Polish buns in Shepherds Bush

In London, but thinking about Cornwall as we are just pulling together a team for the next round of workshops in school. am reminded of Ewa Cimochowska, who helped with workshops earlier this year, by the Polish bakery a few doors down the street from my office in Shepherds Bush.
Very interesting how pastries can have such a strong cultural stamp.
Ewa is a fantastic cook, as anyone who sampled her cheesecake at the Workshop we held at Truro Library will know...

News from Szczecin

Autumn is almost here. So nice to hear from Ewa Cimochowska, who has returned to Poland to care for her mother who has had a stroke. She has sent some photos of the city we often discussed in workshops in schools earlier this year.

Ewa says she's busy running her mother's business. But she and her husband Waldek have been relaxing at weekends - picking mushrooms in the forest. Funnily enough I was thinking of mushrooms at the weekend when I went to Budapest and saw women from villages at the central market selling them on stalls.  I wondered where these mushrooms grew...

Journeys made to and from Newquay...

Today's workshops are in Treviglas School, Newquay. It's the first day back after Half Term - a good day to be talking about journeys. Had anyone been away on holiday?

Vadim Hothova, from Southern England Farms, is here to help. Ewa Cimochowska has had to go back to Poland, with her husband Waldek, as her mother has had a stroke. We miss her - but Vadim steps bravely into the breach.

We're working with Year 9 students, as we have done elsewhere. This is a good and interesting cohort to work with. There are links to be made with other areas of the Curriculum. The classes we worked with today were going on to learn about the former Soviet Union, and Stalingrad, in history.
In some of the classes we spoke to, students did not quite know what the Soviet Union was - or had been.
It was relevant. Vadim explained how he, a Latvian, had a Russian heritage and had experienced difficulties at University because his professor - he felt - had made things difficult for Russians.

But first, we lay the groundwork for discussions. We tell the classes how we have been working elsewhere. Everywhere, people's responses have been different. In this school, in each of the three classes we work with, there are children whose parents have moved to Cornwall from overseas. We only realise this when they fill in answers to our initial questionnaire.... Have you ever made a journey? Have you ever lived in a country where you don't speak the language?
It's a school with a strongly 60s feel. A very familiar look to the place. Palm trees included. As a quick look at photos of Helston and Penair will reveal...

But all students are different. We handed out our questionnaire at the start. And most students found the last question the toughest: What is the most difficult thing you have ever done?
The answers were quite touching. A few students said living through their parents splitting up. Or facing up to the death of a grandparent.
But a surprising number said their most difficult experience - in life so far - involved leaving friends behind, and moving to a new place to start a new life.
This, of course, is exactly what Vadim had done.
We talked about his experience. He told us how it had been. In Latvia, he had studied medicine. He had been National Junior Ballroom Dancing Champion. But things had been tough. Sometimes he had worked 22 hours a day to make ends meet. I couldn't imagine how anyone could do that. What about 'night', and sleeping?
But apparently you can do that if you have two jobs, and sleep during your breaks at both. You can sleep for 20 minutes intervals during this time - if you are used to it.
But, clearly, it was not a life-style that could be sustained for long. Vadim moved to the UK. He worked on a flower farm in Cornwall before moving to SEF, where he works now. SEF, one of the UK's largest vegetable producers, is based near Leedstown. They grow cauliflower, cabbage, courgettes and spring greens on farms all over the county.

We also talked about other workers who had moved to Cornwall from overseas. The Portuguese, for example, who live in the Bodmin area and work at local meat processing factories. We showed photography by Tom Pilston. For the first time, we have students who recognise some of the places featured - Bugle, Roche and Bodmin.  One student recognises Bugle as his uncle has a butcher's shop there.
We look at the Portuguese suitcase, filled with items that Portuguese workers brought to Cornwall when they moved here to find work. We play the usual game of trying to work out the reasons for certain items. (There are no Portuguese in the class, but people make informed guesses).

