Last week, me and Carolina we went together along with Monika and David ( volunteers from kreaktiv Kavadarci ) to the mid-term in Belgrade, Serbia. Honestly i wasn’t expecting much from the training, but in the end was really good. Our group was interesting because we had some participants who were with us in the On-arrival, and it was interesting to know how they’r projects were running. I found a very cold Belgrade, with cold people ( this is another history..)

Like usually

, i don’t have much to say, so see the pics from the trip

We were at Kreaktiv events in Skopje and Kavadarci to mark International Volunteer Day.

In Skopje, there was an afternoon event in Vero shopping centre with bands, a exhibition of photography and art from projects with local schools, flash mob and interviews with Stevica, local volunteers and a shaking Vladimira (who was interviewed in Macedonian) and Bláthnaid (who spoke baby Macedonian)!

Kreaktiv Kavadarci had spent three months organising an evening of entertainment, workshops and exhibitions upstairs in a museum. Carolina and Tiago’s workshop was  making pins from bottle caps and purses from cartons. Others were friendship bracelets and origami. In the main room, entertainment and speeches included a Macedonian Idol contestant singing last year’s Serbian Eurovision entry, a theatre piece and an interview with EVS volunteer Estelle. See the photos or video.

So much work was put into both events, but both went really well and everyone was exhausted afterwards!

For a long time that i didn’t write anything in the blog, so in the last weeks, a lot append in kreaktiv! All the 3 of us went to Greece, but the biggest adventure append with me, Carolina and Estelle. After a weekend that we get lost all from each others, we had to make a visit to a hospital, because of Estelle, she was feeling really bad. Lucky she is good now, but at the time, we were really scared, even because we didn’t had any money!! Typical volunteers :p

And now, a very pleasant information, we have a new volunteer, from Ireland, her name is Bláthnaid Deeny. A person full of energy witch will motivate us all in creACTive

Oh and by the way, i just leave some photos from Greece

Last weekend, all the creACTive people from skopje went to Kavadarci ( or may i say crazydarci ? ) to a fantastic weekend!

In the first day, we went to a Kafana, I may say it was the most surreal night on my life ! Beer + awesome food + awesome people + turbo folk = (??)

We could meet the new volunteers in kavadarci, Sven from Netherlands and also Estelle from France. In the next day ,we had breakfast in dragan house, and let me say, a breakfast of champions, we had this thing called ‘pishi’ ( correct me if i’m wrong) and it was delicious!

Later we went to the beautiful tikves lake to the dragan’s parents house.

Resuming, it was a nice weekend, with all the kreaktiv people , and in my opinion, it was good to make us close then ever.

Has you know, we will have new activities in creACTive, and for now, i will focus on two new ones.

One is Yoga, which it will be Vladimira as facilitator

Yoga is one of the most popular and fun exercises! In creACTive we will start from the very beginning, previous experience is not required. Learn how to stretch your entire body, relax by candlelight and pleasant music

Doing yoga regularly offers many benefits, including making you feel better about your body as you become stronger and more flexible, toning your muscles, reducing stress, and improving your mental and psychical well-being. After few lessons you will be able to continue practicing yoga alone at home every day.

Yoga starts in creACTive on Tuesday 21st September 2010 at 20:30! Bring your own mat and comfortable clothes

The other workshop, is the ‘EnviromenTales’ by me and Carolina, we will show how to re-utilize used objects that you have at home. Do you ever though it is possible to turn a random can into an ashtray ? Or to create original pins with bottlecaps ? Well its possible, and we will show how

We started the new season of work in creactive with ( a lot ) of new changes! Caroline terminated her EVS project ( personal reasons) and we have a new volunteer, Vladimira from Czech republic, and she will be with us for a year ! Also a new person in creactive is Daniel, from Brazil, who will lead the team of Libertas Magazine.

Here in creactive we will have a lot of new activities like yoga, movie marathon, workshop about the environment, etc.  Also the local volunteers will also be more in touch with creactive, witch will be very good for everyone!

Me and carolina, along with Genesis and Ciprian ( from Cre8tiv8) created the eko-skopje, we got the suport from the organization of pivolend, and they got us a stand! but lets start from the beguining, first of all we created a video, to pass in the TV ( http://www.vimeo.com/14941151 ). It was a really adventure to film it, because filming a kid with 2 years, its a lot difficult!

The preparation of the festival was a little bit difficult, especially because we had to build 3 huge recycle bins from wood, but with a lot of effort, we manage to do it !!

Resuming all, the festival  was a success

Hey ho!

