Friday, July 30, 2010
More of Pavolche
I think I figured out how to get more than 10 pics up at a time. These pics are from the town that I lived in for 2.5 months. The place is really gorgeous and I hope you like the pictures. I think if you click on them you can see a larger image. Enjoy!
The month leading up to me becoming an official peace corps volunteer
Wow! I guess it’s true what they say; time flies when you’re having fun in Bulgaria! Ok, so for all of you people out there hating me for not updating this blog more regularly, well keep the hate coming so I actually keep on top of this and it won’t take you an hour to read my newest post. The past 5 weeks have been really awesome and I’m excited to tell you about them! For a couple weeks now I have been debating what I should write about. You know, which memories and stories make the cut, and which ones are sadly forgotten. Today my counterpart is out of the office so I have had all day to figure it out. Here’s my plan. Give you a little somethin somethin about everything I have been doing and you can ask my questions if you are intrigued by any certain thing. Ok? Ok! Let’s go!
From June 25th – July 4th weekend: I was glad to be back from my permanent site visit because I was able to get back to my daily routine of studying Bulgarian, eating lots of food, and hanging out with my friends. It’s really fantastic. Our group project, “Benches on a hill” was our main focus for the week. As I probably mentioned in earlier posts, but ill mention again because plans changed, our group project was to install 4 benches in our town. 3 of the benches were going to be by the little river/stream that runs through Pavolche and the other up near Tom’s house near the main water source. After having a few meetings with our LT (language trainer) Elli, the mayor, and the factory owner, we thought our project goals were clear. However, when in Bulgaria, never expect what you think is going to/should happen to actually happen. That’s just ridiculous. One day during a break in class, we walked to the factory to pick up the benches. There were only 2, but there was a table also! Elli told us that someone else was making a third bench that was to go up by Tom’s house. We were pretty stoked because we had set a deadline of July 1st to get the benches ready and installed and we received them on the 2nd. Like I said, time doesn’t really matter here, so getting the benches only 1 day late was actually a small success! Anyways, the week was really rainy and we didn’t get to install the benches until the following week (more on that later). So July 4th was just around the corner and our group decided to have a 4th of July party (which we later learned was one of our PC assignments when we talked to other groups about coming to our party and they said they were having one too). We were still excited! We hopped a bus into Vratsa and made some purchases that turned out to be delicious, classic, American food! It’s a good thing we have girls in our group who love to and are really good at baking/cooking deliciousness. As a group we made; 2 kinds of potato salad, 2 kinds of apple pie, deviled eggs (awesome!!!), and watermelon (not so much made, but bought). We made handwritten Bulgarian invitations and delivered them throughout the town. We encouraged people to show up and bring a traditional Bulgarian dish to share. In the morning of the 4th, the guys in our group (me, matt and tom) played basketball and soccer with the boys in our town. It was a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it. Our girls (Katie, Kelsey and Nichole) occupied the Pavolche girls and young kids with chalk drawings and what looked like duck, duck, goose, among other playground games. As Tom would say, it was екстра, or Extra! As for the actually party, well that was great as well. We had about 35 people show up and most of them brought food. Kelsey drew this really cool map of America with small drawings representing the different parts. For example, in Seattle there was a coffee cup, and in Kansas ears of corn, and an orange in Florida, I think you get the point. From this idea, we had some of the babas (grandmothers) draw an outline of Bulgaria and then the kids filled it in with sweet drawings of the awesome things Bulgaria has to offer. We stared off the party with a little introduction about why we celebrate this day and then sang the national anthem as a group. It was pretty good. The babas then decided that they would outdo us and sing a 10 minute long Bulgarian song. They sing much better than we do, but hey, they’ve got 60 years on us. The party was lots of fun. Everyone had tons of food and drinks and it was an all around success. Whew, I didn’t think this first part would be so long. Stick with it people, I’m sitting in my office sweating, trying to swat the flies away from my face and cup of water while writing this, so the least you can do is keep reading, please. Thanks!!
