I was taking some vacation in Croatia a few weeks ago, which coincided with International SUNDay. I drove to the nearest large town and they had one of those "to scale" solar system representations. Perfect! I setup right beside the Sun with my Solarmax 40.
And then the fun DIDN'T start. I'm fluent in English, Croatian, German, and French, and in over an hour, 100 people said "no I don't want to look through your scope" in all 4 languages.
I've been doing this over over 10 years and I can count the number of people on one hand who have said no. I was actually getting very discouraged, and I was wracking my brains trying to figure out what was wrong. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but the issue was, that in Croatia during tourist season, you are sold EVERYTHING. Water, trinkets, bathrooms, hell, even the air you breath. After coming to this realization that people thought I was going to charge them to look through my telescope (the horror!) I started yelling the word "free" in every language I knew. Suddenly there were droves of people, and all was well. It just took me a while to get to that stage.
The thing that really stuck with me was a summer camp of kids that came by with about 60 kids. I approached the camp leader and in Croatian:
Me: Hey do you have a few minutes for me to give a short presentation to the kids about the Sun?
Him: No, I'd rather not, none of them have any money.
Me: That's perfect because it's free!
Him: What do you mean free?
Me: Well, you know, no money, free.
Him: ......"I don't get it, what's the point"?
Me: Well it's so that the children get to learn something new, interesting and fun.
Him: Well I guess if you want...
This just shows that we have to not only educate children, we have to educate the adults too who are supporting this behavior. Needless to say, the day was a wonderful success, but also full of situational peculiarities that I thought you might find interesting.
And of course, the pictures! My grandpa in the red shirt, and my GREAT grandpa at 97 with 4 of his grandchildren.
International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia
- Bojan
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International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia
Last edited by Bojan on Thu Jul 14, 2016 2:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia
That's a real testament to your perseverance and well done.Its a shame that the world is becoming a more taking than a giving one.
- Carbon60
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Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia
Nicely done. It's a cynical world! Still, everyone looks happy enough and it's amazing how many people smile when they see the Sun in a 'new light', probably for the first time ever.
Good perseverance!
Stu
Good perseverance!
Stu
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More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
- Montana
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Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia
What an amazing story, I would never have thought about people being put off thinking they would have to pay. Well done Sir! you are a star
Alexandra
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Re: International SUNday in Zadar, Croatia
Lovely!
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