Get Out the Duzi (pronounced Doo-gzhee) Box of Tissues
May 4, 2004
Elaine here. The Polish word of the Day is Duzi, meaning big. The children were waiting for us in the hall that we are always brought to in the orphanage. Eager to go with us does not even begin to cover it. As the door to the building opened, “M” burst through it. Tata scooped him up for a hug and back inside we went. You see this was our one shot to get a little time with Sister F (with Jozef translating) to asked more questions about the children. So the children has to wait another 15 minutes. The additional information we got was scant or stuff that we had already figured out. You cannot have full custodial care of three small children for 56 hours with out adding few 2 + 2s and coming up with some 4s.
We gave Sister F the maple syrup. She didn’t know what to do with it. So, if any of you native Poles could think of a good Polish use for real maple syrup, please let us know via a post to the live journal. They do have pancakes here (Nalesniki) but we don’t know if they are sweet or savory.
And yes, Jackie, I was finally able to pass along the messages from Anna and Marcin (she corrected my pronunciation of Marcin). She told me that their friend Zosia (she corrected my pronunciation of that too) was adopted by a Polish family. So obviously, she remembers each and every child.
What she really liked was our offer to pick the pictures she liked best from our first roll of developed film. She took five photos. One of them was the group shot similar to the one that Marci posted. We hope to send more digital shots to Marci to post. And Vicky K was oh so right when she says that the children would bloom during our visit.
We had an interesting day. The two oldest children are really starting their testing behaviors in earnest. “I” wouldn’t participate in a general clean up session before the much beloved ½ hour video so I picked him and went to the entryway of the room (where we keep the shoes). I held him like a baby and said in my really bad Polish “No clean up, no video and “M” and “D” will get to watch the thing without you and we will stay here.” Basically I speak Polish like Tonto spoke English. In about four minutes, “I” was more than ready to help out.
They test us most when we are alone, such as Lawrence was taking all three out so I could take care of some things in the room. “M” just cannot take the stairs as quickly as his older siblings so Lawrence was coming down the stairs with him. However, “I” and “D” decided it was ok to dash out of the hotel and out of Lawrence’s eyesight even though he had told them to wait.
So he carried them both upstairs for one of his now famous when I say “stoy” (a word that sort of combines stop and don’t), I mean “stoy.” “M” who was behaving got to go out alone with me to the field next to the hotel and do Bunkie bubbles. The other two had to stay in the entryway of the room. “D” pouted heavily and “I” cried for about five minutes. Tata gathered up his Polish and worked it in to a lecture about how what they did was not safe and how the cars go fast and that he could only protect them if he saw them. So, after 10 minutes and the lecture, they got to go out again. They were much better behaved for the rest of the day.
There are about 14 very confused Poles in Gilwice tonight. We went to the local home-style restaurant, which is next to the bodega type store. Lawrence wanted the kids to experience a restaurant where there was not 17 pieces of cutlery at each place. This restaurant gives you a basket with a fork for each person and a knife for each adult. Dziekuje (THANK YOU!) That seemed more practical to us.
Unlike the hotel, this is not a place that knows what we are up to and the folks who work don’t speak English but the prices are cheap and the food smells (and was) wonderful.
So Lawrence does his best and gets the kids Chicken Fillets, Juice, and Fries. (Even I can do that one in Polish now.) He orders me Bigos and himself Kielbasa. The food is all home made and takes a while to get on the table. So the kids are being kids and slightly acting up and we are trying to get them to behave correctly. We got a lot of weird stares (The Bronislawa stare). Nobody could make heads or tails of us. Got two adults who are obviously American and three kids speaking Polish and yet we are acting like a family.
It is not legal yet and one member of our family is in the US, but the five of us are a family despite the language barrier.
We went to Tesco to pick up more pictures and another ball and yeah, we were softies and bought each child a gift. A bowling set for M, a Barbie type doll for D, and Playmobil knight for “I”. We had to confiscate the toy temporarily from the two older since they were ripping into the packages. And since we had fidgety children, one of the toys needed a price check and yes, it takes just as long in Poland for price check as it does in the US.
