Coming from Portland, where the Ban the Bag campaign is in full swing, and having studied other ban-the-bag types of actions, it's weird for me to come to Bulgaria where this perspective simply doesn't exist. In many places, the countryside is completely littered with plastic bags, plastic water bottles, cigarette butts, and various other garbages. People throw away plastic products as carelessly as they buy and use them.
It reminds me of a conversation I had on my first trip through Bulgaria with my favorite colleague. He told me that older Bulgarians (over 40) who still have a bit of communist mentality are so dependent upon the government that they believe there's no environmental problem unless the government says there is. And even then, the government would take care of it, not the people. I see various examples of this mentality in different ways, but the following have been sadly amusing.
I don't usually bring my canvas bags to the store when I'm only going to buy an item or two so when the cashier tries putting my snickers bar or roll of toilet paper into a bag I say something to the affect of "I don't need/want one." The reactions have been astounding! "Well, here's one just to have one." "You have to have one." "It doesn't matter, here's one anyway." One day, I had forgotten my canvas bags. I took one bag from the store, filled it with some bread, yogurt, and meat, and went to the checkout. The gal pulled out another bag and said, "You can't do it like that, your bread will get dirty." I told her it was okay, and that I only wanted one bag. So, she wrapped the bread with a different bag and put it inside the first bag and said with a smile, "There ya go. Only one."
The following picture was taken at a beautiful reservoir near Krichim, where I lived for three months during my training.When I see how readily people take plastic bags from the market, how often I see them blowing in the wind, and how little people care, it makes images like the one above understandable, but certainly not justifiable. Communism may have filtered out wonderful things like personal responsibility, and Captain Planet, but by heck, communism is a thing of the past, and I'm gonna try to help a bit with the future!Since I knew where I'd be serving, I brought two canvas shopping bags with me to Bulgaria, and of course my super reusable, steel water bottle! This was mostly to appease my own personal constitution, but I'm finding that being under a microscope as an exotic guy in a foreign land, I'm having an unexpected impact on the folks around me. So I decided to roll with it!
I pulled information from my favorite organizations from back home like the Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, Oregon Ban the Bag, Take Back the Tap, and the Story of Stuff to create a rough presentation for my colleagues. I told them about the evils of disposable plastic products and showed them mind blowing pictures. I quoted numbers, cited myself, and assured them all that I was very smart. It was a moving presentation and it actually inspired a discussion. I was surprised and very pleased. It looks like my remaining time will be spent helping to develop this idea into something the library can use in their effort to go green!I'm getting an excited and very interested response from my colleagues, which is great, but there's a lot more people in this town and breaking their old ways will be a very difficult thing to do! I'm going to try hard to find a source of reusable bags and water bottles for this community, but I don't know how realistic that will be yet. Sure, I'll take your suggestions, if you have any.
We celebrated at the end of the day because aside from being Andrew's Presentation Day, it was also Wine Day! Well, I guess Wine Day's actual date is still debatable. I'm told it's either February 1st or February 14th, depending on which calendar you use. I think this is just an excuse to celebrate a great holiday twice. Fine by me!
I was in Paris to celebrate 2010 and welcome 2011; my favorite holiday in the world: New Year's Eve! Not all went as I had envisioned nor as I planned, in fact, I was a bit disappointed with the city of Paris for its pathetic stance on a major holiday. There was no countdown, nor fireworks. The city said the economic crisis had impacted its budget so much that the NYE celebration had to go - but somehow they managed to find funds to increase police presence on the streets from 6,000 last year to 54,000 this year. Fireworks are bad for the environment, anyway. I guess I shouldn't complain about being in the middle of a million happy people at the Eiffel Tower. It was a pretty amazing feeling.I ended up having a fantastic time and making some wonderful new friends! Found a fellow UPeace alumnus through a friend and stayed/celebrated with her and her friends - and it was a great, great time! The best part was introducing international travel to a very close friend back home. NYE in Paris is not a bad first trip outside the USA!I wish I could have stayed longer with my friend, but I have accomplishments to make in Bulgaria, where the holiday season continues! I returned in time for one of my favorite Bulgarian holidays, Йорданов Ден. This is the day, when all across Bulgaria, there is a religious procession to a lake, river, or sea; a priest hurls a wooden cross into the water, and the men of the village/town race to be the first to get it. Then they dance in the water. Participating in this event is supposed to bring good health throughout the year. If you've ever heard my 'frostbitten penis' story - this is the holiday that's responsible.This event is a bit different in different cities, and afterward, the rest of the day is spent celebrating everyone having a name derived from Йордан. As luck would have it, my landlord (and colleague) has this name, though I like to call him Данчо Манчо!On a "Name Day" the person sharing the name of the particular saint is obliged to treat his/her friends. It's an interesting thing, and we have nothing like it in the states. It went something like this: a bunch of us went to Данчо Манчо's office and wished him life and health and many more years, while he treated us to snacks and drinks.He's one of my favorite people here, and we had a really great time! In fact, my one-hour lunch break turned into a three-hour party!By the time I got back to work, I was kinda drunk. My colleagues told me I could go home, but for no good reason I insisted on staying until the end of the day. My paranoid mind told me that if I let the alcohol affect my work, it would be a sign of alcoholism. Of course I'm nowhere near to being an alcoholic, but the event inspired some deeper thought into drinking in this country.
