At the end of November 2019, Green School Village (GSV) organizеd a full seven days training course, certifying Permaculture teachers for the first time in Bulgaria. It was similar to the one held in Sweden earlier that month, and again funded by the Erasmus+ programme for the benefit of the wisely chosen candidates from 8 partnering countries with their specific Permaculture projects. It took place in the village of Gorno Draglishte (near Bansko), in a slow-food guest house called „Deshka“. The owner Deshka, her husband Vlado, and the local grannies were all very hospitable, fantastic cooks and gardeners (especially Vlado). The grannies at Deshka’s house are famous with their traditional songs, dances and humour that welcomed the group upon arrival and dressed everybody in traditional costumes from the region. Their ‘banski’ dialect further contributes to the authentic traditional atmosphere in which we all dived in and felt like at home. Our group of more than thirty international participants blended with the local culture, customs and the great networking experience in combination with the benefits of the quality and content of the training itself. The course was taught by Candela Vargas from Spain (a co-teacher of Alfred Decker), and Mihaela Tsarchinska, Mihail Kosev and Philip Varionov from the Bulgarian Permaculture Association. In the middle of the course, to everybody’s great delight, there was a live session via Zoom with Rosemary Morrow (Rowe) – the author of the content and teaching methods of the course, who was with the group for an hour and a half directly from Australia. Very erudite, wise and courageous woman, a pioneer! She travels and teaches Permaculture in the poorest and most challenging places on the planet, and especially in Africa, such as Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia and more. The main topic of the course were the refugees and more specifically how they can be integrated into Permaculture farms and centers in Europe, and was raising questions like “How Permaculture design can be used in refugee camps?”. The course itself was covering a lot of pedagogical approaches towards the learning process, but it was also including sessions where the students had to test their teaching skills in the ‘comfort zone’ of their peers and colleagues. The cohesion of the groups was spectacular! A lot of great connections were establishes, experiences shared, and many people in the course turned out to be musicians, and some even brought instruments like violin, flute, guitar, ukulele, synth, jambe, etc., and some evenings going into spontaneous musical improvisations performed by a large part of the attendees. The last evening traditionally (for the Permaculture courses) was devoted to the so-called „no talent show“ during which everyone, without an exception, had to be „exposed“ on the improvised stage for a brief theatrical performance, or to lead a dance, play on an instrument or sing something to conclude the whole experience with a celebration after getting their Teacher certificates. Soon there will be more pictures and a video from the course. Stay tuned! 
