General update 1 wk 4. Alright guys, so I’ve had a couple questions about diet. Food security is a major issue and although food types are similar, food is seasonal and differs on availability based on location. Also nutrition education is highly limited. So here’s a general breakdown of what I’ve been eating. Staple food here is nshima, or in bemba- ubwali. It’s basically either maize, sorghum, or cassava ground into flour then mixed into boiling water with flour added until a thick dough like consistency. It then cooks further, is thickened again, and shaped into lumps used as the primary staple and utensil. Ubwali is so important culturally that many Zambians will say they have not eaten if it’s not a part of their meals. Then there is musalu, or veggies. These consist of leafy greens- i.e. rape, cabbage, cassava leaves, tomatoes, onions, etc. And a relish of some sort- fish, meat, soya, potatoes, beans etc. I’ve had a varied diet due to budget and training ranging from sausage- no idea what kind of meat, chicken, beef, goat, fish, and soy. Then cabbage, rape, pumpkin, beans-cilemba, and eggs, rice, sweet and white potatoes, chikanda- wild orchid roots mixed with peanut butter and chili and baked to a bologna texture. Also had peanut butter, kapenta, dried river fish, margarin, and fruit. Avocado, oranges, pineapple, and small sweet bananas although fruit and meat are hard to come by. So that’s a pretty brief summary of my diet so far. Keep in mind when I say chicken, I mean we catch one, de-feather it, process it, and cook it. Its generally reserved as guest right only although we get a stipend to include meat consumption in our diets. Cooking takes two to three hours per simple meal and is labor intensive. I’m eating about four and a half to five thousand calories a day and losing weight. Protein is scarce but manageable. I’m both excited and nervous to explore my food options at site once outside of training and farther from a big city…

General update 2. Wk 4. Good evening. Let me start out by saying that Zambia is gorgeous. One look at the horizon with the foliage canopy so uniquely African savannah and the gorgeous scintillating colors of sunrise and sunset are breathtaking. On that note, a quick update on physical status. I bike between nine and fifteen km. a day through sandy loamy soil and across two depressions/creek beds. In addition all activities at this stage involve manual labor. Eventhough we’re shielded for the moment by our host families and training, we’re still integrating into the work load. That in mind, I’m slowly but steadily losing weight. From my diet post you’ll know that’s with eating almost 5k calories a day, and still not doing a majority of daily life labor. I think I’ll start to even out soon, but it’s pretty amazing. Pst is going very well. Language is progressing as well. This Friday we’re supposed to find out our sites. ! I can’t wait! I’m so excited. I miss dancing and friends and fam back home, but I’m loving it here and doing well! Healthy and happy. Goodnight all. Sendamenipo!

Wk 6, general update. Doing well, training is progressing well. I met my counterpart for community entry. I’m more and more excited every day. Next week is our second site visit. So I’ll get to see my community and my hut! Super excited. Learning more about non-formal education techniques, behavior change, health thrusts in country, income generating activities and integration styles. After site visit we finish up training and language (scary). Then its off to community entry and three months of observation and tailoring programs to my community. I can barely wait. Healthwise, I’m doing well. Still happy and healthy. Eating well . Preparing a presentation on cross cultural exchange. Taking photo’s although no way to upload them…

From what I’ve heard my site is fantastic. Since I haven’t seen it yet I can only imagine, but from my host’s description its gorgeous. There’s a big man-made lake and six or seven streams through the catchment, there’s also mountains and beautiful landscape. I’m about six km from the road and maybe two km from the rhc – rural health clinic. The rhc is electrified! So I’ll be able to charge my little things when I go in to work! Woo! We’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’ll paint a better picture once I’ve seen and explored my site in person next week. My catchment is forty one by eleven klicks (kilometers) so pretty big. Some work days I’ll be biking around ninety km, so i don’t need to be too worried about exercise. I’m about sixty klicks from Mansa, so not too bad, and transport seems regular on the main road and tarmac so that’s really exciting!

