Bulgaria I.

October 2015

By: Dasha, Tony, Svetlana, Her, Mesut, Tiffany.

During our project week, we worked with UWC Bulgaria to raise awareness of the UWC program within Bulgaria.  We went to over 13 schools across Bulgaria giving presentations to hundreds of students about the opportunity that is UWC.

We chose to give presentation about UWC to schools in Bulgaria because even though UWC is a big movement around the world, there are still so many people who do not know about it, but have the perfect student profiles for our schools.

Our project week was magnificently important to the Bulgarian UWC National Committee because over the past years there have been very few Bulgarian students who were aware of the UWC movement. For instance, last year there were only 8 people out of the whole country applied and six got in, and this has been a big concern for the national committee of Bulgaria.  However, by us going there, we raised awareness to young students who are eager to study abroad and who have the potentials to become change makers the possibilities of making their dreams come true.   While we were giving presentation we saw so many students who were really interested in the UWC movement so we believe that there will be lots of students applying this year.  



Our week progressed like this:

• We started out in Maastricht, taking the lengthy train ride from Maastricht to Brussels Charleroi airport.


• We set up camp inside the wifi-lacking airport, enjoying expensive sandwiches while being curled up on the cold, hard ground, congregating with the other folks that didn’t have enough money to rent a hotel.


• Early in the morning, we set off through security, a sometimes lengthy process due to the exotic nature of our group.


• Naps were greedily taken on the 20-year-old Airbus as we flew an hour into the future.


• We met up with our Bulgarian mother, found our hostel, dropped off our luggage, and headed out to a highly-anticipated lunch activity; grilled meat one of the greatest Bulgarian traditions.


• We explored Sofia, exchanged our money, and then were swept away to dinner to meet with the national committee; again, the meal was not disappointing.


• We then headed back to the hostel to finalize our presentation; we had our first school meeting the next day.  After a late night, we all crashed.


• The next day, we rose early in the morning to find our first school.  There, in front of a group of teenagers, we stumbled over our message; luckily, they managed to find some sort of inspiration within it, and conversed with us extensively.  It was a great first encounter.


• After the first presentation, we figured out what we needed to focus on and what we needed to cut out; that evening, the powerpoint was polished and so were our public speaking skills.


• Over the next couple days, we travelled by train, car, and foot to numerous schools all over Bulgaria, ending in the pleasant city of Stara Zagora.  An incredibly historic city, we took time to visit the museum before we headed back to Sofia by bus.


• We arrived in Sofia late in the evening, returning to our original hostel; there, we collapsed in the familiar beds.


• In the morning, we dragged Mesut out of bed and ran to the bus station to catch a ride to the airport; we went through the extensive process of security (damn passports) and then we were on our plane home.


• We arrived back in Brussels, and took the long train to Maastricht, with the even longer walk to the UWC campus.  Home again, we crashed before working on our long-overdue homework.  What an incredible journey.