The search for partners begins!

It was a dark and stormy night, and by “dark and stormy night” I mean that it was another gorgeous sunny morning as Tim and I arrived to Varna on the night train from Sofia after a two day training session of the support group we were a part of. We made it to my apartment around 8 am and wasted no time in beginning our full day of work! We started out making a few tweaks to our website to get everything current and then we began our search for NGOs in the countries that are to be on our route. We researched NGOs that shared our same ideals and goals and then constructed a bunch of letters and sent them out. Being that Tim and I live in different cities, at best we can only meet twice a month to work these things. So we pushed ourselves to the limit. After 14 hours and about 300 emails our brains finally shut down. Tim looked as if he was in the middle of a “dark and stormy night” story. Good news is, we’re now in contact with more than 30 organizations spread out over our route! We have yet to solidify specific events and projects but it’s still early!

Every time Tim and I are able to get together for another superwork session, we lock ourselves inside and this supercross08 adventure becomes less and less like the vacation I had wanted. Instead, I'm developing a liking and a passion for spreading goodwill and helping others through direct service.

Nothing makes me smile more than making someone else smile!

This Is How We Do It in America!

dear favorite people, the last few weeks/months have been busy! here's your winter update: for thanksgiving, i helped organize an event that 10 other volunteers attended. we went to a very small mountain town called stoikite, in the southern part of the country. in stoikite, there is an orphanage for truants where one volunteer works. we decided to get together and cook them up a big ole thanksgiving dinner to share a bit of our culture with some very underprivileged kids. we got a bunch of food donations from the embassy, like turkey, cranberry sauce and other goodies these kids had never had. all of these kids were in this orphanage because they'd broken the law to some extent - the ages ranged from 10ish to 18. some kids were good kids that had just made stupid mistakes, others needed more help. one gal, 14 years old, had had an abortion one week before we got there. that blew my mind... and then i learned that the reason she had the abortion was because she had gotten raped - because her parents forced her into prostitution! i was speechless! and now she has to live in an orphanage for truants! it was a super sad place and i don't know if i could handle working there as my primary assignment like the other volunteer, sarah. despite the sorrowful state of the orphanage and the kids' lives, they lit up like little balls of energy when they learned that 12 americans who spoke "funny bulgarian" were gonna spend the day with them! more than anything else, i think their biggest problem is just being attention starved. we ran a ping-pong tournament and played frisbee while we cooked, everyone rotating positions of course! one kid latched on to me like glue! he was obnoxious and had found a new best friend... me. all he wanted to do was talk about cars, which wouldn't have been all bad - except i know nothing of his chosen topic! he was crazy for the modern day street racing cars that he'd seen in the movies. he even had a collection of drawings he'd made of his favorite cars - i think he used a stencil though cause they all looked the same, only the emblems of the makers like honda and toyata were different - ha! i had nothing to contribute to the conversation so i just let him talk and pretended to be interested until he caught on to that trick so i told him my favorite car was the old style volkswagen bug! he couldn't stop laughing! he thought i was out of my mind =) dinner came and they all waited patiently for me to make a speech on the history of the thanksgiving holiday and what it means to be thankful for what we have and such. i got stuck on the last word of my speech (good fortune) and tripped over it several times before a teacher stepped in to silence the laughter! it was a good time! the kids all wanted to know why we ate turkey, "are you guys poor or something?" they asked! all us volunteers had stuffed oursevles, keeping with thanksgiving tradition, but the kids didn't really understand that. after the first round of food, they wanted to have a dance party. sarah had her laptop and played some of their favorite songs and we all tried to dance with them - ha! it was a great day, and seeing their smiling faces felt pretty rewarding! my counterpart/colleague/boss, iliyan, invited me to his family's village (kaspichan) for the christmas pig slaughter two weeks before christmas!!! i had heard about it last christmas, but never received an invitation. so i canceled my other plans and got really excited to partake in something traditional and cultural that i haven't seen yet. it was my assumption that a family that raises pigs would kill one of them every christmas and have all the family, neighbors and friends over for a huge winter party!!! so i was expecting a party, when in route iliyan tells me, "the reason all those people come is because it's a lot of work to slaughter a pig." well crap, that's not what i thought was going to happen! ha! we got their early in the morning and we walked out to the pigs. they selected the biggest one and said it was around 450 pounds. they walked it out onto the street where about 5 big guys tackled it and held it down while another guy slit it's throat. i kept asking "how can i help?" cause i didn't know what to do. they just laughed and said "take pictures!" it fought for a while, but in the end - the five guys with the knife won. they tied it to a tractor and dragged it through town - on back to their house to begin all the work - yee haaawwww! there i got to help a little bit more. it's a dirty job, and we spent a few hours doing it, but in the end they found a use for just about every part of that pig! i would say they threw away less than 5% of it's entire mass! some other neighbors came over to buy large chunks of fat, which were still warm, for cooking and eating. the technique i helped out with for dealing with the fat was to cut it into cubes and then throw it all into a big pot. the cubes of fat would half melt making some kind of oil, which got poured off and will be used as lard for cooking during the winter. the leftover parts of the cubes were essentially deep fried, then bottled and eaten just like that - all year round. some kind of delicacy that just doesn't appeal to me. "here, have a piece of deep fried fat!" when the pig was all in pieces and all the organs had been sorted out we all had a drink. i thought it was time to relax, and then they said "ok andrew, you get to help hold down the next one." ha! we went for another pig, but it was only half the size of the first one. we spent the last 7 (yes, seven!) hours of the day eating and drinking and laughing! it was a long, exhausting, and eye-opening weekend. it was great to participate in something so traditional, though i felt quite uncomfortable the whole damn time. in the end, they sent me home with a bag of about 15 pounds of pork and a few apples! i started an environment discussion group! i had to advertise "a chance to practice your english" to generate interest, but i was quite surprised at how interested the participants are in the environment to begin with! it's a diverse group - 2 student council members from 2 different universities in town, a naval academy kid, a couple moms, the ecologist from the municipality, a construction worker and a couple other students. we get together twice a month to discuss current environmental topics led by different volunteers who i've invited. we have a conversation and teach about the environment for an hour or two, then we all go out to the pub! it's kinda fun. and 3 of them have already started volunteering with our organization (this was the ultimate goal)! they're helping me find and collect oil for this never ending biodiesel project! for christmas i headed back to southern bulgaria to celebrate with two of my favorite people over here, alex and emily. alex lives in a small town called nedelino, where i've been a few times to help him out with work and such. the town's not super special, but the southern part of the country is my favorite - it's beautiful and the landscape reminds me of home! for new years i went back to sofia like last year, but without the crowd of other peace corps volunteers. it was me, alex and a guy named tim who lives close to me. we went to the center of sofia where there was a huge gathering! we decided to go to sofia because it's the capital city and this is the date that marks bulgaria's accession into the e.u. there was a concert and fireworks that looked like they were going to burn down the parliament building and they rained down ashes into everyone's eyes! that was funny. people were pretty excited and you could feel something of pride in the air for having been accepted into the european community. when i got home to varna, about 10 people told me they saw me dancing in sofia on tv! january 6th marked "jordonov den," which is one of the most famous name days in bulgaria. tradition has it, that a priest blesses a wooden cross and then throws it into the water. to prove their bravery, the men of the village all dive into the water and race for the cross. whoever gets it, gives it to the youngest person in attendance. i did this last year in kalofer when it was snowing and had some mild frostbite on parts because we stayed in the water dancing and then danced again when we got out! this year, i went to a coastal city called burgas to celebrate with seven other volunteers. we went down to the pier where a couple thousand people were gathered to watch the "brave" men race for the cross. there were only 50 or so swimmers. the police had blocked off the pier and were requiring some kind of medical document to be eligible to 'take the plunge.' as we didn't know about this beforehand, there were eight frowns on our faces... we were all ready to participate, but even more ready to swim in the cold sea water in january! so in front of all the onlookers, we climbed on down to the beach, drew a line in the sand, stripped down to our bathing suits, counted to three and ran into the water like a group of eight screaming lunatics! ha ha! it was a blast! all for now. wishing you a week full of smiles, andy!

