Nonformal and environmental education in Otava region

Hey, I am Gosia :-)

I am from small town in Poland called Łańcut. I’m 23 years old. I participated in an English curse and my teacher told me about volunteering project in Czech Republic. Didn’t hear of something like that before and I was very interested in how it works. I read the description of this project. It told me there will be work with animals and gardening so I was sold. Still had some doubts but decided that I don’t have anything to lose so why not try something new?

I am happy that I decided to come here. In a very short time experienced so many new things. Meeting people, trying and learning new things. For example archery I don’t think I would try it in Poland and I would miss so much fun. Preparing some staff for children let me remind myself what it’s like to be a kid. It is good sometimes to look at the world from child’s perspec­tive. Also it allowed me to get dirty with paints so it was great. For now I mostly deal with animals and cleaning work outside. I can tell that for me it’s not work but enjoyment because I love animals. It also allows me to learn what I should do to take good care of each animal. As for the people here what can I say? They are great. If I have any problem it don’t matter to who I go to, they will do everything in their power to help. They are friendly and understanding which is wonderful for someone who is not a people person like me. Also the town is amazing. So peaceful and serene.

Summarizing nice people, beautiful place, doing what I like. Question comes to mind what more do you need in life? :-)

I’m looking forward to spending the next few months here, can’t wait for new challenges and what will happen next.

25/10/2019 Amazing year!

When I came to Horažďovice for one year volunteering program at DDM, I didn’t know what to expect. I definitely wasn’t prepared for what happened later. I have had such a great time, so that I don’t want to leave now.

In Horažďovice, I have met wonderful people who were always there for me. At the beginning I wasn’t sure how well I will adapt because I’m not very good at meeting new people, but my colleagues and friends made it so easy for me. Working with them and getting to know each other was a pleasure. Thanks to them I had many opportunities to experience great things. I tried archery, canoeing, cross-country skiing and a lot more. I worked with kids and I need to say that it wasn’t that scary I thought it would be. In fact I had a blast with them. Especially when kids asked to translate some words in Polish. I was working on farm with animals which I loved. I learned how to take a care of a different kinds of animals including exotic ones such as snakes, chameleons or insects.

I had so much fun, that I don’t know when this year had passed. Going abroad and volunteering in DDM was the best decision I have ever made in my life. I have spend amazing year in this beautiful town. I will miss this place and everyone I have met here. I truly hope that I will visit Horažďovice again in the future. So I’m not saying goodbye, just see you later!

18/1/2019 Polish evening

Together with Dawid we planned and made Polish evening – a public event for Horazdovice community. We prepared polish food, presentation about nice places to see in Poland and the audience could watch polish film ‘’Kiler’’. I think that the best part for everyone was tasting the traditional polis food :-) During the tasting we were listening to polish music.

We cooked krokiety and racuchy. If you want to try cook them yourself on the end of this article you will find the recipes. Presentation was also a hit, some people were asking for copy so I hope that they will want to visit some of this places. At the end we showed old polish movie. “Kiler” it is comedy of mistakes. Everybody was laughing so we choosed a good film :-) In the end it was a a great evening. We shared some parts of polish culture and everyone could learn a bit about Poland. So if you still have some question or you would like to see the presentation or film again don’t hesitate to contact us :-)

Racuchy

• 2 apples
• 1 egg
• 200 ml milk
• 150 g flouf (fine)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon powder sugar
• 1 spoon vanilla sugar

Peeled and cored apples grate on the grater. Mix everything together adding apples at the end. Fry in a hot oil on a pan from both sides – the colour should be golden at the end. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Krokiety

1. Stuffing

• 200 g minced meat
• 1 medium size onion
• 1 kg sour cabbage
• 2 big champignons
• salt, black pepper, marjoram, dried garlic, red sweet pepper

Add water to the cabbage and cook until it is soft and not so sour (we cooked it for about 4 hours). Change the water several times (to reduce the sour taste). Fry minced meat on the pan until it is well cooked. Cut onions and champignons in small pieces and fry on oil in the pan. Strain the cooked sour cabbage, add fried meat, onions and champignons, mix together and season the taste with salt, pepper and other spices.

2. Pancakes (you can prepare them according to your own recepy)

• 500 ml milk
• 1 egg
• 300 g fine flour Mix everything together. Fry on a very small amount of oil on pan from both sides to golden color.

3. Folding

• 2 eggs
• bread crumbs

When everything (stuffing, pancakes) is ready, you can start foldidng krokiety. Spread a bit of stuffing (1 spoon) to the centre of a the pancakge, fold two opposed sides to the middle and start rolling from the end. Dip krokiety in eggs and cover them with bread crumbs. Fry on a pan from both sides to golden color.