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U.S. President Bill Clinton wrote with reference to the activities of Little League Baseball that "Contests like yours provide an exciting opportunity to strengthen our faith in ourselves and our understanding of the value of teamwork." However, teamwork is not related only to sports, but goes above and beyond them.

Two games, both played with bat and ball, both involving hitting, running, and catching the ball, both with their origins in traditional folk games. One originated in Upper Silesia and Opole District, and may have been transferred to the United States by Polish and German immigrants, where, some claim, it served as the inspiration t'or baseball. The other began as a game by country boys in old England, grew gradually into an organised sport with defined rules, and was exported to the British colonies.

Not in Finland! Baseball is so popular among the Finns that nearly 10% of the Finnish population are active participants in the game. All schoolchildren learn to play baseball at school. Thousands of boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 19 participate in organized baseball leading to an annual championship. The Finnish National Baseball Association is among the largest sports federations in Finland, with over 60,000 active athletes. At schools throughout the country it is the most popular game among girls.

It all began late one morning... early Spring of this year... the air smelled mixed with just-cut wet grass and freshly-oiled leather baseball glove... the blending sounds of distant songbirds and close-by kid's voices were silenced by a distinctive "CRACK of the bat"... and I woke out of my dream. I didn't know, at that very moment, which was worse... the thought of climbing out of a toasty warm bed... or... the fact that I wasn't going to play baseball today... because there was no baseball where I was... a little border town in North-East Poland.

At 50 Alexander Bielaski joined the Union forces with the rank of Captain in the regular army. He did so with a deep sense of loyalty to his adopted country, leaving behind him a family of seven.

While the official reports echoed with glowing accounts of Capt. Alexander Bielaski's heroic death on the battlefield of Missouri, on November 7, 1861, stark tragedy stalked the Bielaski home in Washington. The older Bielaski children sought immediate employment.

Karolyn Andrews, Ph D, currently manages Internet Polska, an Internet services company located in Poland and the States. Before she moved to Warsaw, she taught computer applications and Internet use in Washington, D.C. You can contact her at 2karo@polska.net with comments and suggestions for upcoming articles.

www.eiworldwide.com

Nowadays, an increasing number of young people are choosing to study abroad. I completed a master's degree at Cracow Jagiellonian University after finishing my BA in Ireland. Now, years later, I have started a master's degree in International Relations in Perth, Australia.

Living off the Sea Islands, by the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida, is the Gullah Nation - a community of African descendants who were once enslaved. The area is relatively isolated, which has meant that the language and culture of the Gullah people has survived almost intact since slaves were brought to America from Africa hundreds of years ago. James Daniels, who grew up in South Carolina, reports.

See if you can understand these common expressions in Gullah.