Gorecki Scholarship Recipient Visits Polish Relatives

By Jessica Zachar,
Nest 556, Jerome, Pa.

Jessica Zachar, pictured far left, is with several Polish family members. Click to enlarge.

When I decided to spend a semester abroad to enrich my international relations and political science minors, I wanted to choose a place that was not only distinctly different from popular western European cities, but also one that held a special meaning to me personally. The city I chose was Prague, Czech Republic, which borders Poland and Slovakia, both countries from which my family originated. My great aunt has kept in touch with family members in Poland, and after traveling there a few times to visit them, she had our young cousin, Mallgosia, come and stay with her in the United States for a summer. While I didn’t have the chance to spend much time with Gosia when she was here, she gave me the opportunity of a lifetime when she invited me to spend this past Easter with her and her family in Nowy Sacz, Poland.

Although many of my other friends in Prague decided to spend the long Easter weekend in more “exotic” places like Italy or Portugal, I hopped on an eight-hour train ride to Krakow to meet up with Gosia and stay with her for a night before traveling to her family’s town of Nowy Sacz. Gosia, now 25 years old, attended university in Krakow and currently works for IBM in the city.

The next morning we had a short bus ride to Nowy Sacz, which is roughly two hours outside of Krakow. During the ride, I couldn’t help feeling slightly anxious about meeting my family because even though I had never met them before, there was another huge detail I had forgotten. None of them except Gosia spoke English. Since I don’t speak Polish, this was a slight problem. As I entered Gosia’s parents’ flat, my feelings of anxiety instantly disappeared. Her family was so warm and welcoming, the language barrier seemed only a minor detail. Thankfully, Gosia seemed to never tire of my endless questions and perfectly translated every conversation into English for me.

Since the majority of Poland is Catholic, and Easter is the most important holiday in Catholicism, Easter weekend was the perfect time to witness some inherently Polish traditions. My family attended Mass every day starting the week before Easter, and everyone usually went back to church in the evenings to pray independently. Even though I couldn’t understand the Mass in Polish, I felt that for the most part it was very similar to Mass I’ve attended in the United States. There was one thing that was distinctly different from anything I’ve ever seen or heard of, and that was the guarding of Jesus’ body. In between Palm Sunday and Easter, the “body” of Jesus is displayed in the church and the men and boys of the congregation take turns dressing in guard uniforms and protecting the body.

Jessica’s cousin Mallgosia, pictured next to her mother, encouraged Jessica to visit her Polish residence this past Easter. Click to enlarge.

My American family also has Easter traditions that I never realized were Polish, and it was interesting to see those same traditions being practiced by my family in Poland. Early on Holy Saturday, Gosia and her family took me to their church to have the priest bless their basket of meat, eggs and bread, which is a tradition I have always done with my own family. Driving through their town, I didn’t see a single person without a basket in hand, and priests were even blessing baskets outside of churches because the lines to go inside the churches were so lengthy. I was astounded at the devotion the Polish people showed toward the Catholic Church, and it was hard to imagine that only decades ago they were forbidden to practice their religion while under Communist rule. After living amongst the Czech people, who were also very Catholic before Communism, and seeing how the country is largely atheist now, I felt it was remarkable that the neighboring Poles bounced back and continued to embrace Catholicism after the fall of Communism.

I stayed with Gosia’s parents and brother for the duration of my holiday, but I also visited Gosia’s extended family throughout the weekend. Gosia’s father, who is my grandfather’s great-great-nephew, has several brothers and sisters who live in Nowy Sacz, and Easter Sunday was spent traveling from house to house, meeting and visiting all of the relatives. My younger cousins knew some English phrases but were afraid of saying them incorrectly in front of me. On the other hand, I used every opportunity to speak the few Polish words I had learned. They eventually realized that I was not going to laugh at their English, and one of my favorite moments was when Gosia’s brother, Pavel, poked fun at Gosia to me in English.

Gosia’s aunts and uncles were inviting and generous, and I found it amusing when I would catch them just sitting and staring at me. My younger girl cousins began to eat only what I ate, drink what I drank, and even touched their hair the same way I do. They made me feel like a celebrity. Aside from my great-aunt and cousins who visited them a few years ago, I think I was the only other American they had ever met. I wish I could have held a conversation with them in a common language, but all of my smiling and “tak” and “dobry”-ing let them know how excited I was to meet them.

It was incredible being able to spend time with my newfound family members and exploring the town from which my ancestry developed. But it wasn’t until I came home and told my parents about my experience that I realized just how much I had learned about the Polish heritage. I was able to witness true, unwavering faith in a God that took the Polish people through unbelievable hardships but still continued to captivate and influence their lives in a purely positive way. I learned that it is the greatest pride for a man to build a home for his family with his own bare hands, and stood in a house that took ten years to complete just so it could be finished without any outside assistance. I saw fervent determination in Gosia’s father’s desire to learn English, even though no one in his town speaks English and he does not intend to travel outside of the country.

Jessica Zachar (pictured standing, far left), is with several relatives during a visit earlier this year to Poland where she spent the Easter holiday observing the Polish traditions associated with this sacred occurrence. Click to enlarge.

The Polish people are respectful and gracious. They’re not light-hearted and carefree, but then again how many people who have experienced the hardships accompanying the Holocaust, Communism and their aftermaths are? My Polish cousins have lived a completely different life than I have ever known, and in fact didn’t even realize existed in this modern era. I was transported back to a world where technology sits on the back burner and human interaction is the most precious form of entertainment. Families have only one car and cell phone; TV programs are watched as a family and three meals each day are always eaten at home.

My Polish family didn’t have as much as our American standards dictate, but they were happy with what they had. Not many in their town had money to eat out or buy makeup at the local Tesco, in fact my teenage cousins had never even owned a tube of lip gloss. I remember when Gosia came to visit me a few summers ago, and I showed her my six gowns from my high school dances, her reaction of shock and bewilderment confused me. I remembered that incident when she was showing me her one gown, and I felt embarrassed. Growing up in the United States, surrounded by lifestyles that encourage shopping sprees and daily Starbucks runs, I had grown accustomed to the frivolous spending that some American teenagers feel entitled to. My Polish relatives appreciated everything they had, and I realized that I should emulate them more than they should emulate me. I like to think that I’ve taken to their lifestyle a little more, and I now try to spend more time with my family than watching TV or chatting online.

My sincere thanks go to the Polish Falcons of America for assisting me with studying abroad and meeting my family through awarding me a Richard C. Gorecki scholarship last year. I learned more about my family, Poland, my religion and life in general than I had expected. I had the chance to not only be an ambassador from the United States, but an ambassador from my American family to my Polish family.

[Editor’s Note: Jessica Zachar was a 2006-2007 Other Studies Gorecki Scholarship Grant recipient.]