Poland's Broken Dream

Poland’s Broken Dream

It was the mid-June or July, I had been in the middle east, Kuwait to be exactly. I had been on the Kuwait national football team which is where I met guy who told me about Poland and sold me the dream of this great place, which he ended up being one of my greatest friends later. Late June or early July I was on a plain headed to Sopot the party/vacation city of Poland. I went from a soggy, muggy, dusty, heavy heats over 125 degrees Fahrenheit to mountains of green land, moisturized air, so refreshing it just felt healthier.

My first three months in Poland were hell. If it wasn’t woman, or football practice I was in the crib, or if I went out I was deep with people from the football team, house mates or people I met through Samir in V.I.P sections, we always had someone we knew there, we did it all but that’s all later. As soon as I touch down in Poland, and as I’m bringing my luggage to the car, Sammi has me sit down al dramatically and hands me a corona extra with a lime. I all most cried. In Kuwait, it’s illegal to drink anything with alcohol in it, face automatic jail time. So, this beer was so delicious, you couldn’t tell me anything at that moment. Samir AKA Sammi, the half Kuwaiti/Polish guy that sold me the dream of Poland forgot to tell me how racial the country was. So, he shows me around the new city of Sopot, the city that will be living in. That same night we go and party, we’re ready to go. In Kuwait having a party was illegal, so there were many secret parties, or tent parties out in the desert.

Anyway, so let me say this, European woman love black or multi mixed guys because I received a lot of love and a whole entity of hate and jealousy. Just pure hate at times and seen racist acts in first person. Now I’m twenty-two, now I was always live, “ready”, didn’t take lip from no one. At times, I wanted to fight. I believe that night we ended up leaving Sopot, to go to a house party out Gdynia. Now let me paint this picture for you, it took thirty minutes to an hour to get there first, as we’re walking down the side walk and Sammi busts a right between some bushes that covered a wide dirt pathway that was half a mile or deeper, with no lights, and going away from the sidewalk that had lights. I immediately said to myself I can’t lose, whatever happens I must make it out because if they get me who knows what they’ll do, and they fight with hate, pure hate that you can feel and see. So, we finally make it to the house, we get in and I purposely didn’t talk to any girl that even looked like they had a boyfriend or came with a guy, just so we wouldn’t get in any altercations. So, I’m moving around all smooth and with the confidence of being the new guy in Poland and we find no girls. We came to the end of our Pewo (polish for beer), fifteen minutes in these two polish dancer girls came in, best friends actually, they grew up dancing with each other from grade school to young adults. Now these two polish girls always wanted fun and love twerking, they have a twerk team and dance class they taught. For a moment, I caught one of their eyes as her and her friend were making their way from the drive way inside, I knew because the way Karoline’s eyes laid on me she like different things, they didn’t like the typical polish guy, they loved to speak out of their native language to make themselves seem they were from somewhere else and loved men of color. We ended up crossing ways again and again and ended up chilling with them on the roof the whole night. Everything was great, it was a good vibe, Sammi was doing his thing with the other friend named Silvia, and I had Karolina. An amazing body, cute face, Five-five in height, and just in love with me. The talks became better, drink started to finish and talks became deeper, so we all decided let’s leave and go to Sopot, Ego & Kango Bar, were my two clubs I stayed in.

Now by this time I’m feeling really good, but very aware if everything around me; I got a girl under me, I’m feeling great, and everyone that was inside the house was either out or coming out which almost moved use to the dirt lot like at the end of cul-de-sac. There was a guy from six’ three to six’ four, average size, but kept looking at me and Karoline and muddling words and finally Sammi heard him and explained to me he was calling me a Black Bitch. The only reason was because I was with Karoline and he could see she really wanted me.

Adrenaline mixed with drinking almost makes you feel invincible, so when my boy told me what polish works he was using I confronted the guy which was two body spaces away. I asked, “So what do you keep calling me?”, and before he could get half way through with his words I laid the guy clean out, which created a mountain of people I had to then battle. It was as if I had poked a spider that had been carrying all 100 of its babies then seeing them all disperse towards you. At the end of knocking out six to eight or more guys, the girls I was leaving with hurried and got their car to then get and Sammi out of there but found myself crying over what just had happened and realized it was all cause of the color of my skin and facial features that they didn’t like me.

