Peace Corps!

I served as an Environmental Education Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps from 2005 to 2007 in Bulgaria.

Below are the emails I sent home:

Peace Corps - About to Begin
A Quick Note from Bulgaria
Brace Yourself, It's a Long One
Here's Your Andy Update
Happy Saturday
Howdy from Kalofer!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Winter Solstice!
Your Monthly Andy Update
Happy International Women's Day!
Andy Kind of Excited!
Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work!
The Happiest Peace Corps Volunteer, Ever!
This Is How We Do It in America!
Politically Correct? Never Heard of it...
Integrating with Hippies!
Biodiesel of Peace!
Save the School!

Photos to Prove it:
Here are the pictures I collected from my Peace Corps service

Save the School!

There's a small village called Asparuhavo in central eastern Bulgaria, home to about one thousand people, that's in danger of ceasing to exist. In fact, this is a common problem in most of Bulgaria's villages - the youth are going to bigger cities to get an education, or for work; or even leaving the country in search of better opportunities. In just about any given village in Bulgaria, you can pretty much count on an absence of everyone between the ages of 18 and 35. There are several country-wide efforts to combat this problem, of which, our week in Asparuhavo was one.

A school teacher, Eleonora, in Bulgaria's second largest city, Varna, took it upon herself to create a project designed to save Bulgaria's culture for the next generation. She wrote a project that was funded by the municipality of Varna for the purposes of cultural education for a group of her students in the form of a summer camp. Tim and I were invited along to compliment the curriculum with lessons of ecology in Bulgaria and personal development skills.

There were 22 gals, 2 guys, 2 Bulgarian teachers, and Tim and I. The kids were broken up into 4 groups and distributed among the teachers (for cultural seminars with local grandmothers) and Tim and I. We started every day with some kind of physical activity - running, push-ups, stretches, etc. After breakfast the kids broke up into groups and attended sessions with Eleonora, Tim, and me for solid eight hour days of learning! It was intense!


Every evening we had some kind of cultural happening or celebration, including dance and song, story telling, and a talent show. The kids loved it!

My niche in this week long gathering was to teach about the environment and relate it to democracy. The democracy connection comes about because Bulgaria is very new to the realms of democracy and it's not well understood here.

My syllabus contained lessons in ecology, wildlife of the Black Sea and bird life in Bulgaria, water quality and watersheds, environmental technologies, and environmental action. My course was discussion based, which means I asked appropriate questions in order to engage everyone and lead them to a particular conclusion. I linked the various aspects of ecology to things in their every day life so they could effectively relate to the concepts I was pushing. I think their favorite was the water quality session, as I made them take water samples from various locations from around the town to test for pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and turbidity. It was a lot of fun to see the differences in water quality between the swamp, the reservoir, and the natural spring, and to hear their ideas of why they thought the differences occurred.

As my sessions concluded, my goal was for each of the kids to write an environmental based letter to an elected official. I had explained to them that in a democracy, it's the people who have the power, and it's imperative for their elected officials to hear their opinions in order for their thoughts and desires to be known. And the only way to have their thoughts and opinions known is to know how to voice them! So I instructed them on the formalities and proper techniques of writing to a politician, but our theme changed drastically.

As previously stated, Bulgaria's villages are all on a very steep decline. Instead of writing about an environmental problem, these kids chose to convince me that they needed to write to the ministry of education, and the ministry of culture in order to preserve the only school left in town. As of now, funding for the school will cease after next year. This means that the village's 50 children will have to go to neighboring towns for any kind of an education. Exporting the town's 50 school-aged kids only expedites an increase in the population decline of the village. It was extremely important for our group of kids that this village continues to exist and so they embarked on a campaign to save the school! Democracy in action! It was magnificent! Each kid wrote a letter, a well done letter I might add, based on the importance of Bulgaria's culture and small villages and they were all sent to the ministry of education and ministry of culture.

Tim and I made a great combination, complimenting each other without even trying. My training on taking action in their communities and Tim's education on personal development perfectly laid the bricks for these kids to realize the potential they each had. The week was a huge success!

