Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Best part about winter
The best part about winter here is that the kitchen doubles as a refrigerator. After cooking, you can leave the leftovers and ingredients on the counter for days. We have been the drinking milk in there for the last 3 days and it still hasn't turned.
Friday, January 28, 2011
January is cold
Hey ya'll,
I hope January was good for everyone. It's been kinda cold here but it isn't nearly as bad as last year. Or so it seems. It's still single digits when I get up in the morning, but I prepared for the winter this year and insulated my windows in the apartment to kill the draft. This year my thermometer in the bedroom sticks at around 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit for now. Last year is was around 40. I also have a better stove to burn wood in so we can actually get the living room up to warm temperatures. I have been spending a lot more time outdoors too. Plamen and I go out to the river on walks for a few hours a week.
Here in Koynare, the longest river in Bulgaria passes through the town. Plamen and I get in his car and follow the dirt roads out to the river where we find ourselves in the nature. The river is a wonderful place but unfortunately the tough times here are really taking it's toll on the nature. The area is littered with tree stumps and garbage. The illegal farming of trees for firewood is rampant. Every time we go out to the river, it depresses me with all the freshly cut down trees and evidence of late night tree harvesting. I would be surprised if there is a single tree left after 10 years. Plamen has lived in Koynare almost his whole life and he loves nature. He feels more at home alone in the woods than he does surrounded by people. He tells me stories of what used to be here and how much wildlife there used to be within the forest. There is one place he showed me that is nearly barren now and he told me that when he was young they used to refer to it as "the jungle". Now there are only a handful of trees there and wildlife is scarce. The river also brings garbage. When the waters rise, and then retreat, they leave behind giant piles of trash. The beautiful islands in the river are completely blanketed with bottles, boots and tires. The river also brings wood and leaves it along the shores. Plamen and I have started gathering this wood and filling his car with it to use as firewood. We would rather collect the wood the river has already brought than contribute to the chopping down of the live trees. It really is a shame that this is the situation that has fallen upon this town. Electricity is too expensive, there isn't enough work, legal firewood is expensive and hard to obtain, and there are few trees left nearby. So they unfortunately have no choice but to harvest the locally available resources to survive the winter. And after a few years of this, they will exhaust everything.
After one hike that Plamen and I went on, we started a campfire. It was cold and we had been out all afternoon. The sun was setting as we made it back to his car. Plamen had brought some fresh pork, bread and wine so we could cook dinner over a fire. We sat down amongst some stumps of recently chopped down trees. There were plenty of small branches littering the area from the felled trees so we gathered them and got the fire going. Plamen and I sat on the ground, skewered some pork on sticks and added some onion in there as well. We stuck the meat directly into the hot coals and toasted the bread over the fire. It was freaking awesome. I really think that few things in this world compare to sitting out in the wilderness, making a fire and cooking dinner over it. The food was fresh and delicious and the wine was red and homemade. It was a good end of a hike.
My project for the track team has been fully funded and almost everything is already purchased. For the past few weeks, the coach and I have been buying all the equipment we put into the budget. The track team here was using very old, broken equipment. The kids did not have running shoes or uniforms and inadequate practice equipment. With my project, we have purchased starting blocks, hurdles, shot puts, discs, javelins, uniforms, running shoes, track spikes, track suits and more. The kids are ecstatic. When they went to track meets, they were intimidated by the other teams. They didn't know how to use the starting blocks, proper form for jumping hurdles, their shoes and uniforms were mismatched and old. Now they look sharp. The confidence is increasing and I could feel the excited energy from them when I was at practice yesterday. They have their new track suits and shoes on and they look good. I watched as they were running laps while smiling and laughing. This weekend they are at their first track meet with the new equipment.
Cveti is now at the end of her first semester and she is taking her finals. She already has taken three of them and has a few more in the upcoming weeks. Of the three she has taken, she is has 2 A's already and we are still waiting to find out the grade for her English test. I am pretty confident that she did well on that one...
I don't really want to get into details on a public blog, but there are a lot of issues going on at the organization where I work. All day while I am here in this small office I listen to people yelling at each other and arguing about who did what and where things have disappeared to. It's really starting to wear on me and I find myself dreading sitting here and listening to this. Even though I am not really in the middle of it or involved at all, I am still sitting here listening to the yelling. I can't concentrate on anything and find myself just wandering the internet and lost in my own thoughts. Not the most productive environment. Hopefully it will pass but I don't think it will.