Then Vadim reveals what he brought with him when he came to the UK.  He explains: detective novels. Sherlock Holmes in Russian.

Plus - a medal. This is a medal for fishing: another area in which he excels. A Catholic icon, given to him by his grandmother and a plaster angel, given to him by his girlfriend. The angel is a good luck charm. He carries it with him, wherever he goes (even when working).
Everyone has a good luck charm, it seems.
It is pouring with rain when we drive back.
On the way home, buy some delphiniums from a stall by the side of the road. Seasons change and so do the flowers. The daffodils, naturally, are long gone.

A misty morning in west Cornwall

A misty morning in west Cornwall for our first workshop directly with children of migrant workers and their friends. Children at Pool School have volunteered, in pairs, to attend.
We arrive first thing and work all day. Games first to break the ice. A prize for the pair building the highest tower.

People are so creative that we award a further prize for the most imaginative structure - architecturally.

Then we get to work, making cases of metaphorical journeys. Children have come from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to the school. Ewa Cimochowska, who has been helping throughout, has come along to help

People draw pictures from their journeys to this country. We discuss problems faced - difficulties and how were best tackled.   
We've brought our map suitcases to help things along - here pictured with new cases.

One of the aims of this workshop is to come up with an Action Plan, that might be used in this school and elsewhere to help new arrivals - children who don't speak English, find it tough to make friends and experience difficulties.
All sorts of suggestions are made...
It is a very lively team.

Who have their own ideas of how to brainstorm! They draw a picture of an imaginary Greek girl, called Luella, who arrives at the school.

Then imagine her thoughts and feelings.
A good day. Lunch in the school canteen and the first time for ages I have had chocolate sponge and custard.

Later call in at SEF (Southern England Farms) Leedstown, to see the four filmmakers whose film premiered at I Packed This Myself in Truro in March. We discuss future plans.

It's a fairly chilly early summer evening - slightly damp and the trees (just) in full leaf.

Drive past daffodils fields that are now being prepared for the next crop.

Meeting at Pool School, assembly at Richard Lander, then back to Camborne

An early morning meeting at Pool School with Ola Paluch (just arrived back in Cornwall after Easter in Krakow. A 33-hour trip by bus and train. She was due to fly on Saturday but her flight was cancelled because of the ash cloud). A cold morning but the palm trees look tropical. We plan a day-long workshop in May for migrant worker children in the school

Then a lunchtime assembly at Richard Lander School, Truro. Our third this week.

Ewa preparing...

And then back to Camborne to meet Andrew Yates, Social Responsibility Officer for the Diocese of Truro. He borrowed the suitcases for a workshop yesterday in Falmouth with industrial chaplains. A quick handover in the car park of the Elim Centre.

Summer term and back in Cornwall

Back in Cornwall as we have assemblies to deliver at Richard Lander School, Truro this week. Plus a meeting at Pool to discuss plans to work with migrant worker children there.

I cannot go to the assembly at Richard Lander as it coincides with the funeral of a dear Aunt (not far off - at the Crematorium in Truro.) It is a beautiful spring day.
Ewa holds the fort and does the assembly on her own. Will join her tomorrow afternoon for the next one.
Call in at Diocesan House to drop off three suitcases for Social Responsibility Officer Andrew Yates, who is doing a workshop with chaplains in Falmouth tomorrow.
And later drop in at SEF Leedstown to say hello to the English class which contributed so much to the exhibition and work at Penair School, Truro.
Try to call in at Reawla to buy milk on the way home but the shop is now closed in the evenings. This is a bitter blow. No option but to go to Lidl, Hayle.

Final touches at Penair and daffodil pickers working later

To Penair School, Truro, to put the final touches to I Packed This Myself, the exhibition opening there tomorrow night. We will be screening a film by four Lithuanian workers alongside work by artists on the theme of migration - as well as work by students.  Ewa and Waldek Cimochowscy help set everything out with Carmel Henry and Tanya Davies, the teachers who have worked so hard on the project. Their efforts have really borne fruit. Fantastic art  by students and very thought-provoking suitcases.

