Three Cheers We're Volunteers

Three Cheers We’re Volunteers!
So I've had this typed on my computer for a bit but finally have the chance to post so here it is.

Friday, July 23rd I was officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! Eighty-five of the eighty-seven of us to arrive in May swore in as volunteers in an official ceremony. I felt the ceremony was excellent as everyone who spoke did an excellent job and truly made the ceremony worthwhile. It was great to bring along two members of my host family (plus we got our Peace Corps pins so we are able to represent the organization). I will admit, I cried as this truly was a dream come true and took so long to get to (however it also didn’t help that my Baba was crying). After the ceremony there were refreshments and appetizers. We all chatted before many of my fellow B-26 (26th group in Bulgaria) left for their permanent sites. Then I stayed in Vratsa with a fellow volunteer to run some errands and have a celebratory beer! We had a wonderful time chatting and spending some quality time before we were all “on our own”.

Friday night I had a delicious dinner with my host family. The salad was fantastic and we had watermelon and sipping liquor for dessert. I received some flowers from neighbors plus 2 jars of honey! Then came Saturday, aka the day I moved to my permanent site. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to be in my permanent site now but it was tough leaving my family. They have been excellent and I will truly miss them.

One final time they again made sure I was planning on coming to their house for Christmas. They drove me to the bus stop, I bought my ticket, we had some cola, and I was off. But not before we all cried. It has been one emotional week. We finished training, had our language proficiency interviews (I passed!), we had our last group HUB, we were sworn in and I’m now living on my own in my own apartment in a brand-new city, of which I cannot speak the language fluently. In my mind, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done though I cannot wait for what comes next. As the Peace Corps commercials go, the toughest job you’ll ever love.

My new apartment is nothing glamorous; however, it is a step up from the other apartment I saw though not in the same neighborhood as my school. I guess that just means more exercise for me which I’m completely satisfied with. I have a 30 minute walk from my building to my school. It is a one bedroom apartment with a small kitchen and miniature bathroom. Though I do have a washing machine and a small terrace! I will be buying some things this week to get it to being livable as I’m missing some necessary items (food, detergent, hangers, etc.). Thank goodness my Baba gave me some sheets. Think of USA furniture about 60 years ago and that is what mine looks like, I will be covering it in sheets and/or blankets. I also live very close to the bus and train stations so that will be nice when I need to travel. I spent the night I got here rearranging furniture and going through my mound of luggage I brought with. Sunday I continued to organize my things and figure out the best place to keep things as my storage it limited. Plus, I need to buy a vacuum cleaner since it’s quite dusty in the rugs/carpeting. I also figured out how to work the washing machine after I gave it a thorough cleaning (the place where the detergent goes was disgusting).

I’ll be running many errands this week not only to buy things but to meet with the police to get my ID card process started, to sign my apartment contract, to figure out my rest of summer schedule, and who knows what else. It will also be nice to buy some groceries and start cooking for myself again though I will miss my Baba’s homemade meals and tasty vegetables. Oh, and here’s what happened in the last days with my host family:

I'm at site!

So, I have a long blog ready to go though it is on my computer and I have no internet to upload to my blog with the photos. Therefore, I'm simply going to write a short message that hopefully in about a week and a half I will have a few new blog entrys. Things are going fine. I thought my computer broke yesterday which was incredibly frustrating though this morning it seems to be working fine. I wish I could talk to some of you back in Minnesota, I miss you! Hopefully when I have consistent internet access I'll be able to keep in touch better. I'm at my school using the internet right now. Have a great rest of the week!

Last week of PST

I guess I'll start off with what when on this past week. On Thursday, we had our community project. It was a Community Arts Celebration and we held it at 5:00 on Thursday evening. The schedule included:

2 Groups of kids reading 2 Shel Silverstein poems

1 Group of kids dancing the Horo, traditional Bulgarian Dance

We read a poem by the Bulgarian Poet, Hristo Botev titled "Hadji Dimitar"

A group of Babas (grandmas) sang 2 songs

There was a 30 minute art activity where people were to draw what their town meant to them (we then compiled these into a binder to keep in the library)

Snacks

The Babas presented us with a history book of our town

We thanked the town and the town thanked us

We gave the library a game and 2 English-Bulgarian Dictionaries

We interviewed with a local television station from the town over

The event went well, the aim was to get people into the Cultural center and we had about 100 people which was great for a town of 2,000. There were even people from the nursing home there which was good to see. The babas speech even made me cry because it was so nice and I will miss my family once I leave on Saturday.