So that's all I got for now.
Rory
I hope January was good for everyone. It's been kinda cold here but it isn't nearly as bad as last year. Or so it seems. It's still single digits when I get up in the morning, but I prepared for the winter this year and insulated my windows in the apartment to kill the draft. This year my thermometer in the bedroom sticks at around 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit for now. Last year is was around 40. I also have a better stove to burn wood in so we can actually get the living room up to warm temperatures. I have been spending a lot more time outdoors too. Plamen and I go out to the river on walks for a few hours a week.
Here in Koynare, the longest river in Bulgaria passes through the town. Plamen and I get in his car and follow the dirt roads out to the river where we find ourselves in the nature. The river is a wonderful place but unfortunately the tough times here are really taking it's toll on the nature. The area is littered with tree stumps and garbage. The illegal farming of trees for firewood is rampant. Every time we go out to the river, it depresses me with all the freshly cut down trees and evidence of late night tree harvesting. I would be surprised if there is a single tree left after 10 years. Plamen has lived in Koynare almost his whole life and he loves nature. He feels more at home alone in the woods than he does surrounded by people. He tells me stories of what used to be here and how much wildlife there used to be within the forest. There is one place he showed me that is nearly barren now and he told me that when he was young they used to refer to it as "the jungle". Now there are only a handful of trees there and wildlife is scarce. The river also brings garbage. When the waters rise, and then retreat, they leave behind giant piles of trash. The beautiful islands in the river are completely blanketed with bottles, boots and tires. The river also brings wood and leaves it along the shores. Plamen and I have started gathering this wood and filling his car with it to use as firewood. We would rather collect the wood the river has already brought than contribute to the chopping down of the live trees. It really is a shame that this is the situation that has fallen upon this town. Electricity is too expensive, there isn't enough work, legal firewood is expensive and hard to obtain, and there are few trees left nearby. So they unfortunately have no choice but to harvest the locally available resources to survive the winter. And after a few years of this, they will exhaust everything.
After one hike that Plamen and I went on, we started a campfire. It was cold and we had been out all afternoon. The sun was setting as we made it back to his car. Plamen had brought some fresh pork, bread and wine so we could cook dinner over a fire. We sat down amongst some stumps of recently chopped down trees. There were plenty of small branches littering the area from the felled trees so we gathered them and got the fire going. Plamen and I sat on the ground, skewered some pork on sticks and added some onion in there as well. We stuck the meat directly into the hot coals and toasted the bread over the fire. It was freaking awesome. I really think that few things in this world compare to sitting out in the wilderness, making a fire and cooking dinner over it. The food was fresh and delicious and the wine was red and homemade. It was a good end of a hike.
My project for the track team has been fully funded and almost everything is already purchased. For the past few weeks, the coach and I have been buying all the equipment we put into the budget. The track team here was using very old, broken equipment. The kids did not have running shoes or uniforms and inadequate practice equipment. With my project, we have purchased starting blocks, hurdles, shot puts, discs, javelins, uniforms, running shoes, track spikes, track suits and more. The kids are ecstatic. When they went to track meets, they were intimidated by the other teams. They didn't know how to use the starting blocks, proper form for jumping hurdles, their shoes and uniforms were mismatched and old. Now they look sharp. The confidence is increasing and I could feel the excited energy from them when I was at practice yesterday. They have their new track suits and shoes on and they look good. I watched as they were running laps while smiling and laughing. This weekend they are at their first track meet with the new equipment.
Cveti is now at the end of her first semester and she is taking her finals. She already has taken three of them and has a few more in the upcoming weeks. Of the three she has taken, she is has 2 A's already and we are still waiting to find out the grade for her English test. I am pretty confident that she did well on that one...
I don't really want to get into details on a public blog, but there are a lot of issues going on at the organization where I work. All day while I am here in this small office I listen to people yelling at each other and arguing about who did what and where things have disappeared to. It's really starting to wear on me and I find myself dreading sitting here and listening to this. Even though I am not really in the middle of it or involved at all, I am still sitting here listening to the yelling. I can't concentrate on anything and find myself just wandering the internet and lost in my own thoughts. Not the most productive environment. Hopefully it will pass but I don't think it will.
So that's all I got for now.