Upon arrival in Bulgaria, the Peace Corps made an attempt at introducing Volunteers to the Bulgarian perspective of drinking. It was more in the form of a safety and security presentation, which we all took to mean: Don't drink your brains out and do stupid things. From my stories and observations, one could generally conclude that Bulgarians drink a lot. From the average American perspective, it might sound like these people are alcoholics. While they do drink a lot, there are no more alcoholics here than there are back home, and I think it has to do with a difference in psyche.
Reasons for drinking are different, drinking culture is different, and judgment of drinking is different. Of course there are similarities, some stronger than others, some are exactly the same, but the overall perspective of drinking is simply different. Even though I'm quite unique back home, I still have an American psyche, and it's tough for me to understand the subtleties and complexities of these differences, much less try to explain them. But as you know me, you know I like trying.In many conversations I've had about Europeans and their wine and drinking, it's often the conclusion that they're more mature than we Americans. I don't think this conclusion is entirely accurate. Generally speaking, while I think there is a difference in maturity, I think the main difference is in psyche. Alcohol is not looked upon as a dangerous tool that often inspires a good time; from what I can gather, it's more perceived as a supplement to health and good times.
As the cold/flu season hatches, I'm hearing a lot about home remedies. I keep hearing the same stories, as repeating them seems to make them more true. One in particular is about a gal who was sick for days, and her antibiotics weren't working. Instead of fussing around with silly pharmaceutical medicines, she took some rakia, a dollop of honey, mixed them together, and gulped it down! The next morning she was fine! I can see my sister, the pharmacist, rolling her eyes at this, and I must admit, I do too, but the fact remains - no matter how much it may have been exaggerated, there seems to be some legitimacy to it. If nothing else, it's a perceived legitimacy and an expecting mind that brings a person to feel healthier after a bit of booze.
Ракия (Rakia, the homemade brandy) seems to be a cure-all for every kind of ailment. Headache? Indigestion? Drink some rakia. Temperature? Drink some rakia with honey. Bad back? How about a rakia sponge-bath? At one gathering, a colleague of mine was feeding a cat that bit her finger and made her bleed. Open wound? Stick it in a glass of rakia! At one of the other library Christmas parties, before we started drinking, I was sitting next to a gal I really enjoy and she turned to me and said, "For those who have died," and poured a bit of rakia out onto the floor. In the library! Ha!
I have yet to hear an adult Bulgarian talk about getting drunk, not even in jokes, yet I'm invited for a drink nearly every day. In Bulgaria, there isn't a goal of getting drunk. Back home, if you drink more than someone else thinks is reasonable, people say you're an alcoholic. Here, people don't really judge you in that way. I'm not saying there aren't alcoholics here - there are - but it's different. It might be too much for me to depict the differences without examples. One weekend, during my first Peace Corps adventure, I went to a human trafficking conference with a group of 20 high school and university kids between the ages of 15 and 20. The teacher facilitated all kinds of ice-breaker games with sexual innuendos during the day and organized a party with beer and whiskey for her daughter's 17th birthday on one of the nights (legal drinking age is 18)! All that would be considered way inappropriate back home - but none of those kids acted inappropriately on our weekend getaway. It simply wasn't an issue. No one abused it, and no one got out of control. Was it because they'd grown up with it? Was it because their society doesn't over-react to every little thing? Or was it just another cultural difference?
Alcohol doesn't negatively impact productivity, from what I've seen. In fact, I've seen plenty of examples of how it improves productivity in the long run, as it brings people together and puts everyone on the same festive page. It may be read wrong from an American psyche, but one lady put it best, "In the summer, we work. In the winter, we drink." I think the translation is not literal. "Drinking" in English, is consuming alcoholic beverages. Although I know there's much more to it that I simply don't fully understand and can't possibly describe, near as I can tell, "drinking" in Bulgarian, is consuming alcoholic beverages with friends.
Some colleagues organized a hike to a lodge of sorts, one Saturday. The building in the forest was something of a retreat for politicians during communist days. Now it's a forest lodge with a scout camp nearby.It was a short hike through the snow, and I got a nice chance to talk with people I don't usually see at the library. I kept saying how awesome I thought this was that they planned a weekend event with their colleagues. My impressions confused them until I explained that my colleagues back home didn't really do anything together after working hours. I guess that confused them even more. "We're all friends," they told me, "Of course we do things together outside of work." They couldn't understand being a part of a team, and not being friends. Frankly, I can't either.It didn't take long for someone to break out the rakia on our hike. This was special winter rakia - mixed with sugar, lemon juice, and red pepper and heated! Pretty interesting hiking beverage! Ha! Once we got to the lodge, we continued with the rakia, and added wine and snacks! The "snacks" were different salads and pickled vegetables that go really well with rakia. We ate and drank for a few hours and then called it a day and headed back to the bus stop. Pretty great little winter outing. Pretty great little team!
