On Saturday Mediateka hosted meeting with a famous Polish traveller Wojciech Cejrowski. Why he is famous? I don’t know, but I can guess – he travelled a lot, was in many scary, strange and unknown places on the Earth, wrote about his travels and… became famous!? But there must be something else… some kind of charisma. On Saturday’s evening I came to Mediateka, find a place (using my best skills, because there were a lot of people!) from which I could hear and see the traveller Cejrowski and also observe audience… There were more than 100 people sitting and standing and Wojciech Cejrowski took his audience in the first few minutes. Maybe it was because he set his own rules about this meeting, for example, he allowed make pictures just first three (five) minutes of meeting, and later it was forbidden. The audience obeyed him and even if there were some, who didn’t in the first few minutes, he convinced them.
I know that everyone, who wasn’t there wants to know what he talked about. Well, everything was in Polish, that’s why it was quite challenging to follow and understand everything. I catched few ideas, here they are:
- Communication is very important, and main channel of communication, which is wider, more opened, its eyes. We have just four main tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, so there is nothing more to talk about. Also gestures are limited and are not the same in all places in the world (example of “yes” and “no” in Poland and Bulgaria, where this gesture is opposite). So, it leads just to eyes as unique and universal communication channel, no matter in which language you speak.
- Verbal communication in the same language sometimes is impossible, for example between woman and man, because they have different ways of thinking, even nature of thinking is different; women are collectors; they collect and save everything what may be useful, while men have just one thought – aim, direction. The best example is to observe women and men shopping behaviour. He also stressed that women have emotional thinking.
- In Guatemala, countries in Africa, in China etc. people were more colours then here, in Europe. Maybe there is some connection between colours and positive thinking and attitude? Still, there are four main colours they use: red (fire, warmth, and sun), green (it’s not a colour, it is grass…), blue (sky, water, peace) and yellow (bees…). People perceive rhythm and harmony.
- He described his meeting with tribe of cannibals. It was interesting and a little bit disgusting. Some insights: cannibals don’t eat people; they eat others, those who are different, and not very often, just from time to time. And a man’s meat tastes similar like pork, just sweeter, that’s why they eat pork’s meat with honey.
- More philosophical thought: there are three main questions in man’s life: Who I am? Who I want to be? Who I suppose to be?
There was also time for questions from audience, like which is your favourite place? What is most important in your life? What was the most frightening moment? Do you consider involving in politics? Etc. After presentation was time to get an autograph and make a picture! Almost everyone wanted Cejrowski signature in his personal book. Also Mediateka get some! ^^
Now I think that Wojciech Cejrowski is an artist too, a self-confident personality, who do what he likes with passion, that’s why he is passionate traveller in the first place!
I don’t posit that everything here is direct quotation, just main ideas and topics. Now it’s time to start plan some trip… Is there any undiscovered and unexplored place in Poland?
© Hobbit
More information about him in Wojciech Cejrowski web page; about his books & videos in Mediateka – here.
Lost In Wroclaw 