Here are a few photos from the art activity:

Then came Friday which meant we were going to Sophia. Sophia is the capital of Bulgaria and 3 million of the 8 million people in Bulgaria live there. I woke up at 5:30 and we left town at 6:20 to take a bus to Sophia. It took about 3 hours by bus to get there and then we went to the Peace Corps Headquarters of Bulgaria to have interviews with the Program Staff. We traveled around the city mainly by tram. After our interviews, we went to an amazing Indian restaurant and then walked around the city.

Here we are in front of a church:

A photo of Sophia (lions are a big thing in Bulgaria):

Guess what! There is McDonald's in Sophia, actually there are quite a few. Here is the menu:

Then on our bus ride home we found out they had oversold the bus ride. We bought tickets in the morning to ensure a seat however we ended up sitting like this:

Those people in the back are sitting on top of metal bars and I am in the aisle, on the floor in front of Kristin. It was an interesting ride.

On Saturday I was able to go to the Panorama in Pleven with my host family. This is a building built in the 1970s and inside is a huge, panoramic painting of a major battle in Bulgarian history between the Russian forces (on Bulgarian's side) and Turks. This building is huge, if you look at the small doorway of the building you can see how far in front of it I actually am to be taller than it. It was a well painted panorama and I was glad I was able to go.

Finally some more photos of life with my host family. Here is Yordan hauling grain:

Some delicious watermelon we ate one night:

A beautiful flower during the day, unopened:

And the beauty at night:

That's about all for now, I have my language proficiency interview Tuesday and I the swearing in ceremony to become a volunteer on Friday!

Finally, in honor of a fellow trainee in my group:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

Almost Done with PST

On top of learning Bulgarian language for at least 4 hours each day, there was a great deal of cultural learning this week. Monday through Thursday we continued working with some of the children in town via English language learning for one hour each day. It has been fun being with them at the school during summertime. Things are much more relaxed than they were when they were still in school and we are teaching very small groups of students. We also play games and sing songs together. One day we even tried to learn some new dances with them.

This week our training group also had to plan the community project we plan on implementing which will happen for us Thursday, July 15^th. We are going to have a Community Art Day in order to promote people to get into the Chitalishte (cultural learning center). Most every town in Bulgaria has a Chitalishte which is similar to a community education building. In our town, the building was closed for several years and reopened only a few years ago. There is a small library there which is staffed by a librarian for about 5 hours each day Monday through Friday. There is also a stage in a large hall which is used for performances or dances. There is a smaller hall which the community band practices in and there are a few other rooms used for singing groups and so forth. At this point, the Chitalishte is not used as much as the librarian and other community members would prefer it be used. Therefore, we are hosting the town’s event in the building.

For our Community Art Day, there will be a traditional dance performance by local youth, the singing of several Bulgarian songs by a few groups of Babas (grandmas), a skit performed by the Sunshine club, a reading of a Bulgarian poem by our training group, the reading of several American poems by local youth, and a community art project which everyone is able to participate in. Each person will be drawing their idea of “community” or “their town”. We will then compile the drawings into a binder to be kept at the library. We will end the event with singing and traditional “horo” dancing by everyone. We will also have some snacks and refreshments. We hope to get people from all ages to participate in the event and get more peoples into the Chitalishte to help reinvigorate the town and show its strengths rather than focusing on weaknesses. We have already posted flyers which the students helped us make and handed out some invitations. We will also be meeting with the kids Monday – Thursday of this week to teach them the poems they will read and do extra cultural sharing activities. I’ll be sure to blog about it after it happens!

