Other than some scattered clouds, the weather has been amazing lately. The sun has been shining and I haven't had to wear 6 layers of clothing to go outside. The center has been covered with people shopping and sitting outside at cafe. There are only a few more days left before Baba Marta Day. This is celebrated on March 1, as the coming of spring. Before this day you buy red and white bracelets for your friends and family and give them out wishing everyone good luck and health and the person receiving them makes a wish when the bracelet is being tied on. The bracelets are worn until you see a stork and then they are tied to a fruit bearing tree. I'm excited for this holiday and look forward to seeing my friends in town to exchange these bracelets called Martanitzi. I have bought at least 20-25 with all different types of charms and designs.
My work situation and secondary projects have been keeping me super busy lately. This week I have had at least 3-6 meetings every day. I have begun a project with a teacher from one of the local high schools and her students. The project will focus on Environmental Education and activities to get the students more interested in the topic. This will include several hikes and camping trips in the mountains, and presentations about Environmental issues, sustainability and human impact. Before I decide on the topics of the presentations and the specific activities I will submit a survey to the students and the teachers of the local schools to get a better idea of what their interests are and the best resources to make the educational process more fun. I will also submit a survey to the leaders of the Municipality in order to understand how Environmental Education is supported throughout the town. In addition to this, my new boss has me working on one of two new websites for his organization. Today he handed me a plan for now until September of the projects he wants me to be working on with him. I was in shock. I figured that I would be pestering him for projects and tasks. I cant wait............most of this includes working with the eco trails, composting and local organizations who want to make a connection with the tourism center. Outside of my main organization, I have several other projects in the works. The gallery project is under way now that we have a Go! by the mayor. Tomorrow I will be speaking with several art teachers about choosing students for the gallery opening. I have also been asked to submit some art work. I may do some poetry and or photography. The local language school has asked the other volunteer and I to help the students put on a large presentation for their end of the year projects. This will be a huge cultural event all about the United States. The students can choose any topic they wish and present it however they wish. I will be organizing a group of students who want to learn a country line dance that will be performed at the large cultural day. We are inviting their parents, members of the municipality and a member of the US embassy. I have started an informal English group so that the local community who speaks English can practice their language skills outside of a classroom. I have had a very good response so far.
Outside of work I have managed to take part in a Bulgarian dance group and a rock climbing club. The young man who invited me to climb with him is a European Champion. He has been unable to gain support from our municipality for his competitions, so I am helping him to put together a resume and letter for climbing companies and organizations that might be willing to sponsor him and help him pay for his competitions and gear.
Tomorrow I'm traveling to Chirpan to watch another volunteer who has also joined a dance group. I have to give him a lot of credit for doing this. It can be difficult enough going to practice and being the American butchering their time honored dances, but performing in front of your community and media...........that's intimidating. I will be performing on Monday and Wednesday. Monday is the National Holiday. This will celebrate the independence of the Bulgarian People. As far as I have heard this is only a day without work and relaxation. The mayor will make a speech and the military will display their equipment. It is not celebrated in such a active way like our independence day.
Just today I received the keys to my new apartment. The one I have been waiting to be completed for five months. I was told it was completely finished. This isn't totally true. It has electricity and running water but where the Kitchen is supposed to be is not finished and there is not furniture, only an empty room. I was told that the Municipality will give me 500 leva to buy all the things I need. This will not be enough for a fridge, oven, bed and the smaller things I will need. I wasn't totally surprised that even to the very end they would be dragging their feet to try and get out of the agreement with Peace Corps. None the less I have been in my apartment several times today just enjoying the fact that I do have a brand new space all for me........even if I cant move in just yet. So close and almost there!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
I can't believe I did that!
At the moment I am sitting in the living room of my apt. About an hour ago I was in new my office just next to my apartment building. This is a smaller and temporary office that does not have facilities. Since my apartment was only steps away, I decided to leave my things in the office and run upstairs to use my own facilities. When I closed the door of the office it locked on its own.......the keys are in the locked office and I am sadly not. Ehhh it could be worse. I got a hold of my counterpart and currently I'm waiting for her to find a locksmith who will come and unlock the door so that I can continue with my work. Not exactly how I imagined my first day but there isnt much that surprises me in this country anymore.
