Harmony on the Beach!
No one seems to mind the heat, the hard work with the shovels, the blisters that were shown off at the end of the competition! After it was all over, I was sitting on the beach, sipping white wine, watching the sunset, admiring the sand gallery that we left behind... and celebrating heavens that even though I decided to live on the other side of the world I keep finding many (and more) creative fun wonderful heart-warming people, and many wondrous children!
If you came on Sunday to the ocean toward our direction, the foreign large flag would be stuck on a high pole in the middle of a romantic sweeping Mission Beach, flapping in the air, visible from far away. It attracts onlookers to come closer, to start a conversation "what is this all about". People then observe with amusement and interest the busy beach! They watch almost forty active sculptors shoveling, ditching, digging, sculpting, watering huge piles, cementing them with mighty shovel-pounding into the desired shape and creating unique sand sculptures! Children and women keep running back and forth with the colorful buckets to the ocean for water, men, boys and girls alike are working steadily and swiftly with shovels and spades, molds and rakes, trying to outdo the neighbor who may be a friend, but today a fierce competitor!
I am also helping, fetching large buckets of water, but mostly taking pictures and walking around astonished how all of the children concentrate on work, creating details, bringing up new ideas, snooping inconspicuously whose ditch may be deeper or a castle tower taller and work even harder!
The thing I am enjoying the most (next to Sangria and such) I am truly enjoying the beautiful harmony each team enjoys, the synergy and the spirit of collective joy in working together, having fun while nursing that hope for a victory!
And that is the purpose of our gathering whatever we do: Enjoying a bonfire, enjoying an afternoon sculpting,
an evening spent dancing or listening to music. In order to live in a better world, we have to show to our children not only what it is hard work, honesty, loyalty, integrity, diligence, but mostly, how to be curious, how to get to know others, how to be a part of a collective, how to connect, listen, compromise, learn about something that may feel foreign to us. And to be creative with others! Precious!
We all work hard, but a competition is a competition and even creativity can be measured! And so, as was decided by the international panel, Hilda Bajova, Slovakia & Martin Bohaty, Czech Republic:
The winners are!!
First Place: Family Pop (the best creativity, the best all)
Second Place: Family Semiginovska/Kapicka (an excellent execution)
Third Place: Family Myslikovjan/Zahradnik (unique magnitude of the sculpture)
Honorable Mention: Family Fiser/Capek (an unusual idea)
Honorable mention: Moran family (sculpting skills)
Honorable Mention: Hanc Family (unique concept)
Honorable Mention: Terezka's family (a historical reference to a unique structure)
Honorable Mention: Maja's family (came late and still built a clever small sculpture)
Thank you, parents, for raising such wonderful children, who know how to work hard, how to be creative, how to behave, but also how to congratulate the winner and accept the results with class!!
Long live chasing Muses and inspiration on the beach!!!