2 posts tagged “europe”
The work we did for Steiger International at SLOT was humble work. I believe in worship is not a once a week thing, but a 24/7 lifestyle. Serving the LORD even through what we consider small ways really is powerful. What is a hand without the tendons in the wrist? I cannot say I was blessed more than the kids we worked with, however cliché it is, simply because I do not know how blessed they were. I don't know on what ground the seeds landed. But even before the seeds are sown, the ground needs tilling. Us, and our personalities and knowledge, are not what's important. It is the work of the Holy Spirit through every volunteer at SLOT together that will reap a harvest. I remember meeting one of our students at a seminar on global trade justice and her confusion about why Christians needed to mix their faith with social action. It's because a Christian's faith is personal, but never private. Any social action we take comes from our faith, and is only effective through God's power.
Day One:
Nicole's mom drove us to LAX and we had breakfast. We waited about an hour before we boarded the flight. When we got to Montreal, the customs officer looked exactly like Ben Affleck. We had dinner in the terminal and boarded the flight at about 22:00 local time. We taxied out to the runway and sat there for a few minutes, then we turned around and parked on the taxiway. We waited on the plane for five hours before they finally took us off with these strange bus things. The pilot only gave us three reports the whole time.
Day Two:
By the time we got back through customs, Air Canada had a mess of people working to make everyone happy. We boarded buses and they took us to a nearby Hilton hotel and gave us rooms, breakfast and lunch. Our flight wasn't rescheduled until 18:30. Our plans were to land at Heathrow airport and take a bus across London to Standsted airport where we would board a Ryanair flight to Krakow. By the time we got to the Hilton, everyone was on the phone calling Air Canada, family, etc. After breakfast, we finally got to the phones, hoping to change our London flight for Krakow, Warsaw or Munich; we tried to get back the day we lost. The airline company did give us the option of changing flights to Warsaw, but it wouldn't leave until 20:30, and we didn't feel like waiting around anymore. We considered skipping London altogether and spending more time in Krakow after SLOT, but decided to stick to our original plan as best we could. I got on the Ryanair website to get their phone number, and they had two numbers from Dublin, Ireland. We tried calling both, but the connection didn't work (dialed it wrong or something) and the phone company did not want to dial it for us without a phone card (they didn't use credit cards). I went back to the Ryanair website to see if we could change it there, and you could ... if it was twelve hours before the flight, and it was only four and a half ... The website said we could change it on the phone four hours before the flight, so we tried again on the phone. We could not get through. The website then said they were closed on weekends. This does us no good because our flight was on Saturday. We had to buy new tickets from London to Krakow. They only had two flights a day, so we ended up twenty-four hours behind schedule.
Day Three:
We arrived at Heathrow airport in the morning and had sandwiches from a shop. I like the sandwich shops in London. We took the bus (about two-hour trip) across London to Standsted where we waited another five-hours before we checked in. We had more sandwiches (yum), and I had a lasagna even. The weather was beautiful, so we waited outside for a long while.
Ryanair flights are sort of like Southwest. It's a cattlecar type environment, everyone pushing to get in front of the line for the best seat on the plane. The flight was about two-and-a-half hours long, so it was pretty pleasant. It rained a little in Krakow when we got there, but the land was gorgeous. We took a taxi to the hostel we were staying at, and while we were headed into the city there was a hill with a castle's spires growing bigger over the crest until it stood atop with great majesty. I love castles. The hostel we stayed at was near Jagiellonian University. We were starving, so we walked over to McDonald's (it was the only thing open at 21:00).
Day Four:
Today was our only full day in Krakow until SLOT Festival. We were supposed to leave in the morning for SLOT, but we wanted a day of exploring. We got tickets for the morning Auschwitz tour and walked to the bus stop where they pick you up. We actually missed a turn, and walked through the Jewish district for a while while Nicole stressed out about missing the bus. We walked back to the hostel and learned the tickets were non-refundable. Nicole had been to the Auschwitz - Birkenau Memorial and Museum before, so we decided she would be my guide and we would go by ourselves. Nicole spent three months in Krakow two years ago, so she would also guide me around town. So we bought some tram tickets and headed towards the city center where the bus station was. We walked around trying to find the bus station while Nicole stressed out about how “it was right here.” Finally, we asked someone where it was, and they said to go back the way we came, and we'd go underground. We did, but were still lost until I finally decided we would cross a road that was under construction and see what was on the other side. A bunch of people with bags is what we found. We followed them to a brand new station, why Nicole couldn't find it.
I had a fantastic perogi ruskie at the station, and then we boarded the bus for Oswiecim. The trip was about an hour-and-a-half through a bunch of small towns. In Poland, the buses just keep loading until the door can't close.
When we were pulling up the museum, it seemed inconspicuous with wide green fields and a simple chain length fence, and then I realized we we dropped off a little ways off from the actual museum. The welcome center was the original processing building where the prisoners would be interviewed by officers for their personal information. Their belongings would be taken here, and their new uniforms would be issued. It was made over into a comfortable museum entrance with several signs giving tidbits of information about the camp system in several languages. There was an area much akin to a medical office waiting area used as a meeting point for tours in the several languages. In a side room a documentary film was screened.
We walked outside to the main courtyard to be greeted by row upon row of three-floor brick buildings behind barbwire fence that had at one time been electrified. A guard tower stood ominously along the fence near a gate with the cast iron script bent displaying “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” - work brings freedom. The gravel crunched under our feet as we walked between buildings, arching our necks up towards the tops, peering down the walkways at many incumbent tours in many languages. It was eerie and stale. We arrived later in the day just a few hours before close, so there wasn't loads of people, but I could imagine it filled with tens of thousands – hundreds of thousands – of people.
We took a few minutes near the rear where a fire basin stood. This was a rectangular concrete hole in the ground filled with water in the event of a fire. It was really a swimming pool. I don't imagine they had much opinion towards putting out fires in the event they arose. It captured my attention for a few minutes; a diving board on one end with ladders leading up from the water. I wondered how much levity was carried on not ten meters away from a battery prisoners.
Nicole led me to a few unique buildings to show me some points of interest. Climbing the steps of the first brick mammoth led me right into a series of displays of the history of the camp. The next building was one that really left my ears muffled while my mind swam in thoughts of disbelief, awe and emotion. Room upon room filled with artifacts gathered from what was left of the plunder. Piles of eyeglasses in one room, piles of combs and hair accessories in another. Up stairs was one room about twelve meters long with a glass wall running along one side. Behind the glass was locks of hair piled half way to the ceiling. The air was heavy with odor. The next room was just as big, only it had glass on both sides of the walkway and in either one was tons of shoes. In the next room was thousands of suitcases with the names of people written on them along with their home city and the date they left home.
We didn't have a lot of time before the museum closed, so we got on the bus for Birkenau, which was only a short drive away. We pulled up to it, and it was familiar to me, as it would be to many people who have seen movies featuring the holocaust. The main entrance is a tall tower with train rails passing through an opening. Immediately I could only think of one word to describe this place: immense. It's hard to say how big this place is unless you actually see it because I could barely see from the entrance to one side, and could not see to the end. I later learned that this was only phases one and two, and phase three has been built up in the town (phase three was never completed).
I need to sit down, meditate, and write out my trip in detail. I'll post it when I do. The whole event is still one event in my mind, and not a series of smaller events with a lot of meaning.