thoughts of the day

this is my favorite blog, ever!!!

Supercross08

During my service in the Peace Corps, a fellow Volunteer and I set up a project for an international mission of peace. For seven months I traveled across Europe, Northern Africa, The Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. In the countries through which I passed, I set up discussion groups with youth and community organizations. The purpose was culture exchange: propagating peace through direct dialogue. Project details can be seen at www.supercross08.com.

Amazingly gorgeous pictures, captured frequently during the implementation of this project, are posted at www.picasaweb.google.com/supercross08. Be careful, though, they might just be the best pictures you've ever seen!

Below are the links to the individual projects, stories, and other pictures of my Supercross08 adventure.

Spain
Introduction to Gay Life

Morocco
Marrakech 101
Morocco Integration Success
Children of a Moroccan Village
Project #1: Stereotypes
Islam Meets Sustainable Development

Tunisia
Project #2: International Politics
Project #3: Values and Goals
Dangers of Travel

Egypt
Project #4: Volunteering in Egypt
Project #5: Understanding Islam

Jordan
Team Awesome

Syria
Project #6: A Bridge Between Islam and Christianity

Turkey
Travel Through Turkey

Bulgaria
Project #7: Bulgaria and the EU
Fundraiser for Youth
Follow Up Report from My Peace Corps Service
Project #8: Corruption and a Beach Clean Up
Project #9: Alternative Energy and Easter

Romania
A Romanian Birthday Party

Moldova
Project #10: Volunteering in Moldova

Ukraine
Election Politics and Glimpse of Ukraine

Finland
Russian Visa Blues

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Project Couchsurfing

Russia
Stereotypes in Russia

Mongolia
A Night with a Mongolian Family
Project #11: A Library in Mongolia

Conclusion
The End

Tim Wade, the buddy with whom I worked, also created a list of stories about our work and adventures. Visit his blog at www.timwikoff.blogspot.com to see a different perspective of our project.

The Happiest Peace Corps Volunteer, Ever!

hey everybody! gee wiz, it's been a while since i've written, sorry. i'm still alive - just doing other things. know what i mean. over the summer i had a spell of bad luck. went swimming with some friends on a very stormy day - we had the beach to ourselves! the waves were about 2 to 3 meters high and we were having a blast! unfortunately i chose to ignore the fact that the water smelled like sewage and that i was gagging every 10 minutes or so and i ended up with a nasty eye infection that later moved into my lungs. i developed a nasty cough where i choked every time i coughed and i couldn't breathe in or out. it sucked. the doctor thought i had asthma, but after several tests, it was determined that i only had bronchitis. we were having so much fun playing in the waves, but now i know not to swim in water that smells like sewage. since then, i've found some beaches that are away from any tourists and direct sources of pollution - so i only swim there now. this summer got pretty hot, and one thing i just can't get over are the superstitions here. for example, it's common belief (mostly among older folks) that a draft will make you sick. i can see the logic in that, if the draft is cold, right. but in the heat of the summer people were giving me dirty looks and actually arguing with me cause i open the windows on the bus to get a breeze. "close the window! do you want to get sick?" they asked me in disbelief! i mean, we're talking 95 and 100 degree days, on a packed city bus with no ac! one minibus even had a screw drilled into the latch on the window so it couldn't be opened at all! ha! i took the month of july off from running cause i couldn't breathe or anything on account of swimming in sewage. and breathing is important when you run. but i started off strong in august and on september 6th, i ran a half marathon from a town called sedinenie to a city called plovdiv. it was an organized run on one of bulgaria's national holidays. this particular holiday is "unification day" marking when bulgaria's two halves were united into one whole bulgaria! there were about 200 people that showed up for the 23 kilometer run and as we were lined up at the starting line they were doing some kind of tradition or something. i didn't notice cause i had race jitters and i was just plain excited. i popped in my music and turned it on to wait for the starting pistol. well for some reason i felt the need to announce to everyone what i was listening to and in the middle of a 'moment of silence' to observe all the people that had fallen during the fight for bulgaria's independence, i yelled out "hey guys, i'm listening to creedence clearwater revival right now!" ha ha!!! oh man, people kinda gave me dirty looks and i didn't understand why till later when someone explained to me what i had done! on the work front - it was a slow summer. i've mostly been involved with planning events for peace corps volunteers and training sessions for new volunteers. i had gotten all of my biodiesel project written and was ready to submit it to start receiving funds to implement the project when i learned that the whole damn thing needs to be written in bulgarian! ha! so, i had to start over. this is slow going because i don't know most of the technical words, but i'm getting lots of help from my bulgarian counterpart and we should have everything squared away soon. i hope... while waiting for that to develop, i've started an environmental club to get university students involved and just plain aware of environmental issues in their country! my group had our mid-service conference, which means my service in bulgaria is half over! i can't believe i've been here for so long! it went by too fast and having only one more year in front of me doesn't seem like enough. it was really great seeing my friends again! some i hadn't seen for almost a year! of our original group of 50, there are 39 left. people have left for various reasons but all my close friends are still here, saving the world! at this conference, i debuted my new hair style! a comb-over! i was inspired a year ago by a teacher who had the most amazing comb-over, ever! and i decided to grow my hair for a year so i could have one too! i kept it for a couple weeks and it got a lot of laughs from a lot of folks! my bulgarian counterpart laughed for a solid 10 minutes!!! then someone in the office came to one side of me and blew my hair as if to be the wind to see my hair get all messed up! they laughed for another solid 5 minutes! they even brought out a fan to mimic wind! it was fun, but i shaved and i'm back to being my gorgeous self again. traveled to greece for the athens marathon that a group of us had been training/planning for since last fall! i had sooo much fun!!! 15 volunteers ran the race and 3 volunteers came down to support us! only one guy had run a marathon before, so this was all very new to us. did a bit of sight seeing, but mostly took it easy. on race day - november 5 - we piled into buses that took us to the town of marathon, where the starting line was! there was so much excitement in the air!!! i ran with my buddy tim for the first half when his injuries got the better of him and he had to slow down. we had been running with some other volunteers too - running's never been so fun! i was on my own for pretty much all of the last half of the marathon. it was brutal! the landscape had changed from beautiful mountains and sea to boring, typical big city. around 3/4 of the way through my legs and feet were killing me, but i persevered and finished strong! much stronger than i had anticipated! my time was 4 hours 10 minutes and 15 seconds! i was shooting for 4 hours 30 minutes, so i blew myself away! the course was mostly uphill, though not too steep. and i ran the whole thing in a pair of $40, 3 year old running shoes that i had to cut toe holes in because they were too small for me! i rock! at the end, i was overwhelmed with excitement! i started congratulating everyone around me, and hugging people - even people i didn't know!!! every time i got to watch one of my friends finish the race, i would get overloaded with excitement again! what a day! i ended up with only one or two small blisters, 4 black toe nails, a knee that doesn't want to bend any more and a smile that just won't go away!!! my results are posted here: http://www.athensclassicmarathon.gr/results2006/html/?index.asp?lang=English (i'm on page 32) our fundraising for the bulgarian scouts didn't go as well as the marathon. we made it to $2,500 of the $10,000 we were aiming for. but we have some months left to continue raising money and there are some plans in the works for local events to raise the rest of the money. bunch more going on - but for now, i'll let my pictures do the talking: http://picasaweb.google.com/00Judkins/PeaceCorpsBulgaria20052007
hope everyone's happy as a bag of wigs! love, andy/clive/favorite peace corps volunteer in bulgaria/happiest marathon runner ever!

Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work!

zai-yek! (that's howdy in arabic, but in bulgarian it
means rabbit!)

been making some accomplishments and decided it was
time to take a little holiday down to egypt! it was
fantastic!!! i've never traveled with having favorite
places before, it has always been about meeting
people, other travelers. but egypt may have changed
that. i went with goals of seeing the pyramids and
learning more about the mystery that is egypt. but
after arriving, that stuff took a back seat to modern
day egyptians and their culture! crystal somehow
managed to pick up the chicken pox a day before our
arrival into egypt, which was hilarious and
unfortunate at the same time. we decided to go to
egypt without a tour group to allow for more freedom
and also to save some money. we stayed in hostels and
took local transportation and we pretended to be
egyptian even though it was impossible to convince
people of that... even when we said we were from the
far north of egypt. ha! anyway, the first hostel we
got to, in cairo, had some superb people working
there. we befriended them immediately, and the one
guy, amir, took us to the hospital and translated so
crystal could get some help. the whole hospital visit
was less than a dollar! they gave her some kind of
topical medicine to help relieve the itching but it
turned her skin bright, bright purple! oh man! it was
really funny! while she stayed in bed for 2 days, alex
and i explored cairo. it's a neat place! 20 million
people and only a handful of traffic lights! it was
insane! drivers constantly honk to let other drivers
know where they are. intersections were big messes of
merging cars. pedestrians just jumped into the mix and
waited for chances to hop from one lane to the next in
between cars that were within a foot of you on either
side and cruising along like a real life game of
frogger! and in all this chaos - people get to where
they need to be! i can't believe they manage under
these conditions, but they do! the pyramids were
great, of course. but the hoards of tourists really
took away from their magnificence.

headed out into the desert on a 5 hour bus ride to the
bahariya oasis! there was some kind of natural hot
springs that allowed there to be life in the middle of
the desert, and there a small town existed. it was
great to get away from busy cairo. the beauty and
quietness of the desert were something far more
amazing than the overcrowded pile of rocks i had come
for. we hung out with locals, having tea, watching the
sun set, dancing and listening to their music. one of
the things i really appreciated early on from this
culture was the absence of western music! there were
no britney spears, madonna, backstreet boys, 50 cent
or any other horrible sound-atrocities that get sold
around the globe. nope, in egypt, they listen to
egyptian music - and it was wonderful!!! next day we
headed off into the desert for a camping excursion!
spent a good hunk of the day without roads, just
driving along in the sand - it was cool! saw the black
desert, which was created from the erosion of volcanic
rock and now there's a black dusting of rock covering
everything. we climbed a small mountain and the view
looked like it went on like that forever! but of
course, we drove for another hour and we were in a
completely different place called the white desert
with just as beautiful a landscape, and also looked
like it went on forever! i liked this place very much.

headed back to cairo to catch a night train to aswan.
had a quick dinner, which crystal and i both got food
poisoning from. the train was 13 hours long... pure
torture! we arrived at 2pm and i slept for a solid 24
hours once we got our hostel. we both went without
food for the better part of 3 days. so, we didn't see
much of aswan or luxor. alex says they were pretty
cool places. all i can say is that they have crummy
hostels that cost less than 2 dollars.

from luxor, we took a night bus to dahab. our bus
broke down twice before we finally switched to
another. in all, it was a 20 hour bus ride! dahab was
great though, and more than made up for the bus ride!
some damned terrorist bombing had been there a week
before we got there, and as a result the town was
quiet and quite mournful. the water was gorgeous, and
felt great! alex went diving and crystal and i
snorkled! i'd never done that before - it's really
cool! there were some great reefs with all kinds of
fish of all kind of colors!!! it was amazing! and now
i have a new hobby!

took a quick jaunt to alexandria and wandered the town
for a day. we were followed around by children and old
folks alike who were keen to ask us where we were
from, our names, and then would quickly follow with
"welcome to egypt!" they were super friendly people!
the more bold children would see us from far away and
make a b-line for us to shake our hands!

finished up our trip back in cairo. said goodbye to
our new friends, and took one last crazy ride in a
taxi! our favorite taxi driver, who had on a previous
occasion almost plowed over a lady pushing a stroller
to park illegally so he could run into a mosque and
pray really quick - all the while we were en route to
the hostel, took us to the airport and sang and danced
while he did it. he gave me his favorite cassette tape
and told us all "life is delicious, i'm not rich but
i'm happy, what can i do?" what a holiday!

there's a new group of peace corps volunteers in
bulgaria now. group 19! one of the committees i'm on
has to deal with introducing them to the peace corps
lifestyle and be there for them if they have a
problem. so lately, we've been working on that a lot.
the biodiesel is still going... but not nearly as
smoothly as i wanted it to... i wanna just jump into
it and do it and have it be done and functioning!
however, that's not how things work here, and i'm
having a difficult time adjusting to a new way. they
want plans and budgets and partner organizations and
applications for everything! so paperwork is taking up
a great deal of the time that i would have been
getting my hands dirty... guess it's a learning
process for me too.

