Desitination: Koinare

Koinare here I come! Or Koynare, as it can be found spelled in English as well. I dont know which... Either way, when I say the name of the town, I always get corrected anyways... So since last post I found out exactly where I will be for the next few years and what I will be doing. Last Wednesday the whole lot of volunteers met in Vratsa and had a big shindig about who was going where and doing what. My program is going to be, as I mentioned before, in Koinare working with the chitalishte, kindergarten, high school and mayor's office developing programs for the youth of the town as well as teaching english to pretty much everyone interested. I am pretty excited about it. The job description is fairly vague which allows me a lot of flexibility when working. After we found out where we will being going, we met our counterparts. These are the people that will be our direct supervisors during the next couple years and our liason to the new community. My counterpart is named Petroslav, or Pepi, for short and he is very nice. He speaks a little english and I speak a little bulgarian, so together we can pretty much understand whats going on. After we met, we went to a hotel up in the mountains for a few days to have conferences to get everyone on the same page. It was a lot of fun and a very pretty place. We visited a really large cave that was unbelievable. I didnt bring my camera which was sad, but im sure I will be going back there. The cave was 40 degrees farenheit which was a beautiful change from the 90 degree heat outside. Although I broke out in a ferocious sweat after I got out of the cave and back in the heat... On Sunday Pepi and I traveled via train to Koinare and the trip took us just about an hour, which was sweet. A lot of volunteers had more than 5-6 hours of travel. I am maybe 30-40 miles away from Moravitsa and I am really excited about that. I have established some life long friendships there and it is great to be close enough to make an easy visit on the weekends. Koinare is about 5000 people and is right on a large river. The people here love to fish and everyone, of course, seems very very nice. I think thats just Bulgaria for ya... I am staying at a house with a Baba. If Bulgaria were a brick house, the Baba is the mortar, brick and roof that holds it all together. They are the single most powerful people in the country. A Baba is a grandmother. But a Baba is so much more. I witnessed an 85 year old Baba single handedly snatch a fly out of the air while eating dinner. While she only stood at 4'10”, her hands were not only larger than mine, but more calloused and a whole lot stronger and quicker. They don't grow old and frail here, they grow strong and efficient. So the Baba I am living with now manages a huge house with a garden like I have never seen. It is enormous and grows all the food she needs to survive. She tends it herself, harvests the foods and cooks it into all sorts of delicious things. She also has a bunch of chickens and turkeys and dogs and doves and other animals. This is just one Baba, and her home. It's more work than I could do on my own. They are super people. Anyways, Koinare seems great, I am only here for a few days and then I go back to Moravitsa to study more Bulgarian. I will keep you up to date.

Some stories

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. I'm sure once I get to my permanent site I will have more frequent access to the internet. Now I have to stroll the whole hundred yards down to Ashley's host family's house to connect. I know it's not far, it's just that it's kinda rude to just pop in there every other day and sit in the corner on my computer. Bulgarians don't really let you just pop in either. Well, let me rephrase that. Popping in unannounced and not knocking on the door or anything is perfectly acceptable. I guess as long as you call out the person's name you are looking for while standing just inside the door. I don't think it would be too cool of you to just start taking a stroll or going through their refrigerator before announcing your presence... It's just that when you “pop in” for a moment, you will quickly be offered all sorts of food and drinks. This includes meats, snacks, candy, coffee, beer, juice, rakia and depending on the time of day, a place will be set for you at the table to stay for lunch or dinner. It's just that everyone is so eager to feed you and make sure you have everything you need. Everyone is a friendly bunch.

