...........................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the people who are working with these children do care for them dearly and the kids still have more at these sparse, outdated centers than they would if left in institutions or at home with no services at all.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!)