Happy Halloween
Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween with lots of trick or treaters and lots and lots of treats. I will be celebrating Halloween this year in the town of Veliko Turnovo with some fellow Volunteers and a few Brits. It’s an annual party that volunteers throw and I’m sure you can imagine it will be a fun time. I’ll be going as a cowgirl (I knew that straw cowboy hat from Monterey would come in handy one day.) My friend Megan and I went to Plovdiv to this 2nd hand shop that has over 5 floors of stuff to look for costumes. I scored with a brown leather skirt and a red/white checkered shirt. All I’m missing is the boots but I doubt footwear will be on my mind for long. Megan found a Team USA bicycle uniform. She was going to go as a crash victim, we found a neck brace, but upon further thought we realized it would hinder her um, celebrating abilities. Neither is a very original idea, but hey, we are in Bulgaria, and how many Halloween costumes have they really seen?
These past couple weeks have been pretty good. I’ve been staying busy and haven’t been in town a whole lot. I spent last weekend in Sofia with friends. We went to an amazing bar/club called Swinging Hall that had two bands going on in two separate rooms. One of the bands was absolutely amazing and we danced till the wee hours of the morning. Nothing like standing amongst 9 other Americans jumping up and down while you sing along to songs like Sweet Home Alabama and Education. It was an awesome night and almost made me forget I was anywhere but America.
My orphanage project that I recently took over is coming along nicely. I met with the ladies again this Tuesday to pick up some invoices and find out some more specifics. The construction firm will begin renovations next week and I’ll head out to the Orphanage next Tuesday to take some before photos. They are building a quarantine room and renovating the kitchen. The orphanage recently failed to meet the new EU standards that the Health Department has to now follow and these renovations will bring them to code and will allow them to begin their school year.
The newest group of volunteers (group B18) swear in today at the office in Sofia. I know I say it every time I write, but it as true now as it ever was, the time here fly’s by; especially when I think that that was me last year. I now officially have 11 months left in Bulgaria, and when I count the amount of time I’ll be traveling before next summer that scarcely leaves me with 9 full months in Letnitsa. My counterpart asked me yesterday if I would consider doing a 3rd year here. I couldn’t blurt out NO, so I said that I hadn’t thought of it. It’s nice though to have her ask, to know that she values me being here. Mine and Tanya’s relationship has come so far since I arrived here. She is now the person I am closest to in the Municipality and probably my closest Bulgarian friend. She told me a few weeks ago that she doesn’t know what she is going to do when I leave. And to think I use to dread going to work because of my relationship with this woman. My how time can change things…
Yesterday (Wednesday) Tanya showed up at my door at 8:30 to tell me that today was going to be Sporten Den (sports day). So I dress for the day, get to the office and am told that what sports day really means is that we will all (40 people) walk 3 miles down to the Mayor’s and his cronies’ hunting house to have a party. I guess the walk counts for sports and well, Bulgarians never really need a reason to have a party. So we get down to the hunting house, a place I’ve been to before when I went wild boar hunting last year. It was a meat lover’s feast. They do this pig sausage thing where they roll the sausage into what looks like a spin wheel then put toothpicks in it to make it stay that way. Well there were about 50 of those cooked plus ham slabs plus fried fish. Now when Bulgarians fry fish, they don’t mess around. Its like here is a little fish with your fry, you can easily go through 10 napkins by the time you are done. There was also tons of various mayo and yoghurt based salads, Bulgarian staples. Not to mention pickled vegetables and copious amounts of Rakia, beer, and fruity beverages cleverly disguised as fruit juice. I am always willing to pick at the food I am presented with at these parties, any attempt to say Blagodarya Ne (thank you no) is taken as an affront and you are quick to receive a lecture about not eating enough and going back to America and having everyone think the Bulgarians starved me. God forbid!! So I ate my fair share of salads and deep fried, fried fish. 12 napkins, an upset stomach and 5 bottles of water later, I was rejoiced to see the meal over. That relief didn’t last long however because out came the final course, one I had somehow forgot about. You see, in Bulgaria, things like meat and cheese trays and mixed nuts come out AFTER the meal, not before. So after watching and participating in the eating of tons of food, we got to start all over again.
