The Last Express Train to Marrakech

After our week's stay in Sevilla, we pushed on southbound! It was hard to leave such a beautiful city. During our stay we met people from all over the world and explained our project. Everyone was quite enthused for us and we greatly appreciated the international support!

We arrived in Tanger by way of ferry from Algerciras. We got taken for tickets and paid too much, and that seemed to set the pace for much of our time in Morocco.

Much to our disappointment, our first project partner, Moroccan NGO CADIX, turned out to be a scam. We've been in communication with them for more than half a year and just a couple days prior to our arrival they emailed us and informed us of the "price" to volunteer... Money had never before been mentioned, even when we asked, and being that we would rather be able to get to more organizations, we had to tell CADIX to take a hike.

In order to salvage our time in Morocco, we went back to our roots - the Peace Corps! We found a Youth Development Volunteer that has agreed to let us come and be guest speakers at his school. So we're going to prepare a discussion on stereotypes!

Speaking of stereotypes, here is what we've seen of Morocco:

Tim and I hit the ground running, almost literally! As soon as the boat landed we were on a mission to get to the train station. Exiting the boat was like jumping into the ball pit at McDonalds - and each ball wanted to sell us something. Chaos! After some time we got to the train station and booked our overnight train to Marrakech.

Arriving in Marrakech was more of the same - a giant ball pit! You can say "no" a million times and never get out of the pit. From taxis and hotels to hash-hish and directions, it's one scamming ball after another.


We found a cheap hotel, and later found that it could have been cheaper... There are no set prices here - on anything. And even though we're well aware that locals are paying a small fraction of what we're paying - we find it a bit difficult to pay less than cheap European prices. We're definitely treated more as an opportunity than a friend.


As we walk through the streets, we're constantly hassled: "Come into my shop", "That way is closed up ahead", "Hash-hish", "We have rooms, very cheap", "Let me show you something", and on and on and on. And it never ends! It's impossible to stand in one place and just observe! Even if we had money to shop with, the sales technique here is so overpowering that it turns off anyone with an interest in whatever product is being offered. And by 'offered' I mean 'pushed'. One young kid said to us, "The tannery is that way." We didn't have an agenda so we took that street to go see the tannery. He followed us and started giving a tour of the streets. Immediately, we stopped and said, "Thanks, but we don't have any money to pay you." "No problem, don't worry" he responded and continued "showing us the way"... His intentions were as apparent as my draining wallet: take us through the maze of streets that is Marrakech to get us lost and then ask for money to get us back. Eventually, he did lead us to the tannery and it was every bit as impressive as any other ditch filled with smelly water and animal carcasses. Great. Then he asked us for a "gift". When we told him that we already told him we wouldn't pay him, he got pissed, called us "Jewish people" and disappeared, leaving us in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us, we had our walking legs on and enjoyed exploring Marrakech.

The city itself is quite beautiful. The big Atlas Mountains in the background. The most perfect minaret near the center. The architecture, arches, streets, fashion, people, everything! And the food! There are spices and flavors here that I've never even imagined! It's all so different and interesting! In the main square, there're thousands of people at any given moment throughout the day (and night) busy selling fruit, nuts, juices or performing - snake tamers, musicians, story tellers - the works! Kids run through the streets banging on drums - sometimes they'll gather in small groups and "rock out" to the random, unorganized beat of 10 drums drumming. It's sensory overload everywhere you look! There is so much life happening in every direction, at every moment, in every way!

Later, we managed to strike up a conversation with a young shop keeper on the street who seemed interested in things other than selling us women's shoes so we stayed a while and chatted. Yunis was 27 and had been taking English lessons for 3 months. He seemed like a good guy so we mentioned that we'd come back to this area of town and invited him for dinner with us. We met him at 7pm and he took us to a tiny food shop that we had been eyeing. We had a great conversation about Moroccan people - the Arabs and the Berbers - life and work in Morocco. It all went great until it was time to pay. Scam. We figured since we were with a "friend" that we didn't need to haggle before we ordered. Our meal was much smaller than anything else we had gotten at proper restaurants, and I didn't even get a drink, but the price was the same as other places. Thanks, Yunis, didn't think we had to pay for the conversation...

These experiences left me wondering - is this a simple difference in cultures or are we being consistently taken advantage of because we're different? The answer came to me on a bus ride to Essaouira as I started to observe the locals' interaction with each other.

