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Hello! Welcome to the Wild Vibes recap. Since February 2025, we hosted 7 young people for 3 months and more in Mrachenik, rural village in the Sredna Gora region. All working together to renovate an old school into a volunteering and training center while connecting with rural life and locals.
We currently have three volunteer staying for 6-12 months!
If you wanna join, all the details are HERE
You can already apply HERE
We will cover weekly progress through the so-called “Weekly Recaps”. Here we will give a brief overview of what is happening in this little village called Mrachenik and report on our experiences.
ВАЖНО! Първо прочетете наръчника за успешно кандидатстване.
Hi everyone! It’s time for me to start writing the weekly recaps again after quite a while without posting any. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
So Monday was a day of reflection for the camp, so we looked back on all the activities and tasks we’ we’d accomplished to see where people had improved and how they’d grown personally. We also organized a small event in the village center. As you know, during the last week of camp we organized “cultural nights” to showcase the different cultures represented in the village, but to our great disappointment, no villagers dared to come into the school to see what was happening. It’s It’s said that the barrier created by the school might be keeping people from coming, so we broke down that barrier by going out in front of Stayco’s house and briefly presenting all the countries represented in Mrachenik. Some villagers came to sit with us and listen to our stories. We ended up dancing traditional Bulgarian, Spanish, and Malagasy dances—it It was a magical moment, and one of the villagers said she was very happy with the work we’d done in the village. It was truly amazing, and it really gives meaning to our work.
On Tuesday, we focused on cleaning the school, packing our bags, and taking care of all the administrative tasks, including submitting reports to the national agency. Then we moved on to a final group photo, and we let everyone do whatever they wanted with their last afternoon together—saying goodbyes, shedding a few tears, and reminiscing about all the events we’d been through, both good and bad. Then we spent the evening doing our makeup (Arsine is the best makeup artist). It was really nice to see all these people who knew this was probably the last time they’d see each other and who were trying to make the most of the last moments they could spend together. I can’t tell you how it ended—I went to bed because I was so tired. I tried my best to make the most of those last moments, but I wasn’t enjoying them anymore, so I went to bed.
Last Wednesday morning, we said goodbye and everyone got on the bus headed for Karlovo. Stayco came to say goodbye to everyone before we left—to me, that’s strong proof that our efforts are making an impact on the community, since this is the first time she’s done that in three years. The team didn’t have much time to dwell on it—we got right back to work to get the school back in order, since many people had forgotten things. For example, we had a cardboard box full of soap and shampoo. We also had to cover all the mattresses and couches with tarps to protect them from the rain and dampness. I’m not going to lie—it was a grueling day, and that was just the start of the week, because Thursday was dedicated to preparing for our weekend event. So we set up several activities, like human flipcharts and wooden signs to display volunteer opportunities. We packed everything into the car so we’d be ready to leave Friday morning.
On Friday, the first day of the event, we set up our tent, all our activities, and all the merchandise, and we tried to help the other organizations as much as possible—especially the 15/29 collective, who created the Youth Village.
Our goal for the event was to get people between the ages of 18 and 30 talking about Smokinya, but the people who came to the event were mostly parents with children—so not our target audience. Still, we tried our best to introduce people to Smokinya. We also offered two activities: tie-dye and a sample “training” session. We did quite a bit of tie-dye, and people enjoyed it, so I’d say it was a success.
The event itself was cool, though the weather wasn’t very kind to us—a storm knocked down our tent—but we managed to reorganize and adapt. It was a long week, but it’s over now, so we can move on to other things.
That’s all from me. Have a great week! I’m going to bed now. Kisses
Should you have a question, contact us: info@smokinya.com.
This program is co-funded by the Erasmus+ / European Solidarity Corps program of the European Union.
Финансирано от Европейския съюз. Изразените възгледи и мнения обаче принадлежат изцяло на техния(ите) автор(и) и не отразяват непременно възгледите и мненията на Европейския съюз или на Европейската изпълнителна агенция за образование и култура (EACEA). За тях не носи отговорност нито Европейският съюз, нито EACEA.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
