Kate in Bulgaria

Experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer and some adventures on the side

Sorry for the delay in posting this week. 

Everything is pretty much the same this week.  Winter is still strong and kicking, no more of that Spring like weather we had a few weeks ago.  It has been snowing on and off for about 5 days now.  It does a number to the sidewalks in the morning, but I have become  very adept at walking on ice.  I had to when one day I noticed that I was the only one inching along the sidewalk trying not to slip and fall.  The Babas all around me were walking like it was 80 degrees outside, scooting along in their little rubber shoes and there I was, hiking boots on, tiptoeing along like i was carrying a Faberge Egg.  

Work is getting a little better day by day.  Tanya and I seem to have developed a routine, and when she is in a good mood all is well.  I continue to try to keep myself busy.  There have been no new projects forthcoming, but I have not given up hope.  Now granted, her telling me that she will "think" about letting me help on something else isn't the best sign, but I think I am wearing her down.  But for now, I will continue to keep myself occupied with this and that.  Currently, I am looking up funding opportunities online.  They want to do some building maitenence, not that I dont' agree that it is needed, but perhaps some of that money that was spent on that oh so gorgous car should have been used to replace some windows.  Newspaper shoved in the cracks just doesn't do a very good job at keeping the wind out. 

I'm headed to Sofia on Friday.  There is a meeting for Peace Corps, then on Saturday I am going to be helping out with a Habitat for Humanity build.  I am acutally looking forward to it, or at least feeling productive.  I can put some of my Bob Sension knowledge to use.  

My three month international travel restriction is now up.  One of Peace Corps rules is that you can't travel outside of your country for the first three months of service.  Now the fun really starts.  There are quite a few really cool cities within 10 hours of me, and i plan on seeing them all.  I think Bucharest will be first, Romania here I come. 

Well that is all for now.  Sorry nothing more interesting is happening right now, but it is the dead of Winter and I am living in the middle of nowhere in a little town that time and Bulgaria forgot. 

posted by: ksension at January 26, 2005 08:32 | link | comments |

Winter is Back!!!

 Happy Birthday Kelly!!!

For those of you who don’t' know who Kelly is, she is the 3rd child of Bob and Terri, the most faithful of my Dad's followers and the one who has tennis balls hidden in strategic locations all over the house and yard.  Yes, you guessed it, she is the family dog, although she wouldn't take kindly to being thought of as anything other than the princess that she is. 

Winter is Back!!  Snow, Snow, Snow!!!  I knew I shouldn't get to use to the weather of last week, and I was right.  It started on Friday night, I was in Pleven for the weekend after the two day language refresher we had there, and low and behold, SNOW!!!  The language refresher thing was good, some new things, a lot of old, but I am back in the frame of mind to study Bulgarian like I should, so that if nothing else made it worth it.  We did another of our weekends afterwards, I do so enjoy those weekends.  I am always in a better Monday mood after one.

I moved into my new office today.  It is much smaller than the other one, but it now it is just me and Tanya so it will be fine.  It is a long room, the end of it is a wall of windows and the two desks face each other.  I also have my own computer now, its Tanya's old one, but it will be nice not to have to play musical chairs when we both want to use it.  I suppose this was what everyone was waiting for, because I have been asked to work on two separate projects.  I guess they figure now that I have a computer I am capable of doing work, well whatever their reasoning, I am more than happy to do any work that they have for me. 

I called Vienna today.  Mr. Genof the Vice-Mayor wants to go to a conference there at the end of the month and he needed more details about it.  I have no idea why he thinks he should go, no one there will speak Bulgarian and he doesn’t speak a lick of English.  But I called for him, and then had to break the news to him that it was to late to register.  He was right depressed about it, I suppose he figured he was about to have a lovely vacation courtesy of the municipality.  About a month ago the Municipality won a pretty large grant and ever since then they have been buying tons of stuff and going on “business trips”.  We have a new municipality car, a ton of new computers, and now an almost trip to Vienna. 

I am happy for them that they won the grant and are able to buy things for the Municipality, but I think they are letting the money get the better of them.  The big school is barely heated, there are stray dogs absolutely everywhere, the apartments have broken windows everywhere and Mr. Johnef just bought a new Toyota for 40,000 Lev (about 32,000 dollars).  Priorities definitely seem to be off. 

posted by: ksension at January 17, 2005 15:56 | link | comments |

Zdrasty all

All is well here in Letnitsa and beleive it or not it's Spring time out.  I had all of  my windows open yesterday and the laundry I hung out to dry was actually dry in less than 4 hours.  I think I could get use to this weather.  Even the dogs have reappeared from wherever it was they dissappeared to. 

There isn't a whole lot to report on this week, I was home sick all of last week.  I caught the flu while in CHepelare and it took much longer to get rid of then I would have liked.  Oh Well, i'm back now, and I am sad to report there isn't a pile of work waiting for me.  I should probalby see this as a sign of something but for the life of me I don't and to be honest it doesn't bother me in the least.  But back to work anyways, or at least back to occupying my cushion on the office couch, and as luck would have it the new News Week arrived on Friday so I am good to go until at least after lunch. 

Tanya isn't here today, I have no idea why, but I am sitting at her desk right now typing away on this.  We are suppose to be moving to the new office any time now, or at least taht is what I have been told many many times.  I'm not holding my breath on this though, in Bulgaria things happen when they want to. 