 

Ewa, Waldek and I have a meeting afterwards to discuss bookings for next term. We are keen to target schools with greatest needs and plan different strategies for different age groups. 

It is nearly dark by the time I near home - but the daffodil pickers are only just finishing. Can hear voices calling across the fields as the bus gets ready to drive everyone back to base.

Ewa's cheesecake recipe

This has been requested several times since our workshop at Truro Library in February. It is surprising that culinary vocab is so challenging! Folding in! Crumbling! Quite a lot of technical terms about rather subtle techniques. But here it is. It is extremely good.


BLACK AND WHITE CHEESCAKE
by Ewa Cimochowska

Cake:
- 0.9lb/400g of flour
- 6 tablespoons of sugar
- 3 teaspoons of vanilla flavouring
- 0.45 lb/200g  of butter 
-  teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 tablespoon of cocoa
- 2 tablespoons of sour cream 
cheese mixture :
- 2.2 lb/1 kg of Quark soft cheese
- 1.5 cup of sugar
- 4 tablespoons of melted butter
- 5 eggs ( yolks and whites separetly )
- 1 tablespoon of custard powder

Preparing a baking form: Butter the tin. Then dust the entire buttered surface with fine, dry bread crumbs (the kind you can buy at the supermarket or you can make them yourself) by turning the tin on its side and slowly rotating it. Invert the tin and shake out excess crumbs.


Mix cake ingredients together with your hands until well blended . Form into two balls and put into the refrigerator for half an hour. During this time prepare cheese mixture. Mix the egg yolks with sugar. Add cheese, melted butter and custard powder. Beat (on low to to low-medium speed) thoroughly, until completely smooth. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into the cheese mixture.   (You can also add a few raisins, if you wish.)


Crumble one of the dark cake balls coarsely into the baking form and spread evenly to create a base for your cake. Pour cheese mixture and crumble another dark ball of cake on the top. You can gently press the top dark cake into the cheese mixture so that they mix a little.


Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 . Put the cheesecake in the centre of the oven and bake for about an hour. The cheesecake is done when the middle layer is firm.  Let it cool completely on rack. It can be served after two or three hours, but ideally is left until the next day.

Creating new map boxes at Truro Library

A very gentle day after the meetings and discussions of last week... the opening of the newly refurbished Truro Library, Truro, Cornwall, and Ewa and I run a drop-in workshop in the Children's Library: I Packed This Myself: What's In A Suitcase? The space is large and airy: the children love making map boxes. And Ewa has made several plates of Polish cheesecake, which she hands around.

The map boxes, designed by the tireless David Cross. They are inspired by four suitcases, with maps of different stages of a journey, which have been created by illustrator Glyn Goodwin.  People can drawn their own maps, reflecting metaphorical journeys they have made, and then cut them up and make them into suitcases.  They can take them home and keep things in them. On the base of each box/suitcase is a key fact about migrant workers and migration. Abbie, aged five, is in the library with her mother and three-year-old brother, Jack, who eats a lot of cheesecake.  Abbie draws things that remind her of home in her suitcase.

 Visitors are very interested in the cheesecake and ask Ewa for the recipe. However she is busy with her own case
She does promise the recipe to one keen visitor, Mrs Vee Stott, who comes back several times for more (we will put the recipe in the post). It is interesting to find that the vocabulary for cooking is quite difficult. It's easy enough to come up with a list of ingredients - but expressions involving actions like 'separating the eggs', 'folding in', 'beating' ... are trickier.
Mrs Stott talks about English cake traditions, some of which are new to me. She tells Ewa about 'cut and come again cakes' - these are fruit cakes, intended to last for some time.
And the expression 'I'm going to straighten that up', which she thinks comes from Yorkshire. Her late husband used to say .e.g 'I'm going to straighten up that bread and butter pudding'. i.e. finish it off.
Later, Ewa and I go to the Cathedral next door for a cup of tea and our usual review meeting. Ewa sees a woman priest for the first time.

