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

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

Waaaaassss Haappaa-nin'?

So school's started and things are moving forward. I have been spending my mornings going to the school and helping with English classes, meeting with teachers, meeting with the principal and with my group. We have actually been pretty busy and a bunch of good things are on the horizon. The kids and I have been planning a Halloween party at the school on the last Friday of the month. The party is going to have all sorts of fun things including costume contests, food, music and games. The kids are totally excited. They do not celebrate Halloween like we do in the States. They have a holiday here in the spring that is based on the same core reasons for celebrating Halloween, but it is more serious. Halloween for kids is probably the best holiday ever. I have been trying to explain to the kids that they get to dress up as whoever they want, be whatever they want, and go from place to place to receive candy. What's bad about that?

Besides the party, I am trying to get the stores and cafes in town to support "trick or treating" on Saturday before Halloween. I have a vision of little kids getting all excited and dressing up and going trick or treating around town. I've spoken to a couple places already and they seem pretty excited about it! I am pumped and really hope that it works. It would be a great memory for these kids to have and hopefully next year they would continue it as well. Even though it is an American thing...

I am also planning and AIDS/HIV Camp here. It is actually part of a project that Ashley started and put together. I went to her town earlier this fall and saw how it works. Now I have to do it here. We have the camp set up to take place on December 1st which is International AIDS Awareness Day or something like that.

Annnddd what else? I am working with the kids to possibly clear out a room in the basement of the school in order to be used as kind of a "kid's room" where they could watch movies or do whatever really. So that could be sweet.

We are raising the money too for the track team. Right now we have nearly 2,000 dollars donated from my friends and family. Thank you all so much for the donations so far! It really does mean a lot to me and to the people here in town. I am excited for the full amount to be reached and then we can get it all started :)

I have been preparing for winter too recently. Last winter was so cold that I am doing everything I can to make sure my place is comfortable! I have been insulating and sealing all the windows and doors so there will not be such a bad draft this year. I also got a new wood burning stove from a friend. This one is seriously heavy duty and will be a ton warmer than the thing I used last year!

Cveti is in school at Sofia and has been getting really frustrated recently because for whatever reason, the professors aren't showing up for classes. She will go to the class, travel like an hour to get there from where she lives, only to find out that the professor never showed up. It's total BS and its really driving her crazy, understandably.

That's it really - I know it's not a fun post or anything, but I'm tired and I felt obligated to keep you all in touch as to what's been going on in this world.

Take care
Rory

Life and death in BG

I think it's time for a new post. This is one that I have been kind of dreading writing about but I hear it's good to get your thoughts out and tell people your story.

So last Sunday around noon, I was at my apartment with Cveti. Cveti was in bed and I was in the living room playing on the computer. My neighbor in the apartment building came home and couldn't get into her apartment. She was banging on the door loudly and calling to her husband. I heard it and figured that he had gone out into town, locked the door and she had simply forgotten her keys. She ended up leaving for a minute or two before coming back to knocking on the door. I assumed she went out briefly to look for him. In another minute or two, she rings my doorbell. I answer the door and she has tears running down her face. She asks me if she can use my balcony, since they are adjoining, to yell to him. She does this and there is no answer. The door to their apartment is open though so Cveti, without hesitation, climbs over the railing and shimmies her way across the 2 inch wide foothold 2 stories off the ground. She gets over the neighbors balcony, into their apartment and unlocks the door from the inside. She comes back in the apartment and I asked her what happened. She says she didn't look around. Within moments, I hear the woman start yelling. I listen intently and wishing to hear him respond to her yells. I hear nothing from him, so I knock on her door and open it at the same time. I see her in the hallway leaning over her husband who is on the ground with his upper body coming out of the bathroom. He had apparently fallen against the closed bathroom door from the inside and when she opened it, he fell into the hallway. He was on his side when I came in the apartment. I quickly gave my phone to Cveti and told her to call for help. I bent down and found a faint pulse in his neck. My hopes went up and I knew it was time for action. I asked the wife to help me move him to his back. All my CPR trainings were coming back to me like a lightning storm of information. Call for help, assess the surroundings and situation, check his pulse, feel for breathing, secure neck while moving the body, begin CPR. Well, it was just instinct at this point. I will leave out the vivid details for your own good.

