When you share addresses of places for specific country of origin, reviews or pictures, you help other users to find necessary resources or to facilitate their decision process. This is essential to the KITNDO community and the reason the rewards program was integrated since the beginning.

Starting today, thanks to your contributions you can earn a free tote bag, designed by Petra from “Czech this out”, when you reach level 3 (make sure your address is filled in your profile so that we can mail it to you).

We are very excited to work on this project with “Czech this out”. It is a young brand created by a couple, originally from Czech Republic: while David focuses on metal sculptures, Petra draws, knits and makes jewelry. In the heart of their projects – one common thing: the inspiration from the nature. And this is not surprising, when living in British Columbia, the couple spend most of their weekends hiking and wandering in nature. Their products are sold online on Etsy and We Shop Canadian or at craft markets in and around New Westminster.

When we asked Petra to create a design for us, she related right away with KITNDO’s mission. In fact, the couple has been travelling and living abroad since few years: Scotland, Slovenia, New Zealand and now Canada. They moved to New Westminster, British Columbia in March 2017 and even though it meant to be a one-year stop, they fell in love with Canadian nature and they are not ready to leave.

When interviewing Petra about her Czech roots, and how does she see herself as opposed to other cultures, she pointed out a huge difference in the nation pride between Czechs and people from countries where she has lived. She took an example in the way how Canadians or Americans celebrate their Independence Day. Once, when they hiked the Garibaldi Lake on the Canada Day, she was blown away by the number of people carrying the Canadian flag and wishing them “happy Canada Day”. She wishes something like that exists on September 28 back in her native country.

Petra also describes what she misses most from Czech Republic, her answer was short and clear: “Friends and family for sure”. “I feel like there are always Czechs wherever we go :D. Even in Scotland where we lived in a small town of 8000 inhabitants. The community is even bigger in Edinburgh where you can find a Czech pub called “Pivo”. While living in Wellington, in New Zealand, we attended a few monthly Czech meetings and even though we did not particularly look for these events, as we wanted to get to know more about other cultures, we had a lot of fun… I know here is a strong Czech community- especially people on Working Holiday visa as British Columbia is very attractive with its stunning landscape and it’s relatively easy to find a job.”

Finally, the question we are always curious to ask to people living abroad, is what traditions do they keep alive? Petra told us: “We celebrate Christmas the Czech way (we bake cookies, eat fish and potato salad for dinner and unwrap presents on Christmas Eve- I still don’t understand how people can wait the whole night to open the presents in the morning- impossible :). Also, during Easter time I dye eggs and my husband cannot forget the “pomlazka“ tradition* on Easter Monday. And, of course, we keep celebrating our name days*”.

*”Pomlazka”: a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs – therefore used for centuries by boys who go caroling on Easter Monday and symbolically whip girls on the legs. Name Day: consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one’s given name. The celebration is similar to a birthday.

Photo credits: Czech this out