I took a giant leap backwards to escape my Cartesian perspective and learned that the beauty and mystery that Morocco has to offer are still far from our grasp. We haven't even found the surface - much less figured out a way to scratch at it! I arrogantly thought we could walk into this culture and learn about it. In fact, it will be nearly impossible to do that without some kind of help. What we've been seeing in Morocco has been the tourist image of the country. It doesn't accurately represent the people or their culture. Once I started watching Moroccans interact with each other, rather than waiting to be accepted in order to gain insight, I found a much broader and beautiful perspective of Morocco. Now, instead of scam, cheat, and discrimination, I see friendship, loyalty, passion, beauty, tradition, faith, love, and ambition! It's beautiful! And, oh how nice it would be to integrate... just a little!


After our project partner, CADIX, left us high and dry, we thought we'd not get the chance for any bit of integration. However, with our new Peace Corps contact it's looking like we may get an opportunity! We can't wait to get to his village and get an insiders perspective on Morocco!

T Minus - Ready, Set - Hey, We Already Started!

Tim and I met up in Lisbon and immediately began our cultural exploration agenda!
To attain the most cultural insight possible, we're trying as much as possible to stay with local people instead of staying in hostels. Our first hosts were a gay couple in Lisbon - Marco and Sergio - a couple of rockin good guys! They accepted our request to stay with them over the New Years holiday and invited us to partake in their party with their friends! Sergio cooked up a feast and we all debated different perspectives on politics, religion, global climate change, and lifestyle - the works! We heard more of the stereotypical European viewpoint that the stereotypical American is ignorant to most international affairs.
With our new found friendship, we made a lot of jokes about stereotypes about gay and straight communities. As the night went on, the music played and the wine flowed. We started dancing and singing to a bunch of stereotypical "gay" music: Madonna, Prince, The Village People and the like. Marco and Sergio did an amazing dance routine to "It´s Raining Men" for Tim that had everyone busting up! When a less "gay" song came on, Tim and I started singing along. Sergio turned it off and said, "Oh my god, that is so straight!" We about died laughing!

I learned something very significant from Sergio. I had previously embraced "tolerance" as an argument settler. For example, I would state that a person doesn't have to necessarily accept a religion, but should have tolerance for it, in order to maintain peace. But respecting a person for who they are and what they believe, instead of simply tolerating them, is a much more sustainable foundation for peace. I don't have to accept what a person believes as a part of my own personal values, but respecting their decisions and choices for their own life presents a much more powerful platform for mutual understanding and integrated peace.
It was also nice to have such open acceptance into a gay community. In my previous experience with gay friends, I've found myself discriminated against for being straight - like they're elitists, looking down on me from a pedestal. However, Marco and Sergio (and their friends) accepted us, a couple of straight guys, to share the best holiday of the year! Smashing my previously formed stereotype felt good - as it normally does to realize something new about the world that can bring a smile to your face. We danced and sang and laughed together! I can't think of more fun people with whom to spend my favorite holiday! Our extreme high at having had this experience came crashing down during the first night of our project.

We said goodbye to Marco and Sergio and then Marco took us to the train station to get our train. Unfortunately, he took us to the wrong station, so we missed our train. This would prove to be an indicator of how the rest of our first day would go...

We jumped on a bus south, to Albufeira with only one other passenger. 3.5 hours later, we arrived. It was dark by the time we left the bus station. We headed toward the beach for some beach camping. Tim said he expected to hike about an hour, and I was more hoping for 15 minutes after not having slept much the previous night. We hiked and hiked and hiked and never found a beach, but headed in a direction we thought would lead us out of town. Looking for somewhere to set up camp! We hiked down the highway for 2 hours before we decided we needed some food and found ourselves a supermarket. Made cheese sandwiches, drank cheap wine, and had ourselves a very nice conversation!

Tired and ready for bed, we found a covered patch of bushes off the main road that concealed us if we laid down. So we busted our out sleeping bags and went to sleep. And we slept great, for 2.5 hours... then the rain started... Packed up our stuff and headed for cover. After about another hour of hiking, we ended up huddled in a bus stop trying, with some degree of success, to escape the rain and wind. Slept for about an hour until the rain stopped and we decided to find better shelter. Hiked again, for an hour or two - completely worn out and sore - until we started running out of homes and businesses around us. All of a sudden it started raining again - hard! We took the first thing we could find - the patio of an unsold house. It was cold, windy, wet and down right miserable! At 4.30am some guy yelled at us to figure out what we were doing. When he saw we were just avoiding the torrential rainfall, he motioned for us that it was ok to stay. This was the hardest part of the night. I was sick, hungry, cold, and my head started hurting badly just as I ran out of food and water! 6.30 rolled around and the rain had stopped so Tim and I decided to keep on traveling. We hiked another hour to some tiny village and suddenly saw a sign that said "bus stop" in plain English! Hot damn! Waited an hour for the bus and found our way to Faro.

