Name: Kate
This blog is really nothing more than me putting my rantings down on paper; amazing how cathartic that can be. It chronicles my time and experiences living and working in Bulgaria and gives you a little insight into the mysterious world of Peace Corps Volunteers. Enjoy the read -
Oh yes, I am required to say that this is not an official Peace Corps Website (as if that was a mistake you would make) and the views and opinions expressed here are my own (but of course they are.)
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Well, I’ve survived a year. August 9th marks the one-year mark since my arrival in Bulgaria. I suppose technically October 22nd (my swear in date as a Volunteer) is my real one year mark, but I’m counting and I say August 9th. This has been a very exciting year: new Country, new job, new language, new friends. When I think back to last year this time, before I left for Bulgaria, it seems almost like a lifetime ago. I remember thinking I would have no problems with the time commitment, that things would be so new and exciting that I would love every minute of it. Well I’m here to tell you, this past year has been all of those things and yet so much more. The challenges I have faced, both personally and professionally were things I could never have predicted. Yet, I faced them, and I must say I am all the better for them. So, what you are about to read is my take on the last 365 days of my life, the good and the bad. Joining Peace Corps was not something I always knew I wanted to do. Like a lot of things I do, it was sort of a “oh, that sounds like it would be fun” sort of thing. I had wanted to live abroad since college, but life and fear had kept me from it. I can remember the exact day I applied online, September 26th (Mama’s birthday actually). The fact that that was almost two years ago blows my mind. Sort of proves the fact that I had to convince myself of before coming here, that two years really is no time at all. I think the fact that I was actually leaving didn’t even really hit until I was on the plane. I knew I was leaving, was packed, done my shopping, but it just wasn’t real. Well, all that changed when on August 9th I stepped off the plane and into what I thought then was about the strangest place I had ever seen. The language was alien, I couldn’t read any of the signs and I stood a head above just about every local person I saw. It was like I had been let off into Lillyput and I was Gulliver. Granted the 6’7 guy in my group had it worse, but they all just assumed he was a basketball player and therefore someone to be worshiped. Those first few weeks in country were an absolute blur. Forms, medical checks, shots, lots and lots of shots. Strange food, weird clothes, farm animals being walked around like household pets. I can’t even tell you how many pictures of cows and sheep and goats I have from those early weeks. You know you are use to a place when you see more horse drawn carts than cars, and think nothing of the fact that you automatically play hopscotch when walking down the street to avoid stepping on any little droppings from the farm life. Such is life in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is such an interesting place really. It is a place where 3 generations from one family live together in the same house (different levels mind you.) People remember Communism fondly and talk about the good ole days. Just the mention of the Turkish Yolk gets you a 30 minute lecture on the revolutionary spirit of Bulgaria and how they won the freedom from those damn Turks. It is a place that puts mayonnaise on spaghetti and serves poached eggs floating in a bowl of butter. I could go on and on with the little things that make this such an interesting place cause believe me, there are a million examples. For me, Bulgaria has been an education. Not only have I learned to speak a new language, but I have also mastered public transportation (yes that means buses.) I can cook cabbage and peppers and onions about a hundred different ways. I’ve actually grown to love vegetables (Bulgarian produce is like nothing you’ve ever had before). I have adapted to living poor (relatively), read more books than I did in my entire life in the US and learned to entertain myself with the smallest of things. Doing housework is now an activity to fill time and I have an absolute love affair with my washing machine. I cant’ even tell you the agony of scrubbing jeans on a cold bathroom floor in the middle of winter. Repeat after me, “My washing machine is my best friend.” I find joy in the very smallest of accomplishments and a good day is one in which my Bulgarian only has to be corrected 8 times. As you all know I am living in a very small town called Letnitsa. It isn’t a town of much consequence, doesn’t have any attractions or much beauty. It is however full of wonderful people. Like my upstairs neighbors Marina and Levski. Marina cooks for me and brings me vegetable out of her little balcony garden. She gets mad when I don’t tell her I’m sick or when I am leaving for the weekend. Levski is always wanting to fix something (even if nothing is broken) and loves showing me pictures of his family. If I let them, they would have me up for dinner every night. There are the babas (grandmothers) that sit on the bench down by the big