April 18, 1940

My phone reminded me today that on this day my Grandfather (My Mother's Father), Lt. Adam Jakubiec, was executed by Russians in the Katyń Forest.

Although we do not know the exact date of his execution, 18th day of April each year - based on his last letter written to his wife - my Grandma - I accept as the official date to celebrate in a special way the gift of his life.

I wrote a piece in May 2010 on this topic (one month after the tragic event of Smoleńsk tragedy), so I would like to refer you to that post: http://kiabakarisnippets.blogspot.com/2010/05/one-month-and-seventy-years.html

Please, say a prayer for the repose of the soul of my Grandfather.

I have still one thing to do - to go to Katyń Forest myself and to celebrate a Holy Mass for his and all those slaughtered there seventy six years ago... I truly ask the Lord for the grace of this journey to the grave of my Grandfather.

May he and all his compatriots buried in Katyń Forest and elsewhere in Russia - rest in eternal peace!

Missionary Of Mercy

Please, pray for me!

Memory Is Our Homeland Project - Important News

This post is a follow up on the project "Memory is our homeland" of which I wrote two years ago in this blog (click here). I am very happy that things are moving forward in the project. Below is the full letter I have received this morning from Jonathan. I will be very happy if you could spare a few minutes of your kind attention to read it carefully and act on it. Jonathan needs our support. The story he so passionately wants to narrate in his movie is very important part of our Polish history and must be preserved for next generations. I would be very grateful if we could support this project in any way we can - either by prayer and well wishes or through donations. Let us come together to help this young, caring and dedicated filmmaker to fulfill his dream and the need of his heart.

Jonathan's letter:

To the friends, family, and supporters of Memory Is Our Homeland,

I hope this email finds you all well. I figured it was a good time to send out a bit of an update on my film project. Almost four years after my first trip to Poland and Belarus in 2010, there have been many ups and downs to get here, but the project has now been picked up by a producer, here in Montreal, who is going to help me try and find the funding to complete it. There's still work to do, but I wanted to let you all know where I'm at, and thank you for helping me get this far.

If you're receiving this email, you should know that it's because I count you among those who’ve made an important contribution towards helping me work on something that feels both like a long-standing dream and a family obligation. Whether it's through a financial contribution that's helped me travel or work on the film, helping with translation, shooting, or photographing, or support in the form of a meal or an encouraging conversation, you've each had a role in helping me work on something that's bigger than me. If I'd known at the beginning how much work it would be to get to this place I would have found it daunting, but it's your support that's helped me stay with it.

People don't make documentaries to get rich quickly, they do it because they have something that needs to be said, even if it takes time. Over the last four years, I've travelled to England, France, Tanzania, Kenya, Amsterdam, Germany, and Poland in search of a story that belongs not only to me and my family, but to countless others. I've interviewed more than 20 people, been in touch with hundreds of others, and share these stories with many, many more. And after being able to travel to Belarus, and stumbling upon the village where my grandmother was born, I was even able to find people who fondly remembered my great-grandparents and their family.

Whatever reception this film may have when it’s done, it already feels like an accomplishment to have gotten this far. It feels significant to have been able to reassure my grandmother, before she passed away, that not everything had been lost when she was deported as a child: the memories had endured. I am grateful to have been able to give those who shared their stories with me a sense that they were being heard and documented. To see the trailer, that shows some of their stories and how the film is coming together, please visit this link: https://vimeo.com/99573982

As for the good news, a few weeks ago I signed a contract with a Montreal-based producer named Frederic Bohbot to find the funds to complete the film. Frederic runs Bunbury Films (http://www.bunburyfilms.com), a production company that won an Oscar a few months ago for a documentary called "The Lady In Number 6". He's the perfect producer for this project: smart, savvy, respectful of the story and my approach, and even a graduate of Eastern European and Soviet Studies. In Poland, we will also be working with producer who has worked with the Andrzej Wajda Film School and The Polish Film Institute. 

Having these people onboard with the project is a huge step, and we hope to have funding sorted out by this autumn. Frederic has applied to the Canadian Media Fund (a TV broadcaster-supported fund), and met with several Canadian and American broadcasters, and we should hear back by September. In the mean time, he is willing to put his equipment and his expertise at my disposal, towards continuing the work, until we secure financing. 

In the immediate future, my goal is to spend the next couple of months working on it, and getting to Europe this summer to work on the film, since there are important interviews to shoot in the winter. To that end, I am looking to find the means to travel to Europe, and to cover the expenses of a small shoot in Poland and Belarus. With equipment in place, and translators and a cameraman in Poland willing to work for free, I just need to find a way to make my way over there. I’m asking for help to figure out how to do that, so if you know people who can help (or have travel agents in the family, or air miles you won’t use!), please let me know. If you know of people who might be able to figure out how to get me there, please let them (or me) know. There are only two months to cover until we hear back about funding, but they are important ones. Any ideas are appreciated!

In the end though, what I am contacting you for is to say thank you again. Please take the time to check out the short trailer. It's just over 2 minutes out of 50 hours that I've shot in North America, Europe, and Africa in the last several years, but it's a good representation of what it is I've been trying to do, and of the people whose stories I've been trying to tell: https://vimeo.com/99573982 

And it's partly thanks to all of you that I've been able to do it. 