July 5th – July 11th: So this week was our first “normal” week in quite some time. There was lots of language class, cards, and eating. I don’t remember which day, but one day this week our group went to the capital of Sofia where we had individual meetings with our program director. This trip was to familiarize us with the city of Sofia and how to get to PC Bulgaria Headquarters (dun, dun, dun!!!). The office was really nice and our meetings were only about 20 minutes apiece so we didn’t spend much time there. My conversation was really informal and was basically just to make sure that I wanted to be here and that I am capable of being a PCV. After our meetings we walked around a bit and found a Starbucks. I was hesitant at first, but ended up buying an iced chai tea, which was много вкусен, very delicious. After sitting in the air conditioned Starbucks for awhile, we went to lunch at this Moroccan restaurant the girls picked out. It was pretty good; I had some fruit, meatball sandwich and bloody mary. The restaurants here don’t serve water in pitchers, and I think that the water in bottles is too expensive, so I usually buy a beer but since we were in Sofia I splurged and got a bloody mary. It was ok, no celery or olives or horseradish, bummer… After lunch, we walked around for a bit then stopped in a McDonald’s because Matt had been craving a double cheeseburger for the last 9 weeks. I did not give in to the 1 leva menu although it was mighty tempting. We then got on a bus back to Pavolche. It was a pretty good day. I’m sure other cool things happened this week, but right now I can’t remember them. Like I said, it was pretty normal. Oh, actually something that might have happened during this time is….My host sister’s hamsters died!! It was bad. One day my host dad put the hamsters and rabbit outside in their cages and before my host sister got up to get them, the sun viciously attacked them and they died. The rabbit, палачинко (Palachinko, meaning pancake) barely survived and to this day he is doing well. I also remembered another fun thing we did this week. I don’t want to go back and revise the other sentences so bare with me please. Ok, we went to the Ledineka Cave!! It is one of the biggest, if not the biggest cave in Bulgaria. Or maybe the oldest, I can’t remember. The principal of school in Pavolche drove us there with the mayor, Elli and some other folks from town. It was a blast. The cave is home to a lot of bats and is around 2 million years old. I need to steal some pictures from the other people in my group and put on here. Don’t let me forget. I’m pretty sure I have never been in a place like it. It was extraordinary! Also, I think on Monday or Tuesday of this week we installed the benches and table. They look sweet! We have used them a couple times and they work great. We see the local people use them on a regular basis which is exactly what we envisioned. That is a small victory as well!
July 12th – July 18th: Just like the previous week, this week was pretty ordinary as well. But there was one exception. Tom’s host parents were taking us camping on the weekend and we were stoked! Camping in Bulgaria, hell yeah! So the week went on, studying, playing, eating, hiking, eating, PC meetings and projects and whatnot and even more eating. That Thursday we were in Vratsa for a HUB (PC meeting) and decided to buy our groceries and other items for camping. We were all really excited to camp and that made shopping that much more excited. Well at least for me. I bought peanut butter and jelly and bread and cookies and nectarines and water and beer. I was in heaven. Saturday morning rolled around and I was about as giddy as I was when I woke up to watch Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. It was exciting. Camping, in Bulgaria? Sweet! So it took us about an hour or so to get to Dabrusha from Pavolche. Tom’s host mom’s parents live there and there is a little river that runs through the outside of town. Dabrusha is not big. It’s not even small. There are around 100 people that live there. So with us (Me, Matt, Tom, Jeff, Katie, Kelsey, Nichole, Lydia, Nikki, Sashco, Danny, Danny’s wife and 2 kids and father in law) we launched the population up to a whopping 115! We unpacked next to the river in the shade and set up camp. Because we’re poor, or maybe cheap, we had a 3 person tent for 5 people. It was ridiculous, but actually worked very well. We spent the day drinking, swimming, playing cards and dominos and eating. It was a lot of fun. I tried to catch frogs but they were too fast for me. Maybe next time. We woke up the next morning and sort of hung out for the majority of the day waiting to be driven home. Overall, I would recommend all of you to come here and go camping. It’s an adventure. DABRUSHA!
Im pretty sure my order of events is no longer chronological because we didn’t go camping the day before our tests, so sorry about that. The Saturday before our tests we walked to the local hotel (it’s about a 30 min walk down the mountain) and went swimming. It had been really hot for about a week and we decided to check out the local pool. It cost 3 lev to get in and they had a lot of poolside seating and a huge restaurant/bar. We hung out there all day and I even somehow managed to avoid getting sunburned (I’m getting good at this). The pool was filled with men in tiny Speedos and women in even less. It surely was a site to see. Ok, back to the not so timely timeline.
