National Sea Week

In Bulgaria the First week of August is National Sea Week and some of the larger towns and municipalities along the Black Sea Coast have celebrations. The week concludes with Navy Day, which in Varna means all the Navy ships are open to the public (Varna is where the Bulgarian Navy is headquartered). There was not, however, anything planned in Avren for the week so I decided to plan an marine based eco day-camp with the kids to celebrate. I invited other volunteers to the village to help me run the camp and see the town.

town

outside my door

I planned the camp with some help from my colleagues and a friend. I made presentations (translated by PC staff) and got a hold of some movies to watch on the projector. I made invitations and asked the village store owners to put them up and gave them to any kids I saw in town. I enticed kids to come by holding a raffle drawing after the second day. Each kid that came the first day got a raffle ticket towards the prize, each kid that came the second day got the same, if you came twice you got more chances.

The first day we started off with some color by number sea and/or beach scenes. Then we had a presentation on the Black Sea, its wildlife, and the effects of pollution. There is a lot drilling/transportation of oil in/through the Black Sea so I had an interactive demonstration planned about oil spills. I had collected a bunch of sea gull feathers in Varna and gave one to each kid; they also had a cup of water that they proceeded to dip the feathers in. Clean water doesn't effect the feathers and they stays dry, however, when vegetable oil is added to the cup and the feathers are dipped in again the feathers get all wet and slimy. This means that sea birds cannot fly when they come in contact with oil spills. We then tried to wash off the feathers in a bucket with soap to see how hard it is to save them. Afterward, we watch a movie from the National Geographic Society Great Expeditions: Ghost Ships of the Black Sea.

translating the colors

rocking the sunglasses

presentation

washing oil soaked feathers

We then met up with the kids later after lunch and played some soccer in the stadium.

The second day we started with more color by number drawings, its a good way to keep kids busy while others trickle in late. Then we decided to have an outside playtime break before the presentation to help with attentiveness. Then we had a presentation on waves and how beaches are created. We then made 'seas in a bottle'. I drank a lot of Coca-Cola Light in the previous weeks to collect uniform sized bottles for this experiment. I also collected sand a sea shells from the beach. We put the sand, the sea shells, water and oil into each bottle. Then, when you turn the bottle on its side you can simulate waves and see how the sand moves with the waves. You can see how the top layer of water is the one that moves the most (the floating oil) and the middle layers stay mostly still (the water). We then passed out juice and snacks and watched Planet Earth: Shallow Seas from the BBC. We held the raffle after the last day for a Finding Nemo themed kite.

 

sand and sea shell step

water and oil step

Raffle Prize

Some of the expansive collection of color by number papers

All in all I think it went very well. I was happy with how many participants were there and how smoothly the days went. There were teachers present both days and they were really helpful and happy to be there. I also had a good set of volunteers there to help me and we cooked some lovely meals together, eaten outside under the grapevines.