Interesting Sights (25. April - 3. May)

Here are some random pictures I want to share from last week and today.

Can you believe it snowed in late April?

I kid you not; SNOW IN APRIL!

View from a window in the other girls' apartment (10th floor).

"Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest."

Flowery carpet in the woods.

Stairs at the edge of the beach.

Park in downtown Kołobrzeg.

The fountain is on in said park.

Sunset (no, that's not the sea, but clouds)

A memorial to both Poles and Soviet soldiers who fought and were buried here.

Miniature 3-D map of Kołobrzeg.

Wow, towards the end of WWII.

Same info plaques in Polish, English, and Russian (probably German too).

A neighboring cemetery just beside the one for the fallen soldiers.

Left side: Polish

Right side: Russian

 

"Bóg Honor Ojczyzna" = "GOD honor motherland."

"Cemetery of the War in Kołobrzeg" (rough translation, without Google translate)

Picture taken from across the road/highway.

"The resting place of Polish and Soviet soldiers who fell in the battles for Kołobrzeg in March 1945"

Coming back to town, nice to see the blooming swans.

Close-up of said swan.

I can't believe my time left in Kołobrzeg is already less than 1 month . . .

Spring in Kołobrzeg (a week or 2 ago)

Even with everything that's going on (the situation from my previous post is still fresh), how can I ignore that Spring is here?

Let me give you a few snapshots of Spring in Kołobrzeg. 

Starting with construction just outside our apartment.

Just outside the kitchen window.

Along the Parsęta River, towards the Baltic Sea.

Lovely (and altered) willows.

Other side of the Parsęta, handicapped-friendly.

L to R: from the sea to the bridge/inland.

Graffiti wall

See the blossoms?

Can you imagine how sweet this smells?

So small and tender

Pink and cute

Mixed together

In here too

Blossoms and buds

Marker for the buried French prisoners of war from the Prussian-French War of 1870-1871. It's in Polish, German, French, and English.

Front of the library, again.

Front of the Music School 2 of my students teach in.

Daffodils

Blue park and brown husky.

Tulips

Bright and awake

Oh these are lovely

This reminds me of bibimbap (비빔밥)!

Garden wonder just across the basilica.

How can anyone say they were created by accident?

Interesting design.

Close-up

United, we stand.

Behold how a carpet of flowers can change the scenery.

Ah construction, how it works in both ways.

The Situation

Oh My Word.


What a change in just a couple of weeks!


Maybe I should share what's been going on . . .

The thing is, I don't want to go into much detail here, since this is a public domain and we don't need to pull any more people into this than necessary.

We SMs (Student Missionaries) / volunteers have had a few issues with our director. Little by little, we started to see that there were some inconsistencies between what we understood of the info about this mission, and the reality of what was going on.
Again, I don't want to go into detail. It suffices to say that we've tried speaking with our director before, and nothing changed. Then we felt obliged to speak to the powers that be (Adventist Volunteer Services - AVS). They asked us many questions, they spoke with us, they spoke with our director, they spoke among themselves (and apparently with the General Conference too). AVS came to the conclusion to pull us 5 missionaries/volunteers out of this school/program--1 month before the end of the school year.
This past week (the final week of April) was our last week at School by the Sea. The previous week was our last week at the other schools we were subcontracted out to. So, as of now, we 5 are now tourists.
If I had the money, I'd be out exploring, traveling, visiting friends elsewhere, etc. But alas, I don't. I just have enough to live off of in Krakow when I'm doing the CELTA course. I hope to visit a friend before returning to the States, but that all depends on how much I pay for housing in Krakow. This is a major waiting period, and a time to say good-bye to everyone here, and to Kołobrzeg. 

 It's so weird to think that I had other plans just 2 weeks ago. They were:
1. Finish the school year at the end of May.
2. Stay teaching for the month of June, until right before my CELTA course starts in June 27th.
3. Finish my course on July 22nd.
4. Then either get hired to teach English elsewhere, or return to the States (probably the latter, due to visa regulations).


Well, all that has changed. Completely.

There's quite a bit of suspense in the air here, but one way or another, everything will work out. I just never imagined I would go through something like this, ever.

Please pray for our director and his family, that they don't take this as a personal attack against them--which it is most definitely not. Also pray for the church, the students, whoever is supposed to substitute for us, and for us as well. We each need them.