PolScape
IMPRESSIONS
REMINISCENCES
| 
| REMINISCENCES
IMPRESSIONS
|
by Tommy Cooper
I am not of polish origin, but I would like to share our experience of Polish people with you. We were living
in a town called Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape until December 1995, where we met two Polish families that were
brought to South Africa by Volkswagen S.A.
Our neighbours, Jan and Janina Pietruszka and their son Imro, we found to be delightful friends, and we spent
a lot of time together. Jan is a toolmaker for Volkswagen, Janina used to be an art teacher in Poland, and
Imro was a student. Although Jan had been in the country for four years, and was becoming reasonably fluent
with the language, English, not Afrikaans!, Janina and Imro came over only in 1994. This presented us with a
huge barrier when communicating, and while Janina was very shy at first, we overcame that by teaching her and
Imro some English, while learning Polish ourselves!
Before we left Uitenhage on 31 December 1995, they invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them, to experience
a Polish Christmas, which we found beautiful and very moving.
Before we moved, I had to spend three months alone in Johannesburg, and they really supported my wife and
family while they were alone. They used to stay in Tychy in Silesia before they came to South Africa.
The other family, Stanislaw (or Stanley, as he became known) and Bozena Szewczyk, with their children
Daniel and Nina, we met while visiting Jan and Janina, and we quickly became fast friends, as their children
were the same age as ours, they were also married exactly two week after us, so we were virtually the same age.
We also spent a lot of time with them, and as Bozena was quite fluent in English (she is a nursing sister at
a private clinic in Uitenhage), and the children were in an English School, we had no problem communicating.
I will scan some photos of Polish people in South Africa for you if you are interested, and you could maybe
use it in some of your pages.
Maybe you guys (Polish Homepages) could try and contact some of the people in South Africa, as there is quite a large Polish
community in Uitenhage, most of whom are employed by Volkswagen. It would be nice for them to be aware of
your great effort.
You are the visitor to PolScape #1 page.
Current local time:
Last modified:
