February 12

Another two-day training done - what a gas! Young people...I usually begin my personal story by asking who was alive in 1971 when I started organizing - only two of the twenty four! A core from the host group, a local civil society group that supports leadership training and community based organizations. Local staff from the national sponsors, the Association of Local Leaders. I continue to be impressed by these tough, open hearted, smart and dedicated young people - Simon, the local staff here in Sczcecin (try this sh - ch - ech - in) turned 30 today, his wife works with him and they just found out they're expecting! Anka came from the Warsaw office - she has great English, and couldn't attend the training in Warsaw - she's been a sort of buddy to us, with strong opinions, clearly expressed - not so sure she's happy with the conventional wisdom of the official story on Polish history - for exampple, she points out that the rebuilding of Warsaw after the war included tearing down intact buildings in the former German areas of Poland (like here) and using the bricks in the capital. They took trees, too!

I only did three sort of touristy things - a walk along the bastion in front of the palace by the port (a real working port - reminded me of Toledo); a walk at dusk through the big town church with its chapels dedicated to saints and Mary and to the holocaust victims (the metal screen was styled as barbed wire) and Solidarity and railroad workers and merchant marine and shipbuiders. And last night we slogged for what seemed miles through two sections of a tunnel system built under the main train station - the first used as air raid shelter during WWII and the second prepared for retreat in the event of nuclear attack. Both had lots of artifacts and sound effects - and it struck me hard the stupidity and brutality of war, and the human scale. I saw the paranoia propaganda that was so familiar in my childhood in the 50's and sixties in the US - from the viewpoint of the "other side". And in there a room with artifacts and story and photos of Solidarity - very big here in this shipbuilding and merchant city. Those newsletters, obviously mimeographed - I heard in those days of the vw buses they outfitted with mimeos and kept in motion to outwit government opposition to their labor and anti-corruption and finally pro-democracy organizing. Pictures of buildings in the downtown, on fire after a Solidarnosc rally - included the building our training was held in! I was swept with the knowledge of the heroism and dramatic inventiveness of those who fight for good things everywhere. (there I go again)

Training went well - three young guys came by bus from Gdansk, where they run a community project that includes a web access deal and grassroots outreach - they struggled and searched and questioned and finallly admitted they had to make some big decisions - to be "journalists" and service providers or to make the leap and become organizers. Another guy, in the evaluation round, said "I got hope from this - I can't wait to put it to work!

On to what's been described as the Aspen of Poland - Sklarska Poremba, and one last 2day workshop - but first, a little sleep!

LANGUAGE NOTE - my new Polish phrase, for "one-on-ones" - oko w oko...pronounced oako-voako - it means eye to eye!