Ah, such is a Bulgarian party. I did get to do some fishing though. I used a rod big enough for the ocean in a pond barely big enough to call a pond. None the less, I got to fish and sit in the sun and enjoy a beautiful fall day in Bulgaria.
Oh, on another note. Another one of the projects I presented to the mayor is going to be funded. The municipality is going to pay for 40 dry erase boards to replace the horrible looking chalk boards currently being used in the local schools. Granted the Finance officer is the one who made the decision to fund the project, I think it has something to do with the fact that the mayor just bought a jeep for the municipality; funny how it co-insides so well with hunting season. Ah, such as it is here in Letnitsa. I’ve learned to go with the flow and get over the politics of it all. If you can manage to do that, life here is so much better….
posted by: ksension at October 27, 2005 07:49 |
link | comments |
Goodbyes and Hellos
I have some sad news to share, my Baba from Panagurishte, Baba Patsa, passed away last Tuesday. She suffered a stroke in early October and never recovered. She was an amazing lady and a great Baba (grandmother), Bulgaria lost one of their best. I spoke with Pepa by email and the family is doing as well as can be expected. They are now trying to concentrate on Pepa’s wedding and preparing for that happy day. Baba was sooo excited about it.
Here are some pictures of Baba from last year.
On a happier note, I just spent a great week in the town of Pazardjik with my group and the new group of volunteers. It was my group’s Mid-service conference and an opportunity for both groups to meet and socialize. The conference itself was ok, a little information, some shots, the norm. We all had to have a TB test done and had to get the FLU shot. With the Bird Flu now in Turkey and Romania, PC is being extra cautious and made the FLU shot mandatory this year. So far no sign of the Bird flu in Bulgaria, so all is well. Guess I’ll give up eggs for awhile, not exactly a hardship seeing as how I usually have to wash off the bird poop anyways.
So, Pazardjik, met a lot of new people, went out, played pool, ate good food, socialized, all in all a great week. It was so nice to be out of Letnitsa for an entire week; unfortunately the week passed by much too quickly and tomorrow starts another week in Letnitsa. On Friday night me and 7 friends went to Sofia to say goodbye to a fellow volunteer that is leaving PC. It was a fun night but very sad to be saying goodbye to such a great friend. We did get to enjoy a wonderful Indian meal and smoke some hookahs, flavored tobacco only, but the night ended much to early and well, saying goodbye is never fun. It is so sad to lose these people I’ve become so close to. When someone leaves early it just makes you realize even more how sad it is going to be next year this time when we are all leaving and saying goodbye. Some of my friends here I probably won’t keep up with, but there are some I can’t imagine never seeing again. Out of everything I’ve done and experienced in Bulgaria, my friendships are the best.
I’ve been making some plans for the holidays lately. There are way too many Americans here not to celebrate and we do like to celebrate. Halloween will be spent in Velico Turnovo at the annual Halloween bash. My friend Shea is also having an “Apartment warming” party that weekend so it works out nicely. Thanksgiving might be celebrated down in Chepelare in the Rhodope Mountains. I met the new guy who will be living there and hopefully my friend Nasser who owns the hotel in Chepelare will give us a deal. Chepelare continues to be my favorite town in Bulgaria and I will take any opportunity I can to visit. Christmas I am still not sure about, but New Years is going to be spent either in London or Amsterdam with my friend Megan. There is still time for planning and such, but when we all get together as a group we tend to make travel plans. Besides, I like to know where I am going and seeing as how I am sorely in need of a break from Bulgaria, making plans is a great thing.
The weather has turned decisively fall like with 40 degree nights and visible breath. The prediction for winter does not look good; there are some calls for -40. Not sure how I will handle that, but I’ll figure something out.