Wow. Where to begin. I talked a little about Second site visit and my host in my last post – Gen. Update September, but I wanted to give you some more details about the village and the area. I love it! It’s gorgeous now and it’s dry season when everything is burnt and dying… I can’t even imagine how spectacular it’s going to be once rainy season hits and the grass and fields start growing and everything is even more green.

First off, we started out from the provincial house in Mansa – the provincial capital and headed down the tarmac to another CHIP volunteer’s site about 35-40 km north of me. She’s my closest neighbor and a great host. She introduced us to her community, took us around and showed us her village, the local fauna (luapula river) and some of the amazing scenery in her area. We were introduced to her Chief, took our language classes, explored the village, spoke about experiences, hardships, and inspiring moments.

Then, I had a pretty rough patch. Looking back on it now, I know that it’s normal and healthy, and those of you who I’d talked with before I left will know as well that I’d expected the reaction, still, it was just as rough and more as I thought it would be…. I know, I know, now that I’ve built it up, what was it?

Well, it’s tough to type out into words. But I’ll just try and be as frank about it as possible. As we were coming back from our meeting with the Chief we encountered a funeral procession. A six year old girl had just passed away at the clinic and the family was carrying her back to the home to begin the funeral preparations and ceremony. The mother had her wrapped in chitenge strapped to her back, and the group was crying and mourning. They passed and went over to their home, at which point we gathered and continued on to the house. Later that night I went to the funeral to pay respect to the family and to show deference to the loss of a child.

I entered the funeral compound, a set of houses and family compounds segregated by sex – men sitting in one area, women gathered in another, family beside a bed outside one of the homes, and groups congregating here and there, mourning, crying, singing. It was overwhelming to say the least. I approached the group of men sitting on the furthest outskirt of the compound and asked where I could go to pay respect to the family. The told me to approach the group of women around the bed. I approached and knelt, lowering my head and showing respect. The girl was dressed up, wrapped in a blanket in the bed, surrounded by her female relatives.

The loss of life is always a difficult subject, and one that is challenging in any light. The loss of a child though is especially difficult. I couldn’t help but ask myself why, why is it that this would happen, or that this could happen? The myriad of emotions and feelings that washed over me and inside of me was something that was difficult to process. It took me a few days to fully work through the event, and the reassurance that these experiences were the reason I’m here in Zambia. To help with development, to assist in the preventative development of services and knowledge to prevent unnecessary loss of life and suffering.

I can’t express what happened, what I felt, or what’s going through my mind right now, I definitely can’t put it into text. But I think it’s important to share it, process it, and share that it served to strengthen my conviction to this program and career choice.

Overwhelmed by the funeral, I returned to the house and as night fell we made dinner. That night, a man accidentally burned down his home, making the night one heck of a adventure.

The next morning the cruiser came and picked us up from our PCV host and carried us away to our sites. We turned at the sign for the basic school, started down the dirt road heading into Chisunka village, we passed the school blue and white, standing in a cleared area, through a forested area, brush, and down into a Dambo (marsh) area across a bridge and stream, up a hill, and past my house. We drove into Chisunka proper through the city center (the Chief’s palace) past the small market and toward the clinic. We arrived at the clinic and I met my counterpart. We picked him up and headed over to my house, a four room brick house with thatch roof and four windows, a porch and a brand spankin’ new chimbusu (pit latrine)! We toured the home and I met with my housing committee, the group of people who were in charge of building and my compound. After we met we headed to the clinic and started exploring the area.

We headed back to the clinic, and I watched some of the work being done, learned about the catchment area and talked about some of the issues they were working on in our area. Then we headed over to my host’s house, hung out, we made dinner and relaxed. The next day, my host had to go to Mansa so I headed over to the clinic and watched antenatal clinics and learned about some of the information they were teaching about PMTCT and VCT. That afternoon, I headed home, grabbed my water, tossed in some iodine to make it safe to drink and rode to the tarmack (8-10k) and then rode down the road checking out more of my catchment. I headed home and grabbed dinner. Saturday we spent practicing bemba and exploring more of our catchment. I visited some of the smaller creeks around my house and explored some of the area. That afternoon they started burning to clear the grass and clear out their fields. On Sunday we rode over to Musonda Falls and the hydro-electric plant. We hung out at the club there, had some water and sodas, played chess and then biked back (around 20-22 klicks round trip). It was great to get out and see the scenery. Small creeks, high grass, forested areas, rolling hills and lakes … now in dry season. I can’t wait to see it once it starts raining daily. It’s going to be so beautiful!

