The team went to the northwestern Bulgarian city of Berkovitsa, where they worked in three different orphanages and in the nearby gypsy village of Rakovitsa. There were a total of twenty-three people along: five Ridgways, six Bulgarians, and twelve Americans.

The team was a real multi-purpose, multi-project endeavor. Every day, they split into multiple groups that traveled to the various locations to conduct seminars and classes, play with children, and work.

Every morning, two groups went to the gypsy village. One divided its members between teaching a seminar on parenting—things like, proper diet, the importance of sending children to school and teaching them Bulgarian (school attendance is low in the gypsy village, and most young children only speak the gypsy language rather than Bulgarian), and educational activities which could be done with children—and taking care of the children whose parents attended the seminar. The other group taught a sewing class, which was a sort of follow-up to the class they taught last year on several machines that they had then donated.

Another morning group headed off to an orphanage that we have just recently made contact with, that we refer to as Berkovitsa 4. (The real name means roughly, “school for children with mental and physical retardation”.) Our first visit to that home had come just a couple of months before, when one of our April sole teams distributed new shoes—we saw a lot of the kids there wearing shoes that we had given! At this home there are many older boys with only slight mental or physical handicaps, but who are otherwise quite bright and very willing to work. The home already possessed facilities for woodworking and candle-making, and several of the team members worked with the kids to show them how to build a new set of playground equipment for their home. The kids took to the work with great enthusiasm and skill, and the team members remarked that, after the first day, they just watched the kids work as they insisted upon doing everything themselves. The playground was finished in good time and is quite well-made and very sturdy. This is most encouraging, as Bulgarian Child has plans to hire the young men at this home to build playgrounds at other homes in the region, and possibly beds as well.

The team also had two groups that were intended to teach computer and ESL classes. In the mornings, they were assigned to the hospital at Berkovitsa (where Ridgway Ministries has donated, among other things, new anesthesiology equipment) to teach there, but due to unforeseen difficulties they were unable to do so. Accordingly, after the second morning where we helped in the mattress deliveries, the teams split up, some joining other groups at other homes, some working to set up computers donated to the Health School by another donor, and one member conferencing with the director at Berkovitsa 4 about a shared hobby, beekeeping, which eventually resulted in the purchase of two hives for the home.

In the early afternoons, the entire team gathered together for about an hour and a half of playing and working with the kids at Berkovitsa 4, doing things from simple games and toys to painting, following which they split up into afternoon assignments. Sewing classes were again conducted, this time in Berkovitsa 3. The ESL and computer teams went to Berkovitsa 2 (the Health School) and conducted their respective seminars, and therapy groups and the construction team continued their work in Berkovitsa 4. Then, in the evenings, everyone got back together to do VBS-style lessons/singing/eating/crafts at Berkovitsa III.

Thursday and Friday were somewhat different, as on Thursday the team went North to Lom to visit another home there and do some sightseeing, and on Friday they headed back to Sofia to fly out on Saturday.  The group also delivered mattresses that they had early shipped as part of a container of humanitarian aid (that arrived less than a week before they did).

This trip will be the subject of our next BCI newsletter, so MORE INFO COMING SOON!