Another thing we did this week was to visit the local Nursing Home or the “ДОМ ЗА СТАРИ ХОРА”. The home is funded by the government and was very beautiful (only constructed about 5 or so years ago). The home was two stories and constructed to be three attached units. The entrance opens to a reception desk and sitting area along with a few offices. There was then a canteen followed by a large cafeteria, and a chapel. There were also several recreational type rooms to sit or to play pool/billiards. Unit one was the first and held the oldest people or those who may need more nursing care. Then there was unit two and finally unit three going for most care to least. The youngest person at the home was in his/her 70s with the oldest in his/her late 90s. There were more women than men at the home and seven married couples (one of which was married after they met while living there). The home is surrounded by grass with gardens, walkways, and a fountain. They are presently creating arches to go over one area of the walkway which will eventually be covered in grapevines. It was very interested to get a tour of a Bulgarian nursing home to compare to those I have visited in Minnesota. We also talked with one woman there who said she very much enjoyed living there as she had more freedom than she would at home with her child and his/her spouse always “telling what to do”. Other than seeing the home, the main reason we went to the home was for the children to put on a performance for them. Ten to fifteen students danced, sang a few songs, and put on a skit. It was a great show and even sparked two of the residents to get up and sing some songs. The kids were all dressed in traditional Bulgarian attire and we all danced Horo (traditional Bulgarian folk dance) at the end. I even learned a new Horo (there is usually a specific Horo to go with each song).

Nursing Home Church:

My and the guide at Ledenika:

Oops, out of place for the nursing home:

Friday we had another HUB in which we learned more about what it means to become a Peace Corps Volunteer as none of us have taken our oath yet and we are still trainees. We have a ceremony July 23^rd to swear in as volunteers. The afternoon of the HUB was great as we had choice sessions with current volunteers. I went to sessions on integrating into a large city, classroom management in Bulgaria, and ATIP (Anti-trafficking in Persons). It was great to speak with volunteers and hear their own perspectives, experiences, and thoughts on different issues relating to working and living in Bulgaria.

Saturday I went to Ledenika which is a cave near Vratsa. We went by car and we traveled to the top of a mountain to get to the cave entrance. I went with Mitko (my host brother), his uncle, and Megan (another trainee). We actually saw another trainee once we got to the cave with her host family. Ledenika was gorgeous! The entrance to the cave was the size of a large door however once we got inside the walkway opened into a large room with beautiful walls and small stalactites and stalagmites. We then walked through a small “hallway” into another room. From there, we went up stairs, down stairs, and through small tunnels into the “concert hall” which was incredibly beautiful. The placement of lights and walkways in the cave made it quite gorgeous, plus it was bigger than any cave I’ve been to. After the concert hall we went to two other areas which changed from tight squeezes to wide halls. There was a small pond where we made a wish after throwing in a coin and touching the water; and, there was a small room with some beautiful coloring of the minerals in the walls. I was extremely glad I was able to make it there while I was still in PST. When I move to my permanent site I will be much farther away from the cave than I am now.

Once again, my host family has been wonderful, I will greatly miss them when I move to my permanent site.

Veneta watering the cabbage:

Boriana by the corn:

Beautiful flowers which are only open at night or when it’s overcast:

The hedgehog I saw this week:

Overall it was a great week. Now it’s time to get down to studying language as my Language Proficiency Interview is in about 8 days! Please, if any of you have any questions or wondering feel free to comment or email me.

Sunshine Club

First of all, happy birthday America from an American in Bulgaria. I know it's a day late, but I hope it still counts.

In this blog, I want to highlight a Kids' Club that recently had its two year anniversary in our PST site. What makes this group of children extraordinary is almost everything. First of all, they began their club as a group of friends who wanted to learn more about culture in arts. They meet at least once a week to discuss culture, perform skits, read books, or anything else that is of interest. This is them:

The club translates to "Sunshine" in English. New people can join if they are 11 years old however they cannot be in the club if they are over 16. They have a president who was elected by his peers. They also have a secretary who is in charge if the president cannot attended. They pay "dues" in order to buy supplies and snacks for their meetings as well. These children are amazing as well because they have never had any adult leadership. They asked if there were any clubs like them in the USA however we couldn't really say there were as all clubs we could think of have an adult presence. It's impressive. They were also featured in a local paper for their two year anniversary.

Below is a current "exhibition" they are showing to any community members who are interested. It is a display of traditional Bulgarian outfits, household items, and culturally relevant material. It was just like many museums I've been to, well done.

This is their bulletin board of past and future invitations and happenings related to the club.

Sometimes it seems like there is a great deal of pessimism and problems in Bulgaria without people to solve them; but coming along a group of kids like these evens things out.