Slatinka remainders

I was just taking a look to the pictures I posted in the review of EcoSlatinka workcamp and I just feel they are not enough, haha :D Even tough I took my camera I wasn't taking so many pictures because everybody had a camera there. The result is that Peto stored in his hard disk around 20GB of pictures, and we didn't even collect all the camera's photos!

Kristinka, a volunteer in Slatinka organization, also saved these pictures and she was patient and skillful enough to make this photo-video, *so preeetty!* I want to share it with you. I will just paste the link since I don't know how to insert a video from a Google+ account: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115842480586695168957/albums/5921034104953974833?authkey=CMSPj6z19a3ymAE

Then again, there are few pictures missing in that compilation, so I will just add them here because I like them very much. Each of them compresses a nice memory together with people from the workcamp, and since most of them are shared only in our Facebook group and not in public, I wanted to use this space to look back on time to them.

[Edit] Last but not least, I should also add a lot of videos for the nonsenses that we were repeating everyday, but, well, I'll just post this one because it sets me in a particulary smiling mood.

Time goes by

It's crazy how fast time goes by. It's strange but I'm sure some of you will understand this feeling that 3 weeks ago (when I last wrote something in the blog), seems both like just yesterday and 2 months ago -yeah, at the same time. Anyway, let's quit all this chitchat and focus on the very present -or in the recent past that I'm just going to tell you about.

Last week of August my flat seemed like a hostel. Sarah's mother arrived on Wednesday for visiting her for almost a week. On the other hand, I hosted two volunteers of Slatinka that had some trouble. First it was Tanya, whose flight was delayed 2 days and stayed one night with me -and she helped me create a Russian facebook account, yay! and of course we ate grecka-, and then it was Taylan, who had the bad luck of losing his wallet in Prague and stayed with me two nights in a small break of his planned trip. Also by the end of the week came Timour, who recently started his EVS in Slatinka, to enjoy a gypsy festival close to Bratislava and then stayed for the weekend.

On the last weekend of August / first of September, there was also another festival in Bratislava city center about folklore and crafts. It was nice to walked around Hviezdoslavovo namestie and see how people wearing traditional costumes were making decorated eggs or cookies, making ceramics and -of course- the music and dancing sessions. For sure, I also like to have some guests over and have a visit to Slovak pub or to Next Apache -this nice second-hand book shop / coffe place.

What else? Oh, right! We've been moving our workplace. Our previous office was close to the bus station, in Kosicka, and our current one is in Palarikova, close to the train station (Hlavna Stanica). This means that the last 2 weeks have been quite messy with the packing and unpacking of many boxes, especially last Friday when some volunteers from Ernst and Young came to help us and also did some other tasks like gardening or cleaning -quite a nice bundge.

Because of that the time in the office was mighty relax. Therefore, I was happy when Zuzka, from INEX, called me Monday afternoon asking if I could urgently replace a leader who was not feeling very good. The workcamp was in Bratislava, in Integra, this center for disabled people we've visited sometimes before, and I had to join the project the very next day.

That evening I packed my luggage for 3 days -since Integra's center is quite far from my place-, and the next morning I arrived there after breakfast -Michal, another volunteer from INEX was very kind to give me a ride there since he was also picking up Betka, the girl that I was covering. I felt a little bit confused because when I arrived the session with the clients had already started and the group (of 8 volunteers) was split into two teams. Anyway, when later we had a break I catched up more or less with them, and also Betka was very kind to explain me basic information about facilities and timetables, so everything was fine.

It was Tuesday afternoon when finally we had some free time and I got to know the group and spoke with Eva, the other leader, about the situation. She was very energetic and actually she needed to be that way since most of the staff in Integra they don't speak English and she had a major role translating everything -instructions from staff to volunteers but also when volunteers were speaking about their countries to Slovak for staff and clients. Anyway, nothing better than cardgames and some free time to chill to connect with a nice group of people.

Next day, Wednesday, we had a planned visit to a bee farm together with the clients. I think they were pretty excited to go on a trip, and I don't think is something they make a lot during the year because the lack of staff -so they take advantage with this group of volunteers, and they also get to know something different. They explained to us the process of making honey and then we tried some -yummy! We had a little stroll in the farm and saw other animals, and then we sat in a fireplace and ate some sausages.

