Poland, Kiribati.html

Location of Poland on Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Kiribati

Poland is one of four villages on the island of Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Kiribati. The village was named after a Polish explorer who aided the villagers.

1 Location
2 Demographics
3 Name
4 Sources
5 External links

Location

Poland is located on the westernmost part of the island, at geographic coordinates: 1°51′52″N 157°33′07″W / 1.86444, -157.55194Coordinates: 1°51′52″N 157°33′07″W / 1.86444, -157.55194.

Demographics

Poland's population is 235 people (Census 2005), by far the smallest of the four inhabited villages on the island.

Name

The village was named in honour of a Pole whose first name was Stanisław (Stanislaus). Having arrived with an American merchant vessel that was plying the copra trade at a time, when the local inhabitants were having difficulties irrigating their palm tree plantations, Stanisław helped them solve the problem. Accordingly, the village was renamed to its present-day name in his honour. Also, a church was built there and dedicated under the auspices of Saint Stanislaus, and a bay in the lagoon was named Saint Stanislaus Bay. However, the last name of the Polish benefactor was not remembered.

Education In Poland there is a primary school with three main teachers and 45 students.

Sources

R. Antoszewski: "Pacyficzna Polska" (English: Pacific Poland), Kurioza naukowe/Scientific curiosities, ISSN 1176-7545; year VI; No 1033. April 2005, v.55. On the web: 2005-05-29. Titirangi, Auckland, Nowa Zelandia. Link accessed on 2007-10-04. (Polish)
http://www.travelbit.pl/relacje/relacje.php?tom=VI&id=31 - another webpage about the village of Poland: Przez świat tom VI (Polish: Across the World volume VI). Link fails with a database error. However, id=30, id=32, etc. all work. The cited source appears to have been removed. Link accessed on 2007-10-04. (Polish)
Wojciech Dąbrowski: "Od Kiribati do Nauru" (Polish: From Kiribati to Nauru). Link accessed on 2007-10-04. (Polish)

The 5/6 class of the Poland Primary School and the head teacher at Poland Primary School.

External links

Wojciech Dąbrowski: Homepage of the Polish world traveller Wojciech Dąbrowski. Link accessed on 2007-10-04. (English) (Polish)

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding Polish Wikipedia article as of 2007-10-04.