Traveling to Frankfurt and taking the overnight train to Warsaw
We all met at Halifax airport in the evening and first flew with Icelandair to Frankfurt, Germany via Reykjavik, Iceland. After renting a car we paid a visit to a Polish friend, Tomek, who lives in Wiesbaden (near Frankfurt) where we spent amazing couple of hours. Tomek and his husband not only cooked a delicious dinner for us but also made us feel at home. Afterwards we drove to Dortmund and caught the overnight train “The Moscow Express” to Warsaw, Poland. We had couchettes so we could sleep, relax and think about the unknown. Everyone was in good spirits and very excited about the trip but nobody knew what to expect…
Sightseeing Warsaw, packing presents for the sick children, traveling to Poznań and granting first four fantasies of Kinga, Jakub, Piotr and Sebastian…
We arrived in Warsaw on time in the morning. A grey day welcomed us in the capital city of Poland, but we were happy it wasn’t raining! We were picked up by Aggie from the Foundation who took us to our hotel. We left our luggage there and… went straight out to explore the city. During our walk in the Old Town the sun came out for us and made everything look even prettier. We saw some famous sites of the Polish capital including the Palace of Culture and Science, the Museum of Warsaw Uprising and WW II and walked around the historic Old Town. On the way we stopped in an amazing – Polish style restaurant called “Pierogarnia” which serves only Pierogis – about 20 kinds of them! Mmmm… they were delicious.
Apart from sightseeing Warsaw we also took a few tram rides and visited the Foundation’s offices to pack the presents for the sick kids. We were really happy – but just a little bit tired! It was fun to pack and wrap the children’s gifts, wishes and fantasies – there was a huge amount of wonderful toys – many of which we brought with us.
Early next day we were on our way to Poznań. Our car, a VW Transporter was very spacious and comfortable. Apart from our luggage we filled it with lots of gifts. After a few hours of driving on crazy Polish roads we arrived in Nowy Tomysl to grant wishes to 3 siblings, all suffering from muscular dystrophy. We gave 17-year old Kinga an I-Pod and a movie camera, 14-year old Jakub received a laptop and 16-year old Piotr was happy to have his own home theater and an I-Pod. We spent a lot of time with Piotr in his room – just talking, laughing and getting to know each other. The visit was very special – the kids and their parents were very humble and thankful people who served us with tea, coffee and cakes and even gave us a good-bye gift – a huge tray of hand-picked mushrooms!
On Sunday we also visited 13-year old Sebastian who dreamt of having a laptop. Afterwards before going to the hotel, we went to an amazing high-class restaurant in Poznań, where we were treated with a delicious meal that we chose from custom-made menus!
Diary Entry – Monday, Oct 20, 2008 Szczecin, Poland
Traveling to Szczecin and visiting Adam, Karolina and Agnieszka
On Monday we traveled to Szczecin. On the way we visited Adam (12) from Gorzów Wielkopolski, who suffers from muscular dystrophy. Adam wanted to have clothes and a bed with bedding. We brought a huge box of clothes and bedding for him and the bed was on its way. Adam was a very shy boy who didn’t speak much. We were absolutely amazed that a family of 5 could live together in a small area of two tiny rooms and no kitchen and no bathroom! Especially with a handicapped boy who uses a wheelchair with no elevator in the building! Adam almost never goes out, he is home schooled and basically he has no friends…
Afterwards we visited 10-year old Karolina from Chociwel who suffers from cystic fibrosis. Karolina dreamt of having a karaoke set, a Hi-Fi system and a mobile phone. It was fun to set up the karaoke set and even try it out!!!
The last girl that we visited on Monday was 12-year old Agnieszka from Stargard Szczeciński who fights against leukemia. Her fantasy was to have a mobile phone, a Hi-Fi system and bedding, a sleeping bag and some articles with Diddl Mouse. She was really happy to receive her gifts!
Diary Entry – Tuesday, Oct 21, 2008 on the way to Bydgoszcz, Poland
Granting wishes to Agata and Paulina and visiting the Międzyrzecz Fortified Region – the biggest underground fortifications in Europe
On Tuesday we visited 14-year old Agata from Gryfino who suffers from cystic fibrosis. Her dream was to have an I-Pod. She was a very nice girl who likes shooting and has a lot of trophies from different shooting competitions.
Afterwards we drove to Międzyrzecz to visit the bunkers in the Międzyrzecz Fortified Region (MRU) – the biggest underground fortifications in Europe. It was amazing to find out that there are over 30 km of tunnels and anti-tank barriers called “dragon’s teeth” and 300 bunkers and gun tarots. MRU was built by Germany between WWI and WWII. It was built in order to defend the Third Reich and it was used only for 3 days during the war!