the other weekend i participated in an orienteering
competition! i've never done this before. the
"Varshets Cup" was held in a small town that attracted
bulgarians from all over the country. my particular
route was 17 markers, spread over a 2.8 kilometer
course. i saw other people using compasses and maps to
navigate their way through the town and the forest
that it bordered, but i wasn't given a compass - they
told me i wouldn't need it. no problem, 2.8km is
short, i thought. i got a map as i left the starting
line and i was running and having fun! up till marker
4. it was far into the forest and my map sucked. i
went way passed it, and ended up off the map and
completely lost! i had almost made it to the
neighboring town before i got my bearings... people
were getting times of 17 and 18 minutes for the
course. i never found the 4th marker, or any other
markers. i did however find my way back to the
starting line only an hour and a half after i had
left! i arrived just as the search party they had
assembled was setting out to find me! it was pretty
funny, and now the entire town will remember me as the
guy who got lost...

here are some updated peace corps pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/00Judkins/PeaceCorpsBulgaria20052007

and here are my egypt pictures:

well, the summer is finally here and the weather is
fantastic! i'm gonna try and take advantage of it and
start a running club! would be cool if it worked, but
i have a feeling it'll be difficult as people here
aren't into health so much. last wednesday was a
national holiday here to celebrate the cyrillic
alphabet! alphabet day, they call it. so everyone had
the day off! i spent it on the beach and now i'm
beginning to appreciate my newer position in varna!
the peace corps rocks!

lots of love from bulgaria,

andy!

Andy Kind of Excited!

zdrasti vsichki! (that means "howdy everybody!")

the other night on the way home from work i stopped in
at a tiny shop to get some food and such to make
dinner with. as i was leaving, a well dressed man came
in and asked where i was from. he introduced himself
as the mayor and asked to buy me a drink. so we drank
and chatted. him and the guys working at the store
were really impressed that i had come to bulgaria to
volunteer for 2 years. they asked the typical
questions i get: are you married, do you have a
girlfriend, why bulgaria, do you know anything about
bulgaria, what are you doing here? stuff like that.
eyes lit up when i told them about my biodiesel
project, which i'm pretty excited about myself. except
for one guy. he wasn't excited at all. during the
silences he would quiz me: where's winston churchill
from? who invented the telephone? and other ridiculous
things. he was the first one to point out that my
project wasn't really that cool. "people have been
doing that for 150 years" he told me. i told him that
i was trying to show the community how to do it
themselves and more importantly try to instill some
kind of environmental consciousness in the community.
"yeah, but people have been doing that for 150 years"
he told me again. so i said, "well, do
you know how to do it?" to which he responded, "no,
nobody knows how." ha ha ha!!! i had to hold in my
laughs! it wasn't till i got back to my apartment that
i realized he was thinking about the process of
converting oil to fuel, rather than converting dirty,
waste cooking oil to usable, clean biodiesel. oops -
another mistake in communication. i explained it to
him a few days later, and now he thinks i'm neat.

went half way across the country, to vratsa, for st.
patty's day. one of the volunteers was having a
birthday party and there were a bunch of us that were
going. i always like getting together with people from
my original group. the peace corps did a
fantastic job with activities to form bonds between
everyone and we all became friends really quickly. and
it's really nice to see everyone again and find out
what they've been up to and how they're doing and
such. we were gonna go to an irish pub, but instead,
we didn't. we went to a few different places and ended
up at a dance club and danced the night away. it was
nice. took a night train home with my buddy tim - we
live in towns that are close to each other. i went and
pulled down the window of the train to blow a snot
rocket out of, cause i didn't have any tissue and this
was a chance to use one of my boy scout skills. well,
the windows are spring loaded and when the train
rocked the window somehow came free of its friction
grip and sprung closed at an incredible speed! before
i knew what was going on, the handle caught me square
in the chin and knocked me back a
bit! it was pretty funny despite the pain. then i
learned that it had torn me open! i bled for a while
and then went to bed.

my running schedule is getting more regular and i'm
getting excited for this marathon in november! i've
still got a long way to go to be marathon worthy, but
i'm on track! i'm really not happy about the roads
around here to run on. well, more it's the drivers on
these roads. i have about one close call per week or
two weeks. it seems that looking both ways before you
cross a street just isn't enough! i can't believe it -
if someone drove like this back home, they'd either be
arrested or shot by another driver (or walker). and
everyone here drives like this! it really sucks!

as i walk to work, i share the sidewalks with many
people and one of the things i do is try to make eye
contact with everyone i pass. i do this to hand out
smiles and potentially meet another local, but also i
enjoy reading peoples faces to see what they're all
about. not too many people will make eye contact with
me, but as i'm watching what they're watching i often
see confusion and a little bit of fear when their eyes
study me. it's all due to the nalgene bottle i carry
with me everywhere. i figure it's nice, convenient and
healthy to always have good drinking water available
whenever i want it, but the locals
stare and ponder at what it could be. evidently
nalgene hasn't hit the european markets yet. the few
people that have had the guts to ask what i keep in
the bottle, ask like this: "is that vodka?" ha ha
ha!!! they see me with this thing everyday - who
can imagine someone drinking a liter of vodka every
day! maybe they're just hoping i'll share!

went to a fundraiser soccer tournament the other
weekend even though the locals called it football. it
was a blast! the money raised went to a foundation for
at risk youth. we all paid to enter this tournament
and picked 4 or 5 person teams and then
had soccer matches! i rocked! unfortunately it wasn't
enough to match the skills of the other players that
were there! we did some kind of a double elimination
tournament and in the end a group of local kids won!
they were fantastic!!! and the kicker was that they
were a team of roma kids that go through life shunned
by the rest of the community for being roma (the 1st
or 2nd largest minority group in bulgaria). the
bulgarian kids that they beat were really, really
upset, and i'm sure it wasn't just because they lost
but who they lost to. after the awards were handed out
we all just kinda played around - there was a
frisbee and an american football and it ended up being
a great tool for integration after the competition
aspect was finished. there was a newspaper reporter
there (the only one in town) and he took several
pictures of my tattoos and interviewed me for a story!
funny that there's this incredible fundraiser going on
and this guy wants a story on tattoos!

i'm on another committee!!! this one i had to apply
and qualify for through a series of rigorous essay
questions! it's the volunteer support network -
basically a small group of volunteers that help other
volunteers out when they have problems. not only
offering guidance and advice, but also planning morale
boosting activities. i'm pretty excited about it! in
fact, i've seemed to develop another reputation! this
is a poll that someone put up on our new yahoo group
to discuss issues about the marathon - training runs,
training schedules, travel and accommodations,
fundraising and such:

POLL QUESTION: how awesome is it we have a yahoo group
page?