Rory
Monday, January 10, 2011
In the land where the streets are paved with gold
I'm back in Bulgaria after a wonderful trip home. The trip back to the states started off absolutely terrible though. I will get to that in a moment.
Before I left, Cveti and I spent a couple days in Sofia together. We went shopping for gifts as well as spent some good time together. We went and saw Megamind at a 3D theater in Sofia. It was Cveti's first 3D movie and it was a lot of fun. The movie was dubbed in Bulgarian but I understood basically everything and very much enjoyed it. We went out to some nice meals and at one dinner, Cveti and I sat next to a woman that used to be the host of a popular TV show here. We had a great time together just hanging in Sofia.
On Wednesday, the 22nd, Cveti and I got up at like 4am to get to the airport to catch my early plane to Munich. Well, when we got there, the whole airport was covered in fog and all flights were cancelled. Cveti and I waited in line for the single computer at Sofia Airport available to Lufthansa. We waited for 4 hours before they got me on another flight. The flight was to leave at 1:50pm and it looked hopeful that it would actually fly. I said goodbye to Cveti around noon and went through security. I then waited until about 5pm before they finally cancelled that flight too since the fog never lifted. Well, I got booked on a flight at 6am the next morning. So I left the airport, went to the hostel and slept for a few hours. Then got back to the airport bright and early and the fog was still there. They said the flight had a green light though. My itinerary had changed though and I would fly to Frankfurt, then Munich, then Chicago. Well. My flight out of Sofia was delayed again but it did fly. I missed the flight to Munich. I got on the next one which was also delayed a few hours. In turn, I missed my flight to Chicago from Munich. Finally, in Munich, they got me on a waitlist for a flight to Chicago that went out that afternoon. And thanks to the Lufthansa people at the gate, I got on the flight and they upgraded me to business class. :) It was the most comfortable 10 hour flight I've ever been on. It felt so good to finally fly.
Well, I got back to Chicago to be greeted at the airport. We got my bags and drove to Britt and Catherines where the rest of the family was waiting. I made the mistake of taking off my boots which housed my feet who were covered in the wool socks I'd been wearing for 3-4 days... This resulted in a quick shower, changed clothes, airing out of the house and a lot of moans and groans from my loving family about my stinky feet. After that we did a quick dinner and I went to sleep. The following day was Christmas Eve and celebrated by being lazy. Although I woke up at the wee hours of 4ish in the morning due to jet lag, I had a great day with the family. Everyone was there and all the kids too.
On Christmas, I woke up again at like 4am so I went downstairs, got on the computer and started writing Christmas letters to my friends here in Bulgaria. I ate breakfast and drank about a pot of coffee. When I heard the kids running around upstairs getting all excited at about 6am, I knew it was time to celebrate! I had the most energy ever. After all sorts of nauseating amounts of caffeine pumping through my veins. Christmas morning was wonderful and I am thankful we had two trees. One for the kids to tear through, the other one for the adults to sit back and take our sweet time.
That night, I almost died at the table from exhaustion. I left before dessert to go to bed. I missed pumpkin pie.
On the 26th, there was about a foot of fresh snow on the ground. Britt, Dad and I went to the Bears game where we had an amazing time. The game was great and the Bears destroyed the Jets. But it was a good game and we had great seats. We even got to sit out in the snow while watching the game. After the game ended, we had so much fun that we basically didn't leave until they kicked us out.
I could take this thing day by day, but I'll just sum up the rest. I had an amazing time. I got to hang out with my family, meet Molly's boyfriend Paul, see the kids and how much they had grown, share stories and laughs, drive a car, see friends, and eat nasty American food that gave me all sorts of heartburn. I can't thank my parents enough for making the trip so great.
On the 4th of January I got on a plane with over 125lbs of baggage to bring back. The flights went without problem and I was greeted by Cveti at the airport when I arrived. It was great to see her there! When Cveti and I went back to Koynare, I opened the door to my apartment and noticed that the lights weren't working. So I checked the fuses and everything looked good. Then I remembered that I didn't pay my electricity before I left... So Cveti and I spent that first night back at the apartment in the cold and dark. Welcome home.
Since then I paid my electricity and we are back online. I have gotten used to the time difference again and kinda getting in the swing of things. Cveti is back in Sofia getting ready for exams.
