BARBIES ON THE GO!

Sending their dolls 'travelling' around the country started as way to escape everyday life during the pandemic and four years later they're still going strong

- JACQUES MYBURGH

THEY'RE a diverse bunch. One is a carefree hippie who likes to dance in the rain, another is a wildlife vet, another a teacher, yet another a lawyer.

But they all have one thing in common: they're dolls - and yet to the women who own them, they're a whole lot more than that. They're the centre of a world where friendship grows, experiences are shared, problems are aired and life is full and interesting.

Welcome to Peri-Land, an existence populated by 12 women and the Barbies they send to each other across the country each month. The dolls live out their flights of fancy in fantastical stories and fictional villages created by the women -or the Peris, as they call themselves.

Miniature towns are created out of cardboard that require little money but plenty of imagination. There are hair salons, coffee shops, houses, gardens with pizza ovens and even a village built around a 7de Laan theme.

"Some people build houses for the Barbies from shoeboxes," says Wonny Meents (66), one of the Peris and the person responsible for the Laan village.

"I recycle a lot and make chairs from toilet rolls. You don't need big dollhouses. Building a world for the dolls is affordable - you can use anything."

Being part of this club is a way to escape the everyday, says Hanlie de Klerk (69), the founder of this Barbie travellers community.

"It's a way for us to stay busy and forget the pain and loneliness of the world."

THE idea of the Barbie exchange programme began when Hanlie, a retired hairdresser from Welkom in the Free State, was cut off from her loved ones during lockdown in 2020.