Tim had to go two days early due to prior obligations and the tears flowed freely in a heart-felt, and emotional goodbye. The next day, I announced that I would be leaving one day early. Our Peace Corps service is almost finished and there are all kinds of reports and projects that need to be finished before we leave the country. When Eleonora announced my coming departure, she stumbled and choked on her own words. There was a very awkward 20 second silence while she composed herself to deliver the "bad news" to the kids. Again they expressed their displeasure in losing another of their brief mentors, and probably the sweetest thing I've ever heard was from a gal named Mila (Bulgarian word for "kind") when she hugged me and said, "You're going to miss me!" In the Bulgarian language, saying that you miss a person is grammatically backwards from American English. So what she meant was "I will miss you", but it came out as a literal translation of "you will miss me" and it was all I could do to not laugh. Each of them prepared thank you cards for my departure, here are a few of them:

"Andrew, I love you! I never forget you! I know and to you never forget us!!! (I don't want to you leave!) I LOVE you forever"

"Андрю, ние те обичаме и няма да те забравим! честито хоро!"

"Dear Andrew, Regarding your departure from Asparuhavo. I miss you already. I'm really glad I met you and Tim. I'll never forget what you taught me and I want you to know that our week together had an enormous impact on my life."

"You are very very very (3 times for happiness) COOL, General Judkins! Thank you for everything, that you learned me this week!"

"Andrew, Really I don't know what to say. In this one week you became a part of the company and of my heart. I'll never forget about you! Good luck! I hope you'll remember me too. Now I love ecology and water. But you teached me to be myself! We love you, Andrew"

"Be free like a bird! Andrew, I'll always remember you! You're already our friend! Don't forget us! P.S. you dance amazing"

"I will remember you because you are very smart!!! I will remember you with "пчела" (the bee), with your dance!!!"

"Dear Andrew, You are the most wonderful theacher I've ever seen. I'm learned so much things from you. Thank you! Always be happy! P.S. And you're supperdancer"

"Благодаря за всичко! Много те обичам и си SUPER!"

"Always be with a smile reaching to your years! Your smile is a rising sun!"

"I just wanted to tell you that living with you and Tim here was the most unique experiense I have ever had (and a lot of fun!). Be true to yourself and DON'T EVER CHANGE because you're the greatest guy ever!!!"

Over the course of one week we had effectively bonded with these kids on many levels. We were their buddies, mentors, role models, and dear friends. I've seen these bonds, of course, in America, but never with the intensity with which I saw them here. For someone to cry at news of your departure after having known you for only one week was very touching - to the point of me lacking the right words to describe how it made me feel.

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!!!

Integrating with Hippies!

I had an opportunity to represent Bulgaria in Germany with a group of real Bulgarians at a youth exchange/eco-conference/hippie seminar for two weeks! There were groups from Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, and of course a group from Germany. This was held in a town called Bad Oldesloe, just outside of Hamburg.

The idea was to go through several environmental workshops all based on new environmentally friendly construction methods. And when I say "new" I mean "newly fashionable in our western culture" as we were learning techniques that are hundreds and thousands of years old.

As part of the official seminar, the different techniques we studied were: straw bale insulation and construction, clay construction, green roofing, resources from waste, and solar energy. These aspects of our gathering were phenomenal! I learned so much about green building and I was really inspired to apply what I'd learned in my future... at some point.

We started out with a three day workshop from a fantastic guy named Steffen Klauke. Steffen was able to appreciate anything made, no matter how hard it made me laugh. He was one of the finest teachers/leaders I've had the pleasure of learning from. We gathered "waste" from a nearby forest (my ecology professor would have kicked my ass for calling this material waste) and he demonstrated/inspired us on what to do with it. There's a picture there of the chair I made from eight different kinds of tree species! I used only screws, nails, glue, and brute force to assemble it! Next to my magnificent chair, in the picture, is a less magnificent but also impressive table someone else threw together.

The second most significant workshop we attended was a week long clay construction workshop in a tiny village that didn't even have a store! The gal leading the group was a character. No body, except the German group, understood a word she was saying and yet that didn't seem to phase her as she went about instructing as if everyone understood perfectly! I think her name was Julia. She showed us this massive house she's been working on for years. Different parts of her castle were in different states of construction. It was a perfect model to show us what to do at different stages when working with clay. We learned to mix the clay with sand, water, and horse/cow shit, or straw depending on what the clay was to be used for. It was a good workshop, but we were coming from warm Bulgaria and the rain, and the cold, and the no showers for a week made the final day there a welcomed one.

