working visit in Bulgaria

The Polish T.I.M.E. Comenius team took part in a working visit in St. Sofrony Vrachansky Secondary School in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. There were also our friends from Mako, Hungary. From 6th to 12th May the participants worked to achieve the aims of the Tolerance In My Europe project by participating in joint artistic workshops and getting to know more about Bulgarian culture and customs. The main aim of the visit was to organize Art for Tolerance Festival and to instill tolerant attitudes and fight  prejudices in the context of cultural, religious and socioeconomic diversity.

First day, after the warm welcoming, the teams presented their towns, regions, schools and local  project products. The next day we saw The Museum of Aviation and the wonderful Monastery of Batschkovo as well as the city of Asenovgrad. The most important was the day three, when the groups took part in the celebrations of seeing off the graduates and later in the Art Festival. Joint groups painted and assembled a huge puzzle and then the teams created their murals. Then an exhibition was organized. Working together on artistic forms to express the idea of tolerance provided the opportunity to develop interpersonal and sociolinguistic skills. In the afternoon we were sightseeing the Old Town of Plovdiv which is rightly called “ancient and eternal”. The following day a trip to Sofia took place. Everybody was amazed by the wonderful monuments and buildings of the Bulgarian capital. We could also see and read the tolerance Edict which is 1700 years old. The last day of the visit the students could participate in town celebrations of St. Cyril and Methodius which was a perfect opportunity to disseminate the project products and spread its ideas. In the afternoon all participating teachers and students signed the declaration of tolerance which then was put into a decorative bottle and then buried in the school ground. After that two trees were planted in the earlier launched Alley of Tolerance. In the evening there was a great farewell party in a restaurant where the participants exchanged small gifts, ate delicious Bulgarian food and danced. On the 12^th at midday in front of the hotel, where Polish and Hungarian teams had stayed, there was a very moving farewell with a lot of warm words and tears.

Back in Poland we discussed the visit and came to the conclusion that the visit was just a great means of expressing the project ideas, work and get to know each other as well as meet new friends.