Habitat for Humanity has a wide diversity of projects in the more than 80 countries where it works around the globe. The we worked at in Gliwice is one of the more unique. We were working at a shelter for homeless men. HFH Gliwice has a partnership with an organization call the St. Brother Albert’s Aid Society, which provides housing for homeless men in a number of places in Poland. The shelter was outside the city in a rural area about 15-20 minutes from our hotel.
To start out, a few people worked in their large main building to repair the walls, paint and put down new flooring in a bedroom. This was a two-day project and day after it was finished four bunk beds and lockers were moved into the room to accommodate eight men.
The rest of our efforts there were focused on prepared the site and materials for the installation for three shipping containers that would be used for housing and washroom/shower facilities. The work involved a mix of things from scraping, sanding and repainting scores of I-beams, angle irons and round pipes that would be used to provide support for a roofing that would be required around the containers. The other major task involved digging holes for cement posts that would support the containers and a long trench for a sewer pipe. All of the digging was in heavy, wet clay soil and it had to go down to over three feet deep. This was hard work!!As our eight days of work came to an end, we had completed the tasks before us and had the site ready for the next stage.
Compared to most Habitat sites, we initially had limited contact with the men living at the shelter. We didn't know the individual stories of these men, but most had broken families, many had addictions and other problems. Over our time there, however, we were able to spend time with some of them as they got involved in the work.
On the site, we had a small hut that we used to store our day packs and to use for making coffee/tea. Outside a temporary shelter was set up so we could have our breaks out of the sun and rain. It rains just a bit, but we had some fairly warm weather with temperatures getting as high as 33-34 C according to the local weather station.
For lunch every day at the work site, we ate in the dining room of the main building and were served the same food as the men living at the shelter. The meals were good and traditional. We had a number of different soups and there always was plenty of bread and desert.
On the one Saturday evening we were in Gliwice, we joined several habitat partner families for a BBQ. These families are living in houses at the original Habitat site in Gliwice. This was a fun evening, with lots of children and young teens around. Below are a few children from the partner families.
Around Gliwice
It wasn't all work during our time in Gliwice. One day after work, we went to see the radio tower in Gliwice, which taken over by a small group of German soldiers in August 1939. Pretending to be members of a Polish uprising, the incident was used as a provocation to start WWII. At 118 metres in height, it is the highest wooden structure in the world.
Other than the BBQ, we went out to a restaurant for dinner every evening when in Gliwice. There are many good restaurants with excellent food and atmosphere. We were able to walk to all of these restaurants in no more than about 20 minutes. Most nights after dinner, several of us would round off our appetites with some gelato or an ice cream bar from a local store.
On our day off, a couple of us went to church in the morning and then all of us met at midday to do some exploring - museum, botanical gardens/park and eating.
On our way to the work site one morning, we stopped to look at and take pictures of a pair of storks and their nest on the top of a house. The stork is a revered bird and there many places where they are poles with platforms especially erected for storks to make their nests.
Saying Goodbye
As we finishing our work on the last day at the work site, we were invited into the dining room of the main building at the shelter to be thanked by the board and director of the shelter for our contribution to these men. One way they expressed their appreciation was presenting each member of the team with a colourful and original Polish coffee/tea mug. Very neat!! We also were presented with certificates and t-shirts from HFH Gliwice.
For several people on the team, this was their first experience with a Habitat international build, while a few of us have been on at least one more build. All of us were touched by these expressions of appreciation and we had an overwhelmingly positive experience in Poland. That evening, we had another great dinner with the local Habitat volunteer coordinator for our wrap up in Gliwice.
