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LETTER FROM THE
PRESIDENT:
November 2003
A series of ideas and thoughts to share
It was wonderful to get away, but even better coming home!
Beautiful weather held up in Poland until the first week of October. Sweaters were worn only in the evenings and the days were unseasonably warm. Then the temperature fluctuated between 38-50!!!! When I arrived, my friends asked why I had brought along my fur coat, then felt that it was a very wise thing to have done. I surely appreciated it. Warsaw is a burgeoning metropolis, losing a lot of its Polish-ness unfortunately. Conveniences make life maybe easier, but you could be in almost any major city and not be able to tell much the difference. Except maybe for how they "drive" They are all practicing for Le Mans or Daytona. Cross the street carefully and verrrry quickly. The Old Town is better than Disneyland. The cafes were still set up on the square when I arrived, but when I came back from Krakow a week later most were put away. For the foreigner, Poland is still a bargain. The dollar hovered at 3.90 and the EURO hit 4.40...so we aren't doing great, but passable. Meals averaged 40-60 zloty in a restaurant and 25-40 in a cafe. Gas is 3.70 a liter ($3.79 a gallon) and yet there are thousands of cars on the road. Periodicals consistently bash the government for corruption, libel, bribery, etc. There is a diminishing middle class and a soaring poor one. People over 65 are the worst off. Their average pension is 600PLN/month or $150. Not much to live on. Power is pricey, many don't eat meat and subsist on the most meager of rations. Medicine costs are skyrocketing and health care is in disaster mode. As of January, patients in nursing homes who are there on government subsidies will be re-classified and if one is still up and functioning they may stay there only six months, then must leave for a year and re-apply for entry for a second six months. Then they have to apply in a different city.........!If they have nowhere to go or family to take care of them, well, that's the way it goes, folks. Too bad there is ZERO compassion for all those people who survived the wars, uprisings, etc. A very high official in the Ministry of Health committed suicide a few weeks ago, because he was involved with some major scams that had been uncovered. I also heard that once Poland enters the EU officially, many people will sell their properties just to get some money to last out their days elsewhere. The EURO is already posted in many stores and the small percentage of people who will be able to afford those items are leary of being able to afford them for long. The general fear among Poles is that they will be swallowed up economically and unable to recover. The number of officials who dress well and drive fancy cars is nauseating. Everyone wants to be perceived as very important and they accomplish very little. But then , while they have a job, they take advantage of it to the hilt, since next week, they may be out of a job because Minister so-and-soski has been replaced!
Every time I go, I look at the scene with different eyes. At one time I waxed romantic at the thought of going to Poland, seeing friends, eating out and being a guest. Now I go more frequently and see things I may have missed before and the glamour has worn thin. Buildings go up wherever, without much thought to their surroundings. The Baroque edifices are surrounded by unimaginative glass boxes that block views, hide landmarks etc. JUST because somebody had some money to invest in Poland. Krakow is not as bad. Except for the new Sheraton. It is an angular unattractive block facing Wawel and the Wisla - with guest rooms on the backside looking over the garbage bins of neighboring buildings. And how much was that room again? Roads are pretty beaten up, getting to bridges almost impossible, and off often worse. The mood is full of apprehension and uncertainty. Too bad. These people surely deserve better than what they have to choose from.