After visiting this amazing place we traveled towards Bydgoszcz. On the way we visited 16year old Paulina from Wągrowiec who suffers from cystic fibrosis. Paulina, who is in a very bad condition, dreamt of having a cell phone…. Paulina is a very beautiful girl who loves fashion, clothes, make-up, photos and music. She was very happy to find out that Manuel, who accompanied our group in Poland, was a photographer. Paulina always wanted to have her pictures taken by a professional and she knows that she will never have this opportunity again. Her face lit up, she changed her clothes, turned off her oxygen for an hour and… changed into a completely different, amazing young lady. She was in “a different world”, probably imagining herself as a model… somewhere else… some other time… Paulina has only a few months to live and she is getting ready for her last days. We were happy that we could give her the gift and beautiful memories. It was very hard to leave her knowing that we will never see her shining face ever again…
Diary Entry – Wednesday & Thursday, Oct 22 and 23, 2008 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Visiting two children’s hospitals, taking Łukasz out to watch a movie, visiting a Polish high school, granting a wish to Edyta
On Wednesday we visited two large children’s hospitals in Bydgoszcz – the neurology, cystic fibrosis and cancer wards. We delivered lots of books, toys, games, school articles and Canadian items for the children. The hospital looked completely different to what we know from Canada. It was old and poor and looked more like a house with metal beds. And again we met the most incredible children who made us feel special, who made us feel wanted. We spent time talking, laughing and playing with these children. There were a couple of special girls in the cancer ward – Karolina and Victoria and Marcin in the neurology ward – these were the children that we will always remember. We got a beautiful thank-you note from the hospital in a special folder that was hand-made by the children…. It was very emotional for us when Kamila translated the text to us.
In the afternoon we met Łukasz who is 16 and suffers from muscular dystrophy. Łukasz doesn’t have many opportunities to hang out with peers so he was happy to spend an afternoon with us and stay overnight in the hotel. We spent the whole afternoon together – just having dinner, shopping for clothes for Łukasz and watching a movie in the movie theater.
The next day, we were invited to visit Łukasz’s high school. It was definitely “a very different experience”. The school was small, about 250 students and they have never had visitors from across the Atlantic. They were so excited about that, that they couldn’t decide which class should participate in a meeting with us so they gathered 6 classes in a big hall and made us sit in front of them all! It felt like some kind of conference and this definitely was the biggest “English class” we have ever experienced. The kids were asking us questions about our private lives and school in Canada and all of them had questions prepared beforehand. Afterwards they invited us to watch their drama class. That was fun and we got to know some of the kids a little bit better.
We spent an amazing afternoon with Łukasz at his apartment. Łukasz lives in one room with his mother and father and they even sleep in one bed! His sister, with her husband and two
children, live in the second room and the second sister lives next door. It is hard to believe how people can live like this… yet they are so happy, so friendly, so humble and so thankful for every minute spent with them and every smile given to them. We had pizza together and we looked through some photo albums. Being with Łukasz is like being with the happiest person on Earth. He is the sun. He is the light. He is the One. Blessed. He loves everyone and everyone loves him. It was really, really hard to say good-bye to Łukasz, because we know he may not last much longer…
At the end of the day we visited the last girl – 15-year old Edyta from Bydgoszcz, who suffers from acute leukemia. Her dream was to have new, fashionable clothes and a digital camera. She was so happy to receive her gifts… She was a very nice shy girl and we were surprised to find out how bad a condition her family lives in – there is only one bathroom for two floors of the whole apartment block! This was a shocking discovery…
Diary Entry – Friday, Saturday and Sunday Oct 24, 25 and 26, 2008 Warsaw, Germany & Canada
Traveling back….
On Friday we traveled back to Warsaw and visited the Museum of Warsaw Uprising and the WWII. Afterwards we visited Kamila’s old apartment where her parents prepared a special Polish dinner with pickle soup, pierogis, meat, potatoes, salads and cakes. That was not a meal that was a feast! That was our good-bye dinner and the last time (for now) we would experience Polish hospitality and delicious food.
It was our last night in Poland and the weather was fantastic so in the evening we went out for a walk. Warsaw by night is beautiful. We walked all around the Old Town again. Everything was lit up and… even after being here for 10 days we couldn’t believe that we are in Europe and that our adventure was about to end. The next day, early in the morning we went to visit the Polish cemetery which was amazing – to see all the graves, monuments, beautifully arranged flowers and candles on almost every grave… Wow. This was something that we would never see in North America.
And in the afternoon it was time to go home. It took us 2 days, because first we flew to Cologne, then we drove to Frankfurt where we spent the night. The next day we took the Icelandair plane to Toronto via Reykjavik. Early in the morning the next day we flew to Halifax. Some of us experienced mixed emotions – it was good to be home but we still felt as if we should travel more, go to one more place, and visit one more child…
During our incredible journey to Poland we experienced a lot of different things – hospitality, kindness, love, strength, laughter, happiness and humility. We also saw poverty and beautiful scenery -lovely towns and fantastic forests -we drove on some really bad roads and we were on the go the whole time from 8am to 10pm. We met amazing children whose happiness, courage and determination to live their lives to the fullest, despite their terrible circumstances, made us even stronger, better people. We will never forget this experience, it was truly a “Journey for a Lifetime”.
We would like to say a “big thank you” to everyone who helped us to make it all happen.
