I am definietly happy with the project and the results. All my expectation were completely met and I consider it was a very useful experience for me.
I am sure the children in the kindergarten and especially in the orphanage Asen Zlatarov liked all the activities we made together and useful and educative talks we had with many of them. It is true that there were times when the children enjoyed just our presense in the orphanage.
Among the organized activities were a lot of interesting and creative ones like:
- Knitting – which was rather popular not only among girls but also boys and especially during the winter months, and as a result we had a lot of bags and scarves and other things presented for the exhibition which we organized in the local library later;
- newspaper activity where they should cut different pictures from the newspapars and combine them together so that to have funny pictures – the children succeeded very well in this activity;
- activity with napkins was interesting for the children of younger ages;
- drawing workshops involved children and young people and we discovered that there are many children who are really talented in drawing;
- attending library to open the world of books was very interesting, educative and something new for the children;
- etnography lessons in the local youth centre were really interesting with a lot of different workshops including the ones in cooking and were another chance to discover Bulgarian culture, traditions and also cousine. These workshops helped the children to obtain new skills and use their imagination for different activities;
- english lessons combined with games were really enjoyable for the chilren from the orphanage;
I should admit that the conditions in the orphanage are not appropraite for work if we consider the fact that actually there are no rooms designated for work or study and we were working in the only rooms – bedrooms. But we concentrated more on work and got used to the conditions as there was no other choice. With the support of the director of the local library, who is a very nice person, we organized some workshops in the library room. The staff in the library in general was very supportive and understanding.
We organized an exhibition in the library to present to the local community the things that the children have made. I think all these activities in many ways developed the personalities of the children and even if like a small drop but still contributed in being confident in their own capabilites and in their belief for the future.
Together with a Lithuanian EVS volunteer from Sliven we organized an art workshop which was completely new to me but still very interesting and open for the possibility to use the imgination. The children enjoyed it very much and it was one of those unique activities when they kept their motivation to be involved longer than the defined time for the workshop. I am really happy that this activity was of great succeess among children.
In the frames of my project I made a trip to Kazanlak for four-day experience exchange with a volunteer from Check republic. This was a nice experience which gave me a chance to get acquainted with some other way of work through games with young people. Also this experience developed my Bulgarian laguage skills as the Check volunteer spoke only Bulgarian and understood no English. So in this situation the only laguage of communication was Bulgarian.
I explored many wonderful places in the country and got acquainted with so many nice and hospitable and friendly people that I can say with confidence that I am really happy to have made my EVS in Bulgaria.
