.......................A great Thursday

Palm Trees?

Okay, so I don't protest to be the best horticulturist in the world...but...palm trees?  along the coast of the Black Sea?  in Bulgaria??  The cluster of trees you see in the center of the photo are definitely palm trees...but...why?  Fake, of course, ...but why put fake plastic trees in such a pristine beautiful spot??  Couldn't they think of a more "natural" way to get man-made shade???   hmm...but...from being in the local shoppes, Bulgarian's are pretty big on fake flowers.

I had a lovely breakfast this morning in Mr Sanchoff's villa (he is the founder of Karin Dom) with an Italian archeologist, a French teacher, 2 Bulgarian administrators from Karin Dom, one Peace Corp worker (Sara)....and a partridge in a kiwi tree!  Actually, I just discovered that kiwi grow on supported vines, much like grapes, and Mr. Sanchoff has a whole slew of them to be picked at the villa.  Breakfast was fascinating....and much too short.
I gave a brief presentation for parents this evening, then had dinner with many of the staff at a local restaurant.  I had my favorite....Thai rice!
I will finish the training tomorrow and head out on the midnight bus for Sophia for the LONG trek home.  I'm really gonna miss this place!

Kindergarten News:

 Hi Friends,
If you lived in Bulgaria....you might eat olives and cheese at breakfast, sausage (that looks like the letter S) and cold cucumber soup for lunch, and peppers stuffed with rice and meat for dinner.  (or...your mom might just cook you something else).  You probably wouldn't have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (because they don't sell it here) and children don't eat peanut butter sandwiches.  Oh my goodness....Ellie might starve!

This is the last computer journal entry that I will write to you since I will be traveling tomorrow (Friday) and I will be home on the weekend.  I can't wait to come to school sometime soon and meet all of Ellie's friends.  Thanks for reading this and learning some new things about Bulgaria!
Today's Bulgarian word is....."priyatel" which means "friend."
Goodbye, my "priyatel!"

........................I've lost track...what day is it?

Beach View!

Great day..The weather has finally cleared and I took a walk with Sara after school along the sea garden.  That's where I spotted this cozy little villa (okay...mansion) with a view of the Sea.  Can't you just see me there?  ...and I could walk to work!  haha.

The Black Sea.....is SOOOOO Blue!

We walked to the Center of Varna.  The sea garden walk is a lovely trail along the upper cliff of the coast and behind the main city street.  The best of both worlds.  Everyone was out today after the incessant rain. 

Training went well today...and I'll be preparing soon for tomorrow's training on "problem behavior."  Saving the good stuff for last.  I've been showing lots of videos, which the staff seem to enjoy.  I didn't have any for today...so I just had to embed cute photos of Ellie every 5th slide or so.  It worked!

BTW...for my Coltsville friends, don't ever sign the word "bathroom" in public.  Apparently, our thumb in fist sign for bathroom means something ENTIRELY different in Bulgaria (let's just say something like...oh... a middle finger).  Thanks Sara for letting me know AFTER I used the sign to demonstrate a point about teaching kids more than one way to ask for the bathroom!


This one's for you, Cooper!!!  

Little skate board park along the sea garden walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations on taking first...AGAIN....in your recent cross country meet.  Miss you!!!!
















Kindergarten News:

Jenna

 Hi Friends,
Today....I found a Bulgarian MacDonalds.  Look closely at the red sign and you will see how MacDonalds is spelled in Bulgarian.  No, I didn't stop in for some fries, but it did smell good!  

Add caption

And....something very cool about about the school that I am working in here....is that they have a dog!!! Yep...her name is Jenna and she is very friendly.  She loves children and she went for a walk this afternoon with me.  Maybe...your class could write Mrs. Dessert some letters and ask if Kearns school could have a dog like Jenna.
The word for "dog" in Bulgarian is "kuche."  ...and dogs in Bulgaria still say, "bow wow."     
Caio,
Ellie's mom

.........................Day 7

Arch Street

The hurricane winds have subsided and it's turning cold, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny!  I have a feeling if it is....people will be out on the streets everywhere!  Only a couple of children actually showed up for therapy at the Center today.  It was much like a New England snow day.  The training went well, and I ventured out after the rain stopped for groceries.  I have some potato chips and diet coke for movie time tonight  Aaron showed me a site where I could stream movies...for free....even better than Netflix.