So since I last posted, I went to the soccer game (or futbol match) last Saturday night. What an experience. Bulgaria was playing Ireland and Bulgaria needed to win to have a shot at the World Cup tournament. (sorry if I use improper terms here, this was the first soccer game I ever watched...) Words are hard to explain this. I have a few pictures, hopefully they will get posted soon. The match was held in Sofia, the largest city in Bulgaria with about 2 mil folks. The stadium seats around 45k or so. It was completely full. Maybe Ireland, who had a single section to themselves that was COMPLETLEY surrounded by fences and riot police (for their own protection I'm sure), had 1000 people. So do the math, 98% of the people were rooting for the home team. We arrived an hour before the match started and it appeared as though we were already late. The stadium was nearly full. And everyone was already standing and starting cheers and waiving flags. For an HOUR before the match even started. The only time we sat down was during half time. The crowd was constantly cheering and singing chants and singing the national anthem and anything else to show their support. Even setting parts of the stadium on fire and throwing small bombs at the riot police. All of which is totally normal and even expected. See pictures once I post them. Pretty amazing. Well, the match ended in a 1-1 tie (which I didnt know could happen) and the crowd got quiet and peacefully departed the stadium. What a night.

As far as events that were scheduled for me, we visited an orphanage for truants and an orphanage for kids with special needs. I also had an interview with the staff to get some more info on me and what kind of a job I am looking for here. I pretty much left it open for them to decide because I figure they know what these jobs entail more than I do. I find out on Thursday the 18^th as to where I will be for the next 2 years. And right after I find out, I have to pack a bag, figure out the public transportation of this country, and get to that location to check it out for the weekend and to see what my job will be. Pretty friggin crazy.

On another note, my Bulgarian language skills are getting better. I am able to understand a chunk of what people are talking about now, but I cant really talk back to them. It's a tad frustrating to say the least. I sit at the cafe most the evenings where my host family works. I listen to groups of people talk to each other, sometimes even to me, and I catch bits and pieces. Sometimes enough to figure out the context of the conversation. Everyone is very nice and will generally share their food with me and buy me drinks. (wow, that kinda sounds like I am a stray dog.) I guess maybe I feel like a stray dog at times, but a very welcome stray. :) I dont think they could have put me with a nicer family in a better town. This place is pretty sweet.

So take a moment and think about what I am going through here. Those of you that know me will get a kick out of this. I am in a small town where nearly every single person knows my name and who I am. They are all eager to get to know more about me and for me to tell them about all sorts of things. But I cant. There is no way for me to communicate more thoughts than basic survival ones. I can tell them what I want to eat, drink and when I want to go to bed basically. I can tell them what time I do certain things and how to get to a bus stop. I can also tell them the absolute basics about my family. Like name, relations and age. Pretty much it. So let's go back to a normal day for me. My classes start at 9am and go to 12:30. These classes are with Ashley, Sarah and Scott and Veronica, my language trainer. We chit chat for a few hours learning Bulgarian. Then I am basically done for the day. Sometimes we have other things to do. So sometimes I head back to the house. Usually no one is here. So then I head back over to the cafe. There they are! Sometimes food is ready, sometimes I have to ask. Sometimes other people join us for lunch, or else I just eat with Rosen and sometimes his wife. Sometimes I eat alone at Rosen's grandmothers. I never really know until I start walking around town looking to find lunch (once again, I am a stray dog). So there is lunch. And usually a beer is placed in front of me. Pretty normal really. So then I can decide what to do next. Sometimes more people show up and then a second beer is placed in front of me and so on until I leave. Other times I head back to the house for some studying or a nap. But everyday I spend the afternoon at the cafe and into the evening. There are many people who sit with me and smile and say hello and ask how I am and I can answer all that jazz just great. But then they ask another question or say something else. That's when they receive my blank stare or a quick phrase from me that states “i dont understand”. Most times the talking ends there and another beer shows up. Other times, depending on how determined the individual sitting with me is feeling, more questions will surface. 99 times out of a 100 they get the “i dont understand” phrase again. Maybe that 1 time it will be something simple that I can answer, like “do you want a beer or soda or coffee?”