magazine. The ones who won’t really talk to you but give you the biggest smiles and wave at you. The old guys who sit down at the cafй drinking beer and try to talk you into having a few yourself. My mail lady, who lets all admit, knows me much to well. She loves to find out what I’ve gotten and tries to get me to let her ask one of the men passing by outside to help me take my box home. And best of all there are the kids. They were my first friends when I moved to Letnitsa. A group of about 10 that fortunately lessened to about 6 give or take based on what day it is. My boys who come and sing me songs at my door, my little friend Dani (girl) who sees me walking on the street and yells my name and comes and gives me a hug. We have played football (soccer) together, swapped Bulgarian candy for American (something they are usually suspicious about). I had to show them how to use the pezz dispenser, but they were quick studies. And of course there are the dogs. Every Bulgarian town or city has a stray dog issue. Letnitsa just happens to have enough stray dogs to fill up a town twice its size. Most of them are nice enough, and occasionally you see a puppy. Most Volunteers usually find one or two favorites and break the cardinal Bulgarian rule of feeding them. I am pretty guilty of this. I use to buy a few of them hotdogs, but when they start waiting for you after work, you know they have you figured out and it is time to make a change. That isn’t to say everything in Letnitsa has been great. I’m getting about the truest Eastern European experience of anyone I know, but that doesn’t make me feel any better when I am surviving off of Lentil soup in the Winter. Letnitsa in non-harvest time is a rough place. We had a record breaking –30 degrees C this winter for 5 days straight. Snow up to my waist with about half as much ice. Vegetables totally disappeared (other than potatoes and onions). May I just say thank god for potatoes and onions. I wore up to 3 layers in my apartment and slept under no less than 5 blankets. I survived nevertheless and this winter I’ll be ready. I will say however, I will never, ever, under any circumstances live in a place where it gets cold enough to freeze your nose hair. It’s just not healthy. With the thaw of winter however came new opportunities for traveling. I’ve seen so much of Bulgaria, and plan to see the rest before I leave. I’ve been in castles older than most countries, been to some of the best weddings I’ve ever been invited to, and got in two trips to Istanbul. I have developed some amazing friendships and even had a little love connection, which happens to still be going great. I figured out that friendships here form fast and those friends help to keep you sane. I’ve also developed a love for Nectarines, however did I survive all those years without them. I have also discovered that success at work is relative. When I translate a letter or brochure from Bulgarian to English or type up an old Bulgarian document so that they have an electronic copy, successes. Or teaching the Vice-Mayor how to do more on his computer than look up pictures of Angelina Jolie. Teaching kindergartners the English alphabet, even though they never mastered T. And my current projects, trying to get funding for a business center and teaching English to Municipal employees. All of these things have their values, I didn’t always see them at the time, but they made a difference, even if just a small one. I still have days when I get showed off to the visitors, “look at our volunteer, she is from America, isn’t’ she great.” Or am told I am not Bulgarian, therefore wouldn’t understand. Believe me, there are just as many frustrating days as there are good, sometimes it seems like there are more. But all of the other stuff; the people, the friends, the traveling, it all makes it worth it. So, one year down, 14 months to go. I have no idea what Bulgaria has in store for me, nor do I really want to know. The adventure of being here and thriving here is enough to keep going every day. I have some grand plans for travel, doing a tour of Central and Eastern Europe. I still have to get down to Athens and start thinking about how to spend the holidays. I will continue teaching English and hopefully will have the new Business Center to keep me occupied in the long winter months to come. I find that I am satisfied with the little things now and will continue to embrace all the little things Bulgaria has yet thrown my way. I’ll keep going to my magazines every week on the hunt for fruits and vegetables. Keeping in mind that Sundays are the golden day cause the vegetable man delivers for the week. This is my life in Bulgaria.... It is amazing how one’s values and expectations can be so drastically altered over the course of time. Not that I am not still me, but I am a better me.
Here are some pics from my weekend in Veliko Turnovo. I've just learned how to add pics and if it works i"ll be adding more later.
Me in Tsaravets Fortress
Brett and I horsing around at the execution rock
Me and the boys having fun at the wedding
Matt and I infront of Veliko Turnovo
Can you believe it’s almost the end of July? I certainly can’t, and at this rate August will be gone too. This has been a pretty frequent theme with me, how fast time passes here, and this month has been no exception.