A review of the week....

A busy week but time this morning to reflect and sharpen the real focus of the project - the impact of migration. Hazel Blears, launching the Migration Impacts Fund in March last year:

"Migration brings significant benefits for this country. But it is a complex area never far from heated public debate. That is why we need an honest discussion about it, that acknowledges the local pressures which migration can create in our communities and on our public services."

We've found that it certainly excites heated public debate. Community hysteria in Pool last autumn, for example. I hesitate to put a link to this repellent column written at the time - but I suppose people could write to the Editor and ask why it was ever published.
We've also found
 - we need to refer constantly to the definition of migrant worker reached after consultation with Inclusion Cornwall i.e. someone who has come from overseas to work in this country, for economic reasons, and has been here for less than five years.
 - it also important to calibrate our workshops, according to whether there are migrant worker members of staff and the children of migrant workers in schools where we are working
-  crucial, too, is the presentation of the work done by migrants in this country. Manual labour is vital to keep the economy ticking.  Any intimation that this work is of any less 'value' than professional work needs to be avoided at all costs. A blog reader wrote to me about this, stressing that the value of manual labour should be emphasised at all times - and reactions against it avoided.
She is angered by "the attitude that 'Those that do that kind of work just aren't as good as me.'... 'I don't need to get my hands dirty.'... 'These people have nothing to do with me.'... 'I  have nothing in common with them.'... 'These people don't count'."

"I worked as a migrant labourer for four years. As an American in America.  And the words I remember: 'There's nothing I hate worse than an apple picker that can read' . This is not a migrant issue - it's a human issue. It's acknowledging and respecting every human's existence and contribution to this amazing Life on Earth."

Particularly successful this week was Ewa's bag, with her selection of possessions brought to remind her of home. Ewa in fact has been an inspiration - she has embraced the project passionately. She clearly has a campaigning spirit. Her father was a Solidarity activist. One of her earliest memories is of him returning home with his coat drenched with tear gas, and the whole family crying.

St Enoder, a meeting and a workshop at Richard Lander

Early for a meeting at Pentreath, a charity working on mental health issues. Take a walk around the graveyard at St Enoder and see snowdrops, clearly not deterred by the cold snap.
A good meeting with Tamsin and Magda at Pentreath - they are developing very active and engaged groups of BME women in the county. We wonder whether there are ways of linking up our work - it's not quite clear how  at the moment, but we agree to keep in touch. Very nice to see Magda, who featured in our film Short Stories from the Edge, a couple of years ago.
Then to Richard Lander School, Truro. A very inspiring quote in the carpark. "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the world." Archimedes.

And the spirit of the sculpture continues inside the school.  Citizenship head Vicky Downing is passionate about her subject and has inspired her class of 26 very able year 9 students who are taking their GCSE Citizenship two years early. 

Ewa comes with me to the workshop, with her husband, Waldek. We are all  hugely impressed by these children who have volunteered to come into the workshop after school - and will come again in a couple of weeks when we return to follow up. They are lively, engaged and articulate. We talk about the experience of migration and the things people carry with them in their cases when they set out on significant journeys. We talk about the suitcases created with migrant workers in Cornwall. 
And Ewa has brought a bag with things that she brought to the UK when she first came here four years ago. In it are a selection of objects. A book of Polish history.  A piece of amber, given to her by her grandmother. A wedding present, and a CD.

The students write lists of things that they would take if they decided to leave - or had to leave - Cornwall to start a new life.  Lots say they would take family photos, mobile phones, iPods, jewellery, favourite books...
Vicky starts a discussion. 
Why do they think that sometimes there is hostility against migrant workers?
Answer: "Because some people think 'they are taking our jobs'".
Fair enough - but isn't it the fact that migrant workers are often doing jobs that local people don't want to do?
Answers: "Yes, but people want to do 'interesting' jobs." "We have so much spoonfed and given to us, we think everything should be." 
What do people think about the role of the press - in particular the tabloid press? It seems to help drum up racist attitudes.
Answers: "People might be hateful because they don't know them (migrant workers). It's our responsibility to find out about other people."

