Life / Gift ideas for new "parents to be" in Poland [9]

When my daughters were babies in Poland, I really made use of English children's music CDs.

At first , it was infant lullabies; later other more active nursery rhymes. In fact, the neighborhood kids used to come to our house and sing Ring Around the Rosie with great gusto, acting out the "we all fall down" bit endlessly.

Life / Deadly Roads - "Are polish roads really THAT dangerous?" [139]

I drove in and around Lublin for years, and was never in an accident; however, that's probably because I'm extra defensive -- which includes being polite on the road (ie., I "help" ppl overtake me if they wish to by moving over as much as possible and slowing for them so oncoming traffic is not a problem).

One problem is that there are simply not enough lanes on most roads; another is that every type of traffic (from tractor trailers to horse-pulled wagons) is forced into close proximity on the few main roads available.

Life / Bringing up children in Poland. [16]

Basic freedom is served if (when religion classes are part of the curriculum) your child can choose not to attend the class.

When one of my kids was in her first year at a Polish elementary school, I told her she didn't have to attend the religion class if she didn't want to -- I should have kept my trap shut. We were in a village; and the move was looked on with deep suspicion. My child's best friend's mother suddenly refused to allow contact between the two girls.

Life / Bringing up children in Poland. [16]

She was a deeply religious woman from a tiny hamlet. I found out later that simply the fact that I was an American made my daughter's friendship with her's somehow dangerous. I guess it was just too much when you added religion to the mix.

Deeply hurtful, though, to the two little girls.

Had we been just a few miles down the road (in Lublin, say), we likely wouldn't have run into quite that level of intolerance or fear.

Oh well. Live and learn.

Travel / Can someone give me information on Eastern Poland? [10]

I lived in a couple of villages outside of Lublin in eastern Poland, and wrote of the experiences on my site. These little vignettes are some 10 years old now, but offer a glimpse into life as I saw it through a new expat's eyes:

Cat Lady in Karczmiska Drugie
familylifeabroad.com/cat.html

Blind Expat
familylifeabroad.com/blindexpat.html

Adaptability
familylifeabroad.com/adaptability.html

The poverty in the countryside was striking, and has perhaps hampered the economic growth of the city (pop 350,000). We had friends who had (still have) homes -- which many of us would recognize more as cabins -- with no indoor plumbing; women (usually with many children) who washed their laundry by hand, etc.

Families in southern Poland villages can have nice lives too, of course. (The ones I knew who lived in abject poverty tended to have no education and/or alcohol abuse problems.) The doctor in our village, for example, had a beautiful and very large home, nice car, etc.

It'll be interesting to see how Wroclaw compares to what I've known of life in southern Poland -- especially with respect to what is considered important.