Speaking of, I don't know if any of you have seen the BBC documentary about the institutionalization of children in Bulgaria.  It is heartbreaking and overwhelming.  The documentary illustrates the human paradox: such capacity for malice, and such capacity for kindness.   If you are interested in the link, go to You Tube and search Bulgaria's Abandoned Children Revisited.  It is a 6 part series which totals approximately one hour.  p.s.  not for children.

Kindergarten News:
Hi friends.  Soccer (called "football" everywhere in the world besides the United States) is a popular sport in Bulgaria.  The country has a professional team and they also compete in the sport in the Olympics.  "Topka" is the Bulgarian word for "ball."  I am always yelling at Ellie's brother Cooper to "Stop kicking the soccer "topka" in the house!

..........................Day six

Sara's Classroom

I'm writing tonight's update with 45 mi/hr winds, flooding rains and downed tree limbs outside.  ugh!  But it was a fun night....I went to Sara and Aaron's for dinner!  Sara cooked a yummy veggie and cheese dish in an oven crock and chocolate brownies (what's not to love with that combo?)  I also had a chance to straighten out the problems with my return flight (fingers crossed) and watched some of a BBC documentary on Bulgaria's institutionalized children.  At a later date, after I've watched the entire program, I will post the link.  It is very difficult to watch....but for adoptive parents it really drives home (to an extreme) the detriment that institutionalization and pure deprivation can reek on a human being.  Any human being. 

Training went well today.  A lot more discussion.  Funny, but I think some people really sat up and listened after I said, "If you're not taking and looking at data, you're not using ABA."  I'm also now scheduled to speak to parents from the early intervention outreach program on Thursday evening.  They have billed me as "the specialist and ABA therapist from America!"  Sounds impressive at least.
And I don't know if you are following this Andy, (maybe Kathy will send this to you) but I had a speech therapist comment to me today after training that "ABA is a lot like PECS!"  I have been pleased to discover  how professional...caring...and motivated the staff at Karin Dom is.  It is a pleasure to work with them....it will be hard to leave!

The weather doesn't look like it's going to improve until Wednesday...with sunshine through the weekend.  But some schools have already cancelled first shift for tomorrow morning.  Don't worry Cooper, I told Sara to sleep with her pajamas inside out and a spoon under her pillow to ensure at least a late opening in the morning.

Asking for cookies...because I don't want apples!

Caio


KINDERGARTEN NEWS:
Hi again friends!
I'm beginning to see some pumpkins for sale at the market.  Some are large and green and some are orange...but I am told the pumpkins here in Bulgaria are much thicker and harder to cut than the ones we have in America...so making jack-o-lanterns is much trickier.  I'm wondering how many of Ellie's friends already know what they are going to be for Halloween...

The Bulgarian word for "paint" (the messy liquid you see here) is "boya."  If you want to say, "I want to paint" then the word is "boyadisvane."


Maybe Mrs. Spellman will let you "boyadisvane" on Apple Thursday!


Caio for now,
Ellie's mom
 

............................Thanks!

Just received a new donation from the Wineman family.  Thanks so much!!!!  I'm also trying to find some info on the "football" team from Bulgaria.  My flight from London to Sophia was packed with guys attending the Bulgaria vs. Whales match.  What a rowdy bunch of men!

...........................Days four and five in Turkey

Beautiful!

 

 

 Just returned from a two day trip to Ogden, Turkey with some of the staff from Karin Dom.  The reason for the trip was to visit two Centers in the city of Ogden, that provide therapeutic services to children.  One was located on the campus of a large University, and the other is a private facility in town.  The directors of both centers were extremely nice and welcoming, and very proud of the programming that they provide as it is highly regarded in the area.  That being said....I can't tell you all how fortunate we are to live in the United States.  It is too disheartening to post the photos that I took on this blog.  It will have to be enough to just know that the people who are working with these children do care for them dearly and the kids still have more at these sparse, outdated centers than they would if left in institutions or at home with no services at all.






 

 

Look Mom!  I went to Church!

We also had time to do some touristy things....like visit a beautiful old Christian Orthodox Church, visit a Mosque (Tracy....I covered my head and brushed the dog hair off my pants, just like your dad would want me to) and went to the Turkish Bazaar.  Not incredibly different from a Kazakh Bazaar.  We enjoyed the local fish mongers, bread makers and produce sales, as well as the cheap tacky China inports.  I tasted "helva" which is made from ground sesame and tastes like...hmm...sesame seed peanut butter?  Had a lovely cup of chi with Sara and found some treasures for my kids.  Glad to be back at Karin Dom though, and again impressed at how much Karin Dom has done in the region in the area of special education.  They are truly a wonderful model for other developing programs in the European union.