Am only sorry that I missed seeing my old friend Russell Pascoe who has taught music at the school for many years. Next time. We are due back in a couple of weeks to continue the discussion.

Cold snap - does the daffodil picking begin? And more planning

The Western Morning News runs its annual photo of a smiling migrant worker daffodil picker in west Cornwall. The picking has started at long last, after the cold snap, it says.
However later in the day, the local TV news has a farmer near Truro as saying that the picking is slow.  Hear from local farming contacts that the cold weather isn't a bad thing for the crop - it extends the selling period, which is a good thing for everyone.  The Western Morning News says that Cornwall produces a fifth of the world's daffodils.
Ewa and I for the second time in a week drink coffee in a Tesco's cafe, this time in Pool after a meeting at the school where our planned assembly was cancelled yesterday. The migrant worker members of staff are reflecting on how they feel the issues could be tackled in the school, where there are several children of migrant workers. The message of I Packed This Myself is the experience of migration - it's a challenging message to get across, particularly to an audience that isn't particularly receptive.
Buy my own local daffodils (from the Scillies) from a petrol station in Hayle. They are Soleil D'Or and - apparently - sailors approaching the islands could smell them long before land was sighted.

Another Matosic show, repositioning in Pool and a meeting off the Liskeard bypass

Paul Matosic writes to tell me of another show - Ephemeral States.  These things come in bunches, as he says!
A tricky start to the day as our planned assembly in Pool, Cornwall, is cancelled. We had been invited to run four assemblies, one every morning this week, but two migrant worker members of staff (Polish and Lithuanian) expressed concern. The cancellation is a  blow - as this was one school where we had particularly wanted to work. It's an area where incidents of prejudice against migrant workers are well documented. There are several children of migrant workers in the school.
We plan a meeting for tomorrow to reassess our approach.

Then on, up the A30, to Liskeard for a meeting with  Judith Cook, who is monitoring the project funding (from the Migration Impacts Fund).
Then back to Roche for a meeting with Ewa to review the day's events and plan for the week and beyond.

Our first school assembly

Our first school assembly as we start to get things rolling. At Penair School, Truro, to launch the project in the school. Year 9 students will be working on related themes all term and - with other students - will be creating art work. Some, we hope, with migrant workers. The full I Packed This Myself exhibition will be on display there from 23 February 2010. And a formal launch party held on 23 March 2010. Watch this space for more details.

More than 1,000 children march into the gym with military precision. It is interesting that schools, like houses, have atmospheres. The atmosphere here is very positive, engaged and energetic. It's an impressive school. (I particularly like the way that they have photo albums in reception with pictures of different activities, Royal visits! and school trips.)
Ewa comes with me. She is originally from Gdansk, her father a Solidarity activist.  She has been in this country for four years, first working in a food processing factory in Dundee and then a medical supplies factory near Newquay. She tells the assembly about this work.
Later we sit in at a Citizenship class run by Carmel Henry, the driving force behind Penair's involvement with the project. Ewa is fascinated to learn that Cornwall has a long history of migration - that Cornish miners left the county to find work overseas. She says she'd like to go back to school.
Interesting to hear this - it's surprising. This is a major part of Cornish history and culture that Ewa didn't know about - and she's been here for four years.
Another indication, perhaps, of the way two communities - migrant worker and local communities - live side by side but don't necessarily interact socially and culturally.

The week's final meetings

At the Victoria Inn, Roche, with Ewa, a Polish worker, for a late morning meeting to discuss plans for I Packed This Myself. There is a cheerful funeral wake in the conservatory/restaurant. Someone is buying a bottle of champagne at the bar as we order coffee.
Then to Pool School, for a meeting to plan a small exhibition we plan there for next week.