So here we are, in the cold again, sleeping and living in rooms where ice crystals form. I forgot how hard it was to get rid of the chill after you wake up in the morning. Hats help.
Be good and stay warm
Rory
Before I left, Cveti and I spent a couple days in Sofia together. We went shopping for gifts as well as spent some good time together. We went and saw Megamind at a 3D theater in Sofia. It was Cveti's first 3D movie and it was a lot of fun. The movie was dubbed in Bulgarian but I understood basically everything and very much enjoyed it. We went out to some nice meals and at one dinner, Cveti and I sat next to a woman that used to be the host of a popular TV show here. We had a great time together just hanging in Sofia.
On Wednesday, the 22nd, Cveti and I got up at like 4am to get to the airport to catch my early plane to Munich. Well, when we got there, the whole airport was covered in fog and all flights were cancelled. Cveti and I waited in line for the single computer at Sofia Airport available to Lufthansa. We waited for 4 hours before they got me on another flight. The flight was to leave at 1:50pm and it looked hopeful that it would actually fly. I said goodbye to Cveti around noon and went through security. I then waited until about 5pm before they finally cancelled that flight too since the fog never lifted. Well, I got booked on a flight at 6am the next morning. So I left the airport, went to the hostel and slept for a few hours. Then got back to the airport bright and early and the fog was still there. They said the flight had a green light though. My itinerary had changed though and I would fly to Frankfurt, then Munich, then Chicago. Well. My flight out of Sofia was delayed again but it did fly. I missed the flight to Munich. I got on the next one which was also delayed a few hours. In turn, I missed my flight to Chicago from Munich. Finally, in Munich, they got me on a waitlist for a flight to Chicago that went out that afternoon. And thanks to the Lufthansa people at the gate, I got on the flight and they upgraded me to business class. :) It was the most comfortable 10 hour flight I've ever been on. It felt so good to finally fly.
Well, I got back to Chicago to be greeted at the airport. We got my bags and drove to Britt and Catherines where the rest of the family was waiting. I made the mistake of taking off my boots which housed my feet who were covered in the wool socks I'd been wearing for 3-4 days... This resulted in a quick shower, changed clothes, airing out of the house and a lot of moans and groans from my loving family about my stinky feet. After that we did a quick dinner and I went to sleep. The following day was Christmas Eve and celebrated by being lazy. Although I woke up at the wee hours of 4ish in the morning due to jet lag, I had a great day with the family. Everyone was there and all the kids too.
On Christmas, I woke up again at like 4am so I went downstairs, got on the computer and started writing Christmas letters to my friends here in Bulgaria. I ate breakfast and drank about a pot of coffee. When I heard the kids running around upstairs getting all excited at about 6am, I knew it was time to celebrate! I had the most energy ever. After all sorts of nauseating amounts of caffeine pumping through my veins. Christmas morning was wonderful and I am thankful we had two trees. One for the kids to tear through, the other one for the adults to sit back and take our sweet time.
That night, I almost died at the table from exhaustion. I left before dessert to go to bed. I missed pumpkin pie.
On the 26th, there was about a foot of fresh snow on the ground. Britt, Dad and I went to the Bears game where we had an amazing time. The game was great and the Bears destroyed the Jets. But it was a good game and we had great seats. We even got to sit out in the snow while watching the game. After the game ended, we had so much fun that we basically didn't leave until they kicked us out.
I could take this thing day by day, but I'll just sum up the rest. I had an amazing time. I got to hang out with my family, meet Molly's boyfriend Paul, see the kids and how much they had grown, share stories and laughs, drive a car, see friends, and eat nasty American food that gave me all sorts of heartburn. I can't thank my parents enough for making the trip so great.
On the 4th of January I got on a plane with over 125lbs of baggage to bring back. The flights went without problem and I was greeted by Cveti at the airport when I arrived. It was great to see her there! When Cveti and I went back to Koynare, I opened the door to my apartment and noticed that the lights weren't working. So I checked the fuses and everything looked good. Then I remembered that I didn't pay my electricity before I left... So Cveti and I spent that first night back at the apartment in the cold and dark. Welcome home.
Since then I paid my electricity and we are back online. I have gotten used to the time difference again and kinda getting in the swing of things. Cveti is back in Sofia getting ready for exams.
So here we are, in the cold again, sleeping and living in rooms where ice crystals form. I forgot how hard it was to get rid of the chill after you wake up in the morning. Hats help.
