Many Tables...

...of Polish Hospitality. 

"Sociability, hospitality, kindness, merriment and benevolence, honest openness was called "humanness" by the ancient Poles." -Jadwiga Komorowska from Chapter XII of Values in the Polish Cultural Tradition

In trying to characterize our trip to Poland at the beginning of the year in weblog, we were immediately in agreement that the hospitality we lived in for the entirety of our 17 days needed to be the focus.  "Hospitality" is not unique enough a word, at least in the Team vS vernacular, to outline and appropriately color our experience of our trip for others. The ancient Polish word of "humanness", as quoted above, does a much better job. Eastern Europe, in our experience (together and pre-Team vS), takes hospitality very seriously, does it well for strangers and acquaintances alike, and can be showy or discreet, but is always important and generous. When it is dear friends or, rather, friends that are more like family, there is all of the generosity, but none of the awkward courtship of entertaining strangers or acquaintances.  We were right at home, falling back into step, and "catching up" instead of "getting to know".

Team vS Polish Heritage: a short history of our relationship with Poland

Bethany has spent considerable time in Poland, and is gifted at building and maintaining relationships across distance.  She lived in Poland for 8 months during 2004, staying in the home of Jacek and Alina Wozniak in Chojnice.  While there, she became part of the Chojnice community, as well as surrounding communities.  She returned the summer of 2005, when she and Jed met for a family camp through International Messengers (IM), traveling the weeks prior to the camp with her mother, visiting her Polish friends that she now considered family.  Bethany and her father visited southern Poland in February 2006 to visit the Wozniak family and ski.  The summer of 2007, Bethany led a team of Vanguard University students to Poland, where they staffed a family camp and in the week following she once again visited her "family" in Chojnice. Jed and Bethany were both in Poland during these weeks, but at different camps, and did not see each other while there. This was the last time Bethany was in Poland until this 2011 trip.  In the time between, Jacek and Alina visited Bethany in Southern California and the Seattle area in February 2008 (visiting when Jed and Bethany got engaged at the Whidbey house - perhaps adding they're own spark to the official commencement of what God was forming and committing in Team vS ). Martyna Wozniak, daughter of Jacek and Alina, who is like a younger sister to Bethany, visited Seattle in August 2010, meeting then month-and-a-half-old Hosea. Bethany often remarked to Jed during the three and a half years between her trips to Poland that her heart longed to be there with her Polish family and community.

Jed made a trip from Berlin to Kraków in 2000, where he first experienced the beauty of Poland and its rich history. Not knowing anyone in Poland, and only visiting as a tourist for a week, he was immediately brought into community by a homeward-bound student he and his fellow traveler met on the train there, experiencing Kraków from a local's perspective. It was a powerful trip, highlighted by time in the Kraków Ghetto and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust Memorial. Jed would not return to Poland until he and Bethany met on the family camp trip in summer 2005 through IM, when he was introduced to many of the Polish friends Bethany called family. Jed returned to Poland in 2007, this time helping staff a Royal Rangers youth camp, supporting Czarek and Ewa Dąbrowski in their work with the youth and families of Gorzów Wielkopolski through IM and the Baptist Christian Church in Gorzow. Jed became quick friends with the Dąbrowskis, working under intense conditions at these youth camps, including the camp being held entirely in Polish. Jed returned the next summer, 2008, to work at the Gorzów youth camp with Czarek and Ewa, and most of the same staff and youth from the previous summer.

 It wasn't until this trip, in January of 2011, that Bethany and Jed returned TOGETHER to Poland, since the summer of 2005.  Our trip to Poland was Hosea's first trip there, to a community that had been eagerly waiting to meet and embrace him as family. 

We took nearly 450 photos and several videos over 19 days of travel (17 in Poland). There are many more we would like to share than are posted here, and we may do so in other weblogs. These photos were chosen to emphasize the entirety of the hospitality we received from everyone we spent time with in Poland (rough estimate of around 140), not only from those who hosted us at their tables. Not everyone could be pictured here, nor did we get a picture of every lavish table at which we sat, but we are grateful to each person that welcomed us in their "humanness".

The first table was significant because it was with the Wozniak family, who hosted us in Poland...they bless so many people with their generosity and hospitality. This extravagant love for others could only come from their genuine faith and relationship with Christ.


The 1st table of many - a delicious meal with Jacek & Alina Wozniak upon our arrival, after many hours of traveling



This table miraculously appeared with a buffet of home cooked delicious food just minutes after the church service in Chojnice ended.