I spent the first few days in Warsaw preparing the pictures for the exhibit. BOSKIE DARY includes 84 large format prints of landscapes, seascapes from Tahiti, Greece, Alaska and Mexico, and macro-photography of California flowers, hung in four large rooms of the Paderewski Museum. It will be up until Nov. 3rd and then goes to Krakow for three weeks before Christmas.I designed an American-style brochure that was very well received. Postcards, reproductions and note cards are offered for visitors. I hope that I will soon have the website up. www.BOSKIEDARY.com
That weekend I took the intercity express train to Krakow. Very clean, efficient and inexpensive. $50RT. Not quite three hours later I was walking by Sukiennice. Now if we could get something like that for SF-LA.....I Saw Mother before her eye operation. She was anxious to get it over with because she has always had a fear of blindness and she couldn't even see my face. The following week when they took the patch off, she was able to see some of the enlargements I had brought with me and two days after that, she recognized faces from the gathering here in August, her grandchildren , etc. Reading large letters (1-2" ) is the first step to reading large print format books in the months to come. She was able to sign a card for my children, shaky hand, but on a straight line. Considering what awful shape she was in a year ago, everyone agrees that it's a bloody miracle. Not once in the hospital's 18- year existence has anything like this happened. The new pacemaker is working fine and they kept the old one to put into the archives of the medical school, it was so old! Still very frail, Wanda has adjusted well to her new home. The fact that she is so frail and needs such diligent care, she has concurred that she cannot come back here. Mentally tracking, physically frail, she doesn't want to take the risk of returning. Since she is there privately, the problems facing many of the patients next year will not affect her, unless they have to close one of the wings. THEN we start all over again. Hopefully we won't need to deal with that one. She has a comfortable, clean room with a private bath, and dual balcony that overlooks a garden and a small forest. Wanda gets her hair done, is taken on walks, gets massages weekly, goes to the nearby version of COSTCO, sees friends for tea in the cafe, etc. She has made quite a few new friends and gladly gets letters from the US.I read her the cards and good wishes that were sent to me before I left and she is very appreciative. Wanda sends her regards to all. She hopes that as soon as she can read her own writing, that she will renew her correspondence with you.
For the first time in ten years I had a few days' vacation in Krynica Gorska. About three hours by bus from Krakow, I met a girlfriend there who is designing guest rooms for an exclusive boutique hotel and spa. I knew I was tired when I left, but was amazed that I could sleep so much while there. Good food, walks in the foothills, spa treatments, etc. were just what the doctor ordered. After all the turmoil at home this summer I really needed it. I came back with a better attitude and more positive outlook than that which I had left with. The problems are still there, but a healthier attitude may solve them sooner. Having five people to support single-handedly is no picnic.
Upon returning to Krakow I spent a lot of time with Wanda and met some of the curators who were involved with SOP. New ideas have been born and will hopefully be delivered within the next few years. GREAT proposals. Will keep you posted.Getting Wanda's blessing for my work was especially meaningful. She hopes that all of the PACF members will continue to support my efforts and become more involved. There is plenty of work to do.Call me!
This time I didn't do quite as much running around as last time and it felt great. There was an astounding exhibit in Planty in Krakow. A French photojournalist took pictures in many parts of the world from a helicopter and with MAJOR corporate sponsorship, had weather-proof enlargements hung for several blocks of the park. Breathtakingly beautiful, hauntingly horrific and thought-provoking for sure, I went back several times to see them. The book was too heavy to bring back, but a calendar fit nicely into my suitcase. You have to see it!
www.yannarthusbertrand.org or www.ziemiaznieba.pl I was complimented on my work to the point that they felt mine should hang there next year.
