The view of Plesa (Polish name Plesza) village that is inhabited in almost 100% by descendants of Polish emigrants. The village was colonised by Polish highlanders in 1835. They came to work in forests and farming.
Plesa village. Mrs. Wiktoria Smolka was born just after World War II. She regrets she is to old to milk a cow, and she had to give it up to her daughter Jadwiga Moldovan.
Plesa used to be called coopers village in the past. But it is not worth anymore to produce wooden barrels during era of plastic. Stanislaw Moldovan is one of the last coopers in the village.
Jadwiga Moldovan and her son Sergio are seen in the front of their house. Jadwiga and her husband Stanislaw had been working for six years in Spain before global crisis began.
Elzbieta Moldovan is a mother of Stanislaw. She used to look after Sergio when his parents work in forests in Sweden every sommer. Jadwiga used to plant trees and Stanislaw to cut them.
Poles attend Sunday service in Polish church in Solonetu Nou (Nowy Soloniec) village on 10 April 2011, the first anniversary of plane crash in Smolensk. The intention of the mass was peace of victims souls.
Polish children and youth get ready to a show of folk dance group Solonczanka in Polish House Club in Solonetu Nou.
The monument of pope John Paul II in Cacica (Kaczyka) village. The salt mine is seen in the background.
Poles from Bochnia inhabited village Cacica two hundreds years ago to work in the salt mine. Mr. Robert is descendant of Polish emigrants but he speaks Polish very little. Most of Poles in Cacica are assimilated.
The mainstay of Polish language and tradition in Cacica is Cehaniuc family. Krystyna Cehaniuc is the chairman of local Polish House organization and her husband Michal carries out the memorial book.
The lesson of Polish language in the senator Krystyna Bochenek school in Pojana Micului (Pojana Mikuli) village. Mostly boys are present. Girls went out to practice old tradition - po moiczku.
Krzysia and Teresa practice tradition - po moiczku. They visit Polish houses and sing Lent song commemorating crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They get money and eggs in return.
According to different sources there are between four and ten thousands descendants of Polish emigrants living in Romania. Most of them are settled in Bukovina, in small villages where Polish language is still spoken and old traditions are maintained.They started to arrive in search of work from different parts of Southern Poland during Habsburg Monarchy. Most of Poles living in big cities like Bucharest, Jassy and Constanta are assimilated. There are fears among Polish emigrant activists that Polish colonies won't survive in new reality of European Union. Many inhabitants of villages leave their homes in search of work in richer countries of EU and in Poland.
The reportage was created for Museum of Emigration that will be open in 2014 in Gdynia.
Przemysław Kozłowski