My new work placement is with the Tourism information center in Karlovo. I already find myself much happier in this placement then the last.......not only because I have a responsive director but also because they are excited to have a volunteer and ready with several projects and activities for me to work on with them. This will not only give me the opportunity to work with tourism activities in Karlovo, it will also allow me to provide assistance to the tourists who come from abroad. I explained to my director that I also want to be involved in environmental awareness activities with the local youth through the center. He was very excited about this. As far as work goes, things seem to be looking up......Right now I am only waiting on my apartment to be finished and a locked door :)
Soon I will be starting an informal English group with students from the local language school and also having a pen pal exchange between these students and several in the states. I have a cousin in Kentucky who is a teacher in middle school and her students are very excited to have pen pals in Bulgaria. This should be a great experience for both sides.
I spoke with my mom last night over SKYPE. She is doing very well. She explains that she is almost pain free and that her cancer markers are dropping fast. I cant ask for better news. My other family members are just now learning about the wonder that is SKYPE, so soon I hope to speak with them on a regular basis, not only through email.
The student I climb with on Tuesdays is training for his next competition. I have been communicating with my climbing friends in the states to see if they had any ideas of how to find him a sponsor for his competitions since he does not have the money himself and the municipality is not a reliable source of support. He and I will be working on his resume and several letters to send to European and American companies that design climbing gear and or support the sport itself. If anything it will show him how to find support within his own interests.
Yesterday was the day of remembering Vasil Levski, this was the memorial of his hanging. He is the hero of this country and known as their freedom fighter. He desired to have one united Republic of Bulgaria.....not sure if he would be happy with the present day situation. The schools let out early and parades and people flooded the streets all the way to the Levski monument in the old town. Red and yellow carnations were put at the foot of the monument as a memorial of his death and for his heroic efforts. On Monday I attended a play that illustrated the events that led up to Levski beginning the rebellion in Bulgaria. Not only was it a great play helping me to better understand how he played such an important role in creating a more united nation for his people but it also allowed me to feel like more of the community. After the play I talked with several municipality employees and their families.
Well I have been told my problem is solved and I can go back to work.
My new work placement is with the Tourism information center in Karlovo. I already find myself much happier in this placement then the last.......not only because I have a responsive director but also because they are excited to have a volunteer and ready with several projects and activities for me to work on with them. This will not only give me the opportunity to work with tourism activities in Karlovo, it will also allow me to provide assistance to the tourists who come from abroad. I explained to my director that I also want to be involved in environmental awareness activities with the local youth through the center. He was very excited about this. As far as work goes, things seem to be looking up......Right now I am only waiting on my apartment to be finished and a locked door :)
Soon I will be starting an informal English group with students from the local language school and also having a pen pal exchange between these students and several in the states. I have a cousin in Kentucky who is a teacher in middle school and her students are very excited to have pen pals in Bulgaria. This should be a great experience for both sides.
I spoke with my mom last night over SKYPE. She is doing very well. She explains that she is almost pain free and that her cancer markers are dropping fast. I cant ask for better news. My other family members are just now learning about the wonder that is SKYPE, so soon I hope to speak with them on a regular basis, not only through email.
The student I climb with on Tuesdays is training for his next competition. I have been communicating with my climbing friends in the states to see if they had any ideas of how to find him a sponsor for his competitions since he does not have the money himself and the municipality is not a reliable source of support. He and I will be working on his resume and several letters to send to European and American companies that design climbing gear and or support the sport itself. If anything it will show him how to find support within his own interests.
Yesterday was the day of remembering Vasil Levski, this was the memorial of his hanging. He is the hero of this country and known as their freedom fighter. He desired to have one united Republic of Bulgaria.....not sure if he would be happy with the present day situation. The schools let out early and parades and people flooded the streets all the way to the Levski monument in the old town. Red and yellow carnations were put at the foot of the monument as a memorial of his death and for his heroic efforts. On Monday I attended a play that illustrated the events that led up to Levski beginning the rebellion in Bulgaria. Not only was it a great play helping me to better understand how he played such an important role in creating a more united nation for his people but it also allowed me to feel like more of the community. After the play I talked with several municipality employees and their families.