We were both ready to crash, but had to wait for the tourist office to open so that we could find a hostel. Around 10am we were there... but learned that the check in time wasn´t until 5pm!!! So we sluggishly killed 7 hours before we were finally able to rest!

This is how you start an adventure!

Home on La Grange!

Tim and I have both been back home from the Peace Corps for a good chunk of time now and we've done our best to prepare for this next amazing mission of cultural exploration and international community service!

While at home, I have had the chance to see my family and a lot of my good friends, and i even had some adventures. Unfortunately there isn't enough time to see everyone... I also tried to lay out a plan for my next step in life - grad school and beyond.

I tried not to adjust to America too much because I'd just be leaving again so soon, and I wanted to maintain a traveling mentality. Some things about home made me laugh, however, some things, like the Northwest outdoors, and enjoying some nice home cooking were too much to pass up!

Aside from spending time with my family - a couple of highlights of my brief trip home were:

Hunting for Razor clams on the Pacific Ocean coast in Washington State! We spent a few hours on a cold, beautiful evening with big plastic PVC (polyvinyl chloride (I'm a scientist!)) tubes that we would use to suck unsuspecting clams out of their comfortable sandy homes! As we strolled through the surf, waves would roll in and out, covering all the holes people had made in the sand while collecting their dinner. There were clam hunters as far as I could see - north and south - every one of them staring intently at the sand by their feet! There was a limit of 15 clams per person, which was easily met on the first day of the season, but I arrived only for the second day and only made it to eight clams by the time the sun sank behind the waves. Cleaned some clams, hung out around a bonfire, drank and told stories - it was a good weekend at the beach!

Hunting for Christmas Trees in the beautiful Gifford Pinchot forest in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State! Nearly 50 tree hunters headed up the mountain as part of a group of trucks, 17 strong and looking for adventure! We drove up into the snow covered hills until trucks started getting stuck and couldn't climb any more - so we stopped, built a fire, had some lunch, and hunted down some Christmas Trees! It was more of a party in the forest with great views and fun in the snow than it was for the responsible harvest of forest products. And man, it was a g.d. good time!!! Being in nature feels so energizing - like a recharge to my batteries of life, readying me for anything that might come my way! The fresh, clean mountain air was enough to keep me smiling all day! It brought back memories of my adolescence - camping and hiking and developing a passion for protecting nature and the force that allows me to feel so incredible! Ironic that this was brought on by a trip to the woods to cut down some trees. It's also kind of funny that the first thing I noticed that I missed after being in Bulgaria for two years was the fresh mountain air of the great northwest! And who better to share it with than a couple of my favorite Peace Corps Volunteers! Emily and Mary came to visit for a week - flying here from Indiana and Florida (two places completely lacking of the great northwest). This was even Mary's first time on the west coast! I tried to show them everything I loved about my home, while at the same time rediscovering the connection I have to my home and community. I'm grateful and lucky to have the opportunities to travel as I do, but at the end of the day - when it's all over and done - I've got a super mighty fine place to come home to! And it's with this connection, strong in my mind, that I begin the next set of adventures that will carry me to a greater appreciation of the wonders that this world and it's people have to offer.

I've got most things in my near future figured out, roughly, but my focus now is on Supercross08! Tim and I have put in some major effort on this development and culture exchange project and we both want it to be supremely successful! Unfortunately due to a lack of sponsorships that we were hoping for, we had to cut short our trip of one year. We're uncertain exactly how long we're going to be implementing this project. Our end date is currently, "When we run out of money." My biggest hope is that we'll have enough time to get a chance to realize and achieve the potential of what we're capable of doing in order to inspire whoever we contact to want to improve themselves and also have a better understanding of the world's people!

Big dreams, you say? My only response is, "Watch this!"

Stories from the Road!

On September 11, 2007, my Peace Corps service in Bulgaria ended. I had said goodbye to almost everyone that had impacted me in some way, and slightly reluctantly, I hit the road. My route home was a seven week journey to Moscow, exploring Eastern Europe as much as my short time would allow.

