A Brief Introduction to Gliwice
My introduction to Poland took another step on Aug. 16 when traveling from Krakow to Gliwice, the location of our Habitat for Humanity project. Gliwice is a city of about 200,000 people two hours west of Krakow. Gliwice was founded in 1250 and is in area of Poland that once was a part of Germany. From some information about HFH Poland, I had a few mental images of what Gliwice might be before arriving here, but the picture was not well formed. I was picturing a manufacturing and industrial city, with what that entails in look and feel. While it is a city with an industrial history, it also has much to offer when it comes to culture and architecture. It has many beautiful buildings strongly influenced by Central European character and attractiveness, including those surrounding the city’s town centre. While the city centre is much smaller than its counterpart in Krakow, it certainly has some of same charm – cafés, restaurants and shops ringing the centre with a back drop of building designs reflecting the influences of Germany and Austria.
One thing that has surprised me in Gliwice is the large amount of housing and other buildings that are constructed of red brick. Not sure why I was surprised, but I guess I was thinking that there would be lot more of the gray concrete and cement block construction of Eastern Europe. However, we were reminded on our first walk around the city that Poland is in Central Europe, not Eastern Europe.
After arriving in Gliwice, we were taken on a walking tour in and around the city centre that included a number of historic sites and a couple of beautiful parks.
Habitat Project
Our Habitat project is helping build housing at a facility that provides home to over 90 homeless men. Our tasks have been a bit different than on many Habitat sites. A few people spent the first two days repairing the drywall of a large bedroom, painting the walls/ceiling and installing new flooring. The rest of us have been cleaning and/or painting large metal pipes and I-beams that will be used as part of the structure to support shipping containers as new housing units for homeless men. How this will all come together is not clear yet, but hopefully we will have a much better picture of this before we leave.
We have been well hosted and cared for by local Habitat staff. It always amazes me how much our volunteer efforts are appreciated. At the same time, however, I think we are receiving a huge blessing from the opportunity to work on these projects, experiencing a bit of life here and getting to know a few Polish people.
We have sampled lots of traditional Polish food including borscht, sausages, dumplings (pierogi) stuffed with various ingredients and lots of potatoes. One of the highlights thus far has been chocolate cake served as part of the breakfast buffet on a number of occasions!!
Stay tuned for more.
The clock works!!
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