In the afternoon we were back in Integra and we had a brainstorming session for the things we could make for the following days for the clients. We decided to make 'Pretty salon' on Thursday morning, where we painted some tattoos (in Greek or Japanese alphabets), gave some massages and created some bracelets or hair accesories. I think it was both funny for us and for them.

Then Thursday afternoon we got to the old town for a guided tour by Karci, former History teacher, current tourist guide in Bratislava and always helpful volunteer within INEX. We started in namestie L. Stura -where I put one of the heart-shaped stickers a friend of mine gave to me-, then Hviezdoslavovo and then a little pause in Bastova street, in a nice-decorated book-crossing bar which I can not remember the name. After it we continued our visit until the castle, and then back to the old town to pass by a supermarket before finally getting back to Integra and having dinner. Fun fact: in the castle there was a hardcore concert for free and they were making the sound test during our visit -Karci was a little bit pissed but they sounded quite good.

Friday morning I left Integra to come to INEX new office an help in a long unpacking day, when we actually made look the workplace like a proper place to work. But before joining the work I passed by my flat and change my luggage for a new one, since I was going to spend the weekend in Zvolen visiting the new EVS friends of Slatinka.

As you can imagine, I was pretty tired Friday evening when I arrived there, so we just watch a movie -a comic drama, In Bruges (2008). Next day we woke up rather early for a beautiful hiking day in Polana, where is an inactive volcano with amazing rock formations and, apparently from what we saw, a paradise for climbers -so many of them. I add some pictures, made by Timour.

Very nice sights, indeed. And you see that cute puppy? He's Janka's new dog. Janka is part of Slatinka organization and she helped us a lot as a local partner during INEX workcamp there. I was glad to see her and also Kristinka after some time, and of course I was even glader when I saw that dog -I think anybody that slightly knows me can tell about my reaction to dogs, I love them!

In the afternoon we came back to Zvolen and meet with a 'metalhead' -friend of some contact the guys made some weeks before-, that showed us around Zvolen and its underground side. I didn't tell before but both Timour and Thibaut are quite fans of metal music and videogames -singular couple, haha. We went for dinner to a mighty cheap and tasty pizza place, and later we met his rather drunk friends in Triangulo bar -a punky place, no doubts. I had a great time in this atmosphere, it reminded me of my group of friends back in my hometown, maybe also because of the heavy drinkers and the table-football playing -funny evening, yap.

Then Sunday came and after some lazy time I came back to Bratislava in the evening. This week is the moment for arranging the final details of the project Matiss and I helped to write, a youth exchange about unemployment starting just next Monday in Banska Stiavnica. There had been some last minute events that are testing our nerves, but I really feel everything will be fine at the end.

So, in the meantime I'm in the office still helping to tidy up the last packed boxes and finishing all the snacks the volunteers from Friday didn't manage to -fatty mind mode on. I'm looking forward to the exchange but I also sense that after it I could use some free time away from these kind of projects, that are quite absorbing -interesting but demanding.

It's funny because yesterday and today morning it really looked like autumn because of the rainy weather, but right now there is a shiny sun in the sky. Slovak weather, right? Anyway, feels like the end of something and the beginning of something new -September means always change for me. I think I can hope for something good that ends, and something even better to arrive, can't I? Yes, I can! :)

Wish you also face September with a good mood, patient readers.

Take care and lots of hugs,
Ali

INEX Workcamp - EcoSlatinka

Hello my pretty readers, how you've been doing? I hope everything's fine.

Well, this post is going to be a hard one for me to write because many things happened in Slatinka during 2 weeks. Exactly, it was double time and also double people (15 volunteers), which means it was twice challenging being a leader -but Peto and I managed pretty well, or it least that's what I would say.

I just arrived to Zvolen from Banska Stiavnica's APV (it went pretty well, btw), early on 11th of August, Sunday morning. Fortunately Michele -former EVS in Slatinka, nowadays working in Bratislava-, was waiting for me to give me a ride, so I put all my stuff and INEX bag in his trunk and took advantage to buy some snacks for the volunteers before finally arriving to Slatinka.

Once there I met Peto, Janka and Dasa, who had been cleaning and arranging the place since the previous day. We discussed through some important issues about how would be our welcome day and the next working ones and then we started with the picking up of people -they looked so shy and quite that first day, aww.