Serbia
Started off my trip in Serbia where I met up with a friend I had met on a train five years ago, Ana. She lives and works in Belgrade and it was nice to see her for a few days. I explored Belgrade and wondered how Bulgaria had made it into the EU and Serbia didn’t. Belgrade was a beautiful, modern city and the people there were pleasant. However, on my way out of Belgrade I had some bad luck. I got on to a night train bound for Budapest and quickly found a cabin to myself. I threw my backpack up on the rack and sat in the seat by the window as four punk ass kids quickly filed in to the cabin. Two of them were smoking. Well I’d be damned if I was gonna sit up all night on an eight hour train ride while four punk kids kept me awake with their smoke! So I grabbed my pack and headed for the door. As I did one of the guys asked me where I was going. He asked in Serbian, which was close enough to Bulgarian for me to understand and reply. So I said I couldn’t breathe the smoke and was going to find another cabin. He started trying to guess at where I was from – Italy, Macedonia, Russia… never figured out how Italy made his list of possibilities. As I tried to exit, he stuck his foot out, physically blocking my path, and said, “Where are you from?” as if he needed the answer to be satisfied for the night. “Somewhere.” I told him, as I started to feel his friends’ exploring hands trying to make their way into my pockets and my backpack. Well that pissed me right off so I forced my way out of the cabin with a rude shove. Four on one aren’t great odds! One of them followed me out the door and I could feel him still fiddling with my backpack so I turned around and challenged him! “What do you want? What are you doing?” I asked in an aggressive tone. He backed down and I hurried to find another cabin before his lackeys followed him out. In the end, although I was extremely annoyed, I only lost a few minutes of happiness and woke up in Budapest to a new day, in a new city, with new people to make my story more interesting!

Hungary and Slovakia
It had been awhile since I’d backpacked, but even though I’m a bit older than the typical hostel kid, I still consider myself part of that clique. Unfortunately, a lot has changed since I last traveled. I remember the gatherings around the television in the hostel where people watched CNN’s coverage on the Israeli incursions into the West Bank, the accusations the Bush administration made against Iraq for having WMDs, and even the announcement of the new pope. But as I traveled this time around, the only thing on any hostel television was that damned MTV! It was a crying shame! That garbage rots the minds and potential of countless youth and unfortunately it’s made it’s way into my favorite culture – the traveling culture! How can this be? Travelers had become such different people than I remembered. I watched in disgust while they sat silent around the TV watching worthless crap only to occasionally speak during a commercial break to ask if anyone had seen a certain video! The only things they spoke of was which bar they were going to and if there was a hookah pipe? It seemed “the party” was all they were searching for. There wasn’t much conversation about politics or cultural exploration at all! Depressing. With that, I turned to couch surfing. This is a website for travelers that lets people experience the culture first hand! You get to sleep on a hosts’ couch or get taken on a tour of their city! It’s a great way to travel and learn! And it’s cheaper and more psychologically stimulating than a hostel!

My first couch surfing experience was in a small town called Trnava with a great gal named Luccka! She took me to neighboring villages, showed me local coffee shops, we cooked and drank wine, we toured art exhibits in the park and watched a parade for some celebration that neither of us understood! It was a fantastic week! There’s no possible way I could have gotten a better glimpse into another culture than this. My time with Luccka opened my eyes to a new way of traveling – a way that I’ll not turn back from!

Latvia
In Latvia I met up with a friend I had met in Europe five years ago on my first backpacking adventure – Becca! We traveled together through a couple countries and experienced foreign cultures as best we could! However, not all of our hosts were as wonderful as Luccka had been. Our first host while traveling together was a nice old gal that barely spoke any English! Usually language barriers are fun, and for the most part, it was in this case too. The kicker that made this surf an uncomfortable one was this lady’s dog – a stray that she had taken in. The thing looked like she had just taken it in the day before we got there! It had lots of fleas and maybe some kind of skin disease! And it was all about Becca and I!!! It wanted to greet us, jump on us, and sleep with us! It was gross! We couldn’t do anything but laugh, and so we did! And so did our host! But we’re still not sure if we were all laughing at the same thing.

The next family we stayed with in Sigulda had a hobby of keeping up traditional ways of life from their Latvian ancestors – Inese and Andres! Andres made beautiful traditional stringed instruments from wood, all by hand, and played them! Inese made traditional style clothing from different time periods and tribes. Towards the end of the evening, Andres played some music for us, and Inese dressed Becca up in traditional princess attire! It was about as far away from MTV as we could be and it was perfect!

Estonia
The next host we stayed with was in Lahema National Park! Lenne took us on a tour of the Viru Bog and it was gorgeous! I’d never been to a bog before and she explained all the intricacies of it on our three hour hike through the pristine nature! Consistent to my hiking back home, I greeted all the people we passed, but I did it in their language. In Estonian, “Hello” is “Tere” and I said it with my sweetest American accent! Lenne would laugh every time I said it and finally said to me, “You sound like an unintelligent person.” Basically she was politely telling me that I sounded retarded!