I enjoyed the sunset – my host and I hung out, had dinner (I made breaded soya pieces, fried and they made Ubwali (nshima). Headed home, went to sleep, woke up, grabbed breakfast, then got picked up and taken back to the provincial house.

I can’t wait to get back in October!

More later! Ciao!

Hey all!
I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a chance to write and I apologize for the delay. Internet access and availability is pretty rough and unfortunately cell service can be pretty frustrating. I’ve been asking my brother to post on my behalf through text messages posted to facebook, so I’m sure you can all imagine how frustrating and difficult that must be for him, and I hope you can understand the delay as well.

I’ve been writing a bit about my diet, keeping journals and notes, and taking pictures when appropriate – I’m still feeling out how and when it’s appropriate to break out my camera and take photo’s without creating a negative impression about my material status in the village.

So, let’s catch up a little.

Last we talked we’d learned about PACA – Participatory analysis for community action. We continued on with training, exploring different drying techniques, nutrition, HIV/AIDs, health thrusts toward opportunistic infections, malaria, and sanitation. Then we did our midterms in language and our tech evaluations. We pushed on from there and got ready for second site visit. I met my host who will be my guide for my first three months in community entry. He’s also the one who took care of me during the last four days at site in Chisunka. We headed back to training and got ready for our second site visit! How exhilarating – the wave of emotions and experiences from the last few days at training was overwhelming. We were going to visit our sites, we were going to meet our hosts for community entry, we were going to see our home for the next two years and experience the culture of our site, we were going to explore our catchments and get a first glimpse of our lives for the next 24 months. It was one heck of a ride.

We boarded the cruisers Sunday morning and started off. We made it to Mansa, crashed at the provincial house and started meeting the volunteers who had house days (meaning they can come into the house and out of site). Then we headed out for second site visit near our districts within the Luapula province. We arrived in Chibondo, a village about 30-40 klicks aways from my site and visited my nearest neighbor, a Ms. Sarah Flynn. From there we spent some days exploring her catchment, doing language classes, learning about her clinic and her experience from the last year. We experienced a funeral and a tragic accident of a house burning down. Then we each got picked up and taken to our sites.

I was greeted by my housing committee and my EHT – the man who’s going to show me around the area and be my primary contact point for the next three months. He’s a good man, 27 and the EHT in my village, He’s pretty on board with the program and has a good outlook and a positive attitude toward development and education as the only key for development. We’re going to get along very well. We also have the same sense of humor and a great playful, but very serious attitude towards health and development. I can’t express how excited I am for my site and the experience. These last four days have been too short by far.

Chisunka is gorgeous to say the least.

Now I’m back at the provincial house, relaxing and preparing for our run down to Chongwe and back to training. We finish up in October and then its back to Luapula and the vill… I can’t wait!

More soon!

Day II: Fishing, Swimming, Dancing – living on the beach 5-28-11

I woke up with the dawn, the cool crisp breeze coming off the water pushing the moist wet smell of the sea into every breath. I packed up my hammock in its quick pack sleeves, it took me 10 seconds to put it away and safely tucked back into its bag. I grabbed a bottle of sun screen, plastered myself white and ran joyfully toward the sea.

Mom and Dad had a pot of coffee on the burner and breakfast of oatmeal waiting as I stumbled back into the site. I wasn’t used to waking up with the sun at 5am. Heck, that’s about when I usually go to sleep. As I sat inside my father and brother brought out our Porta-Boat, a 12 foot folding boat, that folds down to the size and shape of a surfboard and then pops open, is reinforced by its seats and hold 2-3 fishermen, their tackle and with a 5hp motor is great for near shore sea fishing. Dad and Alex went out first, we launched the boat in the sand at low tide and they made their way down to the point on the south side of Cholla. They fished back and forth and caught a good 10-15 fish. Mom and I came back to the trailer and she took the truck over to have some work done on it. I settled down with a good book and began reading about Health services and medical services in remote wilderness.

