The idea of a whirlwind also fits the day today. The main activity today for the U.S. mentors of the Professional Fellows Program was to coordinate a day-long workshop for Bulgarian Fellows and applicants on community organizing. As the outside temperatures rose to an unseasonal 73 degrees Fahrenheit, our group met in a community conference call to consider the look, feel and process of community organizing. Between the six U.S. mentors, we represented Vermont, Minnesota and Illinois---it was a rich experience to co-facilitate with my group.
The photo above shows some of the attendees at the workshop discussing issues in a circle.
At the core of our teaching today was the need to listen, think, act and learn as organizers do. Mike Griffin and Anthony Shields used a version of one-on-ones to get to know each other in small groups. I led the activity known to Access Living as the Power Game, where the group must seize control from the one person in the room with all the power (the group did very well and rose to the challenge!). Leah Torrey discussed what is known as the "dog poop" campaign in Slovakia as a demonstration of the cycle of organizing. Joanna Brown discussed some of the work done in education by Logan Square Neighborhood Association, and Regina McGraw discussed funding.
We heard a lot today from the Bulgarians involved in community change. They came to Sofia from as far away as the Black Sea in order to take advantage of this training and day of solidarity. They are all doing wonderful work, so some examples are:
...Asen is leading a Roma organization in Plovdiv to implement a three year strategic plan of creating opportunities for Roma people in a range of areas, including jobs and education.
...Diana is working with refugees from Syria, who face the problems encountered by people with no money, no papers, and no connections in the community.
...Mina is organizing children, teachers and parents to expand opportunities for children in the arts and crafts. She has started a foundation called Minka to further this initiative.
...Svetomil worked with two men he knows to pressure the mayor of his town to improve the water pipes in his area, because people were going without water for a week at a time. He even went and knocked on doors to get people involved. The mayor agreed and the water is now flowing again.
...Kirilka, or Kiki, is organizing families to try to address opportunities for improved education for children, including children with disabilities. Her best one-on-one site is the playground.
Asen, Mina and Svetomil will be coming to the US later this year. Others in attendance, like Ianna the researcher, teacher and baker of traditional sweets, and Silvia, the teacher and teacher coordinator from the Black Sea, have applied to the program and came to the training to learn how to develop their own plans for organizing.
Silvia, Kristen and I spent lunch together, and Silvia provided some very interesting information about Bulgarian education. This is important as on other days this week I will be spending more time with Bulgarian educators of children with disabilities. Some major points Silvia made:
...The curriculum here depends on every student learning the same material at the same rate, and it is difficult when children cannot keep up due to disability or language barriers (because they may be Roma, or Syrian, or other ethnic groups).
...Schools tend to only have on support specialist for all children with disabilities at the school. There is no specialist/child ratio.
...Schools are funded on a per-child basis, with the current annual rate per child being 1,300 leva. Aside from the fact that this situation creates a disincentive to enroll children with disabilities, it also creates a situation where enrollment is inflated by principals.
...In her area, there is one Deaf school for the region. Over time it has added an autism program and a cognitive disabilities program.
...There are some schools for children with disabilities that are "weekly schools" where the children are sent to live for the week. Sometimes families with non-disabled children attempt to enroll their child in these schools so as not to have to care for them as much.
Tomorrow I will be visiting with more people in the area of education, so it will be very interesting to follow up on these points.
At the end of the day, Mike and Anthony had to make a presentation at another organization, so the rest of us went to Pizza Palace on boulevard Vitosha to take advantage of the warm weather and have a drink. Our plan was then to have Vladi Petkov take us on a walk to see the sights of central Sofia, mainly in the government/church area.
Vladi patiently led us through Sofia past St. Nedelya Church to see the St. Sofia statue on a column in a plaza that used to be the site of a big statue of Lenin. This also happens to be an area where the central mosque is located, left from the Ottoman empire. Here we were assailed by strong dust devils and took shelter by the casino across the plaza. He took us through the Ministry building which is build around the 4th century St. Georgi church with Roman ruins. Down the street was the old house of Parliament and beyond that the old residence of the President. Parliament and the President are now housed in newer (and better secured) buildings.
A panoramic shot of the rear of St Georgi with the Roman ruins in the foreground.
Vladi did note that Bulgaria has around 600 political parties, of which about six or seven currently hold seats in Parliament.
We continued on to the massive St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world. Under the moon, the cathedral was filled with shadows and I startled when a man dressed in black walked near me in the portico. Unfortunately photos are banned in the cathedral and thus the main impression I can give is of a host of frescoes of Orthodox patriarchs and saints, with massive chandeliers and several candelabra for people wanting to light a candle. In a way, its inside design vaguely reminds me of the Pantheon in Paris, which was originally a church. Like the Sofia cathedral, the Pantheon was caught in major political change. Alexander Nevsky's interior is clearly seriously Orthodox, gloomy but soaring, full of icons that look like the people I have seen on the street.
We turned around and passed the statue of Tsar Samuil, with its lighted eyes that serve as a beacon to right wing nationalist groups. It is a bronze statue whose eyes actually do light up with a little LED light. Forbidding and....a little strange.
We ate dinner at the extremely kitschy Laguna, which is known for its extravagant desserts. On the way home down Hristo Belchov, Kristen and I were once again assaulted by dust devils that blew chunks of dust straight into our eyes. Perhaps they are caused by the rhetoric of the 600 Bulgarian political parties...or the ghosts of Orthodox priests past. At any rate they have a way of making you feel more alive.
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