Save the School!

There's a small village called Asparuhavo in central eastern Bulgaria, home to about one thousand people, that's in danger of ceasing to exist. In fact, this is a common problem in most of Bulgaria's villages - the youth are going to bigger cities to get an education, or for work; or even leaving the country in search of better opportunities. In just about any given village in Bulgaria, you can pretty much count on an absence of everyone between the ages of 18 and 35. There are several country-wide efforts to combat this problem, of which, our week in Asparuhavo was one.

A school teacher, Eleonora, in Bulgaria's second largest city, Varna, took it upon herself to create a project designed to save Bulgaria's culture for the next generation. She wrote a project that was funded by the municipality of Varna for the purposes of cultural education for a group of her students in the form of a summer camp. Tim and I were invited along to compliment the curriculum with lessons of ecology in Bulgaria and personal development skills.

There were 22 gals, 2 guys, 2 Bulgarian teachers, and Tim and I. The kids were broken up into 4 groups and distributed among the teachers (for cultural seminars with local grandmothers) and Tim and I. We started every day with some kind of physical activity - running, push-ups, stretches, etc. After breakfast the kids broke up into groups and attended sessions with Eleonora, Tim, and me for solid eight hour days of learning! It was intense!


Every evening we had some kind of cultural happening or celebration, including dance and song, story telling, and a talent show. The kids loved it!

My niche in this week long gathering was to teach about the environment and relate it to democracy. The democracy connection comes about because Bulgaria is very new to the realms of democracy and it's not well understood here.

My syllabus contained lessons in ecology, wildlife of the Black Sea and bird life in Bulgaria, water quality and watersheds, environmental technologies, and environmental action. My course was discussion based, which means I asked appropriate questions in order to engage everyone and lead them to a particular conclusion. I linked the various aspects of ecology to things in their every day life so they could effectively relate to the concepts I was pushing. I think their favorite was the water quality session, as I made them take water samples from various locations from around the town to test for pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and turbidity. It was a lot of fun to see the differences in water quality between the swamp, the reservoir, and the natural spring, and to hear their ideas of why they thought the differences occurred.

As my sessions concluded, my goal was for each of the kids to write an environmental based letter to an elected official. I had explained to them that in a democracy, it's the people who have the power, and it's imperative for their elected officials to hear their opinions in order for their thoughts and desires to be known. And the only way to have their thoughts and opinions known is to know how to voice them! So I instructed them on the formalities and proper techniques of writing to a politician, but our theme changed drastically.

As previously stated, Bulgaria's villages are all on a very steep decline. Instead of writing about an environmental problem, these kids chose to convince me that they needed to write to the ministry of education, and the ministry of culture in order to preserve the only school left in town. As of now, funding for the school will cease after next year. This means that the village's 50 children will have to go to neighboring towns for any kind of an education. Exporting the town's 50 school-aged kids only expedites an increase in the population decline of the village. It was extremely important for our group of kids that this village continues to exist and so they embarked on a campaign to save the school! Democracy in action! It was magnificent! Each kid wrote a letter, a well done letter I might add, based on the importance of Bulgaria's culture and small villages and they were all sent to the ministry of education and ministry of culture.

Tim and I made a great combination, complimenting each other without even trying. My training on taking action in their communities and Tim's education on personal development perfectly laid the bricks for these kids to realize the potential they each had. The week was a huge success!

Tim had to go two days early due to prior obligations and the tears flowed freely in a heart-felt, and emotional goodbye. The next day, I announced that I would be leaving one day early. Our Peace Corps service is almost finished and there are all kinds of reports and projects that need to be finished before we leave the country. When Eleonora announced my coming departure, she stumbled and choked on her own words. There was a very awkward 20 second silence while she composed herself to deliver the "bad news" to the kids. Again they expressed their displeasure in losing another of their brief mentors, and probably the sweetest thing I've ever heard was from a gal named Mila (Bulgarian word for "kind") when she hugged me and said, "You're going to miss me!" In the Bulgarian language, saying that you miss a person is grammatically backwards from American English. So what she meant was "I will miss you", but it came out as a literal translation of "you will miss me" and it was all I could do to not laugh. Each of them prepared thank you cards for my departure, here are a few of them:

"Andrew, I love you! I never forget you! I know and to you never forget us!!! (I don't want to you leave!) I LOVE you forever"

"Андрю, ние те обичаме и няма да те забравим! честито хоро!"

"Dear Andrew, Regarding your departure from Asparuhavo. I miss you already. I'm really glad I met you and Tim. I'll never forget what you taught me and I want you to know that our week together had an enormous impact on my life."

"You are very very very (3 times for happiness) COOL, General Judkins! Thank you for everything, that you learned me this week!"

"Andrew, Really I don't know what to say. In this one week you became a part of the company and of my heart. I'll never forget about you! Good luck! I hope you'll remember me too. Now I love ecology and water. But you teached me to be myself! We love you, Andrew"

"Be free like a bird! Andrew, I'll always remember you! You're already our friend! Don't forget us! P.S. you dance amazing"

"I will remember you because you are very smart!!! I will remember you with "пчела" (the bee), with your dance!!!"

"Dear Andrew, You are the most wonderful theacher I've ever seen. I'm learned so much things from you. Thank you! Always be happy! P.S. And you're supperdancer"

"Благодаря за всичко! Много те обичам и си SUPER!"

"Always be with a smile reaching to your years! Your smile is a rising sun!"

"I just wanted to tell you that living with you and Tim here was the most unique experiense I have ever had (and a lot of fun!). Be true to yourself and DON'T EVER CHANGE because you're the greatest guy ever!!!"

Over the course of one week we had effectively bonded with these kids on many levels. We were their buddies, mentors, role models, and dear friends. I've seen these bonds, of course, in America, but never with the intensity with which I saw them here. For someone to cry at news of your departure after having known you for only one week was very touching - to the point of me lacking the right words to describe how it made me feel.