As I read the sun rose and my skin turned that wonderful bright pink, sunscreen be damned. I smiled and continued enjoying the sun, beach and ocean.

Dad and Alex came back and we pulled the boat up on the beach then I switched with Pa. Alex and I took the boat out, down to the point and started fishing. I caught 4 rock bass and a wrass. Alex caught two more rock bass. After a relaxing morning on the boat we turned and came back into shore. We beached the boat, pulled the engine out and slid it up onto a trolly, returning it to the trailer.

Already salty and soaked from the waist down, we grabbed some shoes and the four of us rushed into the sea, floating and swimming on the beach. Lunchtime came and we headed back to chow down. After lunch we headed into town. Alex wanted to meet a friend of his in Cholla, and Ma and I wanted to go shopping on the cheaper side of Rocky Point – Rodeo Drive. Better prices, better silver, and more fun than the fish markets and main drag in the city. First as a family we went out to a second lunch at a cantina across from JJ’s cantina in Cholla. The fish tacos were ok, the beef wasn’t bad either. We finished up our meal and headed back to home base, we split up the vehicles and Ma and I headed into Rodeo Drive.

On the market street I found a beautiful silver ring with a continuous line flanked on either side by dots of silver on a hatched background. It will serve as a good reminder of the circle of life when I’m in Africa. It was a good bargain and with a little negotiation I got an even better price. Satisfied we headed back.

When we got back to the trailer we took another relaxing break, talking, reading, and relaxing in the sun on the beach. We helped one of our neighbors with a project and then turned back in for a fantastic steak dinner, with potatoes and fresh shrimp. After dinner we relaxed again watching the stars over the sea. One by one each of us retired until I was left laying in my hammock, watching the stars sparkling over the ocean. I fell asleep content and excited for the morning sun.

Hey all!

I wanted to write a quick note, and give folks an update to what I have been working on. Despite spending the last few months ridiculously jealous of my brother (www.virtualwayfarer.com) and his travels through the Netherlands in fall, and now through South America this winter, I have been working hard and keeping myself motivated as I await news on my Peace Corps deployment.

In early November, I received notification that my application to the U.S. Peace Corps had been accepted, and that I was being transferred from my recruitment officer to a placement officer for the U.S. Peace Corps. As I worked through my paperwork, I was notified that I had been nominated to the Community Development and Health Services program in Eastern Europe. I could not contain my excitement. As many of you know, I graduated with honors from Arizona State University in May, with a degree in Global Studies and a focus in Urban Systems. I have been working toward international development and community development work since graduation and applied to the Peace Corps this September.

I’ve included the Community Development Project Description from the Peace Corps which is the program I’ve been nominated for (but not necessarily the program I will ultimately be participating in) below:

THE PEACE CORPS: CREATING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you help translate host country development plans into community level action, thus improving the lives of local people. You arrive, not with funds or equipment, but with skills and knowledge as well the willingness to adapt them to your community. A successful project is one that continues to function effectively after you leave. Before starting your two-year assignment, you receive up to three months of training that focuses on language, cross-cultural, and technical skills. It is usually provided in the country where you serve. The training focuses on language and cultural training to give you an understanding of the country’s governmental system, cultural norms, and interpersonal relations. This assists you in becoming an integral member of the community. Technical training enhances your ability to effectively transfer your skills and knowledge to host-country people.

