Carnival

This year the Petrinja Carnival fell on the same day as Valentine’s. So us EVS volunteers took advantage of this as an opportunity to publicly celebrate all forms of love. We all had a really fun day dressing up as multi-coloured Cupids and encouraging people to have their pictures taken in the heart shaped frame.

The main character of our little troop was Lucy the Love Lutka ( lutka is puppet in Croatian). Lucy was everyone’s favourite and she crossed all social boundaries and language barriers of which there were many. As international volunteers we can only speak very limited Croatian, Lucy can speak even less yet everyone could understand her. She perfectly communicated a warm affection; fearless curiosity; and a primal animal instinct that no matter how much we suppress will always know when it is spoken to. As you may guess children were most interested in Lucy but she captured the hearts and imaginations of everyone, and everyone was excepting and warm towards each other when they were around her. This was a great way to meet and engage with people and I found it a very touching experience. For example I took Lucy over to say hello to an old woman I recognised from the market place. Every Saturday late at night she would be wondering around collecting empty beer bottles from the youngsters in order to sell back to the recycling companies, she always looked miserable. However when she saw Lucy coming over, she smiled for the first time that I had seen and petted Lucy lovingly, she then looked at me and said "thank you" and she really looked like she meant it.