When arriving to Slatinka, we showed the participants the facilities of the centre: the dry toilets, the 'high-tech' shower and their places to sleep. Later when everybody arrived we had a presentation of Organization Slatinka, our local partner, and we also introduced them some facts about INEX, together with house rules and some games like kiss killer and secret friend (great success, lol).

And after that first encounter the days followed and they are now in my head with non specific order. We had working hours (around 5 a day), and we worked in the garden and roof of the centre, cutting some grass in Zvolen city parks, clearing a touristic path from Slatinka to Zvolen and renovating the wooden bridge of the village, which needed some painting and new oiled wood. I attach some pictures, made by Sarah.

Of course, wortkcamp is not all about work. We had plenty of good times during our free time, playing card games (I specially enjoyed Uno, Russian style, everything's allowed!), creating our international dictionary or just chilling spending some time by the fire.

For me, being a leader in this project has meant a lot. During the first workcamp I perceived Dasa like an experienced support, which gave me the confidence enough to develop basic but solid leadership skills. In this time, I felt like Peto and me where more or less in the same level, which implied having to invest more energy and time for managing the group. In any case, watching the group eventually evolve and reinforce their bonds it's always nice, and I'm very proud to have taken part in this process.

For summing up, I'm a proud mamma who is very glad she met all this lovely kids in Slatinka -see how pretty we are. I think the project was amazing because of them, because they are amazing. I miss them quite a lot right now, but I have the feeling that we will meet sometime again, who knows where and when -to nevadi.

Last but not least, I also want to mention Slatinka like a magical place in the middle of nowhere. Just sitting in the morning by the river and breathing in its natural air made me feel peaceful and complete. I wish people will really be more aware about the importance of taking care of places like this -and I'm glad that's the job Slatinka's organization is doing.

That's all folks, take care and warm hugs,

Ali

PS: All pictures I used were made by Sarah. Here you can check the whole album from her visit to our workcamp.

Dishes from Eastern Europe

As you could checked in the previous post, I enjoyed my workcamp in Jasenov (for everything but specially) for the food. I learnt many new recipes (most of them with sweet taste) and I would like to write them down to make sure that I won't forget them -and to share them with you, in case you want to try.

Sweet pasta
Well, this may not seem very innovative for some of you, but for me it was. You cook the pasta like always, then when is in your dish you add butter and cocoa powder, it's tasty! Jarka, the Czech girl of my workcamp, told me it's a very popular dish for students since it's easy and cheap to prepare -she took it like vegetarian alternative to bolognese sauce.

Anyway, I think a good tip will be to use good cocoa powder brands, because I prepared last Monday and it wasn't so good like on workcamp. She used Granko -which is pretty famous in Czech and Slovakia-, but for Spanish people I guess ColaCao would be the best analog choice.

Rice with milk (Eastern style)
In Spain (and I remember also eating it in Portugal), we also prepare rice with milk and we take it as a dessert, with cinnamon on the top and perhaps some lemon or orange peel.

In Czech they prepare it other way and they eat it like a main dish (is that pict that look quite delicious of the previous post). You have to let the rice on water first so it absorbs it. Then you boil it with milk and you add raisins. Once is cooked you add some sugar and you mix it well. Afterwards you can add: Granko, cinnamon, butter, fruits' compot or natural fruits. I tried it with peach and Granko and I really liked it :)

Rice with apple (Russian style)
Another possibility for sweet rice is to cook it with apple. You don't need to cook the rice this time with milk, just with water. In the meantime it cooks you can take one saucepan and prepare the sauce at the same time. You need to use margarine (or maybe butter is ok), then add small pieces of apple prepared with a grater (rallador), and when it is more or less cooked you add a gentle amount of sugar.

When Jarka was going to prepare the previous dish on the workcamp, Alex from Ukraine wanted to also do it this way, but unfortunately we didn't have a proper grater. Anyway, when the workcamp was over he kept on travelling passing trough Bratislava, and he took advantage of my kitchen to prepare this tasty dish -he did it Monday evening and prepared so much I had it also as lunch yesterday and today, haha. Very tasty!