Be good and stay warm
Rory
Friday, December 17, 2010
Last post of the year!
Welcome to the last post of the year. Over the past month since my last post, many a wonderful merry things have happened. First thing and biggest thing is that my PCPP (fancy term for the track team project I've been working on) is fully funded! Thanks to the kind donations from my friends and family, we raised over $4,500 to purchase equipment for the track and field team here in Koynare. The team currently has very dated uniforms, only a few pairs of running shoes, one or two starting blocks, three hurdles and they are lacking much more. But this money will be able to purchase all the necessary equipment they need to actually have a successful team! We are all very excited here to get the money so we can see this project to the end. I am especially excited because I know that the benefits of this will pay off for these kids and the town for many years.
Second most awesome thing is that in a couple days I am going to be headed back to the states for the first time since May 2009. I am going to be in Chicago for 2 weeks with family and friends for the holidays and I can't wait! I am just not really looking forward to the long flight and I will miss Cveti a lot while I am there, but other than those two things, I am really excited to see everyone and spend some time with them! It has been a long time and everything will be wonderful. I hear that we will even be able to catch a Chicago Bears game... :)
So for Thanksgiving we celebrated again this year at my apartment. However, we did not need to find a live turkey as we planned a little bit more in advance and Dan was able to purchase a frozen turkey from Pleven. Cveti and I hosted Dan and Kari who are two other volunteers and in the spirit of Thanksgiving we invited Plamen and his wife to celebrate with us. Plamen is a teacher at the school who has been like an uncle to me here. He has helped me with countless problems and is the main leader of the Scouts group that we are starting here. He is a guy that I am very thankful to know and that is exactly why we invited him to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was something amazing this year. We had such a good time. Everything was American except a couple very Bulgarian twists. We cooked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed onions, deviled eggs, and had apple crisp for desert. The meal was served buffet style which is very strange here, but I insisted on it. So until this point it was dead on American. But instead of eating a big dinner meal at like 4 or 5pm like we usually do, the dinner started after the guests arrived at around 8:30pm. Plamen, being the hunter he is, brought some fresh cooked pigeons that he had shot recently. Pigeon is kinda delicious. At least now I know that if I live in Chicago without work, I can find food. He also brought some Bulgarian homemade rakia and a salad for us. So we sat and started with salad and rakia. Traditional Bulgarian start to a meal. Then around 9:30 or so, we started on dinner. We ate and ate and ate. Everything was great and my Bulgarian guests LOVED the food. Well, after plates were empty, or close to empty, and we had been sitting for an hour and a half or so talking, I asked if Plamen and his wife were finished eating so I could clear their plates. I thought I was being polite. They said they were still eating and everything was ok. Later, Cveti explained to me that it was rude of me to have asked that since the meal had just started! I swear we had been at the table for close to 2 hours at this point. Well we waited a few more hours, told jokes and stories and enjoyed each other's company until around 11:30 before we put the dessert on the table... And at midnight we lit up a hookah that I got for my birthday and passed it around. It also happened that at around 12:30am we called my mom to wish her a happy birthday. At this point we were all pretty jolly and it was a lot of fun to talk to her on skype. Finally at around 1:30-2am, dinner was over and everyone went home and we went to bed. Literally a 4-5 hour Thanksgiving dinner spent saying thanks to the people that have helped me the most. It was wonderful. Absolutely the best.
Here is a link for some pictures of the night. http://picasaweb.google.com/Roryjnolan/Thanksgiving2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCI38hKPDqcjzOw#
So we also did a really successful HIV/AIDS day of activities with the kids here. We had like 20-25 kids that showed up and all day we did games and activities to teach them about HIV/AIDS. It was a lot of fun and a huge success. I must say that if Cveti wasn't there to help me, then it would not have been even half as successful as it was. It was a great day. Here are more pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/Roryjnolan/20101206#
Ok, that is all for now. I will be going home soon for a few weeks and after that I'll be sure to write.
Thank you to everyone that donated to my project too! And I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season!