July 19th – July 23th: On Monday we had our dreaded language test. It wasn’t really dreaded because our group is full of bright people and we all knew we were capable of passing. The couple days before the test we got together as a group and did some studying. I think the best way we “studied” was by talking and interacting with the local people. If you can understand them and they can sometimes understand you, there is no need to worry about a test. That being said, we all passed our tests! Hooray us! We had no more language classes after our test, so our days were filled with getting all our crap ready to move out and making sure we had turned in all of our PC assignments. Tuesday we attended a christening at the local church. It was the first time I had been in the church. I actually thought that it wasn’t functioning anymore. It’s a really small, but beautiful. There was a priest who said some stuff in Bulgarian followed by people lining up, kissing a picture and a cross, then getting blessed with some holy water. It was pretty cool. This was followed by a day full of eating and drinking. There were all kinds of good food. At one point I looked over and saw the mayor ripping open the cooked skull of the goat we were eating. It was a site to see. Sometime later, we talked with the principal of the school about taking us on another field trip to see some more caves. He agreed and took us the following day. This time we went to about 3 different caves around the area. The principal’s friend came with us and he is very knowledgeable about the caves in the area. He took us to God’s Bridge (боли мост) which was really cool and really old. We got to walk around a bit and we even went inside this one part and I swear about 250 bats started flying around. I freaked out and he told me to relax they’re just bats. Phst, I hate bats. Then he said that this is the largest group of cave bats in all of Bulgaria! I’ll throw some pictures up here soon. After we got back from the caves we helped out with a sandwich making contest and the cultural center. Matt’s host mom, Maria, is really into community projects and hosted a sandwich making contest and asked us to help. It was a lot of fun and the kids made some really creative and tasty sandwiches. About 20 kids from the age of 4 to 15 showed up and Maria bought them all some sort of prize. It was really cool. Afterwards it was nap time. Around 5pm we started making food for our party that we were throwing later that night. It was a celebration to show our appreciation for all the awesome things our host families had done for us! We cooked and they cooked and brought drinks. This was really fun because I think it was the first time that all of our families were together, without anyone else. We started around 8 and the party lasted till well past midnight. It was a lot of fun and pretty emotional because it was our going away party. Thursday we had another HUB which was just to show our group projects and some other not so exciting things. Friday was our swearing in ceremony. The day we officially transition from Peace Corps Trainee to Peace Corps Volunteer. It was pretty cool. There were some speeches by important people and we had to swear to uphold the constitution. It only took about 45 min which was nice because it was hot!!! Like I was sweating by 9am hot! We spent the rest of the day hanging out with other volunteers and saying our goodbyes, or see you laters. That night group Pavolche met up with my host sister at the discoteka and hung out for a little bit. I’m going to miss each and every one of them. Spending the majority of everyday with the same 6 people for 3 months is awesome, especially when you enjoy hanging out with them. I’m sure we’ll get together often and when we do it will be awesome! Ok that’s all for now. A week ago I moved into my new place and after I get some pictures and video up, I’ll write about it. Everything is good over here; I hope it’s good wherever you are!
Oh yeah, I just figured out my address so if you want to send me anything the address is (and if you can write it in Bulgarian that would be sweet cause it will get here faster. Also, say that there is no commercial value for anything because if you check anything above $50 I have to pay the equivalent of its value to take it from the post office. I'm poor, please don't do that to me. Thanks!)
джо макдонъл
Общинската администрация
ул. "Георги Димитров" № 85
Област Монтана
Град Брусарци 3680
Let me know if you have any questions about the address.