Who knows how much I really understand about drinking in Bulgaria. Sure, I have my keen observations and impressive reasoning skills, but it's possible that they're a bit skewed by my American psyche, wondrous as it may be. Drinking is a significant component of integration, which is one of my top priorities as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Even though I'm drinking more than I would have back home, it's not same kind of drinking, and I've always been able to heed the Peace Corps' disclaimer of not drinking my brains out and doing stupid things. All I can say with absolute certainty is that the world of drinking here is not the same as it is back home. If you're curious to know more, I invite you to come experience it with me! Next month is my other favorite Bulgarian holiday: Трифон Зарезан (A festival of wine)!
I spent the Christmas weekend with my former counterpart's family. It was an absolutely traditional Bulgarian Christmas! We slaughtered a pig, then feasted until we passed out! For three days!!! This is such a strong piece of the Bulgarian culture, many Bulgarians have tried to take it with them as they immigrate to the USA. I kept hearing stories of Bulgarians who got arrested or deported for slaughtering pigs in their new suburban American neighborhoods. One stuck with me. A friend of a friend bought a pig to raise for the year with the intention of having a Christmas feast. No one else in the neighborhood had a pig and the kids loved it! They named it John and played with it all year long. John the Pig was a big hit, but that Christmas morning, kids woke up to John squealing his brains out! They all came running to see what was wrong – and they found Mr. Bulgarian preparing his Christmas feast.The neighbors were so upset, they called the police, and Mr. Bulgarian ended up getting deported! This is a perfect example of a cultural misunderstanding. But since I understand cultural misunderstandings, I enjoyed every bit of the holiday!
I was super impressed at how efficiently the pig came apart - and how quickly everyone worked together. They used every last piece of that pig! It was a lot of hard work but all the helping hands made it go by very fast. The positive attitudes were great, too! They were obviously all very prepared and aware of what needed to be done. And everyone did it. It was a very beautiful team effort.Family dynamics, however, are like nothing I've ever seen. It may be true that I've not been exposed to enough to form even a general opinion, but I like forming general opinions anyway. My former counterpart's family are great people! They love having me over – and I love coming over – it's always a very pleasant overall experience. However, there are some moments when I'm extremely uncomfortable. They fight with each other a lot! I can't keep up with the language when they're cursing and speaking in village dialect, but I certainly understand the yelling and the hand gestures flying through the air! I usually try not to get in the middle of anything when one of these outbursts erupts. Especially since everyone's working on the pig – they all have a knife in one hand.One example is with the grandfather who is 88 years old and can't really take care of himself. He usually sits in the corner and watches things – speaking very rarely. If he moves, it's to go to the bathroom, which is an outhouse in the back yard. He moves like a three-toed sloth so the whole trip takes him about 15 to 20 minutes. The family helps him onto his walker, and into his chair, but they seem to curse him during the entire event. If he makes a mistake or moves too slowly, they yell at him. It's the saddest thing you've ever seen. He had his finger in a sling, but took it off to eat dinner. His finger is obviously broken and swollen and I asked what happened. “He's old.” the family casually informed me. On the 24th he ate with us in the big dining room, but for Christmas dinner he sat down below. I thought I heard that it was because he drank too much the night before and it was difficult for the family to get him back to his corner – but when I asked, they told me he didn't want to eat with everyone else. Maybe they were talking about my drinking?
On the other hand – the family goes out of their way to take care of him. Clipping his fingernails, catering to his dietary needs, waiting on him for other needs. It's so odd to see the change from contempt to coddling happen so quickly. And it was true for all of them. There's a very clear and strong sense of family, and it's respected at the same time it's abused! It feels like any one of them would take a bullet for another – yet they despise each other at certain times. It pulls me back to the comment I made in front of a group of kids about how I celebrate Christmas back home. I said we eat dinner with our families – and I thought that sounded super lame because they do that here all the time. But as I look at it now, I can say that my celebration of Christmas is a lot less lame because none of us really have temporary fits of hatred towards each other - and that's really special.Overall, the holiday weekend was full of really, really good food, good fun, and good people. I couldn't have asked for a more enjoyable time. I waddled away with a full belly, a smile, some new recipes to try, and a big bag of food and booze to last me to the end of the year!
