. Maybe you don’t, but I do.). On the bus we met Maja, from Croatia. She works as a work and education counselor there. The three of us had a delightful time getting to know each other a bit and speculating about the camp—what it could possibly be like. And then we arrived…

Smoszewo is a little farming town, right next to the Vistby River, which runs almost through all of Poland. There are little farms and some houses (30 maybe? I’ll get a better count sometime this week), each of which had a few little barking dogs in the front yard. It is very rural and idyllic. I look forward to some nice, contemplative strolls to explore the flora of the region.

The camp itself is made up of a few apartment buildings (small ones) with a common canteen where the meals are prepared—however, Ania (one of the coordinators, from Poland. She speaks Russian really well so acts as an interpreter) said that often, to make this place more homey, the mother will go pick up the food and take it back to the flat so that she can prepare the food herself and they can eat as a family. I think that is good. We live in one of the buildings, which also happen to double as an old folks home. I’m not sure I would’ve put together Chechen refugees and old folks, but hey, it seems to work out well. The first people to great us were, of course, the children, gabbing away in Russian and Chechen (Chechenski). So, you know how I joked about finding myself a Chechen refugee husband? Well, I had no idea that Chechen men were so good looking! I am serious; the young men in this center are incredibly cute. Good thing men and women don’t interact at all, otherwise I might just have been brining home a Chechen boyfriend-kidding dad, just kidding.

Today has been spent pretty much just getting settled and getting to know each other. I am so impressed with this group and think that we will have some good dynamics. Everyone has done something with refugees before and is really excited to be here—although, what else would you expect from people who voluntarily sign up for a work camp with refugees? My type of peeps. Daniel is the other facilitator, and while he doesn’t speak Russian, he has been working with refugees and SCI for 4 years and so has tons of knowledge about the situation here. The other members of our group of 8 are Takashi from Japan, who taught Japanese at a Russian University is like a Russian expert (in my eyes); Lindsay from New York, who is the young one of the group and spent a year on an exchange program in Poland so she speaks Polish, and Natalia, who is also Polish and just finished her degree in Refugee studies. I’m so excited to get to know everyone in the group and most especially to start doing some teaching! The kids were teaching me Chechen words today (mesh=hair) and I must say, it makes me giggle quite a bit. I will probably be hopeless at learning anything, since I am trying to pick up Russian, Chechen, and Polish at the same time and I can’t even tell the difference at this point! But it’ll be fun. This place is beautiful.