Russia
Becca and I were going from one couch surfing host to the next and killing time in the middle of the day to wait for our hosts to be available. So we hung out near the Red Square! It was our understanding that drinking in public was legal on account of that’s what we’d been told and everyone drank in public. Becca bought a beer from a street vendor and was drinking it while we enjoyed some sights. We were moving locations to get some night photography shots and we were to walk past a cop. I told Becca that even though I “knew” the law, it still made me nervous to be drinking in public. Just as she was telling me to relax and to not worry the cop turned around and said, “You can’t drink that here. Show me your documents.” Wonderful…

He used his rough English skills to tell us that we had “broken the law.” Bulgarian is close enough to Russian to communicate so I used my Bulgarian skills to understand that we would have to go downtown with him, fill out some paperwork and then pay a penalty for breaking the law and the process would take about three hours. He took us to another location in the Red Square and we met his sergeant for more intimidation. The police sergeant would address me only and ran through the whole three hour process description once again. He told there would be a car there in ten minutes to take us away!

As another cop came over to distract Becca, the police sergeant pulled me aside and told me that he didn’t want to go downtown and fill out paperwork and call the embassy and all that noise. He said “I can see that you’re good tourists so instead of wasting 3 hours, you can just pay the penalty now and then go see the sights in 10 minutes.” Becca heard that and chimed in to ask if they could just take her to the station and leave me behind cause I wasn’t drinking. She kept saying she would go with them and that it’s not a problem, but there was no way I was gonna let her get taken away by a couple of Russian cops to god-knows-where! So after the other cop came back over and distracted her again, I turned to the sergeant and said, “Take a walk with me.”

He spoke better English than the last guy, but I still needed some Bulgarian to communicate effectively. I explained that I had just spent the last two years in Bulgaria, earning no money, volunteering my time to develop the country. I went on to say that we weren’t here to see the sights - we were interested in the Russian culture and personal experiences. I also said that Becca had made a mistake that we were both sorry for, but that it was an insignificant mistake and I told him he knew that! He tried to play the card of “What would a cop in America do?” and followed with, “Just pay the penalty and you can go see the sights like a good tourist.” So I told him I didn’t want to see any more cathedrals or castles or Kremlins or anything. I told him I didn’t care anymore and he asked why and I told him it was because he had taken away my happiness! I said that in America, we don’t know a lot about Russia and we were here to learn. And then I said, “You’re creating a bad memory of Russia for me and this is what I’m going to have to take back to America to tell my friends and family!” I said that with a little bit of sass cause I was pissed off and really cold.

He was silent for a moment and then looked over at Becca and said, “Is that your lady?” “If it is will you let me go?” I thought, but only said “yes”. He was silent for another moment and then looked at me and said, “Don’t drink on the metro or in a park or near a monument. That’s it, you can go.”

Well that just blew me away to think that I had just out-talked a Russian cop and I was overcome with energy! I shook his hand and told him thanks and he looked away and said, “Have a good evening.” Through the whole ordeal, they all knew that I hadn’t been drinking - yet I was the one that they addressed and negotiated with. It’s a cultural difference that I may be able to identify but I’m far from understanding it.

That said – Russia was AWESOME! The people were super friendly and excited to meet us! Not what I was expecting from my propaganda-like education during the Cold War. Our hosts in Russia were fantastic people and went way far out of their way to accommodate us. We talked and cooked together and through many conversations we were able to break all kinds of stereotypes that had been created by various sorts of media. One of the ones that stood out in my mind was about vodka. Russian vodka is some of the best I’ve ever had – but we were hard pressed to find any Russians that would drink it! I thought all Russians drank vodka, all the time! But they looked at us like we were nuts when we asked to go to a bar that had vodka. They told us they just preferred beer. This, of course, wasn’t the case everywhere or with everyone, but it did happen often enough to surprise me!

I had to fly home on November 1st, and it wasn’t easy to leave Russia, and it certainly wasn’t easy to part with Becca. I had been homesick for so long while in the Peace Corps, yet found myself making this last trip, the trip home, with great reluctance. My Peace Corps experiences, coupled with my traveling experiences, have had a synergistic effect to develop my character. I’ve grown so much as a person and developed into someone I’m super proud to be! I’ve done amazing things – I’ve made amazing friends – I’ve been to amazing places – I’ve created some amazing stories! And I’ve got a future of happiness sitting in front of me that will lead me to more personal development – and this is what I crave! Not even MTV could slow me down now! I’m on my way!

If you're dying to get a glipse into my adventures - take a look at the best pictures you've ever seen!!!

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!