I do have a bit of news to share, good for me, not so much for the other Tanya.  It is finally done, Tanya, my tutor, has been let go so to say.  I finally spoke with Ani, the language director, and she has agreed with me that I need to find a new tutor and she also agreed to call and tell Tanya.  Now granted this isnt' teh best way to go about telling Tanya, but I just wouldn't be able to express myself well enough not to hurt feelings.  I mean I have to work with this woman for the next 22 months, I really don't want to burn my bridge this early on.  I think she will be fine with it, besides the English issue, our schedules didnt' really mesh well.   Now I have to find a new tutor, I have a lady in mind, but if she doesn't work out I will have to go to Pleven or Lovech to find one. 

I'm headed to Pleven on Wed afternoon.  Brett, Matt, Wendy and I are having a refresher language course with one of the PC instructors. It will be Thursday and Friday, but we will stay all weekend, have one of our weekends, you can never have to many you know. 

Well, I guess that is all.  Hope everyone is doing well

posted by: ksension at January 10, 2005 08:43 | link | comments (3) |

Chestito Nova Godina

Happy New Years to all, I hope you all had a marvelous time doing whatever it was you did. 

Christmas was interesting, not bad, but very different.  I knew it would be, but I was expecting lots of Bulgarian traditions and what not.  Ends up that Christmas, other than the religious aspect of it, isn’t' a very important holiday.  As my mayor told me, "it’s just not a happy holiday".  I am thinking we can blame that on Communism and the famous Turkish Yolk that I have been told so much about.

I arrived in Panagyurishte (pana-gyur-ish-te) on the Thursday before Christmas, my host family was very happy to see me and I them.  There was some snow and lots of ice everywhere, so I had a white Christmas.  On Christmas Eve night we had a special meal, no meat, 7 dishes and a special prayer from Baba.  This was the only tradition/custom that I experienced while there.  On Christmas morning we had breakfast as usual, and then Pepa, her friend and I went into town to have coffee and go to the Market.  I have never before seen so many people on Christmas Day.  Everyone and their brother was out, all of the stores were open; it was like any other day.  That night we all went to the disco, I can't tell you what it took to get through my mind that I actually went to a disco on Christmas Day.  When I explained my astonishment at the suggestion, they were all shocked that we didn’t' go out to cafes and such on Christmas Day.  We exchanged presents after dinner while sitting at the kitchen table.  Very relaxed, almost unimportant.  Pepa later told me that they usually don't do presents on Christmas Day, but because I was there they did.  New Years, as it turns out, is the more important holiday.  That is when most Bulgarians exchange presents and have their big celebrations.  When I was leaving on Monday to go to the bus station Milka gave me my New Years present, a very pretty blue sweater.  For Christmas they gave me some makeup and a porcelain bell.  I was glad I went, it was nice to see them all again, but next year I will spend Christmas with other Volunteers. 

After PanaG I went to Plovdiv with a friend.  We stayed at a hostel from Mond to Thurs Morning.  Plovdiv is a great city, very pretty, and tons of stores.  It rained all day on Wed though so that day was a bust.  On Thursday we traveled to Chepelare.  It was a gorgeous ride down; Chepelare is high up in the Rhodope Mountains and is exactly what I would envision a mountain town in Switzerland to look like.  It lived up to all of the memories that I had of it from my first visit.  There ended up being about 18 other volunteers there for New Years and we had a blast, some more than others, but I'm sure you know what I mean by that.  The hotel we all stayed at was great and there was snow everywhere.  We had a snowball fight at midnight while fireworks were going off above us.  I think it’s safe to say that was my favorite New Years yet.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone, it surprises me sometimes how close you can become with people in such a short amount of time, but I suppose we tend to cling to what is familiar when surrounded by the unfamiliar.  I do so love Chepelare, and it continues to be my favorite place in Bulgaria.  When Mama and Daddy come to visit we will go down there, plus it’s so close to Greece perhaps we can fit in a little excursion.

I am now back in Letnitsa, arrived on Sunday afternoon.  The bus schedules make it necessary to spend two days traveling in order to get back home.  I spent Saturday night in Pleven with Wendy, I never mind spending time in Pleven though, they have a really good Chinese restaurant.  There is no snow left here, it warmed up quite a bit in this part of the country, was in the low 50s today, makes me wonder if we will ever get the massive amounts of snow they have been warning me about since I arrived.  I admit I wont' be to very sad if we don’t', but I hate to think that we won't have any.  I'm sure this is all needless worry; it will undoubtedly be down to 20 by the end of the week with a foot of snow being promised by next Monday.  Weather in Bulgaria reminds me a lot of Carteret County's weather.  Not the temperatures mind you, but they unpredictability of it.  Its 15 degrees one day then 40 the next.  I am use to this having spent almost my entire life in Carteret County, but at the same time, the cold extremes are doing a number to my immune system. 

So, I'm back, and I have to keep reminding myself that it is now 2005, not 2004.  I will be moving to a new office later this week or early next week.  Tanya and I will have our own office, not quite sure if that is a good thing or not though.  I will have to wait and see, I think it might just prove to be a little to much together time than either of us really want.  My school reopens though in 3 weeks so I will have that to occupy some of my time.  I have also decided to get a new tutor.  I am just finding it way to difficult to learn anything with my current one.  The fact that she doesn’t' speak English makes it much too hard and I feel that I am falling behind because of it.  I am hoping the Language Coordinator from PC will talk to her for me, I don't want her to be hurt, but it just isn’t' working out.  Oh well.....

Oh a little tid bit, the two Volunteers that I previously mentioned who were going to get married, did in fact tie the knot on New Years Eve. Congratulations to them!!! 

Take Care and Be Well

 

 

posted by: ksension at January 03, 2005 18:35 | link | comments |

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