So people are always talking around me, heated conversations go on, I am asked questions I cant understand, and maybe if I do understand them – I have no idea how to answer. Thank God Rosen speaks a little English or I'd really go nuts. So you may ask yourself, “How does he get by?” Well, again, those that know me understand that this isnt really much of a problem. I have a couple coping strategies. First, these people become the single most interesting people of all time. The stories they are telling become grand stories of epic adventures. Life changing and world altering tales that they lightly talk about while sitting at a cafe. Either that, or I just talk back to them in straight English and act slightly confused when they dont understand. But as you know, I am always entertained.

So yesterday the group went to this river like a half hour away past Vratsa. We went at like 9am or so and took 6 cars for the 3o people. All us awesome Americans in Moravitsa came. There was swimming in the river, which was freezing, and some playing of football, both american and everywhere else football, and we tossed the ole frisbee around too. We stayed all day long and got very sunburned. I wont go into too many details but there were a lot of "firsts" that occured yesterday. It was probably one of the better days I've had in a long time. I love this country.

Thanks for putting up with all the words I just wrote in English. I gotta get some of these stories out there or I might just explode. Enjoy your day. And always remember, no matter where you are in the US, it's not as pretty as what I'm seeing in Bulgaria! (Even when we had to navigate through a herd of cattle on the road yesterday in a car.)

Oh and thanks a million to those that have written me emails. I very much appreciate them and love hearing what's going on in your life. I cannot respond because I usually just dont have time. Don't think I am ignoring you. I had like 20 emails the other day and just do not have the time to respond back.

One more thing – I have no way of ever knowing what the weather forecast is. Take that into consideration. Two days ago it was 95F outside and there I was strolling around in jeans dripping like a firehose. And the people here dont sweat. At all. Its kinda freaky. But they probably think im freaky cause I was wearing wet clothes. Now today is like high 70s. Go figure.  

God Loves Bulgarian Heroes.

First let me say that I have updated some pictures on my picasa site. The link is to the right. click it and enjoy. The pictures of what look like a city with big blok apartment buildings is the city Vratsa. The little town with the airplane and what not is my little village of Moravitsa. It's really pretty. I thouroughly enjoy it. 

Let me share one cool story with you. I dont have much time as my battery on this laptop is draining fast. So we went to celebrate the death of Kristo Botev. He is like Bulgarians biggest hero. He was killed in battle on a nearby mountaintop in the late 1800s fighting for Bulgarian freedom. The holiday is celebrated on June 1st and 2nd every year. On June 1st, my group went to Vratsa, the largest nearby town to where he was killed and watched some fireworks in the rain. When I returned back to Moravitsa, Rosen told me that every year it rains on June 1st and 2nd. I guess it has happened for like the past many years. He said it was like God crying for Kristo Botev. I took it for what it was. 

Well the next day the Mayor of the town rented a bus and took us to the top of the mountain that he was killed on for a celebration. They reinact the battle and death. It was cloudy at the top of the mountain, but not raining. We watched the reinactment and the moment Botev was killed, the sky opened up and it starting raining. I got some serious goosebumps... it only rained for a few minutes, but it was pretty incredible that it happened right when he was killed... 

Oh another thing, there were fireworks that we watched. And during the fireworks I saw a whole bunch of little black cat style fireworks popping off on top of the roof of a nearby building. After looking at them for a bit, I realized that they werent fireworks, but men with AK-47s firing wildly into the air... I assume the bullets were blanks, but who knows for sure. It was pretty interesting. As Rosen said afterwards, "Guns are better".... i guess.

Today we went on a trip to both a house for children with special needs and also a juvenile detention center. Pretty powerful stuff. 

Tommorrow after training, Rosen is taking me to the Bulgaria vs Ireland soccer game in Sofia! It should be quite an experience that's for sure. 

Oh, and maybe one day I will take a picture of a Turkish Toilet and put it in here... It's pretty awesome. It makes you want to get on your hands and knees and beg for a port-a-potty. And today I paid 30 stotinki (roughly 25 cents) to use one that looked like something out of a horror movie. Pretty sweet stuff.

Have a good night. Batteries dying.... 

