Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Niedzielski-Global-volunteers

Full Text:

Not Your Ordinary Vacation: A Stint With Global Volunteers

(with cuts)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Lenore and Arthur Niedzielski never dreamed that the first vacation they would

take after they retired would bring him into the Treblinka concentration camp

site and her into a school in Poland where she would teach English to second

grade students.

All they knew at first was that they were not the chartered-tour type.

"You can't get to really know the people and the country on a tour," Mr

Niedzielski said. "My original idea was to go by ourselves and stay in one

place for a few weeks."

Instead, the Niedzielskis wound up as part of a team of 16 volunteers who

taught English to children and adults in Poland during a three-week program

coordinated by Global Volunteers, a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian

development organization based in Minnesota.

"We were looking in an Elderhostel catalogue and saw the program," Mr

Niedzielski said. "I wanted to go to Poland because my family's roots are

there -- my parents came from Poland in the early 1900s. I learned to speak

Polish as a child at pahochinl school, but I hadn't really used it since I was

10."

Lenore Niedzielski, who retired from teaching second grade at Head O'Meadow

School four years ago, also had a relative who came from Poland. So the

Newtown couple was intrigued by the description in the catalogue about how

Poland is making significant economic strides after having been devastated

during World Wars I and II, and kept for decades under Soviet and Communist

party rule. The Polish people believe they must learn English, the

international language of business, if they are to prosper, the catalogue

said.

Because of this, local government officials in Siedlce, a provincial capital

of about 70,500 between Warsaw and Belarus, asked Global Volunteers and

Elderhostel for help in teaching English to their residents.

"All of the people on our team were over 55 and from all different walks of

life," Lenore Niedzielski said. "Eleven states were represented plus

Washington, D.C. In that three weeks, we became one big family. On weekends,

when we weren't teaching, we toured together, enjoying each other's company."

The volunteers were housed in an old mansion, the Reymontowka country manor

house, 30 kilometers outside the city of Siedlce in the middle of an

agricultural area.

"It was like a small resort with two main buildings that probably accommodated

30, 40 or 50 people," Mr Niedzielski said. "People came and went. The

contestants for the Miss Poland contest came and stayed one night while we

were there."

After several days of training workshops, the volunteers were sent out into

the countryside to work. Probably because he is a retired engineer from

Sikorsky Aircraft, Mr Niedzielski was asked to offer English language pointers

and practice to managers of the Cargill Company, a plant that makes cattle and

poultry feed in Siedlce.

"It was a new plant, owned by an American company, Cargill of Minnesota," Mr

Niedzielski said. "All of the men spoke pretty good English but were limited

to the manufacturing field. They wanted to hone their English so I would teach

them on a one-to-one basis. They took me to some very interesting places

including an agricultural museum and a seminary where Pope John Paul II will

consecrate bishops next year."

One student took him to the Nazi death camp, Treblinka, where monuments mark

the mass graves of 800,000 Jews exterminated there. He also toured an old

steel plant, where working conditions were very dirty, but there was a

spotless tile locker room and showers for the plant's 1,000 employees. It is a

law that no one leaves work dirty, he was told.

Mr Niedzielski also taught English to a troop of six girl scouts whose members

were 17 and 18 years old. "One had been to England, another to Utica (New

York)," he said. "I taught at the apartment of one family and in the private

home of another. Most people live in apartments because banks don't give

mortgages for homes. A family has to save its money, buy land, then build as

they get the money to do it. You see homes all over in various stages of

construction, but with no one there working. The houses in Poland are very

small, but there are flower gardens everywhere."

While bicycles and, in the countryside, even horses and wagons are well-used

methods of transportation, there are now also many cars. Poland has two

foreign-owned automobile factories and it no longer is necessary for the

Polish people to get into a lottery for the privilege of purchasing a car.

While her husband was with his students, Lenore Niedzielski was assigned to

teach beginning English to students at two schools in Siedlce.

"There were 12 second graders at the elementary school. I saw two groups for

45 minutes each with a 10-minute break in between," she said. "Then I was

driven to an adult school where I met with 12 adults, who were more than 50

years old but also were beginning English students.

"I have no Polish language skills but I learned some phrases and we got along

real well," she said.

The volunteers had drivers to bring them to their assignments back to

Reymontowka, a half-hour drive that gave them another opportunity to speak

with the local residents, sometimes in Polish, other times in English.

"Our teaching assignments were quite consuming and we had meetings often," Mrs

Niedzielski said. "But on the weekends we had time to tour." The Niedzielskis

experienced both the contemporary and the traditional Polish culture in

weekend visits to Warsaw, Krakow, the medieval city of Kazimerz Dolne, piano

concerts in the park, a trip to the Bison Forest and a bonfire with kielbasa

and traditional Polish folk music.

"I learned so much, but what struck me was how a simple way of life can be

very enriching," Lenore Niedzielski said. "Most people did not have as many

material things as we do, and much of the farming is done manually and with

horses. It's amazing how the Poles, who have suffered devastation beyond

belief, have recovered and are now striving to become a part of the Western

World. They are hard-working and optimistic about their future."

The volunteers paid their own costs for the program, which is not subsidized

by any government or religious agency. The cost of developing-country service

programs (which are held in such countries as China and Indonesia) range from

$995 to $1,995, excluding air fare. European programs are $1,695 to $2,095,

and US programs are $400. The service programs are tax-deductible, however,

and include all meals, lodging, ground transportation in the host community,

materials and project expenses. The trip cost the Niedzielski's about $3,300

each, including their airfares.

But it was well worth it, they agreed. The trip gave them a greater

understanding of life in an emerging democracy, a sense of having contributed

to other people's lives, an empathy for the history of Poland and its culture,

and camaraderie with both the Poles and their fellow volunteers.

"We met so many more people than we ever would have if we had taken a trip by

ourselves or with a tour," Mr Niedzielski said. "The experience was ten times

more rewarding than I ever dreamed."

Two and three-week programs are scheduled throughout the year to Indonesia,

Tanzania, Vietnam, Poland, the Cook Islands, China, Ecuador, Turkey, Jamaica,

Costa Rica, Ghana, Romania, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Mexico, Ukraine,

Spain, Italy, and Greece. One-week programs are offered in the southern United

States. For more information, contact Global Volunteers toll-free at

1-800-487-1074, or write c/o 375 Little Canada Road, St Paul, Minn. 55117;

email@globalvolunteers.org, or check out the web page at

http:/www.globalvolunteers.org.