These past two weeks have been rather busy for a change. I have been working on my SPA every morning, trying to get everything fixed that the committee didn’t like on the first round. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be actually, and this SPA actually has a lot of merit. Not that the first one didn’t, but I didn’t believe in the first one. It was sort of just words on a page, anything to get the money. This time around however I have actual organizations involved other than the Municipality. If we get the money we are going to be building a
I have also started teaching my English class. It is on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 4:30. I have 5 students, but only 4 have shown up for every class (a total of 6 now). I feel rather silly now for being so nervous about the whole thing. I put off starting this class for like 2 months because I didn’t think I would know how to teach English. Well, it is a lot easier than I thought it would be and it gives me something to fill up my afternoons. As you all know that is a wonderful thing for me. I mean I have been fighting boredom at work for the last 10 months, so to have large blocks of my time actually be busy is amazing. Every day from about 1:45 to 2:50 I write up the worksheet we will be using for the day, then from 3 to 4:30 I teach. By the time I finish up and get back to the office it is about time to call it a day. It really is a whole new feeling for me here, having my schedule full that is.
For Mondays and Fridays I have informed my counterpart that my schedule will now be changing, effective August 8th. I figure I have given them almost a year of doing it their way, now it is my turn. As Daddy told me when he was here, I have been to quiet. If I made a bit of noise then maybe I would be doing more of what I want. Not that I am one to be quiet, but I guess I lost my voice there for a bit. But have no fears, I have found it and am using it as much as I possibly can now.
So the new schedule will look something like this. On Mondays I will have tutoring in Lovech (town about an hour away). Now seeing as how this will take 2 hours for travel and at least a 2 hour class, that is my entire Monday afternoon. I will get home around 5. The mornings I will spend getting back from wherever I have spent my weekend. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I will teach English and hopefully when school starts back up I can go and help out the English teacher there one or two mornings a week. I will have translations to do here at the office, and the Mayor wants to work on a Town Twinning project with a Mayor he met in So, that takes care of most of the week and leaves me Fridays. My friend Wendy (volunteer) and I are going to start working at a couple of the local orphanages. Not every Friday, maybe 2 a month. There is an orphanage near So, enough about all of that. This past weekend I went to Veliko Turnovo with Brett and Matt. We went for a wedding, but made a weekend out of it and toured the city. A volunteer from an earlier group got married to a Bulgarian girl. They are a really cute couple and it was a great wedding. His parents and brother flew in and there were about a dozen other volunteers there from his group. We had a great time and I for one think I have found a new favorite city in Headed up to
I know I know, I'm a slacker and I shouldn't allow so much time between my entries. Like most things we do however, it gets put off, then the mood passes to do it, then you finally realize that oh boy, they've been gone almost a week and I still havent' told the world how Bob and Terri survived Bulgaria. Well, get comfy cause here is a story for you......
The parentals arrived on Tuesday the 21st, mid afternoon and on time believe it or not. Mr. Mayor was kind and sent the town driver and van to pick them up at the airport, thank god I might add if you got a look at the luggage they were toting. Yes yes, I know one of the large suitcases was full of stuff for me, but even so, I think I can safely say that they um, slightly overpacked. Anyways, so they get to the airport, and of course have to go through custumns. This only took about an hour after they arrived, and not bad really considering that Sofia airport has nothing but international flights and about 6 came in within an hour eachother. I was waiting anxiously outside the gate, strangely nervous I might add. It took about 30 40 mins after their plane arrived for me to catch my first glimpse of Mama standing in line on the other side of the gate. I was right proud of hte woman, she didnt' shreek or yell. Well, they finally finished and came out to where I was waiting and we had a rather nice reunion (Terri controlled herself like a champ and didnt' even cause a sceen.) Seeing them for the first time after being seperated for so long was awsome.
Arrived in Letnitsa about 3 hours later, and began the process of hauling all that luggage up to my apartment. I act like it was a hassle, but truth be told, it was like Christmas and my Birthday all in one. I am a sucker for presents (who isn't?) and boy did I have fun. We ended up staying the night down at Mr. Mayor's friend's Vacation House by the waterfall in the next town over. Nice place, they had dinner prepared for us and the Mayor, his wife, the President of the City Council and his wife were all there to eat with us. This was also my first true test of being the sole interpreter, didnt' to bad. Mama and Daddy had their first introduction to both Rakiya (Bulgarian National drink (much like whisky) and Bulgarian food). Mama liked the food, Daddy of course fully embraced both. We didnt' know then, but it was the begining of a great love affair between my dad and all things drinkable and edible in Bulgaria.
Spent the next day registering them with the regional police (all foreigners have to be registered with the police) and preparing for our 12 day tour of Bulgaria. It took nearly all day to pack, but we accomplished it with great speed and managed to each only carry one bag. Oh yes, forgot to mention, Wed morning the Mayor had a welcoming party for them at the Municipality. Presented them with gifts and Mama and Daddy gave him the letter they brought from Ann Carter.