So I have been having a really good time integrating here. I can almost speak fluently at this point... you know, after a week in Moravitsa. So this will be a breeze...

I don't know how many of you reading this have ever put yourself in a place where NOTHING is even remotely close to your language. And when you dont have a translator following you around all day... It gives you some good time to think about how often you want to chime into a conversation (that you can't understand anyways) or how you can relate a story or even tell them that you have to pee. And those that know me know that I laugh at the dumbest stuff. Stuff that isn't even funny or relevant to anything. And usually when I laugh like this, and someone is around, I will explain my crazy thoughts and why I found it humerous... Well let me tell you, it is a little more difficult to explain these things when you can't speak the language. All that ends up happening is the people you are talking to get a free laugh out of the different hand gestures you can come up with.

I went and watched the town's championship soccer game on Friday. Rosen is on the team and the Mayor is the coach. We unfortunately lost, but the town of 800 (or 1500 according to the mayor) won second place which is pretty impressive! I then joined the team for dinner in a neighboring town. What an experience.

We arrive to a small little restaurant that only has 3 tables. One is fortunately big enough to seat 12 or so in a big L shape along the wall. There were big salads set up at each place already. So we sit down and more and more people trickle in until the table is full. I just watch because hey, what else can i do? :) Anyways, we arrive at the restaurant at around 8pm or so. Everyone arrives probably within 30 minutes. Then I notice that someone is putting bottles of Rakia around the table. 6 bottles total... there are 12 of us. 30 minutes after arriving, and staring at my salad, we start to eat. But eating at a restaurant is nothing like eating in America. No one was there to eat. They were there to hang out with friends, enjoy lots of loud conversation and laugh and drink rakia and smoke cigarettes. The last thing on their mind was the food. The salads sat in front of us occasionally being picked at for nearly 3 hours. Then came the plates of meat. There were all sorts of meat on a couple plates. And people ate it as they saw fit, which means they hardly touched it. I got a nudge saying that we were leaving and heading to the Discoteka. I glanced at the time and noticed that it was 1am. So we spent 5 hours at dinner...

Then we went to the disco. Which was pretty cool. Pretty typical actually. Just a lot of music and smoke and drinks. But two things I learned.... well maybe 3.

1 - If you are a man and you are friends with Bulgarian men, do not be alarmed if they put their arms around you for extended periods of time when you sit next to them, or put their hand on your knee or all that touchy-feely stuff that makes us American men feel like less of men. It's totally cool here.
2 - Also, Bulgarians love their country and their people. There was a bus that had defective brakes in this country the day before we went to the disco. The brakes went out and the bus crashed into a lot of people killing around 15 or so. Because of this event, the disco was almost empty even though it didn't happen very close to here. The young people of Bulgaria did not go out that Friday night because there had been a tragedy in their country. Pretty amazing.
and 3 - When you go home at 3am because you have class the next day, it is not ok and the people dropping you off will go straight back out to the disco because their night just began.

So that was the most exciting thing. Yesterday and today I just kinda hung low. Ive been pretty tired lately. That happens when life is non-stop. I had dinner with Ashley's host family last night because Rosen and his wife were at a wedding. I was invited, but opted out so I could rest a little. The dinner last night was full of laughter and flipping through the bulgarian-english dictionary so we could explain ourselves. But good times had by all.

Hopefully I'll post again soon!

Holy Different!

Well long time no post! It has been over a week since I left and this is the first time I have gotten to use the internet! I am at one of a few houses in this village that have internet. WooHoo! Its actually been kind of nice not sitting in front of a computer.

So I guess I'll start from the beginning...

The night before I left, my family and I attended the most American thing available to us... The WWE Judgement Day! It was pretty ridiculous. But a ton of fun and a memory that will last forever, and not only because my hearing was permanently damaged by the pyrotechnics we were sitting under... :)

It was very very hard to say goodbye to my family. They are definitely very missed. So I boarded the plane to DC to start staging. There were 64 of us there but someone had to go home that first day because their medical forms werent totally completed... wow. I would have cried if that was me! So we spent a night in DC doing really basic stuff.