Well I have been told my problem is solved and I can go back to work.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Who knew the woman painting her nails would be my rock of sanity!
Life has been all over the place since I got back from Thailand. Last weekend I hosted a much needed ladies weekend in Karlovo. We made French toast for breakfast, I gave them a tour of the town and we and stayed up late doing the whole girly gossip. I had such a great weekend with the girls. It gave us all an opportunity to open up and just hash out whatever was going on, which we all needed to do. Next time I want to have more of the B22 girls.......one big estrogen fest.
Last Wednesday I had a visit from my program manager. This visit was intended to find out what would be my next steps in the municipality since my department had been closed and counterpart fired. Since the municipality I have been working for, had not met any of the requirements to host a PCV up to this point, there were intentions of removing me from the municipality and moving me to a new organization. The meetings that day resulted in another period of waiting. I have been waiting 4 months for an apartment that was supposed to be done the weekend I arrived back in October and Its been almost a month since my counterpart was fired and sinve have been sitting in an empty office waiting for information. It was agreed that I would wait until March to see if the Muni will give me work since they explained that they do want to keep me, had a new department for me and had actually began work on my apartment. I had expected that this would have been a visit with more concrete results but progress and results occur differently in this country and you have to accept it or let it drive you up a wall.
On Friday of last week I was called into the Deputy Mayors office to meet a man who is the director of an sustainable development NGO in town. We talked about work done in this dept, the type of work I wanted to be involved in and how I could be involved in this organization..........call me crazy but I thought I was getting a new work placement. I was asked to show up this Monday morning to meet with this director and the others in his office. I showed up to the office and met some very nice people who told me if I had any questions or needed any help to feel free to come to them. We all talked about peace corps, my background, the United States and learned a little about the organization. I was asked again what type of projects I wanted to work on. I explained that I wanted to do something related to environmental awareness, but willing to work on whatever was the current project........just wanting some work to do (though I am busy with other activities). When this was over he said I should go with him. We left the office and walked toward the center, then into the Municipality. I was not sure why my new boss was taking me back to my old place of work. Well it turns out that this man is not my new boss, instead he is the head of the department that has replaced mine and I was introduced to him as a resource.
After that confusion, I was trying to figure out who would be coming with me to the Peace Corps IST that starts on Monday next week. Either the counterpart of the volunteer is supposed to attend or a member of the office they work in who the volunteer works with. At this point I was without a counterpart until it was suggested to me that the new girl in the of office I "work" in to be my counterpart. Turns out she used to be the counterpart of the volunteer before the last and is familiar with project writing......so I think that could work. She is really young but very smart and super sweet. Im only confused on if I work in that office or for that office since the muni said they would be placing me in another department in a few weeks......Just one reason to talk to my program staff at IST. So as of yet I do not know who I will be going with to IST for the PDM workshop but at this point im just along for the ride.
This past weekend was so fantastic. The weather was so beautiful. Jim came to visit me this weekend and he finally had the opportunity to experience Karlovo, meet people in my town and enjoy being outside surrounded by the beautiful Balkan mountains. Friday we went to the intellect school to watch the students presentations, then we went to the disco with the students from the youth parliament. Saturday was so much fun. We went to meet with my dance group at our dance hall. After everyone
changed, we boarded a bus for no more then 5 minutes and then got back out again. Everyone walked to the top of a hill covered in snow. When we arrived, some of the dancers were making preparations for some type of cultural tradition. It turns out though Trifonovden was Friday it was being celebrated with the community on Saturday. This was a holiday to celebrate the fruits of last years grape harvest and bless the land for the following. I drank red and white wine from metal bowls that had a grape branch floating in the wine. This is more symbolism of blessing next years harvest with this years fruits. The mayor came to the event. He broke traditional Bulgarian bread, drank some 
wine and cut a branch from the vineyard. A priest came and blessed the vineyard and followed it with a small religious ceremony which had me trying my hardest to keep a candle lit in the wind :) . After the ceremony, we all walked down the hill to another part of the festival that had kukerie dancers, who scare off evil spirits. There were also baba horo dancers. I did a little horo in the mud and snow to amuse my dance group.