Monday night was the company Christmas party! It included folks from the municipality, various museums in town, a children's center, and of course, our library. The venue was a luxurious 5-star hotel, where we each had to pay about 5 USD for a full meal and drinks! Not bad! I had trouble holding in my laughter when I saw that everyone brought their own rakia and wine - their own private stashes from home batches. Little water bottles filled with rakia, stuffed in purses, and two-liter soda bottles filled with wine and kept under the table. It was a funny sight. After having tried the homemade stuff, though, I would have been doing the same thing! The homemade stuff is sooo good!
Homemade alcohol is the standard throughout the country. Most prominently, people grow grapes to make wine, and then with the leftover materials, they add sugar and water for further fermentation, until they're ready to distill it. The result is some kind of a brandy, called rakia, that is sometimes magnificent! Grapes are most popular, followed by plums, but my region is famous for it's apricot brandy. And I've had some that is just amazing! It's hit and miss, though. I think the old men who usually make the stuff, have one of two goals: either make it delicious, or make it strong. These are the two types that seem to be most common. The strong rakia leaves you aching in the morning, and the delicious rakia is dangerous for your walk home that night. =)
One of the rakias I tried Monday night was fantastic! I quickly asked what it was made from, but because I was already slightly intoxicated, I goofed with the language again. Instead of asking if it was from raspberries like I thought it was, I asked if it was from olives (the two words are so close: маслини/малини), which is a disgusting thought! Opa! Oh well, they all got a good laugh, and the night went on.
People were having such a great time at the party! The director of the archeological museum was by far the best dancer - but I don't think I could give him the title of happiest because there was another guy that was smiling so big, I swear he couldn't see out of his own eyes!I danced all night, and I was a pretty big hit! Probably because I'm such a good dancer. The wanting eyes of women twice my age were a far cry from the wanting eyes of guys back in Portland that I'm used to. Still an odd combination of awkwardness and flattery. Still don't quite know how to handle that kind of attention, but it eventually yielded to the men of the group telling me I need to find a young Bulgarian girl to keep me in Bulgaria. =)They're a great group and I'm happy to be with them while I can. It's such a privilege to work with talented and motivated people! Incidentally, to work at the library, it's obligatory to have a master's degree so these people are quite competent.
Today, the last working day of the year, we closed early to have another Christmas party. This time it was only with the library staff. This kind of event really keeps the crew in good spirits. It revitalizes camaraderie and makes working with your fellow colleagues much more pleasant - it's something I really envy.This is the director telling us how great of a job everyone has done over the year - and wishing everyone fruitful success in the new year! Her speech was followed by the deputy mayor - the one I whacked with a stick last week - saying much of the same.Drinks and snacks were enjoyed by all for a couple hours, good luck cards (like fortune cookies) were read by all and it was a genuine good time.
At the end, the director gave everyone a pen with the library name and logo printed on it as a Christmas gift. I felt like such a goon after having blogged about how much Bulgarian pens suck! These are nice pens, though! The irony is extreme - I hope she wasn't offended by my post!
Merry Winter Solstice to all, and to all a good night.
So I've been to the library for a week or two, and I think I've seen it all. In Peace Corps' arms, thinkin' I'll go far. Back home my type is rare. I dig ethnicky jazz and pop songs playing on a 2-bit radio. Now I know what it is to be cold, living next to the slums with so much soul!
Before I began working, I had a day of introduction. We walked into the library on December 9th, with its 25-foot high ceilings, and it was freezing! My counterpart apologized to me and told me that they'll start heating the place in January, but until then, wear a jacket. For the first week, every time I saw a thermometer outside it read -1, 0, or +1.
On my first work day at the Partenii Pavlovich Library, I attended an 8am meeting with all the staff. There are 24 employees here, but 8 of them were on vacation. My counterpart is just under the director as she manages all the departments of the library. At the meeting, I was asked to speak a little bit about myself after I was introduced as speaking phenomenal Bulgarian and an excellent resource for the library staff who want to practice their English (there have been two so far).
I started my normal goofball introduction in Bulgarian, saying that I am Andrew the Beautiful, eternal bachelor! It comes from a traditional Bulgarian song and usually people laugh their heads off when I say it. But this time it only cracked a few smiles and I felt like a jerk. My saving grace happened a moment later, after my spiel, when one lady asked me to sing the whole song at the library Christmas party!At the end of the day, I walked out of the library with my counterpart and the director to see the whole center lit up with Christmas lights! I said, "Look how beautiful it is!" and before they could respond, I continued, "Hey, I'm over here!" They got a great kick out of that! We walked 20 meters and my counterpart said, "Can you see how beautiful it is?" I responded with, "Yes. I have a mirror." Ha! Oh man! They kept calling me a sweetheart. I think they don't have a word for cornball, but I love that they appreciate my sense of humor!