The content of this seminar in Germany was amazing! We learned a lot of cool stuff and it flowed very nicely. The people there were great too! Super friendly, interesting, smart, and curious. I enjoyed talking and getting to know all of them. In fact, on a personal development level, my biggest gain from this seminar came from the people - but not in a way I was expecting or would ever hope for.

Generally speaking, these people were hippies. I use that as a term of endearment as I often refer to myself similarly. The separation I found, though, came from their outlook on society. I've been surrounded by environmental scientist hippies for the last seven or eight years of my life and it's what I'd like to say that I've become. These guys were more on the political activist side of hippie and I came to realize I've changed A LOT! They have good goals of saving the environment, cutting pollution, reducing waste, and everything else you would think of as environmental. But they use their goals only as a means to challenge authority. It's true, they're doing wonderful things for the environment, but only as a protest. Eight years ago, I would have been in heaven to be with these guys! But today - all I could think was "What are you thinking?" Society isn't changed by extreme protests from a few, it's changed by education and awareness! Hippies chaining themselves to gas pumps or throwing rocks through McDonalds' windows is the wrong kind of awareness - it just lets people know that you're a crazy hippie! The picture there of the flyer made me laugh hysterically. It says, "Thursday 24 May - Knallhart - electro acid psychedelic trance rave festival against the capitalistic stupidity and the state violence"! It's marketed as some kind of freedom rally, but what kind of societal development could ever come from it? My money's on 'NONE,' but I bet it was a good time! The picture of us dumpster-diving was another action that had me wondering. In a protest on food waste, we had to rummage through supermarket dumpsters and collect all the expired food that was thrown out that day. This was what we ate for the two weeks we were there. It sounds gross, I know, and in general it was. But I will say that there were some fruits and vegetables in those dumpsters that most definitely didn't belong there. My digestive system wasn't too happy about this lifestyle, but in an integration effort - I went with the flow of things.

Our hippie seminar in Bad Oldesloe was timed to finish the day before the G8 summit. The hope of the organizers was that upon completion of the eco-conference, we would attend the G8 protests. I would have rather been a part of the summit! Someday. My ultimate point is - I learned some amazing things over the course of these two weeks, most importantly about myself, but also some hippie things about the environment or whatever.

Politically Correct? Never Heard of it...

spring is in the air! we had an oceanographer in the office the other day! i told her the word for hello in bulgarian and in perfect english she responded with, "oh, you're not bulgarian!" i said with a smile, "what gave me away?" "well i thought you were, but now that i can see you better, it's obvious." she told me. "what if i was wearing bulgarian clothes?" i asked. "nope," she says, "bulgarians are known for being beautiful." great... thanks... maybe her english wasn't that perfect...

