Osnovna škola Ivana Gorana Kovačića Vrbovsko

December 6th was a very special day for me, my students, my school and the entire Moravice. It was the day when Moravice got a set of 25 postcards for the first time in the history of the village.

How did it all start?

As some of you may know, my students and I take part in a penpal project with students from BiH, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Portugal, Spain, Mexico and Brazil. We are mostly exchanging emails. Xmas cards, as well. But we started thinking it would be great to not only write to them about Moravice but also to show them the natural beauty of the village. So we went to the local post office. Unfortunately for us, there was only one motive of Moravice and only two copies of it. Quite a shame! And we needed 25 different motives because there are 25 students taking part in the penpal projects...and we are doing it with 8 different countries...So, if you are good at Maths, you'll see we needed much more than 2 postcards that were at the local post office!

So we decided to make our own postcards. First, we needed good-quality photographs of Moravice and I contacted my former student, now 17-year-old Natalija Dokmanović who loves walking around the villages of Moravice and taking breath-taking photographs. She kindly agreed to give me her 25 photographs. But, busy bee as Natalija couldn't just bring me those 25...she brought me approximately 300 photographs to choose from! And, believe me, it was a demanding task which I did with a help of my 8 class students. Somehow and don't ask us how...we managed to choose 25 photographs that we wanted to see on the postcards.

After that, I contacted several printing firms to find the most acceptable (read the lowest) price. And there was Grafis d.o.o. from Split. Although their price was the lowest one, there was a question of the graphic preparation of the postcards. If they do it, it's 100 kunas per a motive. And we had 25 motives. Now multiply that with 100 kunas. Actually, don't. I can tell you it's too much! So my former student Nebojša Petrović stepped in and gave me a hand in bringing the postcards to life and saving us 2500 kunas.

When the postcards came from the printing firm, they were like a dream come true! 25 pearls! 25 breath-taking and heart-shaking postcards!

So we decided to present them to the public. And we did so on Saint Nicholas' Day and it was our present to the all people from Moravice, those who still live there as well as those who left many years ago but their hearts beat and weep for their birthplace.

The very promotion was quite poetical thanks to teacher Željka Vrcelj who gave an amazing speech about Natalija and her love for photography. How deep is that love? Imagine a teenage girl getting up at dawn so she can go around Moravice and catch a perfect sunbeam...a perfect sunrise...or to enjoy low temperatures to take a photograph of a frozen lake...a glittering snow cover which reminds her of the sea, the sea of Gorski kotar...

I want to say thank you to my dear colleague Željka Vrcelj for inserting a poetry into photography or vice versa. I want to say thank you to my former student and my personal ICT expert Nebojša Petrović for putting up with me and all my crazy ideas. I want to thank Natalija for simply being herself and pursuing her dream which is becoming a professional photographer. The first one in Moravice.

And last but not least – thank you to all the people from Moravice and those who cherish Moravice in their hearts for making this project a truly great one!

If you ever come to Moravice, you will fall in love with that beautiful place. And these postcards show that love.