Hello dear ones,
The main event of this week was the workshop with the children in the school called “Pateki” in Sofia. The focus of the workshop was learning about companion planting/ guilds, through play. My coordinator has written a wonderful children’s book on this subject, and we used the illustrations from the book for this workshop. We first introduced the subject to the kids, and they already knew a lot about it. I was very pleasantly surprised, but yet again from the moment we entered the school, I could already feel the different vibe than what I am used to considering the matter of schooling. It felt like the children had a lot more freedom in movement and diverse activities. So, my coordinator and I attended the class of the “Green revolutionaries” as they called themselves (super cool). After the introduction and discussion on the selected subject, each participant chose by chance a plant, and they made a “mask” for it. Actually some made masks, some made crowns, and one girl made little thyme flowers, and she glued them (somehow) to her cheeks and forehead. The condition was to keep which plant they selected as a secret, but this part of the game was not accomplished. Most kids had a hard time with keeping secrets. After they made the masks, they had the assignment to find out in which guild/illustration they belong to. Before this, one of the kids had to leave so he gave me his mask, and I got the honor to be the garlic in the strawberry guild. It was so much fun, and I am super grateful for this experience.
The other days of the week, I had a long meeting with my coordinator in which we discussed and brainstormed about the future steps and activities in the project. We also started a PDC course with my fellow volunteer Poli that is lead by our coordinator Mihaela. We had the first week introduction session. I am really excited and already learned many new things from it.
I had a lovely spring equinox week and I hope you did too.
Love,
Marija