Upon returning to Warsaw I put the finishing touches on the exhibit at Muz. Paderewskiego in Lazienki Park. The weather had turned nippy and gray, but the rain waited until Monday to water the grounds. About 70 people attended the Opening. It was wonderful to see so many of my friends there as well as guests of the Museum. After an elaborate introduction, I had the opportunity to welcome the guests and tell them about the past year with SOP and the plans for the future. I also mentioned a very special evening I had experienced the night before. Walking back to Stare Miasto from downtown, I strolled down Mazowiecka Street near Zacheta Gallery. A group of Girl Scouts lit red votives along the buildings. Curious as to the significance of that, one of them responded: "Today we observe the Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. We are placing these lit candles to remind people never to forget the sacrifice of the 240,000 people who dies in those 63 days. The candles on this street are particularly important because this is where the original canal was that provided access for the partisans of the Old Town." As tears rolled down my face, I saw in my mind's eye the thousands of pictures we had to choose from several years ago for the exhibit at the Main Library, reminiscences of friends who participated and survived and other stories I had read. Each step was sacred. On many of the buildings I had walked by were plaques documenting assassinations by the Nazis: 42 here on ....date, 13 children here on ....date, 78 professors at the university on ....date....on and on. Below each plaque lay flowers and candles. Each church tolled its bells at 7pm. There was a holiness to Warsaw that I had never experienced before. Stopping into St. Anne's Church on Krakowkie Przedmiescie, most of the congregation had already left and with the few stragglers left, I knelt listening to a novitiate singing a solo of "Boze Cos Polske" I totally lost it at that point. I couldn't get the tissues out of my bag fast enough. The monument to the Uprising was only three blocks away. I followed the red candles to the plaza across from the Krasinski Palace. There stood several hundred people singing and praying, laying down thousands of flowers and adding more and more candles to the monument until it was all aglow. The pictures at night didn't turn out well, but I returned the next day and have proof of devotion and commitment to the memory. May we never forget........Recalling this to the audience, many were overly appreciative of my sentiment. Despite all the garbage they have to contend with now, many are still hopeful of tomorrow. Poland will not die, as long as we live.The mood then lightened up some and after all the goodies were gone, we closed up for the night. The moon was waxing full, the stars were out, and I returned to Stare Miasto.
On Saturday I visited with a lady whom I hadn't seen in almost seven years. She too has been busy...... a historian, she has been doing research in Vilno, Wolyn and Bielo-Russe. I plan to start a campaign to help her out. If you want to contribute, please let me know. For six years now, she has been working on the materials of her doctoral thesis. The documents she has uncovered and submitted for proof to the Universities and Ministries will soon re-write Polish history from those areas. She has paid for the photocopying out of her own pocket because her department has no money for that sort of thing. In the basement archives in Vilno and other cities, Joasia has extracted original documents, manuscripts and records of schools, institutions and companies that verify the enormity of Polish responsibility for those areas. It is too bad that Pilsudski's handwritten speeches were re-written to serve the time and had little to do with what he had intended to have people hear. She has given me a pamphlet of this and when you compare the two dialogues, you see red! Statistics that were supposedly "lost" conveniently, are now in her hands. Retribution for error is mandatory now. Corrections must be made in all the textbooks of Polish schoolchildren. She is to Lithuania what Norman Davies is to Poland. (He received Doktor Honoris Causa from the Jagiellonian while I was in Krakow) Hours flew by as she showed me volume upon volume of her own manuscripts that are now being prepared for print. This 680 page thesis will be available as a book in December. She applied for a Grant to purchase a laptop to assist in these studies, but someone, somewhere felt that her work was too controversial and turned her down. I hope that we can raise enough money for that laptop, a digital camera and some much-needed funding for her before the end of the year. As a PhD, she earns about $600. a month for all this work! Unreal.
I returned to Krakow for two days before coming back to SF. Mom was delighted with my success and this new project for Joasia. While in Krakow, I finished an article about SOP for a Polish museum publication and have made preliminary arrangements with the Czartoryski Museum for a prospectus for an interesting exhibit that could tour the US in a few years. Now that I am at home, I hope to finally finish up the enormous backlog of work that accumulated over the last year. My study is still filled with boxes from the PACF office and SOP. I shared my overload with Mom and she would love to help, but can't do much of course. Her memory is excellent, so I know that she will be able to fill me in as I go through old files, correspondence, etc. She acknowledges now that she probably should have shifted gears ten years ago. Lot of good that does her now. Too bad. I really miss her and she misses us, but both know that she couldn't be receiving better care than where she is now.
The PACF Tree is up at Davies until the 26th, the Wigilja at Old Krakow on
Sunday, December 14th SOLD OUT before I could mail out the reservation forms and a preliminary Calendar is at the front of the FORUM. If you have any suggestions, ideas or comments, please send them on to me or call 510-599-2244. Thanks again for all your support and friendship.
Caria Tomczykowska
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