Greetings from Sofia after another great day in Borovtsi. Wow, what a festival we had. It was the U.S.-Borovtsi cultural festival, and there was lots of singing and dancing. The purpose of the festival was an introduction of the town of Borovtsi to the Learning Center, which is just out from the town. The learning center has been the biggest employer in the town over the last year and a half with its construction and remodeling, but there's still not full understanding of what this place is. It will be a learning and transition center for young men aging out of orphanages, and they will live there 12-18 months to learn to live on their own and gain job skills.
Judy and Paul (the missionaries) offered to do a street festival for the town, and it grew into a cultural exchange festival, which was great. It was a perfect day for it, with sunny skies and 80 degrees. There's a large plaza and an outside stage in the middle of town.
For our American part, we started with games for kids (a "fishing" pond where you cast the line over a partition and someone on the other side attaches a piece of candy to the line, a small duck pond with prizes for the very little kids, jump rope, bubbles, etc.) and a line dance. We served lemonade, s'mores (made beforehand with marshmallow creme), and candy. Then for our program, we dressed in overalls and straw hats. We began with words spoken by Skip, then sang Amazing Grace, then Jim talked some about East TN as compared to Bulgaria. (The two are amazingly similar in terrain, weather, plants and flowers, etc.) We square danced to Turkey in the Straw, sang America the Beautiful, and performed the "doctor's office" skit, where one male patient in the waiting room catches the ailments of everyone else and then runs out screaming when a pregnant lady walks in. We were nervous about how that would play with the crowd, but they completely got the humor and loved it. We of course finished with singing Rocky Top. It all went well.
For the Roma and Bulgarian parts, there was also singing and dancing. The Roma (the politically correct term for gypsies) did belly dancing and some traditional dances. Then the Bulgarians did a very elaborate play and dance about their culture. It is a group from Borovtsi who has performed all over and even has some type of certificate from the UN. They were in their traditional costumes (from hundreds of years ago) and had their own band, a spining wheel and wool-working on stage, wooden benches, food which they served to us during the play, and several dances. The story line was an old history and even involved the stealing of a wife for one man. They put on an excellent performance.
The mayor spoke, and we presented him with a gift bag. The regional TV station was there to do a story, too. Our estimate was a crowd of about 150.
Afterwards, we packed up a drove back to Sofia in time to go to the market downtown and then to dinner at the delicious Chinese restaurant near Paul and Judy's church. We are now at the hotel in Sofia. Everyone except Jim and Rachel will fly out in the morning. They are staying another week and will be at the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Learning Center on Friday.
Check back tomorrow for photos of the pizza party for Berk 4 and the U.S.-Borovtsi Festival. We had some computer difficulties this morning, and it's late tonight.
Thanks for all your prayers this week. It's been a good trip.
