Biodiesel of Peace!

Due to overwhelming and consistent pleas to update my blog, I've decided to toss out a little story for ya. After all, this is easier than responding to the thousands of emails I get on a daily basis.

This Bulgarian heat wave has really let us (Bulgarians and Peace Corps Volunteers) know summer is here and in full swing! For the rest of this heat season, it was my goal to put a lot of extra time into Supercross08 to ensure our success, but as our service in the Peace Corps winds down, I'm realizing that I haven't got a whole lot of "extra time."

Last weekend I had a list of priorities that I really wanted to conquer. Some items on that list were: go for a run, go swimming, remember my sunscreen, feed my fish, but at the top of my list was, "find sponsors and money - hurry up."

Yes, instead of all that, I spent the weekend in a village making biodiesel for my host organization! It was 100 degrees and humid and all kinds of uncomfortable! This was our first run with making a larger batch of the biodiesel and we all had different ideas of how it should be done. I, the only person to have read any of the instructions that I put together, had my idea of how we should proceed. Iliyan, chemist and "my boss," had different ideas. And Iliyan's father, self-proclaimed master of knowledge, disagreed with both of us.

We made some calculations and ran the processor and then sat in the heat to wait. We sat for hours! And it was HOT! I put my chair in a doorway that had a very mild breeze coming through and got yelled at, "you're gonna get sick!" For all who wonder - in Bulgaria, it doesn't matter the temperature, if there's a draft and you're in it - you might die, or at the very least you're going to be sick! On Monday, 92 degrees and our office without AC, Iliyan yelled at me for opening the window, "What are you doing? You know I'm already sick!" I explained that Americans don't generally believe in течение (techeni-ay: the Bulgarian Draft of Death) and one of my other colleagues piped up and explained to me that her father has had a shoulder injury for 16 years that was caused from the течение!

Apart from just sitting in the heat, while we waited for the reaction to finish we also spent time eating enormous meals that Iliyan's mom kept making. I ate more food over the weekend than I did all last week! It was great food, but the combination of the heat, being stuffed, and suffering from the Bulgarian Draft of Death made me one uncomfortable Biodiesel Maker.

In the end, our biodiesel turned out just like it was supposed to. A little dirtier than we would have liked, but success was ours! And to celebrate - we all went inside, closed the doors to keep out the flies and the cool, refreshing breeze, and continued to eat and drink!

The good news is - while Iliyan was distracted with the flu from a gentle wind, I was able to find some time to send off a few letters to potential sponsors! Finally! Of course we need to send a lot more, but the important thing is - it's beginning!!!