Jim and I had intended on making chicken pot pie for dinner but we ended up blowing a fuse and killing the electricity in the apartment........this lead to eating out and some really amazing chicken. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, enjoying amazing weather and eating a lot of M
&M's.
Today was a little more confusing as far as still trying to figure out this partner to IST.........I'm finished trying to figure it all out. I'm just going to watch it unfold and quit worrying about it. This evening was very productive. I watched presentations at intellect instead of meeting with my climbing group. I wanted to talk to one of the teachers about creating an informal English speaking group that would meet in a cafe or restaurant in Karlovo. This would help the students to practice their skills outside of the classroom. She and I set up a meeting for Friday at lunch to discuss. After this I went to meet with one student who I will be working with on another project. He and I are working on a project for a youth gallery opening. The theme is "Youth Art and its Future", or at least that is what it is for the moment. He and I made some great headway by laying out a calender of what needed to occur and how to meet our gallery opening deadline. We discussed meetings, materials and funding needed and layout of the exhibit. The best part about this project is that the money raised will be given to the local orphanage........a great way for the local youth and the community to be active and support a local charity. I'm really looking forward to working on this project. Well its been a long day, that I just remembered it began with a glass of red wine.........I was stopped by the gallery owner on my way to work to sit for a spell and try his natural red wine. Who am I to turn down wine at 9:00 am :)
"How long should you try? Until!"
Last Wednesday I had a visit from my program manager. This visit was intended to find out what would be my next steps in the municipality since my department had been closed and counterpart fired. Since the municipality I have been working for, had not met any of the requirements to host a PCV up to this point, there were intentions of removing me from the municipality and moving me to a new organization. The meetings that day resulted in another period of waiting. I have been waiting 4 months for an apartment that was supposed to be done the weekend I arrived back in October and Its been almost a month since my counterpart was fired and sinve have been sitting in an empty office waiting for information. It was agreed that I would wait until March to see if the Muni will give me work since they explained that they do want to keep me, had a new department for me and had actually began work on my apartment. I had expected that this would have been a visit with more concrete results but progress and results occur differently in this country and you have to accept it or let it drive you up a wall.
On Friday of last week I was called into the Deputy Mayors office to meet a man who is the director of an sustainable development NGO in town. We talked about work done in this dept, the type of work I wanted to be involved in and how I could be involved in this organization..........call me crazy but I thought I was getting a new work placement. I was asked to show up this Monday morning to meet with this director and the others in his office. I showed up to the office and met some very nice people who told me if I had any questions or needed any help to feel free to come to them. We all talked about peace corps, my background, the United States and learned a little about the organization. I was asked again what type of projects I wanted to work on. I explained that I wanted to do something related to environmental awareness, but willing to work on whatever was the current project........just wanting some work to do (though I am busy with other activities). When this was over he said I should go with him. We left the office and walked toward the center, then into the Municipality. I was not sure why my new boss was taking me back to my old place of work. Well it turns out that this man is not my new boss, instead he is the head of the department that has replaced mine and I was introduced to him as a resource.
After that confusion, I was trying to figure out who would be coming with me to the Peace Corps IST that starts on Monday next week. Either the counterpart of the volunteer is supposed to attend or a member of the office they work in who the volunteer works with. At this point I was without a counterpart until it was suggested to me that the new girl in the of office I "work" in to be my counterpart. Turns out she used to be the counterpart of the volunteer before the last and is familiar with project writing......so I think that could work. She is really young but very smart and super sweet. Im only confused on if I work in that office or for that office since the muni said they would be placing me in another department in a few weeks......Just one reason to talk to my program staff at IST. So as of yet I do not know who I will be going with to IST for the PDM workshop but at this point im just along for the ride.
This past weekend was so fantastic. The weather was so beautiful. Jim came to visit me this weekend and he finally had the opportunity to experience Karlovo, meet people in my town and enjoy being outside surrounded by the beautiful Balkan mountains. Friday we went to the intellect school to watch the students presentations, then we went to the disco with the students from the youth parliament. Saturday was