Spent two nights in Apriltsy. They met my friend Brett who was staying with Matt for the week and of course Matt. All got along wonderfully. Had a wonderful dinner with some friends in Apriltsy and began what turned out to be 5 days of eating like pigs. Went to Panagyurishte on Friday. My host family was wonderfully welcoming. Baba cried, Milka wouldnt' let me go, and Ivan had someone to talk to about his amazing music collection. We went to the town of Karpachevo with the fam on Saturday (historic town full of traditional houses and shops), toured PanaG and ate ridiculous amounts of food. On Sunday 14 of us went down to the Rila Monestary in a rented van. We stopped on the way down and had a breakfast picnic right on teh side of the road. We toured the Monestary (the largest in Bulgaria) and had a lovely picnic up in the mountains by a wonderful stream. The weather was amazing and it was a perfect day. Before we headed back one of the ladies with us told us about this hole up in teh Mountains that if you pass through, all of your sins will be taken away. Of course we had to go. Turns out this hole is up a sightly vertical path and in a cave that was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of you face. I went through first and was waiting on top of the cave with the others who had gotten there first. Now this cave was tiny, dark, and had more stones than a wall in Ireland. THe hole you had to pass through was small, up some rocky steps and then you had to climb a decrepit old ladder to the opening on the other side. Well needless to say I had doubts as to Terri's ability to do this little activity. I might have even said to her that she might want to not do it. Well I about died when I here this familiar laughing and see Terri's head popping out of that hole. I havent' been that proud of the women in a long time.
On Monday we left PanaG and headed over to Plovdiv. The highlight of Plovdiv was the live outdoor Opera that we were able to go to on Monday night. It was a performance of Troubador and it was held in the outdoor Roman Forum that dates back to 500 AD. The opera was awsome, but the fact that we were sitting on stone steps in a Roman Forum that is over 1500 years old was magnificent. The history that is enclosed in those stone walls, the plays and performances that were held there, and we were able to expereince it. Amazing, absolutely amazing.
On Wednesday we headed to Velico Turnovo. Turnovo is a great town, very tourist friendly and has some great shopping. The town is situated on a gorge and the buildings and houses were built on varying levels of the mountain. All of the streets are connected by a set of steps that takes you from one level to the next. It was awsome. We toured an ancient fortress, had a fire work display thanks to the high school graduation party and had a wonderful time being tourists. To get up to Turnovo we took a train from Plovdiv directly to Turnovo, 5 hours. The ride was gorgous and Daddy had his head outside the window for just about the entire time. This time of year in Bulgaria is famous for the Sunflower fields that spread across the landscape for miles and miles. I have never seen so many Sunflowers before and oh my was it breathtaking.
After Turnovo we headed up to Russe, a large city right on the Danube. Unfortunatly it rained the entire time we were there, so we didnt' get to see a whole lot of it. I did find a Catholic Church for mama to go to in Russe and Daddy got to see the Danube. On Monday we headed back to Letnitsa. Originally the Mayor had said Daddy could drive one of the Municipal cars when we got back, but unfortunatly it was having problems so we had to deal with the busses again. Went back up to Apriltsy on Tuesday. Had dinner with Matt then headed back to Letnitsa on Wed morning. Spent the day on Wednesday working on my apartment. Daddy installed screens on my windows, put in a new retractable clothes line on my balcony, fixed my bathroom door, and put in hooks in my walls so that i can hang stuff. My new screens are amazing, I can now go to bed without having to spend 10 minutes chassing down the flies that have accumulated during the day.
We all headed back to Sofia on Thursday (7th), again the Mayor sent the driver adn van to take us. Mama was good (relatively), and we ended up saying goodbye while they were in line at teh security gate. All I can say is i'm glad I wasnt' on the plane with them trying to console her. Fortunatly, my host sister Pepa was on the same flight as them so she got to help sooth mama. She is visiting a friend in Seattle and managed to get the same flights all the way through to Newark. Milka, Pepa's mom, was also at the airport and she got just as bad as Mama did when it came time for them to leave.
They are home now adn I am happy to report that we all survived the trip. I have full cabinets now and am enjoying my treats from home. I sent out pictures from all of our travels, but if you did not receive them and would like to see them, just send me and email and i'll shoot em over to you. Sorry this turned into such a long blog but Mama made me promise to tell everything we did, especially the part about her getting through the little hole in the cave.
Hope I didnt' forget anything important, although I'm sure I'll be told if I did. Its back to life as normal now (whatever that means) and finishing up my new SPA project. Headed back up to Velico Turnovo this weekend for a wedding. Enjoy your week
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