CHOICES AND RESULTS
- really awesome 0%
- really really awesome 9%
- andy excited kind of awesome 91%

and people have started using that in conversations:
"i'm 'andy kind of excited' to see you!" and things
like that! i'm a new catch phrase!

i did my "survival camp" training with the bulgarian
scouts 2 weekends ago. i was super excited because i
was told we would be given a knife and 500ml of water
and had to survive in the forest for 4 days! what a
challenge! what an adventure! but as it turned out it
was just a camping trip that included a 24 hour
endurance test... big deal. i mean, i love camping,
but what a let down. so we had to build a shelter with
only an axe for tools, make a fire with some flint,
sleep in shifts in the cold (got down to about 40
degrees), and various other tasks... we didn't receive
any special training or anything, i just had to rely
on my superior primal survival instincts and the scout
i was partnered up with. so, now that i survived, i'm
"qualified" to help be an instructor or at least
"helper" for different scouting activities.

was wandering around varna with some other peace corps
volunteers last weekend and we decided to go check out
the port and see if we could go for a boat ride. we
ended up in some ticket office staring through some
locked glass doors at a submarine.
a turkish military officer was looking at us, so a gal
we were with waved at him and he asked if we wanted to
visit the submarine! cool! so we walked around the
building where we were stopped by some bulgarian
military guards until the turkish officer told them it
was ok. the bulgaristanis (as the turks call them)
confiscated our cameras, phones and bags and allowed
us to pass. we then got a full on tour of this
submarine, chatting with the crew and playing with the
periscope! it was really cool!

a friend from home is visiting, which is really nice!
her, i and another volunteer who's from salem are all
going to egypt in a couple weeks! i'm pretty stoked
for that! i've wanted to go there for quite some time!
will try and get a picture site going for some
reliable picture presentations!

hope everyone's doing well!!!

chow! (that means "peace out!")

andy!

Happy International Women's Day!

hey gang!

this week's weather here has been pretty crazy!
monday, i went for a run before work and didn't have
to wear a jacket the whole day - it was perfect spring
weather. tuesday, i woke up to a half an inch of snow
and it continued to snow all day long. wednesday was
so windy that every gust of wind would set off a
different car alarm - i'm so sick and tired of car
alarms... they can't possibly do any good. and today,
thursday, there's not a cloud in the sky - beautiful,
sunny day! so weird! my new counterpart explained to
me that this is "woman's month" because the weather is
just like a woman - completely different from one
moment to the next! ha! this guy is hilarious - he
jokes around with me all day long! and it's the good
kind of humor too - the kind that's not allowed back
home cause of pesky "politically correct" attitudes.
even when he says something that's not funny, i'm
laughing at him instead of with him cause i think he's
funny! we're gonna be good friends!

the move to my new town was exhausting and i'm glad
it's over. though more than a month has gone by, i'm
still not quite settled in yet. there are still things
i need to buy for my apartment, and there are still
things i need to find in the city. in fact, i haven't
even met my new neighbors yet! life in a big city is
completely different than that of kalofer. in kalofer,
everyone knew me before i even showed up! here, it
seems no one really cares. but as the days go on, and
i interact with different members of the community,
people are starting to recognize me and ask where i'm
from and what i'm doing here and such. i've found it
easiest to frequent a few places regularly and in
doing so i've made some friends. there's a lady that i
pass on the way to work every day that owns a fruit
stand and she always comes out to tell me to have a
good day. and the owner of the tiny grocery store at
the bottom of my apartment complex is insistant on
conversing with me any time he can catch me! he always
wants to know how to say something in english and if i
know the equivalent in russian (?). i can't understand
most of what he's saying anyway on account of the
cigarette in his mouth and the bottle of whatever that
he just finished drinking. the people i interact with
seem reluctant at first to say too much - but when
they tell me that i speak very good bulgarian, and i
say "thanks, so do you" they always laugh and open
right up to me. but with that said, there's only a few
people here that i've really spent any time talking
to.

varna is a big city, and with it, there's the big city
mentality. people are cold and less willing to talk.
back in kalofer and even krichim, i would greet anyone
i passed - here when i do that i get looks like i'm
crazy. this city is way too big, way too fashionable,
and way too busy for my comfort level. the one saving
grace is the ngo i'm working for.

i'm working for a non governmental organization called
Public Environmental Center for Sustainable
Development. they've been around for 10 years or so
and have done some fantastic things! the work here is
a far better match for my skills and passion. and my
counterpart is a far better match for my personality.
he's a big goofball - always laughing! the work i'm
doing: there's a weekly paper collection/recycling
campaign that we do with various participating
businesses in the community. the idea was based on
saving trees, not just recycling paper, and that
mentality goes a long way with me. along with that,
there's an annual beach cleanup with local kids. this
spring, there'll be a tree planting campaign for the
kids throughout the city. outside this ngo, i'm
working with the bulgarian scouts, which is also the
recipient that our group has decided to do the
fundraiser for the athens marathon this coming
november. but the big project i'm working on, is
bringing biodiesel to bulgaria. biodiesel doesn't
exist here, which is silly because there's a lot of
diesel cars here and biodiesel can be cheaper
and is way, way better for the environment. so, my
plan is convince people that i can make really high
quality biodiesel from old, waste cooking oil that's
been disposed of from restaurants in town. then, i'm
gonna teach a few people to do the same, and try to
promote its production and use! it would significantly
improve the air quality here if it catches on. the
trick is getting it to catch on!

my new counterpart explained to me that everyone's
mentality is still back in the communism days. that
is, they don't really care to think about
environmental issues because, "hey, the government
will take care of it." it's unfortunate to see that
kind of mentality, and perhaps my biggest challenge
while i'm here will not be to make a really cool
biodiesel project, but to convince the community that
if they want something done right they have to do it
themselves! or something like that. in any case, i am
really excited about bringing biodiesel here and with
various people that i've encountered and told them
what i'm doing - it sounds like they're all for it
too. for now. but it's proven hard to implement. i
spent all day today walking around through the city
looking for a thermometer and ended the day without
success. i need to measure the temperature of the oil
that i'll be converting to fuel and a thermometer
would suit me best to do this. i stopped in every
store selling anything closely related - anything
related to cooking or car parts, i stopped and asked.
the word in bulgarian for thermometer is: "termometor"
- almost identical! and at each place they looked at
me like i had asked for a "&^@!$#" nobody understood
my vowel pronunciation, so i had to go through saying
i wanted something to watch how much the temperature
is. "oh, termometor!" they would say... it got
irritating pretty quick. and in the end, i was empty
handed. all i want is a little thermometer! how hard
could that be!?! but, i guess in relation to how
reliable most ovens are here, who really needs a
thermometer to begin with! ha!

last week i went to istanbul! it was wonderful! i
mean, the city itself was quite nice, and i'm not
usually keen on big cities. but i think the best part
was getting a small break from bulgaria. i love it
here, don't get me wrong, but a break was definitely
in order! istanbul was huge! and the different
districts we visited had completely different feels to
them as if they were their own cities. i enjoyed it a
lot - and for being so close to bulgaria, and having
it's historical significance with bulgaria, it's such
a different place! the people and culture were so
completely different! i was amazed. and further, i'm
fascinated with the turkish culture and want to
explore more. good thing i'm so close!

well, that's mostly it from here... i mean, i've
mostly been focused on trying to make myself
comfortable in my new apartment and new city. i do
have a couple new talents that i can add to my list of
skills: i can make a mean lentil soup and some of
the finest chocolate chip cookies (from scratch) in
all of bulgaria! they don't have cookies here, so when
i make them, people get really excited! below is some
contact/communication info, as i finally got internet
in my new apartment - and soon i'll post some new
pictures!

hope everything is wonderful and happy on your end!
tell me hi or something.

your favorite peace corps volunteer in allllll of
bulgaria,

andy!

