My Introduction to Poland

As often is the case with my job, I didn't find out I would be traveling to Poland until a few days ahead of time. Sometimes these trips are the most interesting; the ones where there is no chance to study or build up any expectations ahead of time. You just get plopped down in the middle of a country and there you are. I had never exactly dreamed of coming here before, but now that I'm here, I thought I would share some first impressions. Granted, the trip from Berlin to Zielona Gora (Green Mountain) and my 24 hours of exposure to Polish hotels and my business partners here don't exactly qualify me as an expert, but thought you might like to hear my thoughts anyway.

Living in Holland, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the first thing that strikes you when driving through the western Polish countryside is large amount of open land. Forests with tall thin pines, and prairies with what looks like little other than grass. The kind of countryside where you'd want to build a log cabin and retire to! Passed one turkey farm (it appears to be a popular meat on the hotel menu as well), and lots of picturesque little villages that are in various states of disrepair, but look to be quite proud nevertheless.

The Polish language itself is sort of halfway between Russian and German, with lots of recognizable roots hidden among all the c's, z's and k''s. And quite unpronounceable for me. :-)

The road from Berlin to Zielona Gora is highway up to the German border, and little more than a two-lane country road in Poland (in reasonable but not fantastic condition). The town of Zielona Gora is not known for much other than its wine festival, and even that is on the decline, because the climate is changing and the grapes no longer like to grow here. They are quite proud of the new business hotel in town, which is small but offers modern and clean conveniences. We ate a tasty and reasonably priced meal in the hotel last night (fresh green pea soup and venison and mushroom stew), and the breakfast buffet this morning was filled with small local delights and was quite nice.

My business partners here appear to work long hours and have a strong work ethic, but like China, the level of organization and management seems to be less than one would expect in a major international company... things are a bit chaotic. Might just be this company, though. :-) They are excellent hosts, though, and very hospitable. They serve tea and coffee out of proper and lovely Polish china. :-)

Polish people appear humble, hard working, friendly, and curious. As a society that had been under oppressive rule for many decades, I can understand the sort of enthusiastic but cautious approach to the outside world. There seem to be only a few international companies in this part of Poland (Shell and Tesco are the two I noticed... both British or Dutch). Between communism, catholicism, and being relatively rural, the people appear to be very sober by nature. My colleague and I will see tonight if we can find any excitement happening in town.

So that's my superficial first impression of the country. Still quite virgin (nothing like over-developed Germany or Holland), hospitable, friendly, and still trying to transition from communism to their new status as a full member of the European Union.

Whooping Cough

After a short cold, I mysteriously started having coughing fits that would last for minutes at a time, followed by an inability to breath and nausea. The medical profession failed to correctly diagnose him, but he got on the internet and found the surprising diagnosis... Pertussis, otherwise known as Whooping Cough.

I could hardly believe it. The doctor's (three of them) all wrote it off as a virus. But I can't blame them too much, because unless you are around to hear the painful and exhausting coughing fits a whooping cough patient has, then it's hard to come up with this diagnosis. They refused to give me antibiotics (Dutch doctors would rather prescribe codeine than something that would actually help), but it probably would have been too late anyway. The actual disease sticks around for only a short time. But the damage it leaves behind is what causes the real problem and can last for months. In Chinese it's called the "100 Days Cough".

What is whooping cough? It's caused by a bacteria and you become infected by breathing in the airborne droplets of someone else who's infectious. Known mostly as a childhood disease (a falsehood), and thought to have been mostly knocked out by aggressive worldwide vaccination programs (wrong again), it's actually on the rise, and appears to engender local epidemics once ever 3-5 years. Indeed, shortly after I found out I had it, the front page of the newspaper announced there was an epidemic in The Netherlands. I'll never know where I got it, but I suspect it was at my neighbors' wedding where numerous small children were in attendance. Many parents in Holland have stopped vaccinating their children this year because there were reports that the vaccinations were either dangerous or ineffective. It's thanks to them that I got this. In children it can be deadly. In adults it's mostly just a very scary pain in the ass.

Now almost two months along, I've stopped taking codeine and am down to only several fits per day. I've managed to avoid the broken ribs some patients get from the violent coughing, but I have a perpetually sore throat no matter what I do. Otherwise I feel perfectly fine and have worked throughout the entire period.

So how do you survive this disease? There's really nothing you can do other than take a cough suppressant in the severest phase. Nevertheless, I seem to have developed somewhat of an ability to relax when I'm having a fit and stop it before it gets too bad. I usually put my palm to my chest (reflex action) and just relax. A curious side effect of this technique is that I invariably have a single sneeze every time I do this. Have yet to figure out why.