When we dropped off the children today, Jozef had to talk to Sister S (the Sister Director) about some other case, so Sister S asked Sister F to give us a quick tour to keep us out of their hair. The children are sent off to join their regular care group. We are told, in a oh by the way manner, you can’t see the children until after 1 (or later since Jozef is out of town at another court hearing.)
So we got a small tour of some of the orphanage. Sister F speaks virtually no English and speaks Polish at an amazing clip. Our communication was a lot of pantomime and our really bad Polish. We thanked Sister F profusely for caring for the children, all in English so we aren’t sure how much she got, but we did have enough Polish to give her the copies of the second roll of film. These pictures showed how much fun the children were having in our care. Their smiles were like “going to Disney” and “Christmas” put together. And we were just playing with them in the field next to the Hotel Silvia. She was very touched by the pictures.
We got to see where the kids sleep, where they bathe, the large playroom, and where they have their lessons. Everything was clean and neat as a pin. When we saw the 24 or so little beds, and saw what little that is just theirs and theirs only, we lost it a bit. I cried then Lawrence cried. Then Jozef came to get us and we pulled ourselves together.
As we leaving, our children were coming in from outside with their group, they broke formation to come over to give us each another hug. Behind “I” near the end of the line was a girl in pigtails like I used to wear when I was a child who came over for a hug too. So, I gave her one. We made our good byes to the Sisters, and I made it half way across the plaza before I started crying again. Then Lawrence joined in.
We need to post to you all and read your words of support so we are going to brave a Taxi ride to the nicer of the two Internet cafes and hope that Jozef remembers to pick us up by 12:45 to take us to see the kids, even if it only for a few hours. Lawrence thinks we could walk from the Internet café to the orphanage but I’m not crazy about that idea.
If you have not posted yet, know that we would love to hear from each of you. It is easy to post. Please write.
Elaine here. The Polish word of the Day is Duzi, meaning big. The children were waiting for us in the hall that we are always brought to in the orphanage. Eager to go with us does not even begin to cover it. As the door to the building opened, “M” burst through it. Tata scooped him up for a hug and back inside we went. You see this was our one shot to get a little time with Sister F (with Jozef translating) to asked more questions about the children. So the children has to wait another 15 minutes. The additional information we got was scant or stuff that we had already figured out. You cannot have full custodial care of three small children for 56 hours with out adding few 2 + 2s and coming up with some 4s.
We gave Sister F the maple syrup. She didn’t know what to do with it. So, if any of you native Poles could think of a good Polish use for real maple syrup, please let us know via a post to the live journal. They do have pancakes here (Nalesniki) but we don’t know if they are sweet or savory.
And yes, Jackie, I was finally able to pass along the messages from Anna and Marcin (she corrected my pronunciation of Marcin). She told me that their friend Zosia (she corrected my pronunciation of that too) was adopted by a Polish family. So obviously, she remembers each and every child.
What she really liked was our offer to pick the pictures she liked best from our first roll of developed film. She took five photos. One of them was the group shot similar to the one that Marci posted. We hope to send more digital shots to Marci to post. And Vicky K was oh so right when she says that the children would bloom during our visit.
We had an interesting day. The two oldest children are really starting their testing behaviors in earnest. “I” wouldn’t participate in a general clean up session before the much beloved ½ hour video so I picked him and went to the entryway of the room (where we keep the shoes). I held him like a baby and said in my really bad Polish “No clean up, no video and “M” and “D” will get to watch the thing without you and we will stay here.” Basically I speak Polish like Tonto spoke English. In about four minutes, “I” was more than ready to help out.
They test us most when we are alone, such as Lawrence was taking all three out so I could take care of some things in the room. “M” just cannot take the stairs as quickly as his older siblings so Lawrence was coming down the stairs with him. However, “I” and “D” decided it was ok to dash out of the hotel and out of Lawrence’s eyesight even though he had told them to wait.
