January 10, 2001

Dear Family and Friends,

About a month ago I began a course of English for the community. A previous volunteer started the English course and many people were showing interest in me continuing the course. The class is generally made up of retired teachers and librarians from the previous year. We meet each Monday night at the downtown library. I really enjoy teaching adults and they really show a willingness to learn. The group is composed of around 25 adults and it is enjoyable. When I agreed to take on this class I didn’t want to just teach another class for English. I wanted to have the group be involved in the community in some way volunteering and yesterday was our first attempt.

A group of pensioners, Josh, Robin (the other volunteer in Silistra) and I went to visit the orphanage and deliver the gifts that we had been collecting for the past few weeks. Many of the people in the group donated clothes and we bought underwear, upon request, for every child out of a donation from my mother. We also bought cookies to give to the kids from the group.

When we arrived at the orphanage I was surprised at how beautiful the building was. It was very clean and cutely decorated. The children sat at little tables in the eating area and were very quiet while we passed out cookies. Maria, the Librarian who helped me with organizing and making the trip possible, wanted me to say something in Bulgarian, which I did reluctantly about why we were there. Gradually the children began speaking. One of the Pensioners was really cute and she taught them all to say “Hello” and from then on they kept saying Hello, Goodbye and My Name is…. Most of the children were Roma children. The Roma’s are a minority group sometimes referred to as gypsies, and often treated as outcasts of the society here in Bulgaria. Even though the facility was beautiful and well taken care of, you could tell the children still needed clothes, shoes and a whole lot of love. They gave us the tour of the place and kids started following us and holding our hands. Right then you could tell where we were and the attention these children were in need of. Not all of the children are totally parentless, some have 1 parent that has no money to take care of the child or does not want the child.

Overall the visit was great but too short. I plan to try to go back to visit, hopefully with the group to read books and spend some time there. We are working on obtaining some money from Peace Corps to buy the children slippers.

We still haven’t gotten any snow here in Bulgaria and some days it is quite dreary. We would like to see a little snow on the ground, so will you send some our way?

Peace and Love to you,

Kate