Thank you, Tosh and all. My father is quite upset right now because things are so uncertain.
Sorry I've been quiet. It's insane over here. A week has just passed since the plane crash- sirens and church bells sounded this morning at 8:56.
Warsaw is overflowing with people, I've never seen such crowds. It has been a week and the streets are full.
There are grave candles and flowers everywhere. People stand in line to see the casket of the Presidential couple for as long as 13 hours. I know some didn't make it before the viewing times were over- there will be a mass and ceremony in Warsaw today, and the funeral is in Kraków tomorrow.
I have a train ticket to go there, but the police have closed off certain streets, including the one where I'm supposed to be staying. I'm not sure if they will let me through.
Yesterday another plane full of coffins arrived, our neighbour's among them. We see it all on tv, they transmit every return. Soldiers bring them out, one by one, and set them on makeshift catafalques on the tarmac as an orchestra plays Chopin's funeral march. Then the families welcome their dead home.
Then the coffins are driven across town to the sports stadium- because where else can you place nearly a hundred caskets? After the mass today they will be taken across the country to wherever their families wish to bury them.
Yesterday, we buried the first one- his name was Ryszard Kaczorowski and he was our last
President in Exile. I took a photo of a scene dripping with symbolism, but moving in a very honest and straightforward way:
Let me explain.
The body has just been taken into the Sacred Cross Church for its funeral mass.
This church (a basilic actually) is special.
Look at the Christ figure draped in the Polish flag. There is an extremely famous photograph of that same figure, taken during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944:
http://pl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 0127023655
Fallen among the rubble, Christ still points at the heavens.
Today, only those with special passes can attend the mass, the rest can only pay their respects with a moment of silence outside. This frail, elderly woman standing watching is wearing a white and red AK armband. AK stands for Armia Krajowa, the
Home Army, the Polish resistance movement of WW2.
This woman fought for our freedom. Her armband says 'Komenda Główna', which means Headquarters. She was an officer.
More pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cefeida/se ... 747372859/ and in my sister's photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samolot/se ... 841787696/
(cross-posting this to other forums where I've talked about this)