YOUR WORK AS A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER

Since its inception, the Peace Corps has seen its particular role as one of working at the grass-roots level of development. Community Service Volunteers work on projects that address immediate needs which improve the quality of life and, at the same time, identify community assets to build long-term self-sufficiency. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, your work may be one of facilitator, evaluator, organizer, resource provider, or educator. You work side-by-side with local counterparts to strengthen communities—bringing together both institutions and individuals to achieve lasting and constructive change. Projects are designed, implemented, and evaluated with extensive and broad-based local input, including consultation with representatives from the community served, and by employing appropriate methodologies and technologies. Your responsibilities and activities vary depending on the situation at your site. In collaboration with project-related groups, schools and government agencies, your duties may include:

Community Assessment
• Coordinate a participatory-style assessment and feasibility study to identify issues and determine appropriate projects.
• Work with community leaders to help carry out projects and ensure sustainability.

Community Organizing
• Mobilize local people to create awareness and initiate activities; for example, work with women’s groups to develop income generating crafts or garden projects or work with parent teacher associations to conduct literacy campaigns.
• Facilitate meetings with project related staff to discuss project implementation and evaluation.
• Assist the community in identifying locally available funds and resources to meet project goals.

Leadership Development
• Train community members in leadership skills, including project management, bookkeeping methods, curriculum development, and staff development.
• Transfer knowledge and skills to counterparts in order to help them to function effectively at their job.

Capacity Building
• Form local groups, such as women’s cooperatives or youth clubs.
• Strengthen organizational capacity, including improving financial, planning, fundraising and administrative systems.

In whatever capacity you serve, you are a catalyst for change. Involvement in these activities means involvement in the life of the community and often, an assignment with little or no established structure or schedule. You are continually engaged in defining your role in response to the local people. You cannot know all the answers, but your can-do attitude and your willingness to work with your hosts to find appropriate solutions will help people to help themselves. Your creativeness, flexibility, self-motivation, and self-discipline will be vigorously challenged as you establish credibility and
adapt to your new environment.

As you can imagine this program, with its focus on health services, is very exciting for me. I am looking forward to my medical clearance, and review by a placement officer. Honestly, it is hard to wait!

My Possible deployment date will be in June, but may fluctuate based on availability, program specifics, and competitive ranking of my application.

I left Krakow at 8am to catch my bus to the border town of Cieczen. The town situated three hours by mini-bus from Krakow was a beautiful mixture of Polish and Czech architecture (nearly identical). The walk across the city took an easy 45 minutes and left me with an hour and a half to catch my Direct 4 hour train to Prague. I waited, having a brief lunch in a restaurant in Czech before gearing up and catching my train (30 minutes late) to Prague. 15 minutes later, the attendant comes into my compartment and asks where we are going (without speaking any english). I figure out something is wrong and say “Praha”, “Prague.” She shakes her head and said no no no…. no praha. No. points out the window and motions to get off at the next station. Confused I ask her why, she doesn’t understand but keeps telling me to get off at the next station and says – NO Praha.

Chuckling to myself at the wonders of travel, I get off the train at the next station only to be ushered onto a bullet train right next to the one I’d gotten off. The problem? The train I was put on was going to Polom. Sweaty, Hot and severly lacking airflow the entire direct train packs onto the already full Polom train. with people sitting in the aisles and standing in the door corridors we ride for another hour – the beleaguered air conditioning not able to cope.

Sweaty and miserable we’re then ushered off the train at Polom and pushed like cattle onto buses. Again too few buses too many passengers. with people standing in the aisles on the big coaches we head toward another city. Without direction other than clerks pushing us toward the next destination I feel lost and unable to get my bearings. I threw myself to the wind and just enjoyed what little I could during the travel. without airflow, stuffed human beings in tin cans raise the humidity level considerably.

The buses arrive at a bus station in a town I’ve never heard of and couldn’t find on my map and they point down the street saying Praha. without knowing it, ten minutes walk down the street we find (much to our delight) the Train station. we wait for a 45 minute late train which should connect us to Prague. From there its 3 hrs to Praha, we’ve already been traveling for four since the border town. we board the train, again unventilated with only small windows at the tops of the car just in time to miss another summer torrential downpour. Humid and rife with the smell of humanity we pack into the train cars and fit 8 people to a cabin with people still out in the hallways. The train takes another 7 hours to arrive in Praha at 11:45pm. We’ve been pushing since 8am.

