Day 11 - Connecting with Wazbinski family

Wazbinski

First I must apologize for the lateness of this post. I have been trying for DAYS to get wifi, blogspot to work, and then hours of importing photos and waiting yet again for those pictures to be inserted into the blog. This may be my last blog with all these difficulties and I'll just email attachments in pdf in the future for my group that wants to follow my travels.

(We all started with Kazimierz Wazbinski.)

I’m excited, apprehensive, and working on keeping my emotions in check as I approach this day of meeting family, finding my ancestors resting places, and seeing the family farms that Bartlomiej bought when he returned from America.

We start with yet another fabulous breakfast. Anna prepares such healthy and tasty meals and we’re really giving her dishwasher a workout!  The entire family pitches in to set the table and bring the food into the living/dining room for a meal. Everything is presented in a glass or a china pitcher or plates. The table looks divine.

I’m very thrilled with the intelligence and manners of my young cousins. They are so respectful when adults are speaking and take part in our conversation as they have input to share. And, after breakfast, everyone again helps to clear the table and get ready to head out to the farm.

Each week they go to the farm to gather vegetables for the coming week. They had planted dill, onion, green and yellow beans, lima beans, parsley, tomatoes, carrots, and beets. They also come home with fresh eggs from the many hens that live on the farm.

So we’re off!

The first stop is the farm of Janusz Wazbinski , grandson of Bartlomiej, who never married or had children. So his sister, Kazimiera Wazbinski Staszak, and her son, Darek, and his wife and family live on the farm that he gave to them. Uncle Janusz visits often but Darek is the owner/operator of the farm and has 3 children: Karol 10, Pawel 6, and Paulina 4.

Next we visited the 2^nd farm of Bartlomiej’s America purchase which was given to his grandson Henryk, Slawomir’s father. Przemyslaw, Slawomir’s brother, is now the owner/operator of the farm and lives there with his wife, Krystyna; two children, Sebastian and Amelia; and his mother, Grazgna, who is the same age as I.

This farm is 90 hectares!  That translates into 222 acres!  Przemek grows wheat, corn, potatoes, and rape (seeds that make canola oil).  He does most of the work himself until harvest time and getting the crop to market. His wife cares for their two children, the house, and the chickens and pitches in whenever things need an extra hand to get done.  He also raises bulls for slaughter. He travels around and selects young bulls to bring home and raise.

rape from which canola oil is made from its pods of seeds

rape seeds

Newest bulls added to the farm

Krystyna’s home is decorated very modern with gray tones and crystal appointments and is absolutely beautiful!  After a huge lunch of 2 kinds of cooked chicken, potatoes, noodles shaped like biscuits with gravy, cole slaw, cooked cabbage, and black current compote to drink.  Definitely the main meal of the day to feed a hungry farmer! She easily fed all 11 of us with grace. We helped to clear and were off to see the birthplace of Bartlomiej and Martin.  It is now owned by the Olszewski family who are descendants of Henryka Wazbinski.

Next we visited another cemetery where Kazimierz is believed to be buried along with Henryk, Slawomir’s father. We also see the connection of the Wazbinski family to the family Zbierski where Antonina, daughter of Kazimierz, married Pawel Zbierski and the farm went to their son Jan and his descendants.

It was at this farm, once owned by Piotr Zbierski, now 92, and his sister Anna, 94, who gave the farm to their nephew, Marek Zbierski (son of their brother Marian), who runs it today that we would have the most eye-opening couple hours of our day…perhaps our lives.

Piotr had been in the hospital from being rundown and we didn’t think we would be able to meet him because of his condition. When he found out he had relatives from the States visiting, he insisted on having us come over. He carried the hours of conversation all on his own and told accounts in very detailed and exacting sequence.

Piotr told us firsthand experience stories of the days of the Prussian/German and Soviet/Russian occupation and the horrid conditions in which they lived. When the Russians helped them drive out the Germans at the end of World War II, they thought they had been liberated but the Russians took over where the Germans left off and continued to occupy and mistreat the Poles even worse than the Germans had before them.

I was able to videotape some of his accounts and will rely on Slawek and Anna to help in the translations at a later date.

Anna Wazbinski, Marek Zbierski, wife Dorota Zbierski, Marilyn Shafer, Anna Zbierski 94, Piotr Zbierski 92, Slawomir Wazbinski

Speaking of translating, these two marvelous people worked their brains double time to take in all that was said and translate for me to understand the importance of their words or any conversation.  Without Anna and Slawek, this visit would have been impossible. I won’t be able to thank them enough!

We then returned to Przemek’s (SZEHM-ik) farm. We had drinks and homemade cakes waiting for us in the gazebo in the yard and later were called in to dinner again for all 11 of us.  Again, Krystyna had prepared freshly made kielbasa with mustard, pickles, salad, bread, and tea. Grace under fire and she looked like she had just started her day instead of ending the day.

Before dinner, we took a tour of the farm and the garden while kids played in the garden with the newest addition to the family, a little puppy, that they ran up and down between the rows of dill!  I was able to talk Michal (pronounced MEE-haw) into posing with the scarecrow for me.

The puppy eagerly ran down the rows among the dill with one cousin at each end to send and retrieve!

It had been a wonderful day with family. We had left the flat at 10:00 and it was now 21:00 as we started our drive back home.  I just can’t stay up late to do these blogs so I have to apologize for posting multiple entries when I finally get the chance.

Tomorrow is our last day in Poznan and we will go to the cathedral and walk around downtown.