Warm wishes,

Jonathan 

The movie trailer:

Memory Is Our Homeland (Short teaser trailer) from Memory Is Our Homeland on Vimeo.

Friends

No, it won't be about that famous soap opera (whatever you call these never-ending TV series). It is about today which has become suddenly, unexpectedly a day enriched with expected and unexpected friends and guests visiting me.

Tears Away

Once I read somewhere that when someone hurts you, then God will send someone else to wipe your tears away. I have experienced this phenomenon of God's love and tenderness today in an amazingly simple and elegant way.

The Inner Child

Today the world celebrates International Children's Day. This is a day which touches all of us. Not only our kids. But also us, adults and elderly, as we walk down the memory lane, trying to discover when and how exactly we lost that innocent inner child in us? The child that Jesus Himself wants us to become anew under a threat of losing the right to enter the Father's House in heaven - "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 18:3).

The Holy Father John Paul II wrote once a Letter to Children. He noted that "It is true that a child represents the joy not only of its parents but also the joy of the Church and the whole of society. But it is also true that in our days, unfortunately, many children in different parts of the world are suffering and being threatened: they are hungry and poor, they are dying from diseases and malnutrition, they are the victims of war, they are abandoned by their parents and condemned to remain without a home, without the warmth of a family of their own, they suffer many forms of violence and arrogance from grown-ups. How can we not care, when we see the suffering of so many children, especially when this suffering is in some way caused by grown-ups?"

 We are all aware, painfully aware, what is going on around us, in the Church and in the society we live in...How many of us betrayed not only that innocent child in us, but also in little ones depending on us, trusting us, pastors, parents, formators, teachers, leaders, neighbors with their pure innocence...

We need to write a new letter to our children, asking them for forgiveness, making reparation for what we have done wrong, healing wounds, restoring confidence and hope with our own conversion and penance, fighting with all forms of injustice, abuse, discrimination, child labor, you name it, making sure that we and the world we live in is becoming a true warm family home for all kids around the world...


How about following an example of the Holy Father or President Barack Obama (who wrote a letter to his girls) or others who did so as well, starting with a simple letter in our own handwriting and addressed to our own children and children we are close to, explaining how we feel about them? How about including these seven key words, long forgotten for so many, and so important for the proper formation of the child, like:

1. Love

2. Appreciation

3. Joy

4. Pride

5. Cherished Memories

6. Hope

7. Faith in the child



These seven magic words can become a cure for seven deadly sins we've committed as a Church and Society which in consequence hurt our children...

Sicilian artist Manfredi Beninati - Palermo 3 (I love his works)

So, grab your crayons, unlock your inner child, innocent and pure, and write the letter to your children - in words, in heart and in your attitude...

Technology Leap

Where are we heading? I wonder...

When I arrived first to Tanzania in January 1991, things in technology and communication field were galaxies apart from what we have now at our disposal...

The only means of communication back then was a simple humble letter which I wrote to my parents, drove 40 kilometers to Musoma Post Office, posted it and waited for three weeks to get home to them. Then another three weeks of patient wait for their reply to get back to me, driving to Musoma to check the box in the Post Office from time to time...aaah, a genuine school of patience!

Oh, yeah, I forgot about a phone. In order for 'ET phone home' thing, I had to inform the operator that I wish to call home. Then waited till he/she succeded in connection. It could take a few minutes up to a day or two in bad cases...

Now, at this very moment, I'm in my bed typing this post on my iPhone and - once I'm done - will send it via email and it will show on my blog as a post! Technology leap of cosmic proportions in a span of twenty years!

The other day a friend of mine asked a question on Facebook: 'Who else is using a laptop while sitting in a  toilet?' Give me a break! Yet it was a quite sincere inquiry...And....surprise, surprise! He got a lot   acknowledgements! Looks like we are many these days not only reading books, newspapers or magazines while in a chamber...things have become more severe - texting, calling, internet browsing, working on spreadsheets, reports etc is a quite common feature now...

Hmmm, think about those muscle cramps sitting for long time doing some serious work on a laptop forgetting you are long done down there...yikes!

Ok, at least I won't have any muscle cramps composing this message. Set horizontally and comfortably in bed, watching some funny YouTube video on the phone in the meantime, replying to emails, sending texts
all over the world and listening to some soothing music I downloaded on iTunes...

Imagine, what you can do these days with this mobile phone thingy! Online banking, sending and receiving money, paying for utilities, gaming, working on office applications, keeping up with your tight schedule using clever notes/to-dos/calendar applications, checking weather forecast wherever you want to, chatting, taking photos and videos and posting them online, you name it!

I need to pinch myself from time to time to remind myself that I am still in the same place where I was writing those simple, humble letters and waited for six weeks to get a reply...just two mere decades ago...

Yet, sadly, those days, when I really felt so far far away from home are gone forever...and with them that feeling of adventure and survival mode kind of a missionary life...


Ok, where is this 'send' button? Ah, yeah, right here...

Catch you later! Over and out!