Your Monthly 'Andy' Update!

the tourism association i'm working for threw a
christmas party for all of its members. there were
about 60 people. there were some food and a bunch of
drinking, and they had some wacky activities planned
as well. i really couldn't understand what was going
on with the activities, but when the people at my
table all stood up, i followed. we sang and danced
till way late at night. i'm normally not much for
dancing. in fact, i normally do my best to avoid it at
all costs, but i'll tell you what, after a glass of
wine or two, and some lady is grabbing me by the hand
and dragging me onto the dance floor - well, that's
another story. so, i danced my little heart out all
night long! i had no rhythm whatsoever, and after a
while i wasn't even trying to pretend like i did have
it. i just tried to shake my hips as fast as i could
to keep up with everyone else! ha! in these group
gatherings, and also for small parties or something,
eventually there'll be some kind of classic bulgarian
music going and everyone gets up and dances the "horo"
(the stress is on the second 'o' in case you're
wondering). the horo is one of my favorite things,
next to rakia. the whole crowd gets hand in hand, in a
huge horo-line, and you just kind of dance together in
a rotating circle. i like it cause it's mostly easy to
figure out and everyone's involved. throughout all
this dancing and fun, a local gal named dora was
following me around everywhere. she kept wanting to
dance with me, despite my persistent casual attempts
at leaving to dance with everyone else. but she was
way aggressive, and would literally drag me back to be
with her! that was kind of funny, and also, she knew
what she was doing, and i, very obviously, did not. so
she was throwing me this way and that like a rag doll!
at one point, i think she wanted me to dip her or
something and she leaned back while holding on to me.
well, we both went down to the ground - me falling on
top of her! ha! oops! the whole town was teasing me
about it the next day!

christmas was amazing!!! my friends came from all over
the country! there were 10 of us in all! half were
here for friday night and it was just kind of quiet
and nice. everyone else came on saturday. we did group
cooking and cleaning and had an absolute blast! it
didn't quite feel like christmas, but it felt great
anyway, and everyone stayed way positive - no drama at
all! christmas eve, the tradition here is for a guy to
go out with a group of his friends (all men) and go
sing christmas carols to a girl he likes. if she
thinks he's doing a good job singing, she lets him in
and they all have a party! well, our group was too big
to tag along on the singing extravaganza, but we heard
different groups on the streets all night long! my
bulgarian friends said they were out till 4 in the
morning, singing and drinking wine. red wine is the
winter drink here, and they stay so close to tradition
that you have a really hard time finding a restaurant
in the summer to serve you a glass of wine. only in
the winter! christmas morning, i cooked everyone the
best scrambled eggs they've ever eaten! at least, i
kept telling them that until they believed me!
christmas dinner was amazing too - we had a ham! i
know it doesn't sound like a big deal back home, but
here - you can't find ham! i didn't quite get the full
story of how we got ours... a couple gals in our group
did the searching and when they tell the story of
their search they always end up at them inside a
larger grocery store in a bigger city and one gal
pushing the button to call the butcher over to ask a
question. but the "butcher call button" as she
referred to it, was actually the fire alarm! so she
set the damn fire alarm off while trying to ask her
question... and the funny part was, no one did
anything. not the butchers, not the other shoppers, or
other staff! how funny is that! we didn't have a
christmas tree, but i made everyone a stocking with a
deal of candy on it. my buddy alex brought all of his
christmas presents that his family had sent him with
him to my house to open on christmas morning! so after
we had eggs, we all sat around and watched alex open
his presents! ha!

and to follow up christmas, just when i thought things
couldn't possibly be any better - new years happened!
what a holiday! i traveled to sofia, the capital, to
meet some friends. the first night we stayed in a
hostel and just kind of took things easy. new years
eve, we ate at a vegetarian restaurant, which was
really good despite the lack of meat, and met up with
everyone else in town. there were about 20 volunteers
from our group of 50 and we gathered at a couples
house who live and work in sofia. we told all kinds of
stories from our sites and had a great time. just
before midnight we went to the center of town for the
public celebration. there were thousands of people
there, a stage with some wonderfully annoying chalga
music, and happy faces everywhere! i got so excited i
ended up getting separated from our group and i was
dancing in huge horo lines! it was magnificent! i
ended up back with my friends a time or two, but
mostly i was having a blast just dancing with the
locals! there were some fireworks at midnight and i
tried singing the new years song "auld lang sine" or
something like that, cause i had printed the lyrics
off the internet. no one was joining in with me, so i
sang louder and louder till i was just yelling! that
kind of singing skill doesn't get a person invited
into his girl's house on christmas - but gee wiz, i
was have fun! you're probably all curious as to what
my new years resolution is. ok, i'll tell: i'm gonna
run the athens marathon! it's in november, so there's
plenty of time to train, and a big group of us
volunteers are going to make some kind of team out of
ourselves and do a fundraiser for "habitat for
humanity" i think. i'm really excited for that!

had a language class and stayed late for a small
nagosti with my teacher and her cousin. we were
chatting and eating and drinking and such and she
offered me some kind of meat that looked like a
sausage but rolled up into a disc. of course i took
it, cause who can resist rolled up sausage, right! she
told me it was called "carnage" ha ha ha!!! oh man, i
don't know a quicker way to kill a good thing than to
associate it with "carnage"! of course this was how
the bulgarian word was pronounced, and it has a
different meaning when translated to english... but i
couldn't stop thinking that i was eating 'carnage' and
it made getting through my wonderful piece of rolled
up sausage, quite difficult!