as my time in bulgaria continues, i'm feeling more and more busy. my first year here felt like vacation! it was great! but now i'm working my butt off! there are projects going this way and that - presentations today and tomorrow - and on and on. don't get me wrong, the accomplishments i'm making feel great too, but i'm really looking forward to a little break or something! i'll be going to germany for 2 weeks at the end of may for a business trip - i get to learn how to make hippie houses from mud and hay! should be just the break i'm looking forward to! i was invited to partake in a human trafficking conference during the first 4 days of april! the group was 20 high school and university kids, the youngest being 15, and the oldest 20. everyone was from varna, but the conference was put on in a resort town to the north called balchik. this was my first experience participating in a bulgarian classroom setting and it completely blew me away! the teacher, svetla, was the school psychologist that organized and facilitated this whole shin-dig. she opened each session with some kind of "ice breaker" activity. back home i remember doing similar kinds of things like passing a ball around a circle and when you get it you have to repeat all previous names that were said plus your own. normal stuff like that. we played all sorts of wacky games that would have had svetla thrown in jail in any of the 50 states! we played a version of duck-duck-goose, but we stood in a circle, and instead of patting the person on the head as you passed, you grabbed their ass! another, and i don't know if this is still played in schools back home - the game where you hold a ball with your chin and neck and pass it to another person who could only use their chin and neck? well we did something similar, but with a condom on our mouths. we had to inhale so that the condom (still in it's package) was stuck on our mouth via pressure as we passed it to the person next to us! another ice-breaker was to pretend to be passing a bunny to the person on your right, but before giving it up, you had to say which part of the bunny you would kiss. this was a good language exercise for me cause i learned lots of body parts. after the imaginary bunny made it around the circle, we then had to kiss the person on our right, on the body part we had said we'd kiss the bunny! haha! lots of awkward places got kissed... svetla's daughter attended the conference - it was her 17th birthday and svetla had organized a party for the group of 20 in one of the hotel rooms. all the kids bought beer and svetla gave her daughter, radost, a bottle of whiskey, which was shared among the group! the legal drinking age in bulgaria is 18! svetla stayed at the party most of the night, but not as a chaperone, more of a "you're my kids and i love you" type of figure. despite the under age drinking, and all the sexual implications, none of these kids were immature or irresponsible about any of this. no one was inappropriate or shy about any of the wacky games we played. and not even one kid got out of control with the drinking. it was simply a good time had by all. i absolutely couldn't believe what i was seeing! no one got offended during the 4 days of these hi-jinx! every time we'd start a new one of these activities, ice-breakers or parties, my eyes would bulge and my jaw would drop because i know damn well that if that happened back home, kids would lose control, get offended or be offensive, parents would complain or fly off the handle and probably even sue, and poor ole svetla would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for organizing an educational conference at which everyone had a good time and no one got out of hand! what a different culture, eh?! a few weeks later, i spent the day at my buddy tim's school, helping him teach english. the day was full of sexual jokes, immaturity, kids getting thrown out of class, refusal to participate, and even refusal to learn! no discipline at all!!! i guess i still haven't figured this place out...

another cultural shocker was when i was telling my landlord about my recent trip to macedonia. i had a great time! they speak a dialect of bulgarian and call it "macedonian" and it was funny to hear everyone speaking with an accent. so my landlady went on a tangent about how crappy macedonia is. she described it as a "country of villages" with uneducated people. she also described how everything was grey - meaning all the buildings are built with either stone or concrete and went on to say that everything is crumbling from neglect over the years. i thought to myself "that's the same way i describe bulgaria!" then i laughed as she turned the conversation into a competition between bulgaria and macedonia and kept saying that bulgaria was so much better, but never really saying why.

so, i kinda got hit by a car the other day while i was on my evening run. it really messed up my left knee for a few days. i would feel excruciating pain at random times and for random reasons. my knee went out on me as i was leaving the office and going down the stairs with my coworker - a french gal named helene. so i was hobbling about and holding on to stuff and putting my leg/body in all kinds of weird positions to get down the stairs in as little pain as possible. we went out for a drink after that, and on the way home i complained that my knee was hurting again. helene laughed and said "when you go down the stairs in this way, i think you have something in your pants and enjoy of this feeling." hahaaa!

my time in the peace corps is winding down now. i have less than 6 months left and the looming question of "what comes next?" is on the horizon. my counterpart/colleague/boss, iliyan, is stopping just short of begging me to stay in bulgaria for an extra year. we're making tons of progress for his organization, but i have other passions that i feel i have to chase for a while. at the moment, a buddy of mine and i are pretty into a post-peace corps project maintaining the peace corps ideals. we're planning a year long motorcycling expedition to implement various youth development/education and cultural awareness projects across northern africa, eastern europe, and all of asia. the details are here: http://www.supercross08.com! this project is still in the making and we've got a lot of work to do on it, especially with the funding aspects... we've been talking with several organizations at various locations along our route about partnering for potential projects and every thing's falling into place nicely - so as it stands, these are my "life after peace corps" plans! tell me what you think! and also with my limited days remaining, i'm realizing that i get to come home soon! this makes me quite homesick! man, i miss friends and family and american food - A LOT! it's gonna be great to see everyone again, even though i'll only be home for a short time. still smiling, andy!

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!