Conference - DAY 1

No running today. It was pouring rain, windy, and about 35 degrees! I spent the morning just waking up and organizing my thoughts for the conference. I got a copy of the Polish version of the teacher's guide that we created during the summer. I had to coordinate page numbers of the Polish guide to what I was going to speak about so we could literally 'be on the same page!'

Larry Specht, my colleague from the AFT Foreign Affairs department, went to lunch with me before the conference began. We borrowed two umbrellas and made our way through Gdansk to the same little restaurant as yesterday. They speak English so it makes service and ordering much easier.

We met later in the conference room at our hotel. I had to work out some PowerPoint glitches and Internet worries, but all worked just fine. My little Charles County issued IBM Think Pad is performing in Poland like a pro! Who would have thought?

Monika introduced the President of Solidarity to open the conference. I didn't realize who this man was as he had just sauntered up to me before the conference started and shook hands. We sort of introduced ourselves in two languages that we didn't understand. The smile and the look in his eye were all that was necessary!

Larry then gave some background on AFT in America and the background of Civic Voices. Then it was my turn to train 25 Polish teachers how to use this program with their students. They were an excellent class. Dorota, my interpreter, did a great job staying with me all the way. We went through the first three parts of our guide. I gave them Freedom House maps and shared the World Digital Library and DemocracyWeb with them. They were VERY receptive! I finihed right on time and then we took a snack/late lunch break! Some of them speak English very well and we discussed Poland's neighbors, Belarus and Ukraine.

It was then the Polish teachers' turn to introduce themselves to everyone. Monika has already told them that we Americans are helping her make the decision as to which two of them will travel to the US in the spring for the next conference. So each one introduced themselves and told us of all the fantastic things they already do with their students to preserve the past and the memory of those who fought so hard against the Soviets (and the Nazis) for freedom in Poland! I was in awe of them as they are surrounded by the history of WW II and the Cold War. It was an honor just to be in the room as they told what they do in their schools. WOW!

Monika divided them into groups of five. Each will interview a Polish Civic Activist tomorrow! They immediately dove into preparing their questions and discussing who will ask the questions, who will monitor the camera, who will transcribe the words, etc. AS they discussed and planned, Monika and I pulled each group up to a table and went over the technical issues of using the FLIP cameras with the tripods. They were all so interested and ready to execute each task. I was so impressed with them. I was having a hard time immagining a group of American teachers going about this process with the same ferocity - but then there was that group that met over the summer at the Labor College. :)

Later we met to go out to dinner. A nearby reastaurant had prepared a smorgasboard of food - they called it Swedish, but most Americans equate smorgasboard with Norwegian. The food was great and I got to sit and talk with Dorota and Arkady, our two interpreters. They speak English so well. Wanda, from Berlin, is also an English speaking German that was with Civic Mosaic II this past summer and is here this week as an observer. We discussed Christmas traditions between Poland, Germany and the US. Such different ideas about Santa Claus!!

Larry and I were successful in piecing together a PowerPoint presentation for tomorrow. Each day, Monika has all the participants AND more guests for us to talk to about the project. So we don't want to sound redundant day after day. So we created something new! I think it will be just great! We used some of Deb's presentation (two maps) and pieced together some other slides that were translated into Polish! Very Sharp!

The rain has stopped and it's almost midnight NPT - Northern Polish Time. I'm going for a run tomorrow to the Old section of Gdansk as the sun rises tomorrow. It should be fantastic. I hope to upload some pictures of today's event soon.