The problem was that due to the catastrophic flooding which is apparently unexpected for this time of year, many of the main rail lines were flooded or washed out. In addition 10 people had been killed by the flooding and many roads had washed away. Due to these problems, there were only a very few open rail lines to Prague. As if this wasn’t enough of a problem, a lot of the rail lines don’t connect until Praha, leaving the rail companies to have to bus their passengers between the lines. Then the Queue of trains trying to use the few open lines made for delays of up to 6 or 7 hours. It made for a wonderful time and a great day journeying to Prague.

I arrived in Lipsk around 8 am. Disembarked from the minibus and headed from the supermarket down toward the great cathedral. From there I started wandering the streets until I could find the local library. Wandering through the open streets, watching the fields of wheat and grain swaying in the summer breeze, I felt nearly as tranquil as the little town I had arrived in.

I located the library and made my way inside. I met the librarian and we quickly discovered that neither of us spoke the others language. She went back into the stacks and came back with a colossal 1980′s Polish to English dictionary and began to translate a sentence I had written.

Seeing a computer terminal nearby I pointed and expressed Internet. She understood and let me get on while she went to work translating. I quickly booted up Google and although in Polish I opened the language tools section and went to their translator. I then quickly began typing my questions.

“I am looking for my ancestors, Haskell/Chaskell, Berger, Loseman… Any of these names buried here?”

“I understand, Please wait a moment”

“Maybe, Catholic priest mastered a document about Jews in Lipsk. Maybe. Wait.”

“Is there a Cemetery? Or the old synagogue or schools?”

“Yes. Cemetery. Only two Jew buildings still.”

“Can I see them?”

“Yes, But one may be school. Synagogue torn down – pool now.”

“Wait forty minutes and I can master you to the Cemetery and Old Jew street.”

I sat patiently as she finished her shift, we were then joined for 10 minutes by a young man who was studying a little bit of English. he had just finished high school and was eager to try out his English although nervous as well. He said he could walk with us for a few minutes and translate but couldn’t stay long. I repeated the earlier conversation to him and then asked him about the graves and any records about deaths or families living in Lipsk from the end of the 1800s.

The answer was – the Cemetery was pillaged, parts of it were taken by farmers and the tombstones broken or thrown away. What little was left was kept on a forested patch of ground preserved from farming a little outside the city. It had a memorial but the only stones there were from 65-75. She said there were no Jews left in Lipsk. No one took care of what was left of the cemetery.

We arrived a few minutes later. The cemetery was as described. a small corner of a field down a dirt road. Completely overgrown, what few tombstones were left were in the far righthand corner under a large tree. All placed together and relatively recent. I kneeled in the grass and undergrowth. Focused myself and connected with the spirits and feelings of those who may have died or lived in this place. My ancestors, my family.

I felt like they only passed through. That this place was only a temporary stop on an ageless journey. My mind turned and all I could think was our family was nomadic, this place wasn’t our origin or destination, only a stop along the way.

We left the cemetery and walked on, reaching a small building which was where the last Jews in Lipsk had lived. It had survived since the 1850′s with some moderate upgrades in the 1970′s. it was rough and abandoned, but still had curtains inside and a little well outside. We continued on to the Jewish street Ulica 400. There we met the Catholic priest who had written about the Jews in Lipsk and although our translator had left us, we communicated through sign language that the only other building was a home, which may have been the school house my great grandfather helped build. From there we walked to the town’s new recreation center, built where the synagogue had stood. He gestured to the large open pool demonstrating how big it was and what it looked like.

We headed back to the Library and the Librarian gave me a copy of the priests book, in Polish but none the less a palpable reminder and perhaps a guide to what came before.

I left the library with the librarians contact information and headed to the bus stop to return to Augustow.

At the bus station I found I’d missed the bus and had to wait until 4pm for the next bus back. As I was reading the sign my translator and his younger brother (who does Parkour) stumbled upon me, invited me back to their house for a drink and then decided to give me a tour of the monuments and sights of Lipsk.

