WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016 (POLAND).1

Hi guys, so this post was written by Annie. She was kind enough to share her experience with us  on the World Youth Day 2016 which took place in Krakow Poland. Enjoy!!!!!

Sitting on my bed weeks after such an experience. I can't help but relieve the events in my mind's eye. The chants keep ringing in my head over and over again. But before I get ahead of myself, permit me to shed some light on the oh so awesome event.

I am a catholic (proudly!!!) and every few years the catholic church organises the World Youth Day (which in reality takes more than one day) as a means for youths all over the world (yes not only Catholics) to share their faith, stand for peace and a more united world. With Saint Pope John Paul II as the founder. It was divided into 2 parts, days in the Dioceses and WYD proper. Our centre was Biala Podlaska. Let me just put this out there, Polish people are very HOSPITABLE!!! From the moment we crossed the border into Poland, It felt like I had entered "Pleasant ville", started of with these meal bags that contained sandwiches,drinks and fruits.Everything tastes better in Poland (I kid you not). Little did I know that would mark the beginning of the end of food cravings.

Arrival and Accommodation

We got luxury pick up (like a bawse!!!). Yup, one of those buses footballers arrive in with WiFi and comfy seats, thus started the journey to Biala Podlaska. On reaching our destination we were received in our host families. I got to stay with a very lovely family in their beautiful home, the ease at which they welcomed us was humbling!!! and the mother!!! Heavens be blessed, she could have given Jamie Oliver a run for his money. Three course meals back to back with lunch to go and the fun part was communication, its amazing what the human brain can process. This mother of ours didn't speak English; she spoke Polish and the little polish we knew (clears throat) was restricted to the mass sayings but somehow with the help of Russian ( Ruskii teachers well done o!!!),we understood each other even if it was mostly a truckload of ''Yes & No ''.

Event &Tourist Destinations.

As I  mentioned earlier, this part of the programme was called "Days in Dioceses" and it served as a pre-event  for the main WYD programme. This was an opportunity to get to know more about the country, it's culture and traditions, history, tourist sites and of course catechism. Since Poland is known for her strong catholic traditions, we were opportuned to visit lots of pilgrims sites and churches with very rich  history and stories that would leave you in awe of the power of faith.

We also had the opportunity to visit a world class ranch where prized horses are bred ( apparently it is a bigger deal than we thought) and the border control where we had a demonstration of an arrest using our dear friend as the perpetrator.

There was also the dramatization of the "Passion of Christ" which we took to the streets (Gotta applaud them, it was very well done).

We got to have social gatherings the first which was basically about entertaining and welcoming all the pilgrims in that region and we were gifted  with t-shirts, face caps, flash drives and the cutest little pillow .

We also got interviewed by various media outlets which felt pretty cool (Celeb status pending).

Sitting in an ice cream shop, we met a dance instructor who claimed to major in African dance ( hmm beef!! on top our own dance again) who invited us to get on stage with her in the spirit of all that is African, we agreed with a spoon fool of salt. You can't imagine our excitement when the song came on and it was naija music (oya shoki!! etighi, shakiti bobo). Of course she had her own steps which at first made us feel silly coz we had to learn it impromptu but we were having so much fun plus the crowd was so energertic that it really didn't matter, bottom line; she is a good dancer!

Final days were spent mostly hanging out with host families, family trips, shopping etc just bonding basically. Arrgh... I almost forgot, in this location (Nigerians from Belarus) were stars!! Almost every group wanted  to take pictures  with us. Plus they loved our singing, so at the slightest opportunity we were cajoled to sing or represent in some sort of way. It was only natural that just before departure we rendered one last song to say farewell.

 Stay tuned for the second part! Special Thanks to Annie and Patricia for this lovely post. If you enjoyed this post, then Leave your comment below.

 And If you read this post till the the end, you 're a Bawse! Thanks for stopping by.

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