on january 5 there was some kind of concert to welcome
in the holiday on january 6 - yurdonov den or
something like this. anyway, the concert was really
cool. there were dancers, singers, actors and
musicians each putting on a small show. my favorite
were the singers, they had magnificent voices, i think
they're called a choir or something. it all appeared
very traditional because of the music, outfits, and
dance. but then a couple of dancers did a number to
"i'm so excited" i had to laugh, it was pretty funny.
the day following this tribute to the national here
hristo botev, is called "yordonov den." it's one of
the most significant national holidays in bulgaria. it
starts out with wine, very early in the morning. i was
awoken by some friends around 7. they came into my
apartment with a 2 liter soda bottle filled with home
made wine. they looked drunk already and continued to
pass the bottle around. that's really unpleasant to be
drinking that early in the morning, and i quickly
bowed out. after a while we joined a crowd of about
700 people gathered around a particular spot of the
tunja river that runs through town. there were about 3
or 4 inches of snow on the ground, and it was snowing
and cold. and here comes the rest of the tradition: a
group of guys jump into the river on one end and walk
toward the crowd while playing some traditional music
with drums and a wacky thing that looks like bagpipes
but sounds awful. then a priest throws a wooden cross
into the center of the men. whoever gets the cross
first, gives it to the youngest kid in the river. then
they dance the horo and sing. this is when my friends
and i jumped in! it was soooo cold! we all joined arms
and danced the horo! i tried to sing along to keep
excited and not think about the cold, but i didn't
know the words, and no one had printed them out for
me! we worked our way slowly around the horo circle,
several revolutions, for about 10 minutes. the deep
part of the river was high on my chest almost to my
neck and the shallow part was still above my waist.
after the initial shock of the cold, my legs felt like
they were on fire! it hurt! what a feeling! we all
exited the river at about the same time and went to
the road where the band was playing. there we did the
horo for another 10 minutes in the snow, completely
soaking wet! after 20 minutes of temperature torture,
i decided to head back to my apartment. i had been
separated from my friends and couldn't find them, so i
just left. my body was shaking soooo violently i could
barely get my key into my door! i've never shaken like
that before, not even when i was dancing at the
christmas party. ha! it was intense! the legend is,
that if you don't get sick from doing that, you'll be
healthy all year! but i think that's hogwash - cause i
didn't get sick, until 2 weeks later - and now i'm
sick as a dog!

well, due to an ongoing personality conflict with my
counterpart here in kalofer, i will be moving to
another assignment. i've had several meetings with the
peace corps and the solution will be for me to move to
varna, a 6000 year old city on the black sea coast,
where i'll be working with an environmental
organization that does beach cleanups, environmental
education for youth, they run a recycling program, and
they're pushing for some kind of alternative
transportation in the city, mainly promoting bicycles.
i'm stoked! this is way more of what i had wanted to
do in the first place, and i met my new counterpart
and he's a goofball! it sounds perfect! the plan is
for me to move at the end of the month, but i need to
travel there and help find an apartment first. of
course it's not all fantastic - the town is something
of a tourist resort for british and german vacationers
and i'm not sure how well i'll be accepted as i am a
foreigner also. plus, i'm moving from a 3500 person
mountain town to a 350,000 person costal paradise -
there's good things and bad about this. but the
important thing is, i'll be working with really cool
projects!

that's it for now, hope all is wonderful on your end.
write me back and tell me your new years resolution!
it's supposed to be in the minus 20's all over
bulgaria tomorrow! that's less than -4 degrees F! hot
damn! that's fun!

andy

Happy Winter Solstice!

hey gang!

well, i think you're all well aware that today is the
winter solstice! quick make a wish! this is the
shortest daylight of the year, and the sun makes its
lowest arc in the sky! it's fantastic! after today,
our daylight hours get longer and longer! all the way
till june! so, make a winter solstice wish and
celebrate!

my trip down south to nedelino for my first
thanksgiving here was an expensive one because of the
bus tickets alone. alex and i are trying to get his
sponsoring organization, the municipality of nedelino,
to pay for my trip and i think they will on future
trips, cause the mess down there is huge! i thought i
would just be giving a presentation on why not to burn
your trash, but when i got there i found that it was
much more involved than that. i met the mayor and gave
him my presentation and he asked what i propose. so i
said a few things that implied he should let me work
with alex on some kind of education project. then some
of the mayors lackeys took us on a tour of the problem
that they had to deal with - their current landfill
for the town of 5000 is out of town about 5 minutes
upriver. but the landfill had been created on the
river. there's a small mountain of garbage that has
redirected the river and altogether made a disastrous
mess and it's all up river from the town!!! ha! i've
never seen anything so insane! plenty of nastiness
from the landfill is brought back to the center of
town in the river, which of course is also where they
get their drinking water... wonderful situation. so
all of a sudden the focus of my help has changed. i
started pushing for alternative methods such as waste
reduction, recycling programs, composting - in
addition of course, to cleaning up the river and
finding a new home for the landfill. this is a huge
project! and alex would be extremely lucky to get it
completed in his entire two years here. he'd even be
lucky to get a program started that they could finish
after he leaves! standing by the landfill and hearing
my alternatives, they told me that due to the european
union integration, they needed to have the entire
landfill cleaned up, and a new program in place by
march! ha!!! yeah right! i met with some other very
significant people in the regional government there to
talk about ideas and plans and such. they all treated
me like i was an expert... and that's because alex had
told them i was an expert. ha! he did this so i could
treat this like a business trip and not have to use
weekend time or vacation days! in any case, this'll be
a project i'm proud to help with.

thanksgiving in nedelino was fantastic! alex's
language trainer is the english teacher at the school
- she and the mayor organized and paid for the whole
thing at a local restaurant. her 12th grade class was
there and we all had a great party. the mayor sat down
next to me and asked if i liked wine. i said yes and
he told the server to bring out his best bottle of
wine! hot damn! the turkey came out and everyone
chanted for alex to carve it! he was freakin out cause
he'd never carved a turkey before, but he rose to the
challenge. he really struggled with it, and had
managed to cut the whole damn thing in half before he
even got a piece of meat off! ha!!!

thanksgiving in sliven was a fantastic time too!!!
there were 13 of us volunteers there, with two
turkeys, homemade stuffing, gravy, pie, some kind of
rice thing, pumpkin, pumpkin bread, jello, mashed
potatoes, i managed to find some green olives, and as
much wine as we could handle - i mean, the works! and
it was soooo wonderful to see all my friends again! we
swapped stories, and laughed all night. some people
have dream jobs over here and are doing exactly what
they wanted to do. some people are way worse off - one
guy, got stuck with a very crooked ngo. their whole
deal is to write grants to fund projects, but they lie
the whole way through to get money out of the deal for
themselves... i don't even know if there's a project
there to begin with! so the volunteer had words with
the peace corps and is getting things rectified.
another guy, had his counterpart tell him to find him
a project that would allow him to go to america to see
his kids, and if he couldn't do it, he would end is
own life! that's insane! i wasn't there to hear it
first hand, so maybe it was a joke or something. of
course, there are nearly 200 volunteers in this
country right now, so there's bound to be one or two
with some pretty bizarre situations - most people have
very valid and important positions. either way, i ate
until it hurt to laugh and then i went to sleep! it
was wonderful!

a funny cultural thing that i can't seem to get away
from in my daily life is something called "chalga."
chalga is a kind of "music" something like a cross
between britney spears and folk music... technically
it's considered music, though there's no obvious
musical talent involved. all the chalga singers look
the same, and all the chalga songs sound the same. but
from what people tell me, there are certain chalga
singers that are favorites to the locals, and others
that "suck" - but i haven't managed to figure out the
difference between the two yet. it's the kind of thing
that the people here are either passionate about it
being part of their culture, or embarrassed about
it... for me, chalga is a cross between funny and
annoying.

my "name day" was november 30th, apparently the day
they invented the name 'andrew'. in bulgaria, the two
most significant holidays that aren't national
holidays are your birthday and your name day. on both
of these days, the person who's having the day is
required to bring treats to friends and coworkers and
then throw a party for everyone at their own expense.
what i remember back home, was that when it's your
birthday, your buddies buy you dinner or a drink or
something. here, for my name day, i had to buy all my
coworkers dinner and drinks. i don't even really know
what my "name day" is all about, but i do know that on
november 30th and august 28th, i get stuck with the
bill...

