Week 13 - Are swimming suits mandatory ?

 Monday came and so did the covid tests...

We were all really concerned about the results ! Mainly because we really wanted to go back to our normal daily activities as volunteers, but also just because we wanted to be able to interract and be free to move. More precisely, Ruxandra needed the test to show negative, so that she would be able to go back to Romania for 2 weeks, and Markus &me (Fanny) really wanted to go to Beglika Fest  on Thursday...

Finally, results came in: no one showed "pregnant" this time!

After we all tested negative, the boys finally returned back home, and the 6 of us reunited ! 

As Markus mentioned on his last post, our coordinator was hosting a 10-day course in Shipka. It was a course on how to create a solidarity project with the European Solidarity Corps. We, as volunteers, were invited to present our volunteering experience to the 33 participants of the course. 

That's how Tara, Ruxandra, Ruhsar & me finally met the participants at Tania's house. 

FYI : Tania is the leader of Open Mind's NGO. She is a really good friend of Sophie, and they live accros the street from each other ! Tania also runs her own ESC project and hosts volunteers.

It was a really sweet moment at Tania's garden with our Coordinators (Misha & Philip from the European Solidarity Corps), our Mentor (Sophie from Ura Gora), our Supervisor (Sophie from Balkep), and all the participants.

This day, I infortunatly received a bad news from C, one of my closest friends from France. She lost her father due to a blood cancer on an afternoon on Monday 23th. Fortunately, C is surrounded by her loved ones, which means a lot in those moments !

Season of processing fruits and veggies arrived ! We processed tomatoes and cabbage :

It was a very 1st time for me! I've never processed any food before, not even to make jam ;) 

To process tomatoes :

1) Wash and cut tomatoes

2) Put the tomatoes in the jars and squish it, pressing it down with your hands or a spoon

3) Add 1.5 tea spoon salt and / or any spices you like !

4) Put the jars into a big pot, then cover them with water and boil it. The heat will create a "vacuum" effect, in which the will go out of the jar. To check of it's working, push the cover using you finger. The cover must be domed and resist your finger's pressure.

5) Store and eat ;)

As I said in the beginning of this article, some of us were planing to go to Beglika Fest this week... Which was made possible by our negative "baby test" !

Our Festival team was composed of 5 people : Maggy (a friend of Ruxandra), Dylan (Sophie's son and a friend of ours), Markus (your favorite writer from Estonia), Hugo (a volunteer from Tania's project) and me. 

We went to the groceries on Wednesday to save some money by bringing our own food and beverages :)

There was a lot of discussion in regards to ou travelling options. Here is a quick summary of these three day long discussions:

In the end, the 5 of us, together with 2 tents, 6 sleeping bags and some other stuffs made our trip by taxi !

The way there was amazingly beautiful, as nature is really diverse in Bulgaria. We had a great time in the car talking and enjoying the view.

We arrived to Beglika around 5pm on Thursday, and stayed there until Sunday 5pm. Here are some photos that perfectly sum up this beautiful experience !

Beglika Fest takes place in the beautiful Bulgarian wilderness, surrounded by Beglik lake. Water is warm and clean, the weather gentle... it's heaven on earth !

In the mornings, we could see the steam evaporating from the lake and rising up into the sky..

During the day, there were numerous workshop we were able to attend, but on some days it was good enough to just realx and enjoy the amazing energy of the place:

At night, there where music on stage and fire shows and ceremonies :

The food was nice and diverse as well ! We even found our favorite Wake Up Fest's food :

... While drinking some tea as well !

The experience there was pretty amazing. We met a lot of people there, spent unique moments and made our friendship stronger. Here I leave you with 2 representations of freedom :

Thank you Beglika, Markus and Maggy for the pictures !

Brought to you by Fanny from France <3