We saw the Church, Monuments to soldiers from Lipsk, Communistic monuments, old artillery, and the river and lands around the City.

We then had a quick lunch of pizza, and meandered around until later that afternoon. Then my translators younger brother decided to demonstrate his Parkour ability, starting with a J-flip, and going into two aerials, first a back flip and then front flip, followed by running up the bus station wall and doing another back flip, then running off the top of a hill and doing a front flip to land on a narrow ruined wall below. Impressed we talked for a bit more about university and what they wanted to study and then I caught my bus to Augustow.

I waited in Augustow for 6 hours for the 10pm bus to Krakow ( a tiny little minibus for a nine hour ride ) and then checked myself into my hostel, booked my hostel in Prague and made my way the next morning for a 15 hour ordeal.

I arrived in the Train station in Warsaw after a nasty experience on the train.

Apparently the Polish rail system accepts student discounts only for polish nationals. However, their railway desk had sold me a student ticket, having accepted my student ID (ASU Sun Card) and taken down my student number. I boarded the train and had no issues until the Railway conductor asked for my student ID with my ticket. She didn’t speak any english and I didn’t speak any polish so I had to rely on a young Polish girl as translator. The railway conductor was upset and expressed through our translator that my student ID was not valid and that I would have to pay a fine on the ticket of 150 Polish Zloty. When I refused and asked the translator to explain that their offices had taken down my ID number and had sold me the ticket and that I had accepted it in good faith of its validity. As such I was in no way responsible for the violation of the rules nor was I going to pay her 8 times the ticket price in a ticket.

The conductor became rather upset at this and after some heated yelling at me and my translator in Polish, my translator told me that she now wanted my passport and that the ticket would be 200 zloty. I refused to give her my passport at which point she screamed a bit more in polish and then started saying Police Police. My translator then informed me that she was threatening to call the police if I didn’t pay the fine and that they would meet me at the station. She then asked me for my passport again so she could write me the 200 zloty ticket.

I stood my ground and refused her again. Noting again that their offices had sold the ticket and that it was a problem between those offices. If she felt there was such a big issue we could discuss it at the PKP station in Warsaw with someone who spoke english. After 5 minutes of me repeating my offer she yelled again at my translator and stormed off. My translator then told me that in two hours, when we arrived in Warsaw the police would be waiting for me at the station to arrest me.

I sat for the rest of the train ride in relative suspense, knowing I was in the right and sure that I wouldn’t be punished for doing nothing wrong. In my mind I kept telling myself that I would be vindicated by the police. The constant positive reinforcement boosted my mood and I took video using my Flip Video camera of myself on the train with the ticket explaining the situation just in case.

I disembarked the train to the call of two Polish police officers dressed in solid black with night clubs and guns waiting for me.

We repeated the same dance as I had on the train. I staing firmly that I was in no way responsible for the mistake and would not pay. I especially wasn’t going to pay a fine for a violation I had not committed nor was I going to pay a fine for a fine for that violation. I showed my student ID and expressed my concern that I was being taken advantage of as some kind of a gimmick against travelers.

By this time I was also quite aggrivated and over an hour late for my check in at my hostel.

After some more back and forth the officers finally gave up on trying to get me to pay for violation and instead tried to explain to me that I had to pay for their appearance. IE: I had to pay the costs of their being called and coming to sort this out. At this point I insisted that I didn’t violate any rules, the Issue was one between the two PKP offices and needed to be sorted out there, as such I was not responsible for the Conductors decision to call the police.

Finally the officers gave up and just walked away and left me to wander to my hostel a full hour and a half after my check in appointment.

I checked in, Had a drink and walked down Nowy Swiat (new world) street in Warsaw before having a traditional polish meal and calling it a frustrating day.

I arrived from Budapest that evening, exausted and ready for a little bit of a break. I grabbed my bags from the bus and meandered my way across the central square and the mall towards the Hostel. Gregg & Tomms. A short stay, long enough to get my bearings and see what I could. I wrote a little and crashed out around 1am before waking at 6 to eat breakfast and then head to Auschwitz and Birkenau.