"rakia" is the name of the national drink here. i
don't know if it exists back home, but it's something
these people are nuts about! it's usually pretty
strong, anywhere from 80 to 100 proof, and it's used
for drinking (of course), cleaning, medicine/health,
luck, tradition, and one guy in our group even got a
"rakia massage" when he wasn't feeling well! it's
normally made from grapes, but my favorite is the kind
from plums. people make it from anything really. and
that's another thing that's interesting. everyone
makes their own! you can buy it in stores and such,
but the homemade stuff is always lots better! at the
restaurant in town, i always ask for plum rakia,
hoping they'll have some. they never do. but this last
time i was in there, the owner came to my table and
told me he bought a bottle of plum rakia for the
restaurant cause i keep asking for it. he wanted me to
try it, and if i liked it, he was going to buy more. i
told him it was really nice tasting, cause it was, and
then he said, "well here, this bottle is for your
apartment then!" how cool is that!

work for me started off with a bang, giving me the
impression that i'd always be working without any time
for fun. but the last few weeks have been dead, and
i've had a chance to travel a little bit and focus on
my language lessons. they're going well, i guess. my
tutor doesn't speak any english, and so when there's a
word or a concept that i don't figure out, it takes
forever to explain it to me. so i figure my perfection
of this language will be quite slow. good news is, i'm
here for a long time! have been able to go see a
couple different towns - vratsa in the northwest and
chirpan, just southeast of me. it's neat to see the
new places and meet new people but i'm amazed at how
different the language can be only a couple hours
away. in vratsa, i could understand very well what
people were saying - but in chirpan, the dialect was
so thick i had to say 'what' over and over again. and
eventually i just used my 'pretending' skills - i
pretended to understand so that the conversation could
move on. that can create some very interesting
situations!

i just received a new honor! i'm now the 'regional
director' of the trafficking in persons (tip) project
for the bourgas region of bulgaria! my job is to
oversee the education of eleven other volunteers in an
effort aimed at the prevention of trafficking humans.
it's a huge problem here: 200,000 women every year are
trafficked out of the country/balkan area to be sold
into the sex or labor trade. the way it usually goes
is like this: there's a lack of jobs in the
country/community and high school kids are looking for
some kind of opportunity. they think there's nothing
in bulgaria for them so they look for opportunities in
another country. well, eventually they meet someone
who 'knows of a factory job in another country' so
they go with them. but in fact, whoever offered them
this job usually ends up taking them somewhere else,
stealing their passport to make escape more difficult
and then selling them, generally for around $1500, to
work in the sex or labor trade. they're beaten,
threatened and intimidated to give up the idea of
escape, and even if they did, they feel a shame that
we couldn't comprehend and feel that they couldn't
return to face their families in the first place. it's
a horrible situation, and apparently it's not rare...
which is an absolute shame. so i'm happy to play my
part in preventing it. and that's done through various
education campaigns in high schools and in the
communities to tell people that this is a reality.
200,000 women every year is definitely a reality!

for the next month, there is party after celebration
after holiday! it's gonna be a busy month, with lots
of headaches (rakia is at every gathering!). it just
started off with the traditional slaughtering of a
pig. i'm not too sure of the tradition behind it, but
there was fresh pork on my plate at dinner, and that's
something to be happy about! there's a few more name
days coming up, and someone will find a way to know
someone else with the particular name that's forced by
tradition to throw a party. there's also a few peoples
birthdays coming up. and of course christmas - which
is a huge deal in this town, but it's not the same
over-commercialized, buying-fiasco that it is back
home. kinda nice to see it. fact is, i'm hosting a
christmas party for some peace corps volunteers. right
now, i've got about 10 people coming for the entire
weekend. it's gonna be chaos as my apartment is less
than 500 square feet. should be interesting. these
volunteers are all going to be bringing all kinds of
food, cause the selection in my town is horrible. i
think we're even going to have a ham for christmas
dinner! then sometime in january, there's a special
name day that involves a big ceremony. the night
before, everyone stays up and drinks themselves crazy
and in the morning, all the men jump into the river,
waste deep, (after they've chipped the ice away) and
do some kind of crazy dance for 5 to 10 minutes. i've
been telling everyone that i'm going to participate.
i've done this so that when the time comes, i'll feel
obligated to jump in with the rest of the crazy
people. if i had left it up to a decision at the
moment, there's no way i'd do that! they're nuts!!!

i'm trying to keep a good running schedule going,
though it seems the only day i have available to run
is on sundays. this last saturday night it snowed
about 4 to 6 inches and it was a little intimidating
to get out there and run in it. but i'll be damned if
i'm gonna let the stupid weather stop me! so i put on
some clothes (thin, black long-underwear, really
short, bright yellow shorts, and a t-shirt) and headed
out. people normally look at me like i'm insane... and
i don't know whether it's because i'm running or
because i look ridiculous. the local animals freak out
when they see me. every goat and sheep run away from
me, and every dog chases me barking like they think
i'm a free meal! last sunday, running in the snow, i
was getting the normal stares of "what the hell is he
doing?" and then i came upon some kind of procession.
there were a couple of priests walking down the middle
of the road. i gave them the 'howdy' nod and then a
big russian van pulled around the corner behind them.
it was followed by about a hundred people, and i was
caught in the middle of them. i didn't realize what
was going on until i saw the back of the van. it was
an open casket funeral march. i felt like a jerk cause
i was cutting through people to keep running and in
addition to the "what the hell is he doing" stare that
they gave me, some people looked generally offended.
oops. good news is, i got a nice run in, and now i
know that the snow won't stop me!

tonight is the ecotourism association's winter
solstice party! well, they call it a christmas party,
but whatever. there'll be more than 50 people somehow
associated with this association. and there'll be
plenty of cheer! and probably plenty of smoke... this
is something that's driving me nuts! people smoke like
there's no tomorrow, and you can't get away from it!
and nearly all of them say they're going to give it up
come new years... i wonder if they say that every
year? we'll see!

i've sort of lost the thrill of taking pictures of
everything, but i did post some new pictures. and i
received some pictures from my friends that were of
the past, and have posted them according to a time
line as best as i could - so everything's in order
now:

http://picasaweb.google.com/00Judkins/PeaceCorpsBulgaria20052007

well, i hope every one has a damn fine winter holiday
season! i'll be with plenty of friends and plenty of
food - hope the same for you!

happy winter solstice,

andy