My counterpart has been insanely helpful in making sure I'm comfortable in the community. She goes so far out of her way to make sure I'm happy that I feel bad not being able to reciprocate, although I'm trying the best I can. She told me, unofficially, that we're going to start working 7-hour days because it's too cold to be here for 8 hours. =) I was complaining about how cold my apartment was and so the director said she'd lend me one of her blankets! Super nice! She even tried to hail a cab for me so I wouldn't have to walk all the way home under the burden of a 3-pound blanket! I took the opportunity to tell her to relax because I'm a strong man!
Half way through my first week, there was some kind of children's event in our big hall. They came for a presentation about Christmas, more or less. But since I'm such a hot item, the gal running the show asked me if I would be part of the introduction and say a few words. No problem I thought. Well, actually, there's a very big problem. Once in a while, I encounter a Bulgarian that I simply can not understand. It's not a matter of them speaking too quickly or not slow enough. I simply can't understand them. Either how they speak, or the words they choose to use. Nothing works. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word she was saying. But I feel bad about it so I always say that I do understand and hope my genius level I.Q. will figure it out before it's too late. Well, that didn't happen this time. All of a sudden, I was standing in front of about 30 kids, and welcoming them to a presentation that I didn't understand. I was supposed to talk about myself and my counterpart was nearby to say, "tell them how you celebrate Christmas." Alright! A starting point! I said, "We celebrate Christmas by eating dinner with our families." That's it. Crap. When I realized how lame that sounded I tried to recover but just dug myself a deeper hole. Humor didn't save me this time.
Later, I was invited to a Christmas recital in the same hall and as i entered there was one gal singing as people took their seats. She had the most beautiful voice! As she started another song her voice cracked, and she paused before trying again. It cracked again and she stepped off stage to ask her teacher who was playing the piano if she could step down. Then she walked to her seat with tears streaming down her cheeks. =) The recital officially opened up with what seemed to be a 4 year old and a 6 year old singing their heads off! They were really belting it out and it was sooo cute!
Our library hosts so many events and I seem to be paraded around to them all as if I had a hand in them. Really, I think they want to show me off. I enjoy being a novelty, to a point. I get invited to this or that and then show up to loads of curiosity, which I also enjoy, but then I'm asked to say a few words. It's a reasonable request - I just seem to get stage fright every time! They ask me to say something at the last minute and I usually don't know what's going on. The shock of the moment usually leads to me speaking crap Bulgarian and not saying anything at all aside from, "Uhhhh". I lose all my vocabulary and then I get more nervous and I spiral out of control!
I was invited to another event. I thought, as I always do, that I would be going to watch something. It was a typical traditional Bulgarian event that I've never seen before. Kids decorate sticks so that they may hit each other on the back on New Year's. I guess the belief is that it brings them good health. I don't see the connection, but I don't think anyone would be too surprised to learn that I don't understand everything. So I arrive to this event, expecting to see kids running around and hitting each other with sticks. I prepared myself for a good beating cause I'm the novelty foreigner and I'm sure the kids would want me to have good health in the new year. Turns out, they were just decorating at this event and I was invited to decorate a stick, too. Looking around, the whole scene reminded me of Charlie Brown's Christmas! Of course, these kids weren't decorating Christmas trees, but Christmas whipping sticks! They have a Bulgarian name, but I don't think it translates.Anyway, I was having all kinds of fun tying different random things to my stick in "decoration" when all of a sudden, the organizer gal asks me to say a few words in Bulgarian and thrusts a microphone in my face!Well, because of my previous failings I have worked out an outline of a few things to talk about when someone says, "here, talk about yourself." I gave my spiel and I could hear people talking about how well I speak Bulgarian. I felt damn good about myself! And on top of the giddiness from the Charlie Brown Christmas Stick Whacking, I was on Cloud 9! Then, all of a sudden, there was a reporter from one of the national news agencies with a microphone in my face, asking me questions about this particular holiday. Between the chaos of the screaming kids, the overly-loud kids music in the background, and having to listen to more than just, "talk about yourself", I was stumped! "Do you celebrate New Year's like this or similarly where you're from?" she asks. "Uhhhh", I respond, "Well, we celebrate, but we don't use sticks, we use beer and champaign." In hindsight, that probably wasn't the ideal answer at a children's event. But it's sorta true. What kind of kid activities are there at New Year's in the U.S.? Fireworks? Anyway, the interview went on and I continued to fail to impress. When it was over, I sat down, almost exhausted, and explained to my counterpart that I like talking to people, but it's hard for me when I can't prepare. She stopped me to introduce me to so and so, from the regional news for another interview. And unfortunately, this was another lady that for the life of me, I could just not understand. I tried to salvage my dignity when she pointed to my stick and either asked me, "How beautiful is that?!" or "How beautiful are you going to make that?" and I interrupted to say - "I'm always beautiful!" Haha! Ya know, if no one else is making you laugh, sometimes you just gotta make yourself laugh!
Near the end, the deputy mayor presented me with an award and I whacked her with my stick and told her happy new year. And finally, we danced.As I left the crowded hall, I asked a guy to get out of my way. He turned around, stuck out his hand to shake, and said to me, "You are cool!" Awesome!
