Burgas & Aytos

Hey there. It's been a long time (five days since the last article), but I don't really have the time to write here. I suspect, that the more the closes up, the less I will be writing. So now I am offering you an article that I submitted for the Yes We Can blog. Enjoy ;)

Burgas and Aytos getting rocked!

The Plan
I remember, that almost a month ago I was scheduled to stay in Burgas and organize a Yoga Jam concert. Two weeks ago the Yes We Can team left Sarafovo, but some of us stayed back. I was one of those people… Now I am in Sofia and I am trying to comprehend what happened to me. It’s so much more than I could imagine then!

So, half of the people that remained in Burgas stayed at the hotel to help at the child camp that the “Art of Living” is organizing. The other half including me were staying in an apartment in the outskirts of Burgas. Actually our team never worked as it was initially planned – the Burgas Yoga Jam event was cancelled, so we teamed up with our guys staying at the hotel in Sarafovo, who were helping at the child camp.

The camp
25 kids came for the camp and it turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences both for us and for the kids!
Every day there was the regular yoga practice and after that started the real fun! We went swimming in the sea or in the hotel pool or we played beach volleyball or other games. Alen and Karolina organized a treasure hunt – an adventure game, which tested the children’s orientation. On the last day nobody really wanted to go – neither the kids, nor the teachers or the volunteers.


The course
Meanwhile we organized the first Health and Happiness course during the Yes We Can! The trainer of an atletic club in Aytos (a small town near Burgas) invited us to conduct this 6-hour course for the small athletes. During our leadership training we received a manual for this course, which is a basic introduction to yoga and other antistress techniques.

At first I was very nervous, because this was my first course. My throat went dry constantly and I was sweating. But after a while I got accustomed to it and I really loved the whole experience of teaching. What thrilled me the most was the possibility to help somebody make a positive change in his life. We were standing there in front of 20 kids, who were eager to hear what we had to offer them. Those followed our instructions very strictly and they participated with a lot of joy in all the processes. It was a pleasure to work with them. When we were leaving they were all smiling, which is actually the purpose of the course. At the end of the course I received my first gift as a teacher, which is very dear to me – a small white elephant made of plaster and then glazed.

We also persuaded our course participants to take action for a better Aytos. Together with them we cleaned up a park in the outskirts of the town. They really enjoyed the whole experience.


Leaving Burgas
After this we conducted successfully two more courses in the same city. People were happy with us and we arranged 6-7 more courses in schools and for the general public. However we were quite successful, we had to move from Burgas, cause the concerts in Sofia was coming up, so our guys there needed us eagerly.
So, here I am, at the yoga center in Sofia – ready for action.