Two ways, one destination
Poverty doesn’t always mean the lack of money. Sometimes a person can have it enough but still feels uncomfortable or even unhappy in his or her life. Why don’t the Europeans want to go back to their developed countries? And why don’t people from ex-soviet-union countries feel much better with Independence? Poverty can be not only in our wallets, but also in our minds.
Xavier is a 22 years old student from Lion, France. He came to Lublin (Poland) in October thanks to Erasmus program.
He already could speak Polish because he used to have a Polish girlfriend and he used to travel to Poland once a year since 2004. He likes it here because he feels really comfortable: he’s studying international affairs and has 2 scholarship, therefore has no need to work.
Eugenia was born in Belarus, not far away from Lithuanian border. She is 24 old student of English studies at KUL. She has Polish roots and also knew Polish before she arrived.
Lublin is popular place for immigrants from the East because of geographical position. Many Chechen’s have found new home here. Homo Faber organisation estimates number of refugees to about 3000. Many of them are having problems with language and don’t really participate in cultural life.
Eugenia, knowing immigrants life very well, has currently been involved as a volunteer in organization that helps people in refugee camps.
Many foreign students also have social exclusion problems while they stay in Lublin. University, shops and nearest bars-these are the places they spend most of their time. Students from programs like Erasmus stay together and know each other better, they don’t make many friends with local people. And this is how Xavier met Eugenia.
Both of them feel really good in Poland. They have no problems with communication because Polish people are very open and friendly. But still their lives are not so blissful. There was a time when they had to adopt to the new society. For example Xavier remembers a French stereotype saying “drink like a Polish guy”. Now he says: “this was not a stereotype, it is the truth”. He goes to parties with Polish friends but still can’t keep up with their drinking.
Eugenia has quite a different problem. In her mind she has always strongly associated Poland with church and religion. Before arriving to Poland she had an idealistic approach to it. As a result when she finally got here she experienced several cultural shocks. First of all, Polish people turned out to be not as religious as she had expected. Eugenia is a very believing person herself, therefore it was hard to accept that even at the catholic university there are many people who are not that strongly connected to the Church. She also found out that people in both our countries are not that different, their behaviour are actually very alike. At the time she is studied in Belarus she was sure that universities and teaching methods in Poland are much better than the ones she had in Minsk (although they were very professional). But when she finally started her linguistic studies in Lublin she felt disappointed that nobody cared about education level that much, and if they did, they didn’t really help students gather all the required material.
Xavier also mentioned this problem, he said that he always gets maximal marks although he learns nothing. He said this is happening because he is from Erasmus program and is studying in English. That’s why he doesn’t feel enough motivation. Talking about problems Xavier’s also mentioned hospitals and education system. Once when he broke his finger he had a lot of problems with medical service – for the whole day none was interested in helping him.
Nevertheless none of them wants to go back home. They can’t imagine their life without Poland and it’s not that hard to explain.
Xavier does not plan to go back to France because he felt really uncomfortable there. He said “French people are selfish and lazy. They don’t want to change anything. They are getting worse and worse each day but they keep on doing the same” and admitted that people in Poland are active and do everything to reach success.
Eugenia is unhappy with the political situation in her country therefore she also doesn’t want to go back home. She doesn’t feel strong enough to change anything in her fatherland. She would love to work with foreigners but is afraid she wouldn’t be able to find her desired job in such a closed country as Belarus.
These two people have found themselves far away from their homelands. Sometimes poverty has quite unusual faces – political system, uncomfortable society, misunderstanding. Maybe skipping out to another country is not the very best way out of it, but at least it can make one person’s life a little bit brighter. Xavier and Eugenia feel home here.
