A Humanitarian Service Project...

On Saturday, August 7th, a disaster hit several towns near the German/Polish border. Rivers have been full this summer from all the rain and a dam ended up breaking. The Relief Society President of the Warsaw II Branch, Asia Nabozna, called the Mayor of Zgorzelec--a larger town in the area --to see if the Church could help. He was grateful, and so the work began. Donning our yellow 'Helping Hands' vests and loading the Transporter with items that had been collected, we set off with members of the Warsaw I and II Branches to help. The sign reads Help for Bogatyni.

Along the way, we saw a few unusual sights...notice the sticker on this car. It is from the German Democratic Republic--- 20 years ago---East Berlin. There are not many of these around any more. And now, my personal favorite...

This sign is advertising a store that specializes in "everything for pigeons"! Can there really be a market for this?

President Nielson sent me and the Office Elders to represent the Mission. I was picked up by the Office Elders at 4:00 a.m. The ride was long and tedious. Elder Lewis was a great help....

...and so was Elder Torke.

We were met by the Elders in Wroclaw where we shopped at a Macro (a store like Costco).
We split up the list and gathered shovels, work gloves, cleaning supplies, hygiene supplies, laundry soap, etc. L to R: Ada, Dorota, Elders: Allred, Lewis, Holden, Taylor, Anderton, Torke, and Elder Harding.

Items were labeled in hopes to find some referrals and to let the people know that our Church cared about people.

We showed up 'hours' late to meet the people in charge of the relief project in Zgorzelec. We had to unload the goods into a large truck then they drove the truck and our cars to a secure place for the night. So what was supposed to be a one day trip had turned into a two day trip. The people in charge were very kind and put us up in a motel.

Slumber Party! with Ada, Asia, and Dorota.

That morning they took us to an elementary school where they served the volunteers breakfast (mostly Polish soldiers)--'tripe' soup (cow stomach) and kebabs (polish sausage). I had bread. It was too early in the morning.

This line on the building shows how high the water was. On the right side of the picture is Poland--left side is Germany.

While here we met German Elders who were helping with a service project on the German side of the city of Zgorzelec. We met on the bridge for a picture.

Back at the big supply truck, we had to load up smaller vans and cars to get into the towns that had been hit the hardest. Many roads had been destroyed, so smaller vehicles were required to make the journey.

City volunteers and church volunteers.

In the pouring rain, we caravaned our way to the town of Bogatynia.

Beginning to see the destruction of the water.

This is why so many of the roads have been blocked off.

We finally had to stop---the road was out. The people came to us.

We helped this sweet man get the supplies he needed to his home. His wife was there and greeted us with tears in her eyes and many "dzienkuje bardzo's"...thank you very much.

We were told that roads were closing all around us and we needed to get out of the area immediately. We gathered the supplies that were left and drove to a school that was being used as a 'supply base' and unloaded.

As we were leaving, these two vounteers asked for our 'Helping Hands' vests. Wear them with pride! These girls are members of the 'Polish Scouts' --a very well respected volunteer group. (The 'Polish Scouts' began during the Polish uprising against the Nazis. They were children who would carry messages, guns, explosives through the city for the underground and the soldiers wouldn't bother them thinking they were just playing.)

Because of all the destroyed roads, we were not able to leave the way we had come. We had to detour through Germany.

We followed the retired fire chief from Zgorzelec (for over an hour!) who was kind enough to escort us to the Polish Border. What a great experience this project was. There is more work to be done and the Church will be back to help. Dowidzenia!