I could only stay for one night at the hostel because the next evening was a city sponsered free concert by a Mr. Lenny Kravitz and everything was packed. Nervous and unsure of where I would stay, but sure that I wanted to take the time to see and really understand Auschwitz and Birkenau I arranged with one of the gentlemen working at the Hostel to Couch surf for the night at his apartment. After leaving my bags at the Hostel I headed for the tourist tour booth and picked up my ticket for the Tour.

Auchwitz is an experience that is hard to describe. My foto’s can only express a small portion of the combined atmosphere and understanding of how many thousands of people were executed and tortured there. Our bus pulled in after an hour long documentary shown on the ride over. The weather had turned from semi-sunny to dark, forboding, cold and rainy. Nasty weather for a nasty place.

Dark silver and black clouds rested over the complex as we passed through the electrified barbed wired fences and past the famous gate reading “Arbiet Macht Frei”

As we passed under the gate our guide began her description of the grounds and the daily proceedures. From daily public hangings to torture and suffering wrought for the slightest action Auschwitz was a place of horror. The feeling of that suffering has not been washed away.

Even as the rain poured down the brick, running clear and picking up the reddish colour of the brick it was clear that the suffering here will never be washed away.

we turned down the main block corridor and started entering the buildings, examining shoes, combs, suitcases with namesand addresses written on them and finally a room containing tons of grey and decaying hair. The Hair was used by the german war machine to make uniforms, socks, and felt… what was left over is perserved in the museum open and in braids. The very real pieces of the humans beings who were slaughtered and tortured there threw me over the edge.

We continued on to the prison barracks and inspected the standing, suffocation, and isolation rooms, as well as the death wall where the firing squad operated.

Finishing by walking through the gas chamber and undersized crematorium at the end of the camp we quietly climbed back on board our bus and headed to the Ruin of Birkenau. Auschwitz II Birkenau is mostly destroyed. The germans burned the warehouses holding all the prisoners belongings at Birkenau to the ground as well as detonating explosives in the giant crematoriums there in a desparate attempt to cover up their sins. they failed. the imported german stables- cheaper to reassemble there than build brick buildings – which housed 700 people in the space where you would fit 50 horses still stand, perserved as a museum complete with the barrack used as toilet and wash room. Five minutes for a total of 2000 people to use the facilities. Violators executed.

We made our way to the tower, made famous by Schindlers list and over looked the camp before boarding the bus and heading back to Krakow in somber reverence.

I left Krakow early the next morning taking an afternoon train to Warsaw.

I grabbed a few other Hostel goers and headed out to see the Pest side of Budapest. We walked down the central street toward the chain bridge and stopped off at the beautiful and ornate opera house complete with drama faces and sphinx. from the opera house we turned and visited St. Stephens:

and wandered inside to view the splendor of the edifice: From its gate

To the central altar:

and even its courtyard:

I saw St. Stephens Mummified hand, encrusted in rubies, diamonds and precious metals, and then we headed on from the Church to find the Chain bridge and make our way to the Palace atop Castle hill in Pest.

From the Chain Bridge:

With its growling and gruesom protectors

We made our way across and up next to the funicular towards the palace which sits overlooking Buda. The castle which held the last german resistance to soviet invasion in world war two and houses budapests underground nuclear bunkers and hospitals.

the view of parliament from Pest Castle:

The Palace grounds which now house galleries and museums as well as the state library are decorated with beautiful fountains the like of which I have not seen before. Each fountain shows a different scene from life.

Fishing:

Hunting:

and then there were the fishing monuments and castle walls:

From the walls we headed down into Pest and found the Underground entrance to the underground hospital and once top secret nuclean bunkers built into the natural caves under Pest palace and castle.

The tour was eerie climbing through wax museum dummies of doctors, suffering world war II patients and the 60′s era hungarian defense propaganda. we finished after an hour and made our way back to the Hostel. The next morning I headed out to the bus station and caught a bus to Krakow Poland.