Bulgarian Child, Inc.
Love and
Loaves to Those in Need
7522 Campbell Rd. - St. 113 - 172 - Dallas, TX
June 2003 Trip
Pleven - Stargozia
We visited the Pleven orphanage (Stargozia)
with Gaile Sprinkle of the Peace Corps and found a home up on
the hillside that is very pleasantly appointed although it
appears to be a bit crowded (see the bedroom at right).
This home is laid out in 4 groups of 14 -
each in its own "apartment".
The staff at the home requested that we help
them find sheets for their beds which are an odd size.
We'll be looking into that this fall.
As I took stock of the pictures that we had
it was interesting to me that most of them were of the
children.
Everywhere we went we introduced the kids to a "High Five" or
"Di mi pet!" It's not a generally known thing in
Bulgaria but we're doing our best to spread it. They
absolutely love to do it and when we return to places we've
been before they greet us with a high-five of their own.
These kids were absolutely delightful - full of energy and
always had a smile close to the face.
We had a good tour and lots of hugs and generally messed up
whatever schedule they had that day,
but a good time was had by all!
We discovered lots of kitchen storage including a walk-in
cooler (not shown here). That's the good news. The
bad news is that they really didn't have much in the way of
food. After questioning them at length we determined
that they needed some emergency rations and arranged for the
purchase of some foods for their kitchen.
It's one of the
only times that we've left the food selection to the staff of
the home and we were disappointed at their selections knowing
how far the money could have gone for other things. Oh
well, lesson learned.
They have a lovely playroom with almost nothing in it.
We were requested to look into getting some equipment for it
and they even showed us a pamphlet of what they wanted.
The equipment they want is absolutely identical to the
equipment that we've seen in other homes that is not being
used at all. We'll have to follow-up with these folks to
determine if there is someone trained to use such equipment if
we should be able to provide it to them.
We visited the cafeteria at lunch time and
were treated to some great smiles (see below). The food
that they were eating was a cut above some of the places but
the kitchen cupboards were very bare.
Their washing facilities while old are still working and
include two washing machines and 1 electric dryer.
Needs
Shoes - socks - clothing of all sizes and varieties are really
in need. It's interesting isn't it that this sentence
begins almost every needs section?
We've established contact
with the Pleven Rotary Club and will explore doing a joint
project with them as the "lead". We might start with the
sheets and work our way to larger projects. This home is
not in bad shape except for a need for food supplements.