From June 25th – July 4th weekend: I was glad to be back from my permanent site visit because I was able to get back to my daily routine of studying Bulgarian, eating lots of food, and hanging out with my friends. It’s really fantastic. Our group project, “Benches on a hill” was our main focus for the week. As I probably mentioned in earlier posts, but ill mention again because plans changed, our group project was to install 4 benches in our town. 3 of the benches were going to be by the little river/stream that runs through Pavolche and the other up near Tom’s house near the main water source. After having a few meetings with our LT (language trainer) Elli, the mayor, and the factory owner, we thought our project goals were clear. However, when in Bulgaria, never expect what you think is going to/should happen to actually happen. That’s just ridiculous. One day during a break in class, we walked to the factory to pick up the benches. There were only 2, but there was a table also! Elli told us that someone else was making a third bench that was to go up by Tom’s house. We were pretty stoked because we had set a deadline of July 1st to get the benches ready and installed and we received them on the 2nd. Like I said, time doesn’t really matter here, so getting the benches only 1 day late was actually a small success! Anyways, the week was really rainy and we didn’t get to install the benches until the following week (more on that later). So July 4th was just around the corner and our group decided to have a 4th of July party (which we later learned was one of our PC assignments when we talked to other groups about coming to our party and they said they were having one too). We were still excited! We hopped a bus into Vratsa and made some purchases that turned out to be delicious, classic, American food! It’s a good thing we have girls in our group who love to and are really good at baking/cooking deliciousness. As a group we made; 2 kinds of potato salad, 2 kinds of apple pie, deviled eggs (awesome!!!), and watermelon (not so much made, but bought). We made handwritten Bulgarian invitations and delivered them throughout the town. We encouraged people to show up and bring a traditional Bulgarian dish to share. In the morning of the 4th, the guys in our group (me, matt and tom) played basketball and soccer with the boys in our town. It was a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it. Our girls (Katie, Kelsey and Nichole) occupied the Pavolche girls and young kids with chalk drawings and what looked like duck, duck, goose, among other playground games. As Tom would say, it was екстра, or Extra! As for the actually party, well that was great as well. We had about 35 people show up and most of them brought food. Kelsey drew this really cool map of America with small drawings representing the different parts. For example, in Seattle there was a coffee cup, and in Kansas ears of corn, and an orange in Florida, I think you get the point. From this idea, we had some of the babas (grandmothers) draw an outline of Bulgaria and then the kids filled it in with sweet drawings of the awesome things Bulgaria has to offer. We stared off the party with a little introduction about why we celebrate this day and then sang the national anthem as a group. It was pretty good. The babas then decided that they would outdo us and sing a 10 minute long Bulgarian song. They sing much better than we do, but hey, they’ve got 60 years on us. The party was lots of fun. Everyone had tons of food and drinks and it was an all around success. Whew, I didn’t think this first part would be so long. Stick with it people, I’m sitting in my office sweating, trying to swat the flies away from my face and cup of water while writing this, so the least you can do is keep reading, please. Thanks!!
July 5th – July 11th: So this week was our first “normal” week in quite some time. There was lots of language class, cards, and eating. I don’t remember which day, but one day this week our group went to the capital of Sofia where we had individual meetings with our program director. This trip was to familiarize us with the city of Sofia and how to get to PC Bulgaria Headquarters (dun, dun, dun!!!). The office was really nice and our meetings were only about 20 minutes apiece so we didn’t spend much time there. My conversation was really informal and was basically just to make sure that I wanted to be here and that I am capable of being a PCV. After our meetings we walked around a bit and found a Starbucks. I was hesitant at first, but ended up buying an iced chai tea, which was много вкусен, very delicious. After sitting in the air conditioned Starbucks for awhile, we went to lunch at this Moroccan restaurant the girls picked out. It was pretty good; I had some fruit, meatball sandwich and bloody mary. The restaurants here don’t serve water in pitchers, and I think that the water in bottles is too expensive, so I usually buy a beer but since we were in Sofia I splurged and got a bloody mary. It was ok, no celery or olives or horseradish, bummer… After lunch, we walked around for a bit then stopped in a McDonald’s because Matt had been craving a double cheeseburger for the last 9 weeks. I did not give in to the 1 leva menu although it was mighty tempting. We then got on a bus back to Pavolche. It was a pretty good day. I’m sure other cool things happened this week, but right now I can’t remember them. Like I said, it was pretty normal. Oh, actually something that might have happened during this time is….My host sister’s hamsters died!! It was bad. One day my host dad put the hamsters and rabbit outside in their cages and before my host sister got up to get them, the sun viciously attacked them and they died. The rabbit, палачинко (Palachinko, meaning pancake) barely survived and to this day he is doing well. I also remembered another fun thing we did this week. I don’t want to go back and revise the other sentences so bare with me please. Ok, we went to the Ledineka Cave!! It is one of the biggest, if not the biggest cave in Bulgaria. Or maybe the oldest, I can’t remember. The principal of school in Pavolche drove us there with the mayor, Elli and some other folks from town. It was a blast. The cave is home to a lot of bats and is around 2 million years old. I need to steal some pictures from the other people in my group and put on here. Don’t let me forget. I’m pretty sure I have never been in a place like it. It was extraordinary! Also, I think on Monday or Tuesday of this week we installed the benches and table. They look sweet! We have used them a couple times and they work great. We see the local people use them on a regular basis which is exactly what we envisioned. That is a small victory as well!
