After a 3 km walk and some significant trouble communicating where I wanted to go, I ended up with a ticket from Auschwitz to Katowice (“Cat-o-witsa”) to start the next leg of my intended journey to Csejthe Castle in Slovakia. As I got on the train, my ears perked to the sound of English being spoken in the car to my right, and I so I turned in that direction to see two young women stowing their gear. Tentatively, i piped up and said, “Hi, sorry, I heard English... can you tell me if this train is for sure heading to Katowice?” They confirmed that it was, and when I asked if I could join them in the car (it would be nice to speak without struggling through Russian, a small amount of German, and English), they consented, so I plopped down across the aisle from them and got comfortable. It’s about a two hour train ride from Auschwitz to Katowice, so we had plenty of time to talk, and they were both delightful. Their names are Cainna (“Kay-nah”) and Linda, and they are Forensic Accountants for the Washington DC branch of Price Waterhouse Coopers. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what “forensic accountants” were either, so they explained that they go in and consult with companies who think that they might have problems (either due to criminal activity or just generally poor book-keeping), and then hire these ladies to come in and audit, provide process flow expertise, etc. It sounds like a pretty cool gig, and they said that they had been in Poland working with a client since early September. They have chances to get out for “day trips”, like coming to Auschwitz, but spend most of the time heavily immersed in the work they are doing (they had lap-tops and documents ready for work on their next leg of the journey back to Warsaw). Cainna (on the left) grew up in Tampa, just outside of where Sami and I lived when we did our internship with Coca Cola, and Linda (on the right) grew up in Ghana, West Africa.
Monday, October 08, 2007
New Friends: Cainna and Linda
After a 3 km walk and some significant trouble communicating where I wanted to go, I ended up with a ticket from Auschwitz to Katowice (“Cat-o-witsa”) to start the next leg of my intended journey to Csejthe Castle in Slovakia. As I got on the train, my ears perked to the sound of English being spoken in the car to my right, and I so I turned in that direction to see two young women stowing their gear. Tentatively, i piped up and said, “Hi, sorry, I heard English... can you tell me if this train is for sure heading to Katowice?” They confirmed that it was, and when I asked if I could join them in the car (it would be nice to speak without struggling through Russian, a small amount of German, and English), they consented, so I plopped down across the aisle from them and got comfortable. It’s about a two hour train ride from Auschwitz to Katowice, so we had plenty of time to talk, and they were both delightful. Their names are Cainna (“Kay-nah”) and Linda, and they are Forensic Accountants for the Washington DC branch of Price Waterhouse Coopers. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what “forensic accountants” were either, so they explained that they go in and consult with companies who think that they might have problems (either due to criminal activity or just generally poor book-keeping), and then hire these ladies to come in and audit, provide process flow expertise, etc. It sounds like a pretty cool gig, and they said that they had been in Poland working with a client since early September. They have chances to get out for “day trips”, like coming to Auschwitz, but spend most of the time heavily immersed in the work they are doing (they had lap-tops and documents ready for work on their next leg of the journey back to Warsaw). Cainna (on the left) grew up in Tampa, just outside of where Sami and I lived when we did our internship with Coca Cola, and Linda (on the right) grew up in Ghana, West Africa.
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