Hello dear ones,
The past weekend we participated in the festival “Hisarlaka Experience”. We were part of the children’s activities that were located in the nearby forest, where there is a children’s playground. I would say that we had the perfect spot because the temperature was very high these past few days, yet we didn’t have any problem being there throughout the whole day.
Our activities in the festival were about testing the materials and games we have worked on so far. One can never predict whether there will be an interest or not, but we had good results. Both children and their parents/ or grandparents were very interested in what we did. Many of the grown-ups made a comment that they too need this kind of activities so that they can learn how to arrange their own gardens. I believe that we managed to get the attention and plant the seeds of permaculture in different age groups, which was very nice. We also observed what needs to be changed and improved in the games. For example, in the pexeso game, which we presented for the first time publicly, we saw that there is much more work to be done. Some things to be taken out and new things to be included. It was a lot of fun working with the children, their creativity and wisdom, inspires me every time. Also for the first time I had the chance to collaborate with my new future fellow volunteer Aleksandra who will be taking Poli’s place from next month. I will surely miss Poli, but I am also really looking forward to work together with Aleksandra on this project.
The activities we did were donation based. The donations gathered will be used for the reissue of the book “Friends in the garden”, which is co-written by my coordinator Mihaela Tzarchinska and Angelina Kadiiska. The book was firstly issued in 2016 and all the copies were sold out very quickly, since then people are asking about its reissue.
Another great thing that happened, was that we had guests. Mariya and Ognyan with their children, the family where we stayed during our visit in Mezek, came to spend time with us during the weekend and on the festival. It was nice to catch up with them and have fun.
I have been visiting the festival for the past three years, it was my first time being a part of it, and I can really see that it is getting better and better with each year. After we were done with the activities, we enjoyed the lovely atmosphere, super tasty food and great music.
Love,
Marija