The next day we boarded a plane headed to Frankfurt and then to Sofia. Of course I sat in the middle. I am so glad that I wont have to take that flight again for another couple years...

After staying awake for 30+ hours, we got to Sofia. I have pictures, but not with me. I will post them later. Lets just say that Bulgaria is better in some aspects than I thought, and not as good in others... so it's hard to pass judgement from the first impressions.

We got on buses (mine was a little green bus that looked like it was 30 years old) and navigated our way to a mountain resort a few hours away to kind of decompress. We were there for 4 days where we went through rules, regulations and policies of the Peace Corps. We also started some language training. All 63 of us were together, and then one girl left. So now there are 62. But all is still happy here.

The last night we had a big celebration with traditional dancing and food and music. I of course danced (attempted to dance) some of the traditional dances. They are a lot of fun and hopefully my village will teach me theres.

So now I sit in the town called Moravitsa. It is outside of Vratsa in the northeast region of Bulgaria. I met my host family on Saturday (i think) and I havent stopped moving yet! It has been a BLAST! Moravitsa is about 800 people. It is 10km (6miles) from the nearest town. Everyone knows everyone and most of them havent seen Americans before. There are 4 of us here. Me, Ashley, Scott and Sarah. And our language trainer lives in town too.

My host family appears to be pretty influential and popular in town. The fathers name is Rosen and he is 29 years old. His wife, Temenuzhka, and daughter, Dayana, live with him in a single floor house above a bar in town. The bar is owned by his cousin. Rosen owns a cafe in town that doubles for a night club. Its super nice, it has a flat screen tv! Rosen is also building his own house that his younger brother is helping with and other people in town. One of Rosen's friends, Peter, has been staying with us. Not sure if that is an everyday thing or what... Peter used to play professional football (soccer) for Bulgaria but hurt his knee. He is healed now, but he didn't make the cut for the team this year. Rosen is a superstar on the town's football team and they have the championship game tomorrow night in a neighboring village. Should be fun!

Everyone in this village is AWESOME. They are so nice and welcoming. I can hardly speak the language, but they all work with me and help me through it. Rosen speaks a little English, so we can sometimes understand each other. I am fortunate that he can speak a little. The kids have welcomed us as well and each day they have thrown some sort of celebration!

The first day we watched a 2 hour celebration of traditional dances and songs to welcome us. We were greeted by a news crew as well and appeared on the nightly news that evening! Then that same news crew showed up again the next day and interviewed us individully! I watched myself on TV last night trying to speak a little Bulgarian. It was humerous. Actually, I didnt watch alone... the whole town was watching the Barcelona and Manchester United soccer game in Rosen's bar and he flipped on the interview... so we got a nice round of applause from the town! My little group here in Moravitsa was also in the newspaper... we are famous! It's really quite fun. The mayor of the town has asked if we would stay. He is trying to find Scott and me a bride so we stay here... The mayor also told me that in order to be a true Bulgarian you must drink at least 3 beers a day. And it doesnt matter how big or small you are... 3 beers. :) He was joking obviously, but that's just the way people are here!

I am having an experience of a lifetime here. I can't wait to show pictures. I go to sleep listening to dogs and roosters and wake up to either roosters or the sound of a herd of goats walking down the street. Sometimes I hear a cow bell as someone leads their cow to the fields. For the first time in my life, I had to walk through a herd of goats on the road to get home. It was incredible. Horses are just tied up outside and eat whatever is around. Some people travel by donkey carts. Luckly Rosen has a BMW... :)

Sorry for the long post - its kind of a boring one too... but this place is so different that there is no way to even describe it in a blog. I have lots of pictures and I honestly love it here. This place, this town, these people... they are just what I was looking for. I just wish I could speak the language...

I love you all and miss you dearly.

Rory