It's really cold here! And Bulgarian pens suck. They never work. How can that be? Okay, they work for a short sentence or two - maybe one long sentence, but then they crap out. If you let them sit for 15 minutes you can get another sentence out of them.
I woke up to about 3 inches of snow this morning and a long trek to work. Five miles. Uphill both ways. =) On my walk I noticed some things. There was no less traffic today than there was yesterday. No one was using chains, nor did I hear studs the day before on the hard pavement. There are very few SUVS and 4-wheel drives. Wanna know how many accidents I saw? None. Take note, Portland, people drive like idiots here, too, but they manage to do so without wrecking.
I bought a pair of old socks from a second hand store for $5/lb. They are the length of my leg and nice and heavy! So I wore them to work today but my legs itched all day long and I probably won't wear them again...
I arrived to my new town in the afternoon, to sunshine and smiles! It was probably about 70 degrees. The next morning, it was snowing, and my colleagues told me to expect about a meter of snow at the peak of winter! Eek!I live in a cold, barely occupied, communist-built, concrete structure. The tall one on the far right. It has 12 stories and 4 elevators, but only one that works. I live on the edge of the city, overlooking the center. My "block" is right next to a "slum" of sorts. It's basically where the minority groups live. The two other Volunteers in town said they were warned to never go there, especially after dark! I think that's more indicative of a lack of social awareness than anything else. I don't find it too scary. On the other side of my block is a Kaufland, which I guess, is Germany's version of Walmart. It has everything I could possibly need - and I find it amusing that it opened 4 months ago, in what a statistician would call, a dying town. Silistra's population peaked (around 70,000) around the time communism fell. Now, it's about 20,000. People between the ages of 18 and 35 usually go to a bigger city or somewhere else in Europe to look for jobs. This trend is becoming more and more common in smaller sized cities. It's an odd feeling to be walking around the city around dinner time and count how many apartments have lights on. I'd hazard a guess at around 10-15%. But I'm not supposed to be outside after dark so shh.
I have mixed feelings about my apartment. It's a one-bedroom apartment and the rent is roughly $100 a month. I think that's overpriced, especially considering selection potential. In fact, I met a guy whose girlfriend is trying to rent her three-bedroom apartment, which is much closer to the center, for two-thirds that price. Oh well. Its concrete floors are covered with random bits and pieces of scrap carpet, linoleum, and newspaper. None of it is cut to fit the rooms well, but I suppose it's more comfortable than the concrete.My "bedroom" came with two pullout couches for beds, two heaters, a table, and a chair. The landlord told me not to use the big heater because it's expensive, but assured me that it worked. Later, when I was freezing, I decided to plug it in anyway (electricity is cheaper at night) only to find that the power cord had been severed and there's no extra outlet for it anyway.
I pulled out one of the couches to make my bed and found hairs, stains, and food on the mattress. Gross. I put that one away and pulled out the other to find less of the same, but still the same, nonetheless. After the second night of extreme discomfort, I sprung for a mattress. I bought a big sheet of super firm foam for about $50. It's the exact same thing I bought back home and used for the bed I made last year except back home it cost $300! I had to move the two couches around a bit so my new mattress would fit; and once I moved them into appropriate lighting, I could see dust clouds rising off of them with the slightest touch.My kitchen came complete with a tiny oven and a moldy, sticky refrigerator that I can't stop from freezing my milk, yogurt, steak, and eggs! I have a small table with two chairs and a rack on which to set some cooking supplies. It feels like my kitchen has everything but the kitchen sink. In fact, my kitchen doesn't have a sink. But there's a closet between the kitchen and the bathroom with a sink in it - so I can wash my dishes in the closet. =) Also in the closet is a washing machine. The landlord says it works, but I've looked everywhere and can't find an outlet in the closet. Go figure.My bathroom is pretty standard. There's a sink, a toilet, and a shower. I kinda like it. I was really glad to find out that the toilet seat doesn't get wet when I take a shower! The one drawback is the really old water heater. It didn't work the first day, and so I had to take a cold shower on a cold morning. But it's worked since! Fingers crossed!
