Sunday, May 1, 2011

Day in Dragodonovo

First of all, for all of you who follow my blog i'm sorry for all the font changes recently. Some of my students couldn't read the cursive so I changed it, then I didn't like the font, then it changed again, and now it's hopefully staying like this for a while. On to more exciting things...

This weekend I was able to spend some time in Dragodonovo which is a village near Sliven where another volunteers works for an NGO and the Boarding School there. It is a co-ed boarding school for students 11-18 who for one reason or another can no longer be in a "regular" Bulgarian school. Many of them have been in trouble with the police in the past. I give the volunteer there a ton of credit as it is a hard position to fulfill and really makes me appreciate my placement. 

As this the 20th year of the Peace Corps in Bulgaria and the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps worldwide volunteers across Bulgaria are celebrating through events during the year. This Saturday was one of these events and to celebrate there were about 12 currently serving Peace Corps volunteers who went to hang out with the kids. In the morning there we played sports, made bracelets, and I ended up drawing a lot of "tattoos" on the arms of the kids. Then we went and ate lunch while the kids had theirs. In the afternoon we presented on our states, played games and did a scavenger hunt and then the day was over. Other than hanging out with the kids it was also nice to see some of the other volunteers in-country that I rarely get to see. In order to show you a bit of the weekend here are some photos of what went on:

One of the most beautiful roosters I've ever seen:

The volunteer in Dragodonovo has a guinea pig named "Dudley" for a pet:

One of the girls from the boarding school greeting us when we arrived:

Two of the girls from the boarding school with a currently serving volunteer:

Three girls at the boarding school with the same volunteer:

It's very common for girls to walk arm in arm here in Bulgaria:

The jump ropes I brought were a big hit (thanks Dad and free stuff from Insurance companies):

They love posing for photos (and it's very common to paint the bottoms of trees here white):

Two of the kids at the boarding school:

A currently serving volunteer and one of the girls from the boarding school:

Being models:

Showing off their skills:

Showing off his tattoo:

There was an activity on brushing your teeth outside:


 More posing:

The first place group from the scavenger hunt:

The kids loved using my camera as well:

So that's about all for this blog post.

Happy May Day!

Peace, love, literacy, and reckless curiosity. 

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