 Kindergarten News!
Good morning Mrs. Spellman's class.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  I spent mine in Turkey.  (Not the animal, but the country!  See if you can find it on the map).  While I was there I visited two schools for children.  Neither was as great as Kearns school!  This is a picture of what a typical street and homes in Turkey look like.  The children wear uniforms to school and the color of the Turkish flag is red with a yellow crescent moon.  It was fun to visit another country but I am happy to be back in Bulgaria again.  
Today's word in Bulgarian is "Dobro"(sounds like "doe-brey") and it means "good."  So......"Dobro utro!" (Good morning!)

.............................Day three

First some weirdness...I found this "tomb" thing in the back edge of the garden when I was walking yesterday.  At first I thought it was some type of old ghoulish mausoleum or something (it's October...)...but I don't think the family would have been so irreverent to the dead.  I found out today that the estate had actually been taken away from the family under the Communist regime and was taken over by the military.  This is part of the remains of an underground bunker system....very cool.  Part of me wants to go look around for cool stuff....but a much bigger part of me is totally creeped out by the thought of spiders and rats so i'm not going down there.

Busy day today in the classrooms and then again with training.  I saw some really "fun" kids.  Wish I could take them home!  Training was on response and stimulus prompting....and fading.  They've got full physical prompting down...it's fading it.  Also spoke a lot about compliance versus task skill.  It's funny but it's definitely a divided crowd of women.  By the third day I have the first two rows leaning in, asking questions and taking notes.  The back two rows (they've self segregated themselves by now) yawn and shake their head in disbelief that they are listening to such a silly american, when they could be cleaning something.  I don't even think a Lady Gaga video would work at this point.

Waking at 4:00 am tomorrow for the trip to Turkey. ...and that's only giving myself 45 minutes to shower, dress, down a cup of tea and haul my butt into a taxi.  It should be fun though.  Magi, the training director, said that "we are stopping two times for shopping." ...I'm thinking Kazakh Bazaar....

KINDERGARTEN NEWS!!
Hi friends,
How was your trip to the Bushnell to see The Little Red Hen??  I walked through the garden here at the school today and found this statue....and thought of you!

 
The word for "chicken" in Bulgarian is
"pile."  It sounds kindof like "pie."
Just like in America, the preschool children here are taught the names of animals and the sounds they make.  But the word for "kangaroo" in Bulgarian....is still just "kangaroo!"


I wonder if any of you will eat some "pile" for dinner tonight.  I bet Ellie's Grandmother is cooking up kangaroo!
love,
Ellie's mom.


 

................................Day two.

                                                        Mr. and Mrs. Russian/Bulgarian Garden Statues

I think, along with the general public, that Mr. Steve Jobs died too soon.  One reason, you may not have thought of...THERE ARE NO FR..ING MACS IN BUGARIA.  I discovered, through the IT person at Karen Dom "there is only one such cable that will connect your laptop to our projector in all of Bulgaria and it will take 3 days to get here."  However, the IT person was a woman....and a clever resourceful one at that....and she downloaded my presentation to a file share on the internet, changed it to PowerPoint from KeyNote and loaded it on a PC.  Yay!  Women rock.  Women in IT...rock a little more today.

I was busy!  Watched children all morning, had a quick lunch and back to training this afternoon.  But, thanks to videos and some great Youtube clips I could share, I think it went much better today.  Bridged from Reinforcement to Discrete Trial.  "negative reinforcement" ...however....I will still not go there.  Tomorrow is Prompting and Friday a day off...to Turkey!

The weather today was beautiful.  The only time had to really enjoy it was between 5 and 6:30.  I took a walk to the market...bought a small azalea on the way.  I couldn't resist the pink blush.  I'll keep it in the apartment while I'm here, then tuck it away in a spot in the garden before I leave.  The garden....I could write tons!!!!  One of my favorite parts of the day was roaming through what ...at one time...was a large, well cared for structured garden, with fruit trees, a vineyard, fountains, statues and arbors.  It has not been kept up in full, but the general structure can still be seen.  I saw an old photo in the building of the estate back in the 1920's with the vineyard along the side yard.  Now, only the area close to the building is kept up, as it would be the work of a full time gardener to restore  (....I'm sensing a calling here!)  I also found a piece of, well, let's call it "junkyard scrap" that I'll be bringing home as a souvenir to have a place as a trellis finial in my own garden at home.

