W13 – clay work, picking pear and apples, and team building in Sofia

There are weeks when it feels like repeating the routine from one day to another, and then there are weeks like this one. We have had lots of new tasks, events, and activities together.

Clay work on the horse’s house

One new task was to start working on the clay house. Building clay houses is an ancient practice in Bulgaria that has remained up to this date. The principle is very simple – there is a wooden structure creating the frames of the house, and then layers of clay creating the walls. When there is a crack or a hole for some reason in the wall, one can add more clay to fix the damage and strengthen the building. The material to build the house is as simple as it can be – mixed clay and water. For the house in Vegetarium there was a solid foundation already existing, but to make it modern, new windows were installed. Our task was to insulate the windows with clay to make the house complete again.

Group activities

This week was filled with different activities with the group. We had a beauty evening including herbs and potions from the garden; there were two farewell parties for the volunteers leaving, one birthday party for the neighbour’s kid, and a team-building day in Sofia with the volunteers from Vegetarium. It is fun to do activities together with others, as there have been quite many of us recently.

Other work

Besides all the additional activities, we also did some work. This week we went to the ghost village to pick up pears and apples, I marked places for planting winter trees, took care of picking up ripe vegetables, and washed laundry. After all, life is not only festivities and group activities, but also daily responsibilities and tasks.

Next week we are going for a hike with other volunteers and I have a few days off to explore Bulgaria on my own.

-Inka