I have a new project starting on Tuesday. The old volunteer from Lovech started a project a few months back with a nearby orphanage and when he left Lovech he handed the project over to the new TEFL volunteer there. Well that volunteer dropped the ball so to speak so Steve asked me if I wanted to take it over seeing as I am the next closest volunteer. Of course I jumped at the chance and I have my first meeting on Tuesday. The project is being funded by the IWC, a group of expat women out of Sofia, mostly wives of embassy workers, foreign dignitaries, expats and PC employees. They agreed to fun the renovations of the Orphanage and need a volunteer to be the go between. I am super excited about this and the possibilities of working with this group of women. If I can pull this first project off who knows what else I can work with through them.
Well, that is all for now. Tomorrow I have to go and get my Lichna Karta renewed. A Lichna Karta is the national Identification card every person living in Bulgaria must have, local and foreigner. Just one more reminder that my time here is flying by.
posted by: ksension at October 16, 2005 19:29 |
link | comments |
Joys of Authority
Have you ever arrested an Ambassador? NO??? Well I have.
Last weekend I volunteered to help run the games at the US Embassy’s annual Kids Carnival and American style picnic. It is a family/embassy party that is held every year at the Vice Ambassador’s home in one of the wealthiest parts of
Sofia . Pretty much all diplomats live here so you can just imagine the homes.
I met up with 8 other volunteers and we all made our way over to the party, each with their own reasons for volunteering to help entertain the children of diplomats and other high ranking people. For some it was the promise of meeting the new ambassador, or the desire to eat real brownies and pork barbeque (not to mention the hot dogs and real hamburgers that were also options). For me it was American food and a reason to not be in Letnitsa. Once at the house, we were all gathered in the garage and had explained to us that we would be running the games for the kids. These involved some of your typical festival type games but with one addition that sparked my interest. There was to be a “
County
Jail ” over on the main lawn that was in need of a Sheriff. Well, this just had my name written all over it so when they asked for a volunteer to run it I immediately raised my hand and was handed a silver sheriff star and what looked like a really vicious billy club (turns out the vice ambassador’s son is into karate and this was one of his weapons.) Whatever it was it added a nice bit of authority to my badge and I was off and ready to bring some justice to this motley crew of Ambassadors, country directors, FBI agents and assorted embassy workers.
It was a basic set up of give me a ticket and I would go arrest someone, or if you were the more civic minded person you could just bring the criminal in yourself. The kids LOVED this and I had many “frequent flyers” that I got to know quite well. Some of the kids were so civic minded and realized the necessity of having someone in jail that they would arrest themselves (mainly kids under 4 that enjoyed playing with the handcuffs.)
The adults however were eager to send me off to arrest their comrades. It was funny to watch these highly successful and important people come up to me trying to be very secretive to tell me they wanted this person or that person arrested but to not tell them who paid to have them arrested. At one point, in my humble little plastic jail I had the Ambassador, Vice-Ambassador, PC Country Director, an FBI agent and the Finance Manager. As with the kids, there were a few “frequent flyers” amongst the adults. I think some actually enjoyed their imprisonment for it meant some peace and a chance to get away from the crowd. Enjoyed it so much in fact that some would turn down offers to bail them out, choosing instead to serve out there mandatory jail time of 5 minutes.
As much as I enjoyed this position of power, the brownie and baked beans I got to eat were equally as enjoyable. The pork BBQ was like real bbq, maybe not
Eastern NC quality, but it certainly smelled good. Keeping with my new vegetarian status though I was only able to enjoy the smell and the memories of bbq long past
It was a great day all in all and the brownies were magnificent. I got to meet some important and funny people and even made a few new PC friends. All in all a great way to spend a Saturday in
Sofia .
This coming week I’ll be in the town of
Pazardjik for my Mid-Service Conference. My entire group (now down to 49 I believe, we came in with 60) and I will be going to seminars and conferences and will be meeting the newest group of COD (community and organizational development) volunteers. They are the 18th group of PC Bulgaria volunteers (I’m a 16.) and will be here when joins the EU on January 1, 2007. They I’m sure will be involved in some amazing activities during their time here.
posted by: ksension at October 08, 2005 13:03 |
link | comments |
