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4 A Dream Come True
- University of Namibia Press
- Chapter
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ADreamComeTrue ‘Where is this place, Poland?’ I asked myself when I heard about the scholarship. But I told myself ,‘I want to study Medicine and here is this opportunity; whether I know the place or not I am going!’ I vaguely remembered that during the Second World War there was a story about the war in Warsaw but I didn’t really know where it was (Eastern Europe). I was told that that I would first have to do Chemistry, Physics, and Biology for a year and learn Polish at the same time, and if I passed these subjects then I could enter medical school. I jumped with joy and accepted the offer, because I was determined to become a doctor. I knew that if I worked very hard I could make it. I didn’t think Biology would be a problem; I had studied Biology at Augustineum and also as part of my correspondence course after returning from South Africa Extensive preparations were necessary, which included getting visas to enter Poland. But first the Tanganyika authorities had to issue us with travel documents because Namibians were regarded as stateless and we had no national documents such as passports. By December 1962 we were ready to start our journey. We were joined by two Zambian students and took the flight on the Polish airline LOT to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. We landed early in the morning the next day in very cold weather. Whilst Lusaka was in the middle of summer, and Dar es Salaam was perpetually hot and humid, Warsaw was in the middle of winter, so the contrast was huge, particularly the difference in temperature. None of us had ever heard of or seen snow before. When we walked off the plane I thought, what cold white sand this place has. In fact it was snow! My male colleagues were dressed in their safari suits. I was lucky to have my beautiful warm coat from Swakopmund, but even that was no match for a Polish winter that can go down to minus 15 degrees. In Namibia temperatures in winter rarely drop below minus 2 degrees Centigrade. 31 A Dream come True As soon as we disembarked, a bus whisked us off to a department store, where we were given warm but heavy coats, and strong boots. I’m sure the pilot must have radioed the ground staff at Warsaw airport telling them that there were young Africans on board who would freeze to death if they touched down in their summer clothes, because the bus came to the plane when it stopped and we got in and went immediately to the store. Poland was grey and cold but the people who met us were warm and friendly. They seemed to be in shock seeing us dressed so lightly but we had serious problems walking in those heavy clothes and shoes, and struggled through the snow that was up to our knees. Lodz After spending a night in Warsaw, we were put on the train to Lodz, the small town east of Warsaw that was our destination. Lodz was where the Polish Language School was and it had also some universities and a medical school. We were late arrivals at the school since classes had actually started in September. Poland was very cold and it was dark by 3pm. The Polish people found it strange that we prepared for bed as soon as it got dark as we would do in Africa, whilst they would go out or go shopping. I missed the greenery of Africa, and there were no birds flying around, but during March, with the coming of spring, life returned, trees blossomed and the birds returned. A new culture shock was awaiting us: people started sunbathing, lying almost naked in the sun. I couldn’t understand the reason, but later I learnt that they wanted to get tanned and be darker skinned. This was because during winter, with the cold and dark days, people became ash white, and during summer they lay in the sun to get a sun tan and become darker, although of course not as dark as us Africans! This later prompted one of the African students who had a habit of coming late to class to tell the teacher that he was sunbathing when the teacher asked him why he had come late. The teacher answered him, ‘You are already so black you don’t need to sunbathe.’ We had fun...