Rory
Second most awesome thing is that in a couple days I am going to be headed back to the states for the first time since May 2009. I am going to be in Chicago for 2 weeks with family and friends for the holidays and I can't wait! I am just not really looking forward to the long flight and I will miss Cveti a lot while I am there, but other than those two things, I am really excited to see everyone and spend some time with them! It has been a long time and everything will be wonderful. I hear that we will even be able to catch a Chicago Bears game... :)
So for Thanksgiving we celebrated again this year at my apartment. However, we did not need to find a live turkey as we planned a little bit more in advance and Dan was able to purchase a frozen turkey from Pleven. Cveti and I hosted Dan and Kari who are two other volunteers and in the spirit of Thanksgiving we invited Plamen and his wife to celebrate with us. Plamen is a teacher at the school who has been like an uncle to me here. He has helped me with countless problems and is the main leader of the Scouts group that we are starting here. He is a guy that I am very thankful to know and that is exactly why we invited him to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was something amazing this year. We had such a good time. Everything was American except a couple very Bulgarian twists. We cooked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed onions, deviled eggs, and had apple crisp for desert. The meal was served buffet style which is very strange here, but I insisted on it. So until this point it was dead on American. But instead of eating a big dinner meal at like 4 or 5pm like we usually do, the dinner started after the guests arrived at around 8:30pm. Plamen, being the hunter he is, brought some fresh cooked pigeons that he had shot recently. Pigeon is kinda delicious. At least now I know that if I live in Chicago without work, I can find food. He also brought some Bulgarian homemade rakia and a salad for us. So we sat and started with salad and rakia. Traditional Bulgarian start to a meal. Then around 9:30 or so, we started on dinner. We ate and ate and ate. Everything was great and my Bulgarian guests LOVED the food. Well, after plates were empty, or close to empty, and we had been sitting for an hour and a half or so talking, I asked if Plamen and his wife were finished eating so I could clear their plates. I thought I was being polite. They said they were still eating and everything was ok. Later, Cveti explained to me that it was rude of me to have asked that since the meal had just started! I swear we had been at the table for close to 2 hours at this point. Well we waited a few more hours, told jokes and stories and enjoyed each other's company until around 11:30 before we put the dessert on the table... And at midnight we lit up a hookah that I got for my birthday and passed it around. It also happened that at around 12:30am we called my mom to wish her a happy birthday. At this point we were all pretty jolly and it was a lot of fun to talk to her on skype. Finally at around 1:30-2am, dinner was over and everyone went home and we went to bed. Literally a 4-5 hour Thanksgiving dinner spent saying thanks to the people that have helped me the most. It was wonderful. Absolutely the best.
Here is a link for some pictures of the night. http://picasaweb.google.com/Roryjnolan/Thanksgiving2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCI38hKPDqcjzOw#
So we also did a really successful HIV/AIDS day of activities with the kids here. We had like 20-25 kids that showed up and all day we did games and activities to teach them about HIV/AIDS. It was a lot of fun and a huge success. I must say that if Cveti wasn't there to help me, then it would not have been even half as successful as it was. It was a great day. Here are more pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/Roryjnolan/20101206#
Ok, that is all for now. I will be going home soon for a few weeks and after that I'll be sure to write.
Thank you to everyone that donated to my project too! And I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season!
Rory
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Recap and the greatest question of all time... read below to find out more!
Winter's coming and I am getting busier. After surviving last winter, I now respect the cold like I have never before. This year I have SEALED my apartment. The draft last year was so bad that it was impossible to get my apartment above 45 degrees. This year all windows and doors are sealed shut with insulation. My new worry is suffocation but we will find out if that's possible or not soon. :) I have a new fireplace in my apartment too which is 3 times the size of the one last year. It will really warm the place up. My mother sent me a cover for my down comforter that is so freaking warm that I don't know if I'll ever get out of bed in the mornings. Seriously, I know I am getting old when I get super excited about getting a cover for my down comforter for my birthday. But it's the best gift ever.
So this year I say to winter, BRING IT ON! The cold slap of winter caught me off guard last year. This year, I will show winter who is boss and why MAN is on top of the food chain!
As for work, things have been uber busy. We are starting a scouts group here in Koynare which is a lot more complicated than it should be. We are doing it though and it's looking like it will be successful. Due to our imminent success, I am becoming a Peace Corps expert on Scouts and have been asked to help with getting more support for the organization. I will be presenting to the new group of volunteers here next week on how and why scouts are important to youth development and why Bulgaria needs a stronger organization. On top of that, I will start working with the national organization on strategies for success.