So he carried them both upstairs for one of his now famous when I say “stoy” (a word that sort of combines stop and don’t), I mean “stoy.” “M” who was behaving got to go out alone with me to the field next to the hotel and do Bunkie bubbles. The other two had to stay in the entryway of the room. “D” pouted heavily and “I” cried for about five minutes. Tata gathered up his Polish and worked it in to a lecture about how what they did was not safe and how the cars go fast and that he could only protect them if he saw them. So, after 10 minutes and the lecture, they got to go out again. They were much better behaved for the rest of the day.
There are about 14 very confused Poles in Gilwice tonight. We went to the local home-style restaurant, which is next to the bodega type store. Lawrence wanted the kids to experience a restaurant where there was not 17 pieces of cutlery at each place. This restaurant gives you a basket with a fork for each person and a knife for each adult. Dziekuje (THANK YOU!) That seemed more practical to us.
Unlike the hotel, this is not a place that knows what we are up to and the folks who work don’t speak English but the prices are cheap and the food smells (and was) wonderful.
So Lawrence does his best and gets the kids Chicken Fillets, Juice, and Fries. (Even I can do that one in Polish now.) He orders me Bigos and himself Kielbasa. The food is all home made and takes a while to get on the table. So the kids are being kids and slightly acting up and we are trying to get them to behave correctly. We got a lot of weird stares (The Bronislawa stare). Nobody could make heads or tails of us. Got two adults who are obviously American and three kids speaking Polish and yet we are acting like a family.
It is not legal yet and one member of our family is in the US, but the five of us are a family despite the language barrier.
We went to Tesco to pick up more pictures and another ball and yeah, we were softies and bought each child a gift. A bowling set for M, a Barbie type doll for D, and Playmobil knight for “I”. We had to confiscate the toy temporarily from the two older since they were ripping into the packages. And since we had fidgety children, one of the toys needed a price check and yes, it takes just as long in Poland for price check as it does in the US.
When we dropped off the children today, Jozef had to talk to Sister S (the Sister Director) about some other case, so Sister S asked Sister F to give us a quick tour to keep us out of their hair. The children are sent off to join their regular care group. We are told, in a oh by the way manner, you can’t see the children until after 1 (or later since Jozef is out of town at another court hearing.)
So we got a small tour of some of the orphanage. Sister F speaks virtually no English and speaks Polish at an amazing clip. Our communication was a lot of pantomime and our really bad Polish. We thanked Sister F profusely for caring for the children, all in English so we aren’t sure how much she got, but we did have enough Polish to give her the copies of the second roll of film. These pictures showed how much fun the children were having in our care. Their smiles were like “going to Disney” and “Christmas” put together. And we were just playing with them in the field next to the Hotel Silvia. She was very touched by the pictures.
We got to see where the kids sleep, where they bathe, the large playroom, and where they have their lessons. Everything was clean and neat as a pin. When we saw the 24 or so little beds, and saw what little that is just theirs and theirs only, we lost it a bit. I cried then Lawrence cried. Then Jozef came to get us and we pulled ourselves together.
As we leaving, our children were coming in from outside with their group, they broke formation to come over to give us each another hug. Behind “I” near the end of the line was a girl in pigtails like I used to wear when I was a child who came over for a hug too. So, I gave her one. We made our good byes to the Sisters, and I made it half way across the plaza before I started crying again. Then Lawrence joined in.
We need to post to you all and read your words of support so we are going to brave a Taxi ride to the nicer of the two Internet cafes and hope that Jozef remembers to pick us up by 12:45 to take us to see the kids, even if it only for a few hours. Lawrence thinks we could walk from the Internet café to the orphanage but I’m not crazy about that idea.
If you have not posted yet, know that we would love to hear from each of you. It is easy to post. Please write.