Malone Service Learning - Poland

Thursday, 01 9:00 a.m. Depart Malone University 7:15 p.m Depart Chicago to Zurich Swiss Air LX0009 Friday, 02 10:55 a.m. arrive Zurich Sightseeing Zurich 5:15 p.m. depart Zurich LX 1370 7:00 p.m. arrive Krakow Hot chocolate in town square Globtroter Saturday, 03 Old Town, Wawel Cathedral, St. Mary's Basilica Travel to Sosnowiec Stay with host families Sunday, 04 Sosnowiec Worship at Kościół Chrystusowy w RP, Sosnowiec Stay with host families Monday, 05 Sosnowiec Painting church classroom and pastor’s office Sosnowiec Jewish sector Stay with host families Tuesday, 06 Sosnowiec English language classes in local schools with Asia Stay with host families Wednesday, 07 Sosnowiec Painting at church Będzin ? 15:00 Auschwitz Stay with host families Thursday, 08 Train to WAW Dept. Sosnowiec Glówny 9:04 a.m. Arrive Warszawa Centralna 11:15 a.m. Old Town Warsaw Uprising Museum Puffa Hostel Friday, 09 UKSW Łazienki Park Free evening in Old Town Puffa Hostel Saturday, 10 6:40 a.m. SN2560 Warsaw...

My name is Dr. David Entwistle. Dr. Greg Miller and I are leading the 2018 Malone Poland Service Learning Team (PSLiT). We are excited to have a really solid group of people on our team: Christina, Dominick, George, Julia, Leah, Olivia, and Tori. I have been to Poland about a dozen times since first going there in 2005. The first Malone team worked with some Canadian missionaries that I had met at the church I attended, and that connection led to other connections with Polish church leaders and a University in Warsaw where I had the privilege of being a visiting professor. Our team this year will work with my good friend, Daniel, who is the pastor of a Polish church, Kościół Chrystusowy w RP, in Sosnowiec, Poland. We anticipate that we will help with painting and perhaps some small construction projects at the church, as well as helping a local English teacher so that her students can practice conversational English with native English speakers. We will also return to the University ...

A very early start. We should be home in about 22 hours! At gate in Krakow.

Our original plan was to view a couple of cathedrals, perhaps the royal castle, maybe a walk through a dragon cave, and then spend the afternoon shopping. [caption id="attachment_567" align="alignleft" width="275"] Long climb[/caption] [caption id="attachment_566" align="aligncenter" width="246"] Make a wish...[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_565" align="aligncenter" width="552"] Roman ruins, castle side buildings[/caption] Well, the Wawel Cathedral made this list, and the rest (sans shopping) was shelved for a princess ride in a hosedrawn carriage for the four young women who have served so well these last few days.  We'll meet up again for dinner, ready for that 4:15 a.m. departure for the airport, and a long day of travel on tomorrow's itinerary. [caption id="attachment_570" align="aligncenter" width="401"] Princess ride[/caption]

Last night, we bid goodbye to Gosia, Julia, Martyna, and Jeremiaz.  Today, we said the rest of our goodbyes when Daniel and Tymo dropped us off at our Hotel in Krakow.  It is amazing how some people can enter our life deeply in such a short space of time, but the Masarczyk family certainly did just that, and it made parting quite sad, for us and for our wonderful hosts.  Rather than dwelling on that, though, here is a bit about our day. Our final service project was more English language classes at another school where the four women from Malone did presentations for middle school students about education in the US and their hometowns and students practiced English with them through interactive exercises and games.  Dr. E. spent time with younger students, doing games that helped them practice basic vocabulary and  tenses.  Of course, being anywhere in Poland also means that you have to have a nice meal before you can leave, so the school provided us with a very nice meal of a grilled ...

We started off our day with our usual breakfast of cold cuts, but as a special treat Dr. E got us donuts upon our request. After having breakfast we went to a mall where Dr. E had coffee with Daniel and two other Polish pastors while the four of us girls went shopping. We looked around for a little bit and then went to Auchan, a grocery store similar to Wal-Mart but in the middle of the mall. We got LOTS of chocolate to take home! Most of our day was spent at Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu w Dąbrowie Górniczej, where we were invited to be part of their International Day.  We represented the US, while other students from Turkey, Ukraine, Armenia, Nigeria, and Poland represented their countries.  The day began with the Turkish national anthem on lead guitar, followed by the Ukrainian national anthem on bass, and the Star Spangled Banner on alto sax. We watched a presentation from two Turkish students and then gave our own presentation focused on the education system in the U.S. as well as where w...

Today we spent most of the day in Tarnowskie Góry helping teach some of the children English.  After the usual cold cuts for breakfast at Daniel's church, we sped to Asia's house (we were running a tad late) and then followed her to the school.  Daniel dropped us off there and Asia gave us another rundown of what was going to happen.  Nothing really prepared us for what happened (which is basically always true when making plans that involve children).  When we walked into the main school building and there was a banner that read "American Day."  Talk about feeling like movie stars!  A lovely lady named Dominica was introduced to us and right away she gave us the itinerary, explained the activity, and then the kids arrived.  Karleigh, Sarah, and Jordyn were each assigned a group of kids and they were in charge of helping the students understand the words and teach them how to pronounce them correctly.  It was Carrie's job to listen to all of the children pronounce ...