July 12th – July 18th: Just like the previous week, this week was pretty ordinary as well. But there was one exception. Tom’s host parents were taking us camping on the weekend and we were stoked! Camping in Bulgaria, hell yeah! So the week went on, studying, playing, eating, hiking, eating, PC meetings and projects and whatnot and even more eating. That Thursday we were in Vratsa for a HUB (PC meeting) and decided to buy our groceries and other items for camping. We were all really excited to camp and that made shopping that much more excited. Well at least for me. I bought peanut butter and jelly and bread and cookies and nectarines and water and beer. I was in heaven. Saturday morning rolled around and I was about as giddy as I was when I woke up to watch Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. It was exciting. Camping, in Bulgaria? Sweet! So it took us about an hour or so to get to Dabrusha from Pavolche. Tom’s host mom’s parents live there and there is a little river that runs through the outside of town. Dabrusha is not big. It’s not even small. There are around 100 people that live there. So with us (Me, Matt, Tom, Jeff, Katie, Kelsey, Nichole, Lydia, Nikki, Sashco, Danny, Danny’s wife and 2 kids and father in law) we launched the population up to a whopping 115! We unpacked next to the river in the shade and set up camp. Because we’re poor, or maybe cheap, we had a 3 person tent for 5 people. It was ridiculous, but actually worked very well. We spent the day drinking, swimming, playing cards and dominos and eating. It was a lot of fun. I tried to catch frogs but they were too fast for me. Maybe next time. We woke up the next morning and sort of hung out for the majority of the day waiting to be driven home. Overall, I would recommend all of you to come here and go camping. It’s an adventure. DABRUSHA!
Im pretty sure my order of events is no longer chronological because we didn’t go camping the day before our tests, so sorry about that. The Saturday before our tests we walked to the local hotel (it’s about a 30 min walk down the mountain) and went swimming. It had been really hot for about a week and we decided to check out the local pool. It cost 3 lev to get in and they had a lot of poolside seating and a huge restaurant/bar. We hung out there all day and I even somehow managed to avoid getting sunburned (I’m getting good at this). The pool was filled with men in tiny Speedos and women in even less. It surely was a site to see. Ok, back to the not so timely timeline.
July 19th – July 23th: On Monday we had our dreaded language test. It wasn’t really dreaded because our group is full of bright people and we all knew we were capable of passing. The couple days before the test we got together as a group and did some studying. I think the best way we “studied” was by talking and interacting with the local people. If you can understand them and they can sometimes understand you, there is no need to worry about a test. That being said, we all passed our tests! Hooray us! We had no more language classes after our test, so our days were filled with getting all our crap ready to move out and making sure we had turned in all of our PC assignments. Tuesday we attended a christening at the local church. It was the first time I had been in the church. I actually thought that it wasn’t functioning anymore. It’s a really small, but beautiful. There was a priest who said some stuff in Bulgarian followed by people lining up, kissing a picture and a cross, then getting blessed with some holy water. It was pretty cool. This was followed by a day full of eating and drinking. There were all kinds of good food. At one point I looked over and saw the mayor ripping open the cooked skull of the goat we were eating. It was a site to see. Sometime later, we talked with the principal of the school about taking us on another field trip to see some more caves. He agreed and took us the following day. This time we went to about 3 different caves around the area. The principal’s friend came with us and he is very knowledgeable about the caves in the area. He took us to God’s Bridge (боли мост) which was really cool and really old. We got to walk around a bit and we even went inside this one part and I swear about 250 bats started flying around. I freaked out and he told me to relax they’re just bats. Phst, I hate bats. Then he said that this is the largest group of cave bats in all of Bulgaria! I’ll throw some pictures up here soon. After we got back from the caves we helped out with a sandwich making contest and the cultural center. Matt’s host mom, Maria, is really into community projects and hosted a sandwich making contest and asked us to help. It was a lot of fun and the kids made some really creative and tasty sandwiches. About 20 kids from the age of 4 to 15 showed up and Maria bought them all some sort of prize. It was really cool. Afterwards it was nap time. Around 5pm we started making food for our party that we were throwing later that night. It was a celebration to show our appreciation for all the awesome things our host families had done for us! We cooked and they cooked and brought drinks. This was really fun because I think it was the first time that all of our families were together, without anyone else. We started around 8 and the party lasted till well past midnight. It was a lot of fun and pretty emotional because it was our going away party. Thursday we had another HUB which was just to show our group projects and some other not so exciting things. Friday was our swearing in ceremony. The day we officially transition from Peace Corps Trainee to Peace Corps Volunteer. It was pretty cool. There were some speeches by important people and we had to swear to uphold the constitution. It only took about 45 min which was nice because it was hot!!! Like I was sweating by 9am hot! We spent the rest of the day hanging out with other volunteers and saying our goodbyes, or see you laters. That night group Pavolche met up with my host sister at the discoteka and hung out for a little bit. I’m going to miss each and every one of them. Spending the majority of everyday with the same 6 people for 3 months is awesome, especially when you enjoy hanging out with them. I’m sure we’ll get together often and when we do it will be awesome! Ok that’s all for now. A week ago I moved into my new place and after I get some pictures and video up, I’ll write about it. Everything is good over here; I hope it’s good wherever you are!
