Bulgaria Wednesday - by Rob, Carly and Katie

Third day of the project, we were up bright and early to have breakfast, then we left for our final day at the school! After breakfast we made our way to the school to arrive just before nine. We then all divided into 3 groups for our lessons. All the groups had separate grades and lessons with Rob, Laila, Taylor and Jess having a flag-making lesson where we presented information about the UK Flag and the Bulgarian Flag. We then played polo relay, this is game where you have a cocktail stick and polo, you have to get the polo from the start of the group to the end without dropping it. Next, we had an English lesson, where we taught some basic English, the children love to learn the English language. We then departed from the school with lots of goodbyes and a final photo of the whole team and the head teacher.

We went to the youth centre as usual for lunch where we ate pizzzzzza and cake. Afterwards, we again split into three groups, one stayed at the youth centre and worked with around 15 Roma and orphan children. Here the first activity was a huge mural, all of children participated in painting a variety of pictures around their names. Next we went out to the green space and played volleyball with ten of the children. One child decided Rob was called Harry Potter and Carly was Hermione…. The favourite activity was playdoh and bracelet/loom band making, most of the team involved came away with a bracelet too! Carly taught one of the boys to make a rose out of playdoh, she was really proud haha!

Katie, Jess, Keely, Chloe, Asia, Taylor and Mollie were split into two teams to visit two youth accommodations. These are like a halfway house for children with no families, all of which were from the Roma community. 

As Katie is writing this, you’ll get more of an insight into the home I visited. There were children aged 6 to 29 in this particular house, who have a dedicated ‘babysitter’ to look after them. We arrived unexpected, but were welcomed with traditional Bulgarian food, which was lush! The woman looking after the children showed us around the house, it has a basement, a ground floor and a top floor. The building is quite new so everything was really clinical, but the children had a few things like photos and teddies to spice it up. To begin with we spoke to the older children, listened to their music and danced. We then played a short game of volleyball, followed by bracelet making and drawing, even the older boys that were too cool for bracelets got involved eventually! We loved it so much we didn’t want to leave.

We’re now back at the hotel writing the blog looking forward to Taylor’s birthday tomorrow and hearing from all of you guys in the UK!

p.s. beans

p.p.s. Rob loves his mum

p.p.p.s Val bae you better be reading this

p.p.p.p.s where are Asia’s Friends