Overall, the apartment is gross. Really gross. But, my landlord is super, super nice. He assures me, almost daily, that if I ever have a problem, he'll figure it out. He has supplied me with a dust sucker (vacuum), a rock-hard mop, a wet rag, and lots of really warm smiles! I really like him and his family. They've already had me over four times for food and drinks, and I haven't even been here a full week! After I've had some time to clean, everything will be right!Again on the positive side of things, this is the view from my apartment - on the 8th floor. And, I have internet - faster than any internet I've ever had in the states! The town is pretty neat. It's in the far northeast corner of Bulgaria, bordered by the Danube river and Romania. They tell me this is the world's oldest mosque (built over 500 years ago), but I think Google disagrees. There is a super cute city center, and it looks to me so far, like it has a very active sense of community.There's an interesting mix of Romanian and Bulgarian architecture, with bits of Roman ruins strewn around here and there. The population is pretty diverse, too, being Bulgarian, Turkish, Roma, Romanian, and me!Trying to continue my enjoyment of fitness, I found a gym in my town! It's in the basement of a community center built ages ago. It's dirty and there are pictures of hot chicks taken from magazines and taped to the the walls. The equipment is greasy and squeaky, there is rust on my hands after I touch anything, and pop music blares from a tiny radio in the corner. It's perfect! I made a friend the first day I went, too. He's huge, but struck me as kind and gentle so I think I'll probably enjoy his friendship.This is more or less the "entrance" - as you no doubt can tell.
I'm finding the people to be similar to how I found them the last time I was in Bulgaria, which really reinforces how good of an observer I really am. Pretty much all of the older people I've been meeting with here are sweet, kind, endearing, and fun. It's kind of confusing to hear that their life expectancy is so low - 69 for men, and 76 for women. I haven't broken into the younger crowd yet, but looking on from the outside, I can see they're full of life.
My colleagues seem to be fantastic people. My counterpart took me around town and gave me a tour, along with the director of the library. On the tour, we stopped for lunch at their favorite place. As we sat down, I put my bag on the ground and the director began with her disapproval. She told me I can't put my bag on the ground because I'll end up with NO money! I told her to relax – I've got a fish scale in my wallet! But she wasn't having it. She insisted I set it on the chair next to me. And so I did. It feels so great to have people looking out for me. I'll write more about them when I know them better.This really made me laugh! Don't know if you can see it, but the salt choice on the left (in green) is labeled "Light" and it advertises that its contents have 51% less salt! Click on the picture to make it bigger. The salt on the right is produced by a company called "Mercury Foods"! Haha!Make sure and bring your cup of corn the next time you sit down to read about my project here at the library. Comes in three different sizes with your choice of oil, salt, soy sauce, seasoning salt, curry, red pepper, hot sauce, Mexican spices, mayonnaise, caramel, and/or honey! Mmm!
It was a long, long trip to Bulgaria and when I arrived, there was no one there to meet me. I looked all around, walked here and there, but there was no one waiting for me! I decided to sit down and dink around on the internet for a while before I decided to panic. I looked up occasionally and scanned the people who were meeting fresh arrivals. Finally, I saw my ride. A guy holding the Peace Corps logo and a gal I recognized as one of the program staff. I welcomed them to the airport and told them I had been waiting an hour. They in turn said they had also been waiting an hour. Ha! My ass!
They roughly explained how things would go over my 4 days of orientation and then dropped me off at my hotel. It was 14:30 and I was exhausted! But I had to stay up till the end of the day to beat the jet lag. I started unpacking my bags a bit so I could get cleaned up when all of a sudden I got hit with an unexpected emotion that begged the question: What the hell am I doing??? Haha! I left a job and a home to go gallivanting around again! Well, that emotion died when I remembered that I love to gallivant, and that was that.
I decided to kill time by walking around to familiarize myself with the area and maybe see if I could get a SIM card for my phone. Plus, I was starving. As you can see, going for a walk on the side streets is literally a walk on the street as drivers use the sidewalks for parking. I used this first meal to christen my new diet with a doner kebab! Oh man! And right across the street from the kebab shop was a phone shop! I chatted my brains out at each store and the people responded with a very genuine curiosity. It was a neat feeling. In fact, my language is really coming back fast! I was a bit worried at first, but I've had some really nice conversations with some really nice people so far! Obviously, I've forgotten some things, but they'll come back.Things Bulgarian started standing out on my walk. Even with my olfactory fatigue, I could smell the distinct smell of Bulgaria. And it all came rushing back. I heard car alarms, barking dogs, the landlady yelling, people having sex. I saw crumbling sidewalks and buildings, litter, potholes, puddles of who knows what – and in the mix of all this life and chaos, though it may seem contradictory, there's an obvious simplicity to the lifestyle here. Although the cars speed by, these peoples' hurry isn't to keep up with the Joneses. I find that they live to meet their needs today rather than focus on making sure their needs are met tomorrow. Which way is better? Is one actually better? Ensuring that you have stability and security in the future is a good thing – but there is a price that is paid for it. For me, that price comes in the form of worrying, working too hard, and stress. If one were to choose to focus on meeting the needs of today, the insurance of meeting tomorrow's needs may not be there, but the worrying and stress would be drastically reduced as well. I wonder how to quantify that to see if it's worth it? I'm not saying they neglect the future, they simply don't seem to be constantly preoccupied with it. While I may be generalizing a bit, it's also possible that my observation isn't exact in its accuracy... but that's not likely.This picture made me laugh. I wanted to capture the environmental efforts of Sofia and this guy came up and took a box from the bin. In fact, reuse is better than recycling so bravo, Bulgarian!
