Valentine's Day in the Polish Mountains

The picture shows Miro Ragac, organizer with the Center for Community Organizing in Slovakia and our bodyguard, guide, mentor and navigator on the second half of the Polish journey; Irena, local volunteer and very sharp, clear on what organizing is, a key actor in the local work; me and Lindsay enjoying Valentine's Day in the snow and Marzena - the local host and active in the Association of Local Leaders.

Dave writes:
Day One of this training - really more of a consultation. We're in a beautiful village that sprawls all over these hills, with three or four main centers and a region of older, less touristic and more farm or industrial oriented towns. After an intro session marked by bold interruptions and lively engagement - these are older, wiser, more experienced folk and they know what they know - we addressed the question: do you want to build a powerful organization in this community? After a very enlightening scramble - one community? three? one group? does that mean we abandon the groups we have? who's the organizer? what's the issue? They settled on one group, geography very clear, and the issues organizer and shape and form to be worked out over time...Then on to a rough version power analysis - who's here? what do they do? What institutions do we have? Who has power? More tomorrow.

Then to a bit of touring - an incredible frozen falls (picture above - reminded us of New Hampshire) and a yummy meal. Walked around in the town a bit - lots of tourist shops, some serious ski and snow sports, and mineral and gem shops - most of it from Japan and Thailand, but we managed to find quartz crystals mined nearby - it's a famous mineral mining center.

From Lindsay: Sorry, photo's background askew. Town is full of diesel fumes - low cloud cover, definitely a worse smell than the wood and coal smoke of the towns as we drove up to Skarskla Poreba. Was going to do the food post (just in case you travel this way) but too many blanks - what was that resto called, what was that soup named? Will try to remember to quiz Miro tomorrow to fill in the blanks and try later. Daughter Schuyler, for one, is dying to know.