“Office” holidays past  so quickly and we’re again in the office already one week. The plans of me and Tiago changed a bit Both of us did not went to Turkey – his participation in the project was not possible and my preparatory meeting is postponed until October. So, Tiago went to Kavadarci and Bitola and I was spending my free time in Skopje I had a small accident with my head, so felt secure just in the flat. But I still met a lot of people, spent a nice time talking, drinking coffee, watching movies, cooking, searching for a good place to stay in Montenegro etc. Caroline enjoyed her time in Sweden a lot, doing all the nice and crazy things which young Swedish girl can do during the summer. And Caroline enjoyed her time in Portugal as well, spending a cool time with her beloved, going for concerts, surfing and sunbathing on the beach. Now, we’re back all together in our flat, telling stories from the past 3 weeks.

In the office we’re slowly preparing for starting a new adventures! Since September EVS volunteers together with one of coordinators – Stevica – will cooperate with high-schools around Skopje. We will have creACTive youth clubs in schools. These clubs will work in a close cooperation with the office in Skopje. We plan to do together many different activities. And of course we’ll have new workshops in the office, as well as some of the workshops which started before holidays will be continued.

We have plenty of different ideas. We plan to have language workshops (Swedish, Portuguese, English), skills workshop (photography, writing CV and motivation letter, Photoshop), hobby meetings (movies, books, arts), sports, flash mobs, video events, ecology events and much, much more! So, starting with September check the website (or Facebook profile) of creACTive for more info!

Before the work will start we’re doing our usual tasks. Caroline right now is on her mid-term training in Belgrade. We’re also meeting people – lately a lot of volunteers are finishing their projects and are going home, so there is more and more farewell meetings Soon also I’ll go home, my project is finishing on 10th of September, so in 18 days!

But before that, together with Caroline we plan to go for one weeek to Montenegro, more precise to Sutomore to enjoy beach, sun, sand, sea, slow and relaxing time But also we wanna see some more places, so probably we’ll plan the stay “50:50″ with less and more active things.

Stay tuned and keep a track of what is new on our website! Save it in your bookmarks – http://www.kreaktiv.mk/

It have been long time without any news here, at least it seems so! For us the time is passing so fast, that we don’t really notice it to be honest. It’s passing in ultra-speed.

When the summer started the office has been more and more empty. People left Skopje, went to holidays, summer work or other businesses. We needed to suspend most of the activities, so there is also less to write about.

In the middle of the month we moved from the house in Taftalidze to a flat in Aerodrom. Actually just next to the bus/train station. And on the top – 16! – floor.

We took some time in arranging and cleaning and now we’re settling. Well, actually it’s mostly me and Tiago, who are doing it, because both Carolinas went home. Carolina is in Portugal already almost a week and Caroline went to Sweden on 24th of July. Tiago and I, we’re tough and we’ll stay away from home a bit more

Actually from tomorrow until 15th of August we’ll have “office” holidays, so more than 2 free weeks! I plan to go to Turkey for working meeting of one project and then? Who knows? Maybe Greece, maybe Croatia, maybe Montenegro. It depends where I’ll manage to find hosts And Tiago wanna have short trips around Macedonia + he will spend a week in Turkey, participating in a project.

So, there will longer silence here. Maybe  a new post will appear after 15th of August. But don’t be angry on us, let us enjoy our holidays And you enjoy too!

In the weekend i was at the Alarm festival in Ljubanista, Ohrid together with a lot of other EVS volunteers from Skopje and Bitola. It started at Friday 08.00 in Skopje and ended again in Skopje at 14.00 yesterday. Sleeping in tent, watching music, dancing, swimming, tanning and enjoying was what the weekend was about which connected to the beach and the Ohrid Lake at the festival was perfect.

From the EVS point of view it was a prefect place for meeting different kind of people and see the culture in a more alternative way with the variety of music, location, people and food. Especially if you are open to this kind of variety and are prepared for not that luxury conditions at all.

EVS is all about learning and this was a good opportunity to learn more about Macedonia and people from Macedonia compared to people from other nationalities. One example is that we met a guy from Greece who were playing in one of the bands and he asked what i am doing here in Macedonia and about my projects and etc so i told him about “Macedonia – the land of the sun” which started a big discussion in the way of Greece vs Macedonia as a country.

But all in all the festival was very giving in many ways and also to see other organisations working and here the lack of information, cleaning and ecological profile which was the main aim of the festival. Hopefully they will learn from this and next year provide a better quality and atmosphere!

Stay tuned / Caroline