Volunteers of 2022 in Barnag

Last Friday, to pursue our effort to kick plastic and chemicals out of our homes, we hosted a soap making workshop.

On November 2nd and 3rd, we spent half a day at the lake, immersed in nature and in the autumn climate, organizing and shredding mountains of branches collected around the village so that we could use them for mulching and in other sustainable ways instead of burning them or sending them to the land fields wrapped in plastic. In this way it is possible to avoid the dispersion of toxic substances into the environment.I personally found it an interesting experience, it was tiring but pleasant to spend time immersed in nature all together, doing something good for the environment and for the community.

Hey, there! Another month, another set of workshops and this time we had the chance to have a natural dyes workshop that was by far my favorite (maybe because I didn't have the stress and responsibility to create it eheh). I spent a lot of years following and being mesmerized by content creators that were using plants and the most interesting flora to dye their clothes but I never had the motivation to try it out for myself - it's one of those things that I have the theory but not the practice, so when I discovered that Kriszti, directly from Etyek, would share her skills with us, I was super happy :)We collected onion peels during two weeks, since it was going to be the basis to dye our things, and it's a beautiful way to not create food waste. It is better to try this method with natural fabrics such as cotton (or even cotton blend), linen and hemp, but I tried with polyester and the result was interesting, so my advice is to always try, you never know what is going to be result and you have nothing to lose! We started to immerse our szatyors (cotton reusable bags) in this mix of water, rust and a bit of vinegar, which apparently helps to maintain the color and also with the eco printing of natural elements, and proceeded to create our ensemble of flora that we wanted to have on our szatyor! It was a beautiful process and I was so fascinated to know that there were a lot of plants in our garden and in the neighborhood that were perfect for eco printing! When finished, you have to roll really tight your bag around this wooden stick so it would fit in the pot that was already boiling with the onion peels. You have to leave it for 30 to 45min boiling to get the results!The last process is to let it dry, wash it with natural soap and only then you can wash it normally in the washing machine.I really enjoyed the workshop and we got so excited that we spent the following 2 hours dyeing everything possible and imaginable with things from our garden!

On this week's international night, we had a taste of French and Moroccan cuisine and culture.

Last friday we hosted a workshop on the basics of permaculture. Fi facilitated the first part of the workshop where she presented us the definition of permaculture and the 3 pillars the principles of permaculture are based on: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, before digging into the principles. After going over the principles, we got some definitions that we had to match with the right principle and we were asked to think about examples that could relate to them. 

Hey there! September marks the month of the first natural cosmetics workshop and I had the pleasure to share some of the knowledge regarding this topic with the community and the volunteers. It has been a long time since I had the chance to teach how to make our own products and after a few reflection we have decided together that the chosen cosmetics were: cream deodorant, body lotion and fragrances. 

Another month, another international night! This week we went to the Iberian Peninsula and had the pleasure to know more about the Portuguese and Spanish culture brought to us by our volunteers. This time, the event started at 18h30, and, we had the chance to try 3 different dishes from each country. We started with the portuguese pataniscas and cogumelos à bulhão de pato (mushrooms with a lot of spices and flavour, normally made with white wine, but we offered a wine free option as well) and the spanish tortilla de patata, well-known internationally for its flavour and creamy texture. The desserts offered were bica gallega and pastel de nata pie, which showed perfectly the Iberian culture. As for the drinks, we had alcohol free sangría and normal sangría. We tried to do something different from the normal flags displayed and offered an interactive museum where you could find the maps of both countries, a list of the best places to visit, as well as some curiosities and folk tales about the different regions. Additionally, we offered the chance for people to know more about the countries and did a trivia night, with around 60 questions, with different levels of difficulty, to challenge the participants and the people from to the community about their knowledge and offer the chance to explain the questions that they didn't know. As for the rest of the games, we played the patata caliente, or hot potato game, whilst listening to a spanish-portuguese playlist, followed by the three in-a-row game.

Last week I went to Nyim to help the volunteers there prepare for the Gyüttment Festival (or Movers Festival). Nyim is an eco-community part of the South Eastern European Ecovillage Network, that’s why the community members decided to create a stage at the festival that would present the network and encourage other communities to join and expand their collaborations outside of Hungary. 

Last week, a few of us got the chance to participate in a training called Live Sustainably in Mariahalom, Hungary. 

As you could see on our social media pages, we had our international cultural night last Friday. It was a very interesting combination of countries, since we were presenting Azerbaijan and Germany together. The start of the evening was, as often, the food. You can see our selection of delicacies in the pictures. Especially, the Azerbaijan kitchen has an emphasize on meat which made it hard to find something to present to our guests, but even that worked out in the end and was really tasty!Following up to this, we played a game called „der große Preis” in Germany, where you have different categories with different difficulty levels. Two teams are playing against each other and try to gain more points by answering questions.After this, we tasted the promised Azerbaijan wine and Aysel and Orxan showed us how they dance at celebrations in their home country.Personally, I really enjoyed the game, since everyone learned something new and it was interesting and educating at the same time. I am looking forward to get to know the other countries too.

Last Wednesday, Szatyor organized an event on awareness of plastic pollution. Me, Fi, and Paula went to a pharmaceutical company where three thousand people work.

Last week we started making some tiles that will be used in the bathroom area of our yoga room. So that our guests when we host events can enjoy some beautiful handmade tiles.