Far From Home

Tuesday May 19th 2009. Sam's post - As you can tell by signage in the picture, we are no longer in the United States. We arrived in Poland on Monday, May 18th. Travel to Poland went as planned. We arrived in Poznan at 5:15 pm Polish time. That translates to 10:15 am in Iowa. It also means that we had each been up for more than 24 hours by the time we got to Poznan. Sleeping on an airplane doesn't count for normal sized people, it certainly does count for me at 6'6" and nearly 300 lbs. Because of this, no one had the energy to leave a post yesterday. We checked into a hotel, the Jowita (pronounced "Yo-veets-ska"), on the campus of Adam Mickiewicz (Pronounced "Mick-chev-vicks). The accomodations are quite nice, without being extravagant. This will be our base of operations for much of the week.

Today, we embark on a four hour drive to the Northern Poland coast. We will visit sites in Kolrzberg and Mielno this afternoon. These communities lie along the Baltic Sea. Tonight there is bonfire in Mielno in conjunction with the WSKS (Polish Probation Officer Association) conference. On Wednesday May 20th, Lori, Cathy and I will give presentations at the WSKS conference on the programs that we work in. A Polish Probation Officer will also present on the work that is taking place in Poland implementing the Duluth Intervention model. This is the model that the state of Iowa has used for many years to facilitate educational groups for men that use violence in relationships.

Lori has made a suggestion that we believe will be very valuable to people following this blog. We will provide interviews and photos of persons we encounter in Poland. Probation Officer Dorota Wrobleska will be our first interviewee. If we have internet access in Mielno, we'll post this interview before noon on Wednesday.

We were met at the airport by Dorota and Agnes. Dorota works as a Probation Officer in the District of Poznan. Agnes is a Professor at Adam Mickiewicz. Both have travelled to Iowa's Sixth Judicial District in previous staff exchanges. Lori, Cathy and I were treated to a short walking tour of central Poznan and a delicious meal at a local Greek restaurant. During the walk we were shown the buildings that house several colleges on the campus of the university as well as historical markers that commemorate revolutions that have taken place during Poland's long history. After dinner, we returned to Jowita Hotel and retired for night. It is 6:45 am Tuesday, May 19th 2009 in Poznan as I type this post. Iowa time is 11:45 pm Monday, May 18th. I'm headed to breakfast.

There will be other pictures added later today or tommorrow morning.