I met with a Peace Corps doctor for my medical orientation. The acting doctor was a visiting doctor from Peace Corps Kazakhstan. He had a 30-year career as a doctor in the Soviet Union Army and he's spending his retirement as a doctor in the United States Peace Corps! I love the contrast! As you can imagine, he was a pretty interesting guy. Stone cold serious, but yielding to emotion for a smile now and again. He'd be fun to get to know, but he's leaving in a few days.
On Monday, I went to lunch with a lady from the office and she took me to a nearby restaurant. It was Nikolov den (Nick/Nicole's Day), a holiday on which you are supposed to eat fish so I ordered the fish soup. She told me that if I find a fish scale in my soup, I have to take it out and put it in my wallet. And I should leave it there for one year until next year's holiday. Does this contradict my observations about living for today? No. Anyway, I thought I had dodged a bullet by not finding one, but the next day she brought in some scales and let me choose one. She insisted that I put it in my wallet and stressed that if I didn't, I would have NO MONEY for the whole year! At least I can be sure that no one will want to take my wallet now.
Today I swore in and am officially a Peace Corps Response Volunteer! Woo! Tomorrow, I will get a ride to my new town of Silistra. It should be a 6-hour drive if all goes well. I really lucked out in getting a ride - when I was a volunteer the first time around, we all had to get to our sites on our own. Silistra would be a long trek using trains and buses, not to mention a super hassle with all my luggage. Anyway, I'll have a story and a picture from there in a while.
Here I go again! On my own! I've tried for a year and a half to “settle down” after returning to the USA from graduate school and it's all been a colossal failure! Sure, I've had some fun here and there, but on the whole, I'm not satisfied with how things are going. I've given up on forcing myself into something I'm obviously not ready for and have taken back the reigns of my life! Now I'm ready for a ride! Yeee haaawww!
On Saturday, December 4th, I'll be departing for Bulgaria for another stint with the United States Peace Corps! Words to remember: When you find something you love, stick with it! This time around, I'll be serving for only 3.5 months in a program called Peace Corps Response, which was set up to allow former Volunteers to serve again to implement a meaningful project in a brief period of time. It's kind of a nice, new benefit that the Peace Corps offers instead of only having the one option of a 27-month commitment. I applied specifically for Bulgaria because, let's face it, I love it! However, I suppose I could have picked a different country, had my language skills and experience all aligned appropriately. Maybe next time.
The assignment for which I applied had a description that is slightly different than the job description I have most recently received. I'm not too surprised, already knowing Bulgaria, the Peace Corps, and that flexibility is a huge part of being able to succeed. In fact, I expect that I won't know exactly what I will be doing until I get to my new post and assess their needs and what is actually accomplishable. I'll be working for the regional library in Silistra, which is in the northeast of the country – near Varna, where I served previously. Near as I can tell, I'll be doing something along the lines of energy efficiency consulting and teaching how to live sustainably. Sounds perfect!
I was originally supposed to leave on November 15th, but due to delays at the Bulgarian embassy in processing my visa, my departure has been postponed a few times. It's been frustrating to organize everything involved with putting my life on hold and then changing it again and again. But in any case, the time has come, and I'm ready to go! It's gonna be a fun opportunity, a resume builder, a chance to exercise some old skills, and when it's all over, I get to return to my job at Metro!
I've got a roughly 21-hour trip, with two transfers, before I get to Bulgaria. Then, I believe that I'll be in the capital city, Sofia, for a four-day orientation followed by a long train/bus ride to my new town! Woo woo!!! I'll try to be consistent in posting news about my new adventure!
Peace Corps Response provides opportunities for returned Peace Corps Volunteers to undertake short-term, high impact assignments in various programs around the world.
I came back to Bulgaria to volunteer at a regional library; to design a long-term program that enhanced library involvement in sustainable community dynamics, focusing on environmentally friendly practices for libraries and beyond.
When I see how readily people take plastic bags from the market, how often I see them blowing in the wind, and how little people care, it makes images like the one above understandable, but certainly not justifiable. Communism may have filtered out wonderful things like personal responsibility, and Captain Planet, but by heck, communism is a thing of the past, and I'm gonna try to help a bit with the future!Since I knew where I'd be serving, I brought two canvas shopping bags with me to Bulgaria, and of course my super reusable, steel water bottle! This was mostly to appease my own personal constitution, but I'm finding that being under a microscope as an exotic guy in a foreign land, I'm having an unexpected impact on the folks around me. So I decided to roll with it!
I'm getting an excited and very interested response from my colleagues, which is great, but there's a lot more people in this town and breaking their old ways will be a very difficult thing to do! I'm going to try hard to find a source of reusable bags and water bottles for this community, but I don't know how realistic that will be yet. Sure, I'll take your suggestions, if you have any.