Oh yeah, I just figured out my address so if you want to send me anything the address is (and if you can write it in Bulgarian that would be sweet cause it will get here faster. Also, say that there is no commercial value for anything because if you check anything above $50 I have to pay the equivalent of its value to take it from the post office. I'm poor, please don't do that to me. Thanks!)
джо макдонъл
Общинската администрация
ул. "Георги Димитров" № 85
Област Монтана
Град Брусарци 3680
Let me know if you have any questions about the address.
Friday, June 25, 2010
June Fun
It's been long over due since my last post and I have been really busy in that time. June 2nd is a national holiday in Bulgaria when the people remember a war hero named Hristo Botev. Our group was lucky enough to score tickets to the exclusive opera that was honoring Botev which was in Vratsa on June 1st. There were a lot of big wigs at the opera, or at least thats what people were telling us. The president of Bulgaria was sitting right above us in a suite and after the opera we were less than an arms length from him which was pretty cool. Speeches and fireworks concluded the night. The next day we took a bus to the top of the mountain we live on to partake in the days festivities. People from local villages brought food and drinks and set up tents to sell them. It was a lot of fun.
Around the 8th of June, our group had a community meeting in which we discussed ideas for a community activity/project. Leading up to the meeting, we made invitations and handed them out to community leaders, our families, and other people throughout pavolche. We emphasized that there would be AMERICAN SWEETS in hopes that more people would show up. Our group made rice krispy treats, chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies. They were awesome! Anyways, we had about 30 people show up to our meeting, which we thought was a good result. The project we decided on was to clean up the area near the small river in town and install benches so people can utilize the area. The local factory owner said he would donate 4 benches, which cost between 100-180 leva each and our total budget is 100 leva. We were stoked! We passed around a signup sheet for people who wanted to help us with the clean up the following saturday.
Saturday, June 12th we had our clean up day. We started at 9am with about 21 volunteers, not including the 6 of us. This included the mayor, 6-7 kids, 2 baba's (grandmothers) along with some of our host family members. It was slow in the beginning, but after a half hour or so, everyone took on different roles. The adults would use tools to cut the grass (there are no lawn mowers) and the kids would pick up the waste and trash and wheelbarrow it to the designated spot. After an hour or so we moved a little closed to the river and began taking out the trash (plastic bottles, broken glass, other general trash). This was fun because it was a really hot day and the water is super refreshing. We are going to put 3 of the 4 benches at this spot. At 11:30 or so we took a break and bought the kids ice cream to show our appreciation for their hard work. Afterwards, we moved our clean up to a nearby spot that has a natural spring and where baba's take clothes/carpets to clean. We did some nice landscaping and made the area more accessible. Along with beautifying the area, we build stairs that led from the sitting area down to the spring so that the older people would have an easier time of accessing the water. This actually took a few hours because we had to cut wood, wheelbarrow tons of rocks and dirt to make sure the stairs were usable and flat. It was an awesome project with a lot of help from the locals and it didn't cost us a thing!! I have some pictures on facebook from the day and ill try to throw some on here. So, we finished working about 4pm and tom's parents had us over later for chicken wings and some beers. It was one of the more rewarding days I've had since I've been here.
