Hello ! My name is Bjørg and I am holding the Norwegian flag in the picture. This is my first blog ever, and I write it in English in case my new friend Tiago reads it. (The young man in both pictures) . Also I want to dedicate this blog to him. He really deserves that for his attitude and devotion to the poor, the weak, the unemploied, the brothers and sisters of manhood. One world, one family...
On the 8th of April 07 I flew from Bergen, Norway to Warzawa in Poland and got to the train station at 23.00. My train for Poznan, where my daughter Desirée studies medicine, was not leaving until 05.55 in the morning and I had decided to wait in the station. It was rather cold, 6 degrees, but I had decided to enjoy my stay to the full (no point in anything else) ! It became one of the most special experiences I have ever had. First I have to tell you that a Polish lady had told me to really be careful while travelling, because I might really be in danger ! As my attitude is that one attracts what one sends out, I decided to send out happiness and joy and to expect only positive and nice things to happen - and this is what happened:
I was sitting on a bench when I noticed two guys; the one on my right side in the picture called himself a "highlander" (a minority group) from Poland and the Mulatto boy Tiago on my left side calls himself a Cosmopolitian, because his mother comes from Brazil, his father from Italy and he has grown up in France) .
These two young men were playing "football" - only thing was that they were using the lid of a jam jar instead of a football. Obviously they had fun - and Tiago was "king of the scene", smiling all over his face while playing. Using the whole area of the station, of course the "ball" also came close to me. After having watched for a while I ended up participating in the game for hours, together with quite a number of other people. Most of them I guess were hobos who lived at the station - and not all of them were sober....but Tiago smiled at everybody and treated everybody the same, without any judgement. My luggage was left by my bench, but I felt quite safe about it. The "highlander" had decided to be my body guard and ever since both he and Tiago looked after both me and my luggage. At one point a beggar came up to me to beg for money - but then my body guard immediately told him to leave me alone. After that we were playing "football", we had fun, we were laughing and we kept warm ! Also many of the people watching were smiling and laughing. The whole atmosphere in the station was loving ! happy ! joyful !
Two policemen who were looking after the station came up to us and had no comments as long as we kept our game within reason. After a few hours it was time for a break and we sat down to rest. Quite a few alchoholics and hobos were sitting there with their cheap wine - all of them very friendly and kind. I was offered cherrywine from a just opened bottle, they gave me flowers (you see them in the picture) and they presented themselves very politely. One of them showed me a photo of himself as a handsome young man who had been an officer in USA for 20 years !... I could not help wondering what had happened to him in life that led him to as a 60 years old now live in a train station, wearing smelly scruffy clothes and drinking alcohol... Still he seemed happy enough accompanied with a few other mates, all of them sharing the bottle of cheap but strong wine...
A man in his early forties came up to me, smiled and pointed at his mouth - and I understood that he was hungry. Luckily I still had two sandwithces in my bag and offered him one. He was really happy about it and I watched him eat - enjoying every mouthful and chewing for ages, having only one visible tooth in each jaw !
After a break we started playing "football" again. Tiago had told me that he is 21 and came to Poland recently to make a career as a professional footballplayer. And he showed me a photo of himself together with the famous football-player Ronaldino ! He certainly knew how to do the tricks, jumping up on chairs and steps, still keeping the "football" in between his feet. This evening Tiago had come to the train station to go to the Information office but it was already closed. Then he had met his friend the "highlander" and finallhy ended up spending the whole night in the train station. He said he felt this night was very special - not like any other night - and so special that he would have to write something about it after... Exactly what I had already been thinking - that I would have to write about this night in my new blog. It felt like everybody in the train station, maybe 30 people, were one family and really cared about each other...
Love and peace......And there was never a dull moment!
The woman in the picture, on Tiago's knee, was nooooooot sober ! While playing "football" she fell several times, and once she really banged her head and kept lying there. Another one of the "drunks" lifted her up and carried her to a bench. Where her head had been was a big pool of liquid - and first I believed it was blood ! However all of a sudden I saw her helper drying off his wet pants. He had a can of beer in his pocket and as he bent over to lift her up -he spilt most of it over both the woman and himself !!!
As time went - too quickly - it got close to the time for my train to depart - Tiago had decided to accompany me on the train all the way to Poznan ! Actually in the end both the "highlander"man and Tiago did so - and this is how it happened that four hours later I arrived in Poznan together with my personal two body guards - and my daughter Desirée met us at the station. The four of us had a nice time together - and then "highlander"- man and Tiago catched the train back to Warszawa again.....
Before we parted, I told Tiago that I will expect to see him on the television when he has fulfilled his dreams and become a successful professional football-player.....