Another thing, which may be too early to start celebrating since I haven't yet received confirmation from Peace Corps, is that my track team project here looks as though it is FULLY FUNDED!!! This news is amazing. Seriously amazing. 5,000 dollars. This is all it takes to transform a failing sports team into something successful. This track team has been working for the last 10 years on getting some sort of financial support. They just do not have the experience or the know-how to do it alone. They needed a little help from their local PCV from Chicago and the support of his friends and family. I really think this project will be a huge success and will be something that benefits Koynare and the kids for years and years.
On Dec 1, International HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I am hosting an awareness camp here for the day wit
Oh, and Halloween... yea, we had like 150 kids participate. It was about 100 more than I was expecting so needless to say, we were a bit unprepared. We did not get to do everything I wanted to during the party, but we did have a successful costume competition. The kids also went trick or treating in the center of town which is the first time anything like that had ever happened. At the end of the day, I was exhausted and feeling like it was too hectic to have been a success. But after talking to some people around town, teachers, and most importantly the kids, I realized that just because I had other visions of how the day was supposed to go that I did not see how much FUN everyone was having! People are still talking about it. They are dying for next year so they can do it again. I saw kids with bags full of candy wearing Halloween costumes walking around town laughing. After a bit of reflection on the day, there were things I could have done better, things that should be done next year and other small issues, but most importantly, everyone had a great time and great memories that they will never forget.
My boss from Peace Corps came here yesterday and he made me realize that my time is coming to an end. I am on my second year and only have so many months left. He then told me that if I want to stay for another year, that I have to decide soon. Kinda scary. So let me ask you this, my readers, what do you think of me staying another year here in Bulgaria? Is there work back in the states for me? Will I be as happy there as I am here?
I look forward to your answers! Oh, I'm going back to the states to Chicago from Dec 22nd til Jan 4th. I'd love to catch up with you face to face if it's possible.
Take care,
Rory
So this year I say to winter, BRING IT ON! The cold slap of winter caught me off guard last year. This year, I will show winter who is boss and why MAN is on top of the food chain!
As for work, things have been uber busy. We are starting a scouts group here in Koynare which is a lot more complicated than it should be. We are doing it though and it's looking like it will be successful. Due to our imminent success, I am becoming a Peace Corps expert on Scouts and have been asked to help with getting more support for the organization. I will be presenting to the new group of volunteers here next week on how and why scouts are important to youth development and why Bulgaria needs a stronger organization. On top of that, I will start working with the national organization on strategies for success.
Another thing, which may be too early to start celebrating since I haven't yet received confirmation from Peace Corps, is that my track team project here looks as though it is FULLY FUNDED!!! This news is amazing. Seriously amazing. 5,000 dollars. This is all it takes to transform a failing sports team into something successful. This track team has been working for the last 10 years on getting some sort of financial support. They just do not have the experience or the know-how to do it alone. They needed a little help from their local PCV from Chicago and the support of his friends and family. I really think this project will be a huge success and will be something that benefits Koynare and the kids for years and years.
On Dec 1, International HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I am hosting an awareness camp here for the day wit
Oh, and Halloween... yea, we had like 150 kids participate. It was about 100 more than I was expecting so needless to say, we were a bit unprepared. We did not get to do everything I wanted to during the party, but we did have a successful costume competition. The kids also went trick or treating in the center of town which is the first time anything like that had ever happened. At the end of the day, I was exhausted and feeling like it was too hectic to have been a success. But after talking to some people around town, teachers, and most importantly the kids, I realized that just because I had other visions of how the day was supposed to go that I did not see how much FUN everyone was having! People are still talking about it. They are dying for next year so they can do it again. I saw kids with bags full of candy wearing Halloween costumes walking around town laughing. After a bit of reflection on the day, there were things I could have done better, things that should be done next year and other small issues, but most importantly, everyone had a great time and great memories that they will never forget.
My boss from Peace Corps came here yesterday and he made me realize that my time is coming to an end. I am on my second year and only have so many months left. He then told me that if I want to stay for another year, that I have to decide soon. Kinda scary. So let me ask you this, my readers, what do you think of me staying another year here in Bulgaria? Is there work back in the states for me? Will I be as happy there as I am here?
I look forward to your answers! Oh, I'm going back to the states to Chicago from Dec 22nd til Jan 4th. I'd love to catch up with you face to face if it's possible.
Take care,
Rory
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
