Goodbye Bulgaria

I visited a Child Advocacy Center today through Semester at Sea. I knew that it was going to be an emotional day, but I was not expecting to be in tears within the first two minutes after entering the door. When we walked up to the doors of the center, we were greeted by one of the workers at the center. She directed us into a room where the kids were all standing and waiting for us. There were 16 kids ranging from 3 years old to 16 years old. They sang us a song about the colors of the rainbow. Every child was smiling and and so happy that we came to see them. I sat there and my eyes were filling up with tears. These kids are the children of gypsies/prostitutes in Bulgaria. These abandoned children are the "lucky" ones. The government was trying to reward families for bearing children so the mothers of these chlidren would have the babies, receive the monetary reward from the government and then abandon the babies in the street. The babies are usually adopted out quickly, but the older kids usually find themselves at this home until they are 18. After the show, the kids came and took me by the hand and showed me around. One girl took me over the the translator and asked her a question. The translator laughed and said, "She is asking why you can't understand anything she says!" The girl's name was Juliette. She showed me her garden and her slide. We blew bubbles together and took lots of pictures. I will never forget her! I felt such a pain inside of me. I wanted to take all of these kids home with me. I'm the type of person who wants to rescue people. I want to teach them, send them to school, clothe them, and love them. While I was there I felt so powerless but then I remembered that God is all-powerful and he already has his hand on these kids. I got their email addresses so I can email them the pictures that I have from today. It was such a lovely way to end my stay in Bulgaria. This country was the replacement country for Egypt... but now I can't picture myself going anywhere else but here. I just felt the boat start to pull away from the port... 20 more hours and we'll be in Istanbul for another great adventure.