I'm posting a couple of pics for the kids.  One is of the doorway to the school, the other is part of the play yard.    For some reason, I thought it seemed so "Alice."

Caio!

Kindergarten News!!!

 Zdrave!
(zdrah-vay)  That means "hello" in Bulgarian.
This is a picture of the door to the school I am working at.  The name of the school is "Karin Dom" which means Karin's Home.  It was named after a little girl who needed a lot of extra help learning to talk and to walk.  Many of the teachers here do just that....they help children learn to walk, talk, play and learn, because those things are more difficult for them.

  I love this picture!!!  This is part of the play yard.  It looks like a "Princessa" chair, with stools all around for her royal subjects.  I can just see Ellie sitting there, pretending to be the Queen Bee!!

Caio!
(Chow)  which means "Good-Bye!"

................................Day one!

After a little unexpected detour, I am finally in Varna, Bulgaria.  I received such a warm welcome from Magi, Sara, my new friends Svetla and Vladi and the entire staff at Karin Dom. 

I  arrived late last night during a storm, driven by the grounds keeper...a short and stocky older man named Vlestco.  (Sounds like a Russian spy novel, huh?).  He is wonderfully kind though...and showed me that I had hot running water and comfy apartment.  Priceless.

The picture of the bed is because that is the first thing that Ellie has asked to see.  She wanted to see where I was sleeping, and the Russian Diet Pepsi (Pepsi Lite)...that's for you, Jen.

After a good nights sleep, I visited the school briefly, had lunch with staff and started the training.  Only...as fate would have it....we did not have the correct cable to hook my laptop up to the screen projector...so I had to punt.  Showed pictures of my handsome sons and darling daughter, told a story, and then just talked for two hours about what ABA is and began discussing reinforcement... what it is and what it is not.  Without the aid of visuals it was a little challenging, but doable.  You all know that I can talk.  Some confused faces, others not so.  Hopefully tomorrow will go a bit better.

I've only seen a small portion of the city from my drive in and a quick walk to the market, but it is lovely.  Today has been rainy and overcast...but I can see the Black Sea! 
I hope tomorrow clears and I can take pictures of the grounds.  It is beautiful!
caio
denise

KINDERGARTEN NEWS!!!
Dear Mrs. Spellman's Class,
I am glad you are checking into my computer journal.  Bulgaria is very far away, but the computer will help it seem a little closer.  It is the season of fall here, and the temperature is much like it is Granby.  Only today, we had rain.  

I had a chance to visit the school I will be working in for the next two weeks.  The children are mostly preschool and kindergarten age.  I was able to see some children writing numbers, doing puzzles and learning how to wash their hands.  I also learned my first word in Bulgarian:
"Abtorapa"
spoken like:  "ahv-toe-gara"
it means:  bus station

Maybe someday you will take a city bus from the "Abtorapa" to a new place.

Have fun,
Ellie's Mom

...................................Less than a week!!

                       Firstly,  Thanks to Pyramid Educational Consultants....and a super friend and             mom-to-be  Tracy for recent donations...I so appreciate your help!

I also have BIG Thank you for Sara McPheeters!  Sara is an American Peace Corp worker who has been in Bulgaria over the past year, working at the Karin Dom center as the lead teacher in the classroom for students with Autism.  Sara has been back here in the states for nearly three weeks with two Bulgarian women who also work at the Center, to gain skills in ABA and view a variety of educational program models here in Hartford.  But....Sara....being Sara....has also been helping out at Coltsville in lots of ways...She's terrific!  Even Sunny thought so today!

My flight leaves for London early Saturday evening for London...then on to Sophia, Bulgaria...then a long bus ride to Varna.  (Planes, trains and automobiles comes to mind....hopefully i'm not seated next to the shower ring salesman).

Top Five Reasons for a Trip to Varna:
I can't wait to see those beautiful Bulgarian children.
I will have a view of the Black Sea from the Center.
Ellie's halloween costume is already made...so I have lots of time on my hands.
My friend Jen will be in Portugal...so we will have Italy midway between us (I'm thinking, Jen).
What a wonderful opportunity I've been given.  It's time.