So last week Alesia, Orxan, István and me went to our on-arrival training in Budapest (as well as Aysel and Nacho from the Budapest project). It was a really great and unique experience; we met a lot of volunteers from around the world and learned new things about the ESC-program.On Monday we had time to get to know the people from our training. We played some name games and presented our projects to the others. The following days were full of information and workshops. We learned about the ESC values, met the National Agency, planned our mini projects and did a city rally in pouring rain. Also, a great Hungarian musician and folk dancing group visited us on Thursday. We danced a lot and got to know a little bit more about the Hungarian culture. On Friday nothing much happened, we gave feedback and reflected about what we are taking with us from the training.

On the 23rd of April, the Fülemüle bál took place. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a fundraising gala with the aim of supporting the children from the local school in terms of art, culture and public education.The day before the gala, Vale, Orxan and me, went to the local festival hall to help decorating and preparing the ball room. That included tasting the great homemade pogácsa, a Hungarian pastry, reorganizing the tables multiple times and folding hundred napkins for the tables. For me it was a fun experience to work with the local teachers and mothers who are so involved in giving their students and children the best learning experience that they can have.On Saturday, after going to Budapest, in order to find a suiting outfit for the evening, us girls: Mathilde, Alesia, Vale and me, started dressing up for the evening. We had a lot of fun and I think that we looked very fancy. Afterwards, we went to the ball with Enrico and Orxan and spent a great evening together. The program was very nice, some children from the school performed in front of the audience, there was a tombola and delicious food. The rest of the evening was accompanied by a band and at some point, we even started dancing with the local people which was one of the funniest moments, I think. Also, because there was this “game” where we were walking in one line through the room and then we had to take the hand from the person behind, through our legs. This was an act of balance and trust.Personally, the evening was a bonding experience for me, not only with the great people from our project, but also with the local people which is very important for me.Have a blessed day, Paula

There is a one very nice and creative family here in Etyek that lives in a beatuful cozy house with a lovely humming garden full of flowers and bees. Kriszta and David are raising three kids, take care of numerous pets, bake bread, provide volunteers with psychological support. David is a ceramicist, and sometimes we go to his studio and work with clay.There is everything that you need for creative process - kiln, pottery wheel, rolling machine, all types of clay (different colours and properties), tools for carving and modelling, texture stamps, glazes etc. Once we made a set of items - a cup, a plate and a soap dish. We chose a clay with inclusions of volcanic nature - they are not visible in raw clay, but will appear after firing in a kiln and create nice texture. For a cup we took a piece of clay and formed a ball with our hands. Then we made a recess in the middle of it and slowly started to deepen it with a thumb, turning the ball around in one palm. This process should be very slow and we had to concentrate all our senses on it in order to not break the wall of a future cup and to gain uniform thickness of it. The process of making thin-walled tableware is almost always the same - you have to turn a piece of clay either on a pottery wheel or in your hands and press and pull and stretch carefully in right directions.When the bodies of our cups were ready we prepared 'hands' - long rolls of clay - and made some notches on its ends with a sharp tool and put some liquid clay - this helps the parts of the product to adhere securely.Then we moved to plates - for them we needed some rolled thin pieces of clay that we made with the help of a rolling machine and embellished with patterns that can be made with texture stamps. The same was for the walls of a plate - we cut thin long pieces or rolled clay and attached them to the main piece with a help of notches and liquid clay.Soap dishes were something that combines both approaches that we used for the plate and the cup, but in the end we added some 'legs' and holes for soapy water withdrawal.So now we are waiting for our pieces to get dry nicely and fired in a kiln so we can use our self-made items in our daily life. Pottery is very grounding and enjoyable procces that gives you a lot of space for creative experiments and self-exploration and is very good for community building process when performed in small groups of people united by the same values and ideas.

Since the 17th of march, we introduced various language clubs at school. On Wednesdays we do English and German lessons for the school kids and try to bring the language closer to them. Our aim is to help them get to know a foreign language outside the strict school rules. It’s about having fun and communicating with each other. I love the whole process of setting up a lesson. From the brainstorming of the topic of the upcoming lesson, over the preparation of my own school material, until the actual class where I can get to know the kids better and help them learn at least some new words while having fun. Then, on Thursdays we have a German boardgame afternoon. It is very interesting to see how the kids become more self-conscious and interested in a language, when you make a game out of it and connect it to movements. During my one month here, I already realized that most of the children need a lot of action and motion, in order to concentrate. Also, they learn faster and more if they have fun while learning something. The Boardgame - Thursdays are good for every age, because the games are often easier and adjustable for more people.

Every Tuesday we, Valentina, István and Paula, go to the local school and do some creative handcrafting with the school kids. In the following, you will see our past projects.