Alina whipped up some delicious eats to add to an already amazing table at the home of Adam & Hania (and family)

A picture of the whole group after dinner at Adam and Hania's

After visiting Adam & Hania, we stopped at the home of Ola & Jarek for some tea & cakes around the table

"Tea & Cakes" includes anything yummy to snack on (usually sweet), including chocolates, exotic dried or fresh fruit, homemade or store bought pastries, and the best tea you've probably ever had. It is always the best of what the hosts have and is brought out special for guests. We love Polish hospitality!

Bethany, Jarek, Alina, Jacek, Ola, Jed & Hosea

Alina making "Royally Dead Egyptian Chicken" - one of her many masterpieces

The table Marta, Arek, and family prepared for us

Dinner in Marta & Arek's home with Alina

We wish we would have had more pictures of this table - in the home of Jacek's mom in Nakło, Poland.  She prepared several traditional Polish dishes for one dinner...tasted AMAZING!

After enjoying dinner with Jacek's mom, members of her Bible study group came over and we got to enjoy tea and cakes with them.



An amazing spread with Ala & Zbyszek in their beautiful home in Kamień Krajeński



Another pic of the amazing food and extravagant hospitality at Ala & Zbyszek's

Jacek & Alina celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary hosting friends and family in their home for tea & cakes (please note...a good Polish "ciocia" (pronounced "cho-cha" and meaning "auntie") always wipes a runny nose)

"Ladies Night" at Ania Lagwa's home - a dinner of burritos courtesy of Nicole Beger...yum!

Ladies Night - Hosea & Jed were the first males (Jed first adult and Hosea first kid) to be permitted to attend

Bethany's favorite Polish meal  - "gołębki" (pronounced "go-woam-b-kee" and meaning "pigeons"...it's not really pigeon - ha!), prepared by Agata's mom, Ola Galinska.  We shared this meal with the Grybek family (Artur & Dorota plus four kids), Ania, and Agata plus three children.

The four Grybek children and three Krakowski children that buzzed about the house while we enjoyed our time with their parents.

Dinner at the Beger's (Dave, Nicole, Phoebe, & Samuel) home in Borne Sulinowo. Tomek & Iwonka Krazek, right side, joined us.

Lunch after church in Borne Sulinowo with the Pastor and his wife, our dear friends, Tomek & Iwonka.

Breakfast in Gorzów during our visit with the Dąbrowski family (Czarek, Ewa, Michał, Estera, and Wojtek) - they are such generous and gracious hosts...sharing of all they have.

Breakfast (śniadanie) back at the Wozniak home - Bethany loves meals in their house, and has had many, as she used to live there.

Cake & tea with Dorota (Jacek & Alina's neighbor) - unfortunately her husband, Krzysiek, wasn't home

Beautiful tea and yummy cake at the Wozniak's home - not only did we enjoy Polish hospitality in many homes we visited, but Jacek and Alina continually opened their home for people to visit us.



Iwona, a friend I met while living in Poland, hosted us for fruit, coffee, tea, cookies, and a lunch of yummy soup



Iwona, her two children, and another friend, Gosia



Just some of the food Alina prepared in advance, packed, and transported to the youth retreat in Wisła to feed the hungry teenagers and many other guests



Teens at Obiad (lunch). 12 so far...more on the way to the "Youth Conference" hosted by the Wozniaks at their mountain home in Wisła (southern Poland) over winter break. This is a typical vacation for the Wozniaks and use for their home - NEXT LEVEL hospitality!

Flaki, or flaczki, a traditional Polish soup, is made from tripe - that means cow stomach.  YUM!

Attendees of the youth retreat (about 30), all of whom fit in the Wozniak's mountain home comfortably, and can sit and enjoy a meal together at the same time.

Stood in this line for three hours, when our flight got canceled, in order to rebook and to receive food vouchers for our 10 hour stay in the Krakow airport...

...allowing us to spend many hours at this, our last table in Poland on this trip, at the Panorama restaurant - the nicest (only) airport restaurant

During our travel, many people (most of them Polish) asked us why we were visiting Poland in the winter, as those same people noted how beautiful a country it is in summer. We replied that we came to visit family and friends rather than to see the sights. We found at the tables of these family and friends the "Sociability, hospitality, kindness, merriment and benevolence, [and] honest openness" that "was called 'humanness' by the ancient Poles", and is very much the way of Poles today.