Kachamak (Serbian dish)
This is not particulary sweet dish. In fact is a little bit sour, but maybe changing a bit the ingredients you can also prepare it sweet (I need to check with Serbian girls). The basis of this dish is water and flour. You need around 40-50 minutes to properly cook the flour in a light fire, otherwise you will fill its texture and it's not good. After this first part of the process you take it out of the fire and add some cheese (cow cheese or feta cheese). Then you put it back to the fire again and cook it for 5 more minutes, until it's ready to serve. You can add some sugarless yogurt when eating it, it makes it much tastier -I had it for dinner and following day's breakfast, me like it a lot!

Even when is not particulary similar, when I tried this dish reminded me of a sour version of Spanish 'leche frita', that I need to learn from my grandma though I asked her for the recipe so many times -I keep losing it!

Paprikas (Serbian dish)
This is a kind of chicken soup tyical from Serbia. Around there (also in Hungary, it's like their national vegeteable), there are many paprikas and so they have this soup. You have to first fried some onions in oil, then add water and boil it for like an hour with the following ingredients: chicken meat (in small pieces), paprikas, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. Don't you forget to add a lot of the spice of sweet paprika. It is also very tasty, even when on workcamp it was paprikas without paprikas :D

Potatoes (Russian style)
The Russian guys prepared potatoes twice: once for us and once for the feast of cultures. We ate them in the workcamp just boiled and with a side dish with oil and salt where you could dip the potatoe. In the same meal we had salad made out of fresh onions, cucumber and tomatoes and with different dressings: oil and salt or kind of yogurt-cream sauce.

In the event for the locals they prepared a kind of potatoe salad close to the version we have in Spanish of 'ensaladilla rusa'. I don't remember if it was the Armenian or the group from Azerbaijan but they also prepared in an exchange I was something similar, and they call it 'Capital salad'. The one of wormcap had potatoes, boiled eggs, pickles, peas and a good quantity of mayonnaise -but I think everybody knows about other things you can add to the basis of patatoes and mayo, I personally like it with sashimi (palitos de cangrejo).

I think I ran out of recipes. Of course Achille, our Italian guy, prepared pasta for us and it was very good, but that's not so Eastern -is it? I need to check with Alejandro this fish soup he prepared because I wasn't present in the cooking and I don't know how it's done, so maybe I'll add it later.

I hope you are brave enough to cook one of these, I'm pretty sure you'll be glad you tried -and if not please tell me why, haha :D. See you in the next post, probably after Slatinka.

Big hugs,
Alicia

PS: shame on me, I still don't know how to make gulash, really need to ask some Slovaks!

INEX Workcamp - Jasenov Castle

Finally back in Bratislava with Internet connection, flushing toilet, electrical kitchen and proper shower. Tell you a secret? I didn't miss them so much :P

From Saturday 27th of July till last Sunday (4th of August), I was living in the woods together with international volunteers that came to Slovakia to help renovating the medieval ruinned castle of Jasenov, a village close to Humenne.

The workcamp was not officially starting until Sunday 28th, but Dasa and I -because of our role of leaders- went the day before to check that everything was ok. It was in fact good that we did so -we needed a lot of time for organising many material and stuff like house rules or agenda. For sure the most important thing we realised was that the accomodation indoors was not so good as expected, and I'll explain why.

See? This was a hard living conditions workcamp, which implied living in the forest without electricity or normal bathroom -instead we had dry toilet and an improvised private space made out of canvas for showering with buckets of water. The accomodation consisted in 4 places in a small cottage (in two bunk beds) and a big tent for 6 people or more.

First night we went to sleep in the cottage (or chata in Slovak, pronunced 'hata'), thinking that it was probably the only night we would have a proper rest in the indoors space. Unfortunately for us, we were wrong. We woke up several times because of noises of animals that at the beginning we thought were country mices but once we turned on our flashlights we discover it was a cute kind of squirrel, call doormouse (liron in Spanish). Here's a sample picture from google images:

Anyway, when our volunteers arrived the following day we needed to inform them about this, and of course most of them chose to sleep in the tent ourside and so Dasa, me and Alejandro -Ukranian brave guy-, spent the night in the cottage. Fortunately it got better, not so noisy like the first night, which meant that following day we changed for the Serbian girls, and Alejandro stayed there.

Also first night after everybody arrived we had a little speech from our local partner, about the organization and the history of the castle. It's always good for keeping the volunteers motivated, so they know the background and the contribution they're going to make with their work.