After a few minutes, two of my neighbors from the building came over to help. I was continuing CPR (which is a bit more difficult to manage alone on a real person than with the CPR dummy.) when my other neighbor assisted me in holding his head in the proper position. For a long 10-15 minutes I continued working on him. But after about 5 minutes of this, it became apparent that it wasn't any good. The wife was crying and saying over and over again that he was dead. My neighbor told me it was too late, but I insisted on continuing and he helped me without complaint. After a while, I too decided that it was too late for him. His pulse was gone and had been for some time. We stopped, I turned around and hugged his wife and said sorry. While we were waiting for the ambulance (which took about 30 minutes to arrive) the three of us moved his body to the bed where he was in a more dignified position. Turns out that he had a weak heart and if finally stopped working. He was 65 years old.

So that was my Sunday. I have now seen the cycle of life here in Bulgaria. I have been to the hospital hours after Cveti's baby sister was born, I have been to weddings, I have seen death here and everything in between. It is amazing to me how differently our two cultures, Americans and Bulgarians, cope with and understand death. Granted their are great number of traditions both our cultures practice before, during and after someone has died and each tradition has its own reasons for existing. One of the strangest to me was the utter acceptance of death that I saw from all involved, even his wife. Don't get me wrong here. His wife was devastated by the loss, but when she first saw him on the ground she did not check a pulse to see if he was alive or call for help. She started mourning the loss immediately. I am sure she was in shock and couldn't believe it. I have also never witnessed a death like this in the states. But my first reaction was, and I would assume most Americans would be, to see if he can be saved. Call for help, check to see if he is still alive. Basically to do everything possible to see if he can be saved. There is always hope. Right?

Ok, so say that his wife was in shock right? Then we can excuse her due to her extremely close connection with the victim. But the other people in town, the neighbors, my co workers, the cafe owners, my other friends here... they all just kind of shrugged, said he was old and he had a weak heart, and then went on with their day. It was like it was an everyday occurrence. It got about as much attention as if you told someone you cut your finger while chopping onions. A quick story followed by 1 or 2 questions and then a shrug saying "it happens."

That part for me is what scares me the most. Even the paramedics that came just had a stethoscope. They didn't bring anything else that I saw. Just listened for a heart beat, said sorry, and walked out. The utter acceptance and complacency of being sick and dying trickles down from the people to the doctors and nurses. They just kinda throw something at you, pray for the placebo effect to work, and if it doesn't say, "well, there was no hope for him." It's really something that upsets me.

But is it that the Bulgarians are doing something wrong? or are my American expectations, hopes and handling of these kinds of situations the problem? We all die right? Isn't it harder on everyone, including the person dying, if we always wish for a hope and do everything we can, only to come to the same end? Doesn't that just make it harder to deal with? If you believe there was hope and that there was something you could have done to save the person's life, doesn't that make you feel guilty for their death? The performing of CPR is an exercise taught to us to prolong the oxygen delivery to the victim's brain so when help arrives they can bring him back to life with some magical electric paddles or a quick shot of some wake-up juice. But when that fails - the ones close at the end feel guilty. Whereas the acceptance of it and the knowing that death is going to come to us all and we can never stop it from happening must make coping so much easier. I am a bit jealous of the people here that just shake their head, say tsk tsk tsk, and move on. I dunno.

But these are where my thoughts are these days.

Big entry today - big event happened.

I am taking Cveti to Sofia tomorrow to help her move into her new apartment. She will be starting school next week there and our summer of fun will be officially over. Now it's time to play the long distance relationship game.

Begging for Money

Hi all!

It is a great day here as my big project finally got put up and fully supported by Peace Corps. The project needs to be funded though by my friends and family, or just strangers who want to help a the kids of a small Bulgarian town out. The project will fund equipment for the track and field team. The current team has basically nothing to practice with. The town has a beautiful track and stadium though, just nothing else for the team. Anyone that has done track and field, or knows anything about the sport, will know that you need a little bit more than just a track. They have no running shoes, uniforms, track spikes, starting blocks, hurdles, javelins, shot puts, discus, etc. These are all things that will be purchased with the donated money. The idea is to start this team up, recruit kids and make track and field available to them. The town currently only has a working boys soccer team. There is nothing for girls to participate in. This will ideally attract more youth to sport and occupy their free time. Participation in sport is an incredibly invaluable learning experience that we take for granted in the US. There are youth here that are dying for some organized sport, but they do not have the ability to participate. They currently do have a youth track team, but its numbers are dwindling and the kids have to basically buy all their own equipment and pay for transportation to events. The team doesnt perform well either when they are at events and in turn, the country doesnt fund the team well due to their poor performance. They really need this equipment to keep the team alive. Please click the link and donate what you can to support this project. You will be helping provide a wonderful opportunity to the youth of Koynare.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=313-148

Thanks so much for your continued support and I really look forward to seeing this project come to life.

Oh did I mention that all donations are tax-deductible? :)

Rory