March 22, 2002

It has been such a busy week here. I can’t remember a week in Bulgaria that has been quite this busy. The director from Peace Corps Bulgaria, Steven Taylor came for a visit along with some other staff from the Peace Corp Bulgaria. The beginning of the week was spent preparing for his visit. I was finishing preparations for a student held play put on by the sixth class and Josh was preparing his classes with information about Peace Corps and Steven Taylor in order to prepare them for a class together.

On Thursday we began our day having a consult with the nurse from Peace Corps. She came to check out our apartment and to ask us questions about our over all experience of living here. We then left our apartment to go to a press conference that was being held in the honor of the PC Bulgaria director. We were really asked some wonderful questions about the Peace Corps and our experience here in Silistra as teachers and volunteers. I escaped early to go to my classes and left Josh, Robin (the other volunteer in Silistra), and Steve to answer the questions. After the conference they came to the school. Steve went to a French class to teach because he if fortunate enough to be fluent in several languages and then he taught one of Josh’s English classes. It was a fun class to watch because many of the students that were in the class we had both taught. They asked some really interesting questions ranging from, do you carry a weapon to out of all the places you have been what are your favorite places, to what is the strangest thing for you in Bulgaria. The director really said some wonderful thing to the students after one boy asked; do you think there is hope for our country? He told them the hope was within them. That they must look to the future and not towards the past. He told them that they are the only ones that are able to make themselves happy. That you must look within. It was precious to watch many of the students really value these words of advice and keep them for their own.

After the class was the play in which some of my wonderful sixth graders presented. Many preparations had been made by many of the staff members. The art teacher helps with some of the props; the librarian imagined and created all of the costumes and the other English teachers worked to help the students with their lines. There were three short plays. The kids were so excited and did a great job. The hit of all three plays was a boy named George who was the perfect alien! He invented his own mechanical like sound with is voice and was very serious in delivering his lines. After the play they all introduced themselves to the director and I gave them little notes and chocolate bars. The immediately became shy with me! They were translating their notes to their class teacher with smiles! We ended the day with a nice dinner at a restaurant.

The next day was the Language school’s holiday. The show is always really entertaining and most of the classes participate I something. It is all student run and a time for many students to share their talent in acting and music. Most of the things that happen at a holiday like this would never happen in an American high school. The students are very uninhibited and not afraid to laugh at themselves. Also, pretty much anything goes, skimpy costumes, uncensored language and loud music. Our PC director got a chance to speak a little and was presented with a plaque and a necklace, which are given to outstanding graduates of the school. He was translated to in 3 of the languages he spoke, English, French and Russian, by several of the high school students. We left early from the program to have lunch with the Mayor, the director of Education and the deputy mayor. Steve has a wonderful translator named Tanya who translated everything with such phenomenal ease! It made things very easy. The meal was wonderful and the conversation was fruitful I believe. My only regret is that some of the things we heard today would have been heard a year ago so that we would have been able to try to implement some of the ideas discussed. The positive energy and excitement of the past few days have been wonderful and refreshing.

-Kate