In preparation for Hungary's National day, March 15th, we went to the local school to make some decorations in the colors of the Hungarian flag to put around the school. 

On February 18th was the carnival (or Farsang) celebration at the school. So on the Tuesday afternoon before, we met with the kids to prepare some decorations and baked some Fánk (a typical carnival doughnut).

On January 25th we went to school to prepare some Busó masks with the kids. The teachers showed us the traditional mask and we had a lot of fun, attaching wool threads, painting with our imagination. At the same time we met the students. It was interesting learning about this typically Hungarian tradition.

To start off the Fülemüle project, the first volunteers to arrive to Etyek went to the local school and gave a short presentation to introduce themselves to all the classes. They also discovered the room that was prepared for them to have afternoon activities in. 

Hi, Mathilde here. So this workshop was the first one that was initiated by us, volunteers at the school. I have been crafting and wearing daisy chain beaded jewelry for a while and always get some nice compliments about it. A few weeks ago some of the girls at the school complimented my necklace so I thought it could be nice to teach them how to make some since we usually do handcrafting activities together and the teachers were pretty excited as well!

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Local students visited us interested in environmental awareness.

In the beginning of October, we had the opportunity to travel to Spain to gain experience and cooperate with other associations. The Hungarian team was represented by 4 people, including Italy, Germany and Israel.

This small village became part of our lives for more than 5 months. This is a big and challenging project that involves teamwork and fun learning from practice. We tried to learn how to grow up a great deal amount vegetables without any harmful chemicals and one hundred percent naturally. During this challenge, we faced all difficulties but experienced the great power of success when in the summer we had a chance to see the sweet harvest of hard work. This project also taught us to appreciate bio vegetables in the market and don't feel like they are too expensive for just a vegetable. It was the most enjoyable and impressive path that we get through during the year. You can see that in our faces in the photos. :)

At our place in Etyek we started the English kids courses again. During the pandemic we had to stop the English lessons unfortunately. But for four weeks now, we are practising the courses again. There we try to give children from Etyek the opportunity to learn English, but for that we try to give them more of a light learning. We do not try to teach them like the school, where they already go in the morning. The courses are more like an educational relaxing time, where they can join for learning through drawing, playing and speaking or singing the English language.

Birds are a good and important part our environment. A lot of bird kinds are breeding in closed nesting sites, unfortunately natural nesting caves are getting more rare and uncommon. Also because of the coming winter and the coldness it gets more difficult, for the birds, to build a nest on their own. But with closed birdhouses we can support those birds.

Every summer a children's camp is organized in Etyek, where in addition to creative and playful tasks, various programs structure the children's days.

Our Halloween was great fun, we made a lot of decorations, and the two of us did the halloween makeup workshop for the kids. We really enjoyed it and it seems like the kids and their parents too! 

As the summer ends and the autumn begins, most of the people trim and prune the trees and shrubs in their garden. From this occurrence their remains a lot of green waste. So to deal with this waste in a environment healthy way, we conducted a mulching tour through Etyek. There we drove to the people, which register before and crushed there green waste into woodchips. The people could decide if they want to keep the mulch to use or if we should take it with us.

We had an amazing “Seeds Of Tomorrow” project, that Etyeki Szatyor has made for young people from different countries as Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. The value of informal learning of how to make sustainable and healthy choices and live a greener life was well shown in this experience.

16.07.-25.07.2021

Here in Etyek we offer English courses for primary school children. The approach we try to adopt is to have a light learning, we don't aim to overcome school or act like it. Kids already attend school in the morning, in the afternoon, taking part to our lessons, they can join a playful learning through drawing, moving and interacting with the garden and the animals in it. 

Worm or vermicompost sounds weird for most of us, however there are many different variations of how we can host and take care for this mini excavators. They are very delicate and sensitive for any changes in their environment. They need little food - kitchen scraps, like carrots or tomato peels - air, humidity and darkness, if they get all these, they are happy, eating our organic kitchen waste and turn them to super valuable liquid or soil full of everything good for our plant both indoor and outdoor. If they are well maintained (content tamagotchi) they reproduce and you will have more of them. If they are for some reasons not happy, they try to escape from their bin.

When I have heart first the word permaculture, I thought that it is a newly created gardening approach attracting urban young people who have no clue about what gardening is, but they are happy to believe in something deep green, romantic happening in rural areas. 

This summer, we initiated an experiment in small scale economy that was inspired by the Time Banking system.

Home made cosmetics are not only free from any unnecessary preservatives, harmful chemicals, but also can be prepared based on our needs and with our favorite fragrances. 

During the summer we collaborated with the Budapest based organization Cargonomia in creating a workshop where people could come along and learn practical bike repair skills.