Ego or Kngo Bar, by this time I’m well known with the bar tender, host, security guards, the whole nine yards. So, I’m at the bar downstairs from Ego called, “Na Druga Nuzka”, and I’m leaving after drinking a beer when these two buff polish guys come up and just start speaking polish. By know I know a lot and speak polish when I’m drunk lol, and he’s rambling about fighting me, when little does he know I’m with an entourage of people. So, I cut him off and simply ask, “look do you want to fight me or something?”, “Tak”, which means yes in polish, “Ok are you sure though?”, before he could finish saying yes, I hit him so fast he fell out of the hallway to the outside area, the door had sensors so they opened as he was falling.

I never thought racism was still here in 2014 to 2016. From stares, to just the way people spoke or looked when seeing me with a native girl. The woman were great, but the men were so over protective of their woman that even if she didn’t know them and wanted to leave with me or another mixed male they still wanted to interfere. Being different is a plus and negative, even though I was different I learned the language, tried speaking with people, I lived with them, I basically submerged into the polish life style which people saw and respected. Which didn’t make me look like some snobby American that felt he was better than them, so people were drawn to me, even some that didn’t like blacks or colored people told me I was there exception. As time passed people started to leave me alone as my network became bigger. Ok, now before all that, remember that corona? So Sammi took me to his grandma’s she cooked this potato and chicken breast meal that was awesome, then showed me the place I’d be staying at. Being that I could speak a lick of polish, I took it to with the trust in Sammi. Anyway, it was horrible. It was like a college campus apartment with no space. It was like the 2009 Chowan dorm rooms but for three people. As soon as you walk in and step to your right, you’re in the kitchen, from just walking in again, two to three steps forward and you’re in the hallway. My room, the ugliest room of all three, I had the worst room because mine was in between the bathroom and the middle room. I could take four steps and be at the end of my room, there was no storage, or a place to put my luggage, so I had to stack it in the corner of this small room. I also had a couch/bed so that helped cover my luggage at times.

Andersa is the name of a street I’ll never forget, out of the four places I’ve lived at, Andersa is what created a whole new animal. Playing American football in Europe, made me feel like a god, on top of all the love I was receiving. Woman there knew when the new group of athletes/imports were coming in, and where they would be. It was wild how some of these women worked and moved from athlete to athlete. The more Americans that came the more it pissed of the natives in the cities. Now this made it hard to have a good time when you can see groups a guy’s starring at you because of the polish girl all over you. From house parties on Andersa, to the clubs on Moncheck, it was like Sopot never slept, not that I lost any of my fights, but the more I partied the higher the probability of me getting into a fight, and it started to become cumbersome, more so for the reason how my fights started, and I was never angry. Having a martial arts background really showed me how to control myself, to be disciplined, and to fight when only necessary.

As I kept playing football, I later on began teaching and tutoring English to young polish students, modeling for a private vender and working for a company in Poland call Transcom that had a RayBan department I was working in for a couple of months. Surround myself with polish people every day made me process things differently, I couldn’t think the same, I couldn’t move the same, and adapted a European persona that helped me transition in. As I stated I was well known, so people knew what time it was, but I also didn’t want to create anymore unknown enemies.

Even though it was 2013/2014, you’d think racism would have been extinct by now but I was also in Poland, I saw why colored people were spectated because at times I caught myself at awe over seeing a black person because of how rare it is to see one or a group. I’ve live in four cities of Poland and each had its own way of involving me but the same outcome for most. I learned I couldn’t think the same way anymore. Out thought process was so different of a Europeans or polish I should say, that it baffles me at the different concerns they had were extreme in their views but to me or an average American seemed so unimportant or thoughtless. They also seemed to be behind of time, or at this slow pace of development, technology, fashion, race but claim to love America, with New York as their dream place to be in.

Everywhere you go you have to adapt or you won’t survive. Every place has a place and bad area. Learning how to maneuver around and with people is the biggest difference between life and death in some countries. Always get engulfed and submerged yourself in the people, the culture and language, because whether you know or not people are always watching especially outsiders. Positive views from the outside bring

-Isaiah G.A. Cruz