FORTY-EIGHT Americans were scheduled to be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers on July 8, the fiftieth group of corps volunteers to serve in Bulgaria.
The swearing-in ceremony, which was to be attended by United States ambassador James Pardew and an official representative of the government of Bulgaria, signalled the completion of the volunteers' 11-week training period.
The training, in which the volunteers learned about the Bulgarian language and culture, lived with Bulgarian families and worked on small-scale community projects, occurred at various sites near the city of Pazardjik. 
Peace Corps Volunteers in the TEFL programme serve as English teachers at primary and secondary schools.
According to a Peace Corps media statement, volunteers in the programme "partner with their school colleagues and community members to improve educational opportunities, create and enhance resource centres, encourage collaborative teacher-to-teacher exchange and skills transfer, and to develop community outreach projects".
Nineteen of the volunteers will be placed at primary schools, while the other 29 will work with secondary schools.
Since 1991, more than 600 corps volunteers have completed their service in Bulgaria and returned to the US. The volunteers work for Bulgarian sponsoring organisations and institutions and are supervised by Bulgarians. They are not paid salaries, but they do receive allowances, medical care and other support from the Peace Corps.