Last week we had a 3 day conference with all the PC trainees in Vratsa. We got to learn where we each would live for the next two years of PC service. I am living in a town called Brusartsi which is 90 minutes northwest of vratsa. During the conference we met with our counterparts who we will be working with for the next two years. After the conference we each went to our perminent sites for 3 days to find out more about the town and what we will be down. As I said, Brusarti is only 90 minutes away and I have a direct train from Vratsa. Its really nice. The town is pretty small and has a population of 1,300 people. I will be working in the municipality, or at least thats where my desk will be. I am the first PCV in the town, so I will be working with a lot of the businesses in town. I talked with people at the pensioner's club, cultural center, library, and school and they are all excited for me to work with them. Currently, there are not any after school programs at the school so I look forward to setting up some sort of activities. The library is expecting 3 new computers (they have 0 now) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and they want me to teach some computer classes. I will also be teaching English at the school is some capacity. It was Brusartsi's first time applying for a PCV so they were sort of shocked when they found out I would be living there, so right now they don't have any projects set up for me. Hopefully, this will allow me to be flexible and work on projects that I want to work on. We will see. I got to check out the house I will be living in. It is right across from the Mayor's house and has a really big garden. The inside of the house was a bit scary. There are no cupboards, counters, fridge, over, toilet, or anything. They tell me it will be ready in a month. Keep your fingers crossed. During my 3 days there, I stayed at a hotel in Lom, which is 30 minutes away. It was nice there. My hotel was 15 feet from the Danube River and across it is Romainia! Yesterday I got back from Brusartsi and was welcomed home to a big meal from my family. It is good to be back and I was excited to sleep in my own bed. I've got a busy week coming up with projects and presentations so wish me luck. I hope you all are enjoying the Summer! Talk to you soon!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Bulgarian Food
In the three weeks that Ive been living with my host family, I have tried many new food dishes. I have enjoyed eating almost everything and my family makes sure that I eat massive amounts of food everytime I come home. A typical breakfast has many options for me. Slices of bread with; salami and kashkaval (yellow cheese), chocolate or honey. A traditional Bulgarian dish called Banitsa is served a lot. It is a baked pastry sort of dish with filo dough and cerene (white feta-like cheese but super mild). Fresh cherries, strawberries, a boiled egg, water and coffer are stapels at every breakfast. For lunch, I typically eat a sandwich with salami and cheese and an orange. Leftovers are also a possibility. Dinner is the meal with the most diverse food dishes. I have had; bean soup, baked fish, roasted chicken, fried zuccini with yogurt and garlic on top, musica (a potato based casserole with mean, egg and veggies), and a variety of salads. Shopska calata is served at most dinners. It is lettuce with cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded cerence and oil. I like it...A lot. Bread is always out and is served at every meal. Most of the dishes here are served with onions, and I have been trying really hard to eat them. There has only been one thing that I have not liked and it is called boza. It is a sweet drink that is served in a 20oz plastic bottle that looks like mud and has the consistency of three day old oatmeal and really thick motor oil. Ok well thats it for now about food. Ill try to get on this blog soon so I can keep you updated on the other things that have been going on. I hope you all are enjoying the sunshine.
Monday, May 24, 2010
ПАВОЛЧЕ - Pavolche
Whew! Its been about a week since I last used the internet so I figured you all might want an update. Last Sunday I met my host family. My parents names are Maya and Georgi. Maya grew up in Russia in a city of approx. 1 million people and Georgi grew up in Pavolche where they currently reside. I have a sister whose name is Maria. She is 20 and studies at the local military school and speaks some english. I don't think I could have a better set up. They are all very nice and hospitable and I have been full of food since the moment I arrived. If I have learned anything, its that Bulgarians take great pride in having people in their homes and go out of there way to make you feel welcome and comfortable. I am loving it. I have my own room and bathroom. The Bulgarian people are very good at using space in the homes. My bathroom is about 5ft x 2.5ft. The water spout from the sink detaches and I hang it on the wall to shower. The drain is in the middle of the floor. There are 2 curtains, one blocks water from getting on the door and the other blocks water from getting on the toilet and toilet paper. Its ummm, how do you say, very interesting trying to wash my legs/feet. Also, toilet paper is not to be flushed so I just toss it in the trash can and after a couple days I take it out. Im pretty sure you get the idea. Our conversations are really fun. With only a few common words, I notice myself talking more with my hands that I ever have. Drawing pictures has also been helpful. I've had some interesting conversations that I'm sure have been misleading, but for the most part it has been a sucess. My assignment for tonight was to ask 5-10 questions and write a paragraph in Bulgarian about the answers. That should be fun. Im probably rambling on by now, but I have done a lot and seen a lot the past week. All the food has been good and I will get to that at a later post. Lets talk about my group and what we have been doing. Idk if I put this in my last post (and im not sure how to check without losing this post) but my group consists of 6 volunteers and a language trainer (LT). There is me, matt from NJ, tom from boston, nichole from wisconsin, katie from montana, and kelsey from michigan. Our LT is Elli and she is from Bulgaria. We have been studying bulgarian as a group for a little over three hours a day and alone for an hour a day. Its a lot of work but I can see it paying off in the small improvements in the conversations I have with my family and the locals. Besides studying, Pavolche offers a limited number of things to do. There is a waterfall that we hiked around, we walked to a park (which was close) that had american games such as rock climbing, mini golf, paint ball and ropes course facilities. To walk across the whole town takes less than ten minutes and on the way we pass 3 donkeys, some goats, and sometimes a couple cows. People are ofter seen with a trailor full of whatever pulled by a donkey. The local school is across the street from me and is for 1-8 grade. Many of the students come from other villages and some are from the orphanages in Vratsa. In total there are about 100 students. Next to the school are two basketball courts and the other day I bought a ball and we played with some of the younger students. The hoops are in shoddy condition and are only about 8 feet tall. Just high enough where I get rejected by the rim everytime. It was fun playing bball with the kids and as my bulgarian improves maybe I will actually be able to have a conversation with them :) We have started our community mapping project in which we draw the village and highlight the main buildings such as the kindergarten, church, school, mayors office, library, cafes, and such. We had a meeting with the mayor and local police and discussed a little bit of what their ideas are and how we can help them. The locals are very nice and for the most part are surprised that people would want to go to bulgaria from america. I have met the host families of all the other volunteers and the are really nice as well. Yesterday my family went to celebrate a high school gradutation party for their neighbor (who also has a PCV living with them). There were about 35 people there in total from all over the world (Russia, bulgaria, america, greece). The party lasted from 7:30pm to 3:00am. We had a lot of good food and drinks. The main course was goat, which was bought the day before and sloughtered about 20 feet from me. There were a few guests there who spoke english so it was nice to have a break from being the confused outsider. Over the past our group has learned a few of the traditional bulgarian dances and on Sunday we went to dance class to learn more. We attending the 1st grade graduation last weeka and today we went into Vratsa to celebrate the local holiday (celebrating the people who created the bulgarian alphabet). Well I think thats enough to keep you all occupied for awhile. Im not using my computer so I dont have any pics or videos to upload at this time. Im gonna make a video showing my room and me saying some bulgarian phrases which I hope to get on here soon (if thats even possible). So far, life in Bulgaria is good! Georgi toasted with me the other night (through translation) and I thought it would be good to share with you. My dream is to buy a house, but I cannot afford it. I have enough money to buy a goat, but I do not wish to buy a goat. Lets toast to all our wishes and dreams being the same.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Orientation Week
On Sunday May 8th I left my brother and some friends at the Alta Lake Golf Resort to embark on my Peace Corps adventure. Monday morning I flew from Seattle to Philidelphia with Lexi, my first PC friend. We were part of the early arrivals, so we spent the night at Hard Rock Cafe meeting our fellow PC Volunteers. Tuesday was full of ice breakers and orientation meetings. There are 87 people in our group, which is the largest in PC Bulgaria history! Skip ahead a few days of long, aggrevating travel from Phili to JFK to Munich to Sofia to Panichiste and this is where our 4 day orientation retreat began. Panichiste is a beautiful place. It is a resort up in the mountains and is just gorgeous! Out of the 87 volunteers, I have met most of them and they are really nice, funny, loving people. We definitely have a great group of volunteers! The past few days have been spent in meetings learning about PC Policies, which was not too fun, but necessary. After 5 language sessions I have a good grasp of the materials we have been taught. Da - yes (with a shake of the head) and Ne - no (with a nod of the head)...not confusing at all. Ummm...what else. The food so far has been really good. Tomatoes and cucumbers are served at every meal along with some kind of cheese and bread. There are also a lot of cooked vegatables and meat (chicken, fish, beef) has been served at all lunches and dinner. Its all good! Today I found out where I will be living for the next 3 months. The town is call Pavolche and is 3km (1.5 miles) southwest of Vratsa. Pavolche is a small village of 800 people. My group includes 5 other Community Development volunteers. Our goal while we are there is to assess the community needs and carry out a project that will help improve these needs. Tonight at 7pm (9am for most of you as Bulgaria is 10 hours ahead of the west coast) we have a formal dinner and then tomorrow we leave to Vratsa to meet with our host families. That is it for now. Thanks for reading, ill try to update asap but dont know if ill have internet access with my host family. I hope you all are doing fine back in the states!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
OK, here I go...
Right now I am in Seattle and have the next ten days to spend with my friends before I fly to Philadelphia on May 9th for some Peace Corps orientation meetings. The plan is to make it to Bulgaria by May 12th. My goal for this blog is to give my family and friends an idea of what I am doing and how I am feeling during my time in Bulgaria. I will do my best to keep you up to date. This is my first blog, so you will have to be patient with my "blogging skills."
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