The weekend was beautiful and busy but we managed to balance it with getting a bunch done on the chore side as well as fitting in some fun too. Today the “fun” came in the shape of attending the Seattle Polish Festival.
We have been gifted in my family with my nephew Tyler’s wife Kinga who is PolishAmerican. Kinga was a little girl when her family moved here. Their story completely astounds me when I think of suddenly uprooting and moving to a country where I didn’t speak the language, had small children to raise and had to find a job. wow. Jerzey and Maria, Kinga’s parents, moved to the USA at a time of danger and unrest in Poland. In our more modern, connected world it’s easy to forget that Poland was overrun with the communist party and most human rights repressed.
Through hard work they made a good life for themselves and their three children here. Jerzey is a cabinet maker and Maria worked for 24 years on the line at the paper mill in our local town. Those efforts put their three children through college and today Kinga is a teacher, one son is a lawyer and the youngest just graduated from college and landed a job at a respectable PR firm. Pretty dang cool.
They’ve done well in the US and I know they appreciate it but they love home still, of course, so getting to connect with others from Poland living here certainly must be important.
We’ve had a chance on several occasions to meet a few of their Polish friends and today Glen and I, plus Brian, all popped down to the festival that was going on at Seattle Center to enjoy the culture and show a little support. Maria’s choir was part of the entertainment! They were great! Plus, we got to see a Polish dance group and hear a really outstanding concert pianist. We also caught up on one of Kinga’s brothers Kamil and his very nice girlfriend Raye.
Afterward, we headed to the food booths where we enjoyed some yummy cabbage rolls. There was also a booth for Polish perogis but I kid you not when I say the line was three deep a block line! I’m thinking they must have been really good.
It was only a couple hours of time but it struck me that this would be a great thing to do for lots of culture festivals — take time to enjoy the food and the music a little bit and get to know the people better as a result. How lucky we were Ty fell for his Kinga — she came with a whole new country for us!