Afterwards we made some name games and getting to know each other games (I specially enjoyed the 'human bingo'). We introduced the agenda of days, explained the kitchen team task for meals, house rules and decided who was going to sleep where that first night -we asked the next day for more pallets to sleep in the tent.

During following days we were working in the castle, with different kind of tasks.Most of us were clearing the area of the hill surrounding the castle from bushes, and piling up spread stones that would later help in the reconstruction of some walls -they want to use the same stones that were originally there. Sadly there were no many places where the walls are being rebuilt right now, so only one of us got to try actual reconstruction work. Finally, other couple of volunteers was busy with archeological work, digging close to the walls and looking for some historical remains.

But of course not everything is work in an international workcamp. We had plenty of great moments during our free time, sharing pictures, playing card games while having massages, playing Duh (mental speed game in Slovak, but Dasa translated the rules for us) or simply chilling by the fireplace listening to national presentations. Here some samples:

We had two special free time activities. First it came our free day, when we went together with Brekov volunteers (a nearby castle, also workcamp project within Inex) to Humenne's castle and open-air museum. Later in the afternoon we made some canoing in Laborec river, and we finished quite late, which meant we stopped by and got some take-away pizza for dinner (and for snack for following day :P). Unfortunately I don't have pictures from this day yet because I didn't take my camera, but luckily I took it for our second special day: Feast of Cultures. [edit: added some pics]

Feast of Cultures is an event where local people get to know the international volunteers by their different national presentations and dishes. We were quite surprised by the massive attendance of this event from the people of the village -you never know how many of them are going to appear. People seemed to like the food, some old women sang for us as saying thank you and at the end nothing was left in the dishes.

There were reporters who interviewed some of the participants and also the mayor said some words for the opening of the celebration -and of course Alexander, our local partner, president of the organisation for the conservation of the castle. And, of course! I almost forget! I had a revelation moment when trying plazma biscuits that girls took from Serbia, there were my favourite during childhood! I don't remember why they stopped making them in Spain, but I was quite sad for a while, and having the opportunity to tried them again really made me happy. They brought also Ajvar, paprika's paste for crackers, very nice!

Nevertheless, it wasn't the only moment we got the change to experience worldwide tastes. Everyday we had different national cooking teams, which meant great opportunity to try different kind of tasty food. Last working Friday also the locals wanted to have a nice gesture with us and prepared gulash in return. The second dish was prepared by the Czech girl. It's rice cooked with milk and raisins, and then cacao powder, butter and peach compote, delicious! It's true, I've enjoyed this workcampa lot when it comes to cooking.

For all of these great experiences it was difficult to say goodbye the last day. Within only a week we had become quite close and I noticed how people were much more talkative and smiling than in the very first days. It was a nice group and some of them live close, so maybe -hopefully- I'll see them again soon :)

And for being first time as leader I think things went pretty well. I have many factors in favor, like the group being small with nice participants and the lenght that was kind of short (1 week instead of 2 weeks, that is more common). But besides all, I had the great luck to count with the endless support and expertise of Dasa by my side. I learnt a lot about her and she kept me motivated to behave like a proper leader, kindly most of the time and more strict when it was necessary -almost never I would say, but still I had to prove myself I could do it.

Anyway, I only have few days left in the week here in Bratislava, new projects are awaiting. From Friday till Sunday I'll be in Banska Stiavnica together with Matiss to have the advanced planned visit (APV) for the exchange project that will take part in Septembert, when we'll give some more information to national leaders to get ready for this meeting.

Afterwards, the very Sunday, I will go from Banska Stiavnica to Zvolen, direction Slatinka, to get my second workcamp started. Peto will be waiting for me and we'll receive 15 international volunteers to work in this enviromental organization set in kind of 'eco-village'. It is supposed to be also a hard living conditions workcamp, but I strongly doubt that it would be harder than in Jasenov -it would be like a hotel for me, haha.

Yeah, pretty busy indeed these days, and this crazy heat doesn't put me in the mood to do anything afterwards in my free time. Ale nevadi, there's always a space for a spontaneous plan in the evening, when the sun is calmer -just have to look for it.

Everything's going well for me as you can see, pretty readers. I hope life is also treating you right :)

Loads of hugs,

Ali