To Sofia
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2008
1
6
7
Trip End
Dec 12, 2008
Scravena and Botevgrad,
Bulgaria
Monday, December 8, 2008
Saturday started with giving Christmas Boxes to the young people in The House of Joshua, who were really pleased with their presents. Next, a visit to a monastery for a St. Nikolaus Day service with cable TV there, followed by a special lunch of cold fish and beans (which Rich just about managed to survive...). Having been kissed by quite a few old ladies, we finally managed to extract Rich from their affectionate clutches and hit the road for Sofia.
Doganovo Orphanage was first on the Sofia list, an orphanage for 6-18 year olds which we'd never been to before. The children seemed a bit unsure at first about what was going on, until they began to open their boxes and then smiles of sheer delight spread across the room. They were so incredibly happy to receive presents, and excitedly played with them as soon as they opened them. One girl came up to us and said 'thank you so much for my barbie doll', she had not had one before and was so pleased to have one of her own. Another girl was so happy to get some hairbands (and created some quite 'original' hairstyles with them!).
After this we gave one our partners, The Lora Foundation, boxes for orphanages around Sofia. Here we met Lora, the namesake of the charity, who was adopted by Jack and his wife - the founders - at the age of seven. She is now a very happy, chatty, healthy teenager, but Jack showed us some shocking pictures of the state she was in when they met her in an orphanage. She was so malnourished that her limbs were just bones and she looked like a 3 year old. She could not move and was expected to die. What a story of how lives can be turned around with some love and the right medical attention.
The office of volunteers at a refugee centre was our final stop on Saturday night. Here we delivered boxes, toiletries and blankets for people who are living in a prison like refugee centre.
Finally, at 10pm we sat down to supper at Tedi's (our national development co-ordinator) mother-in-law's flat. What a day!
Comments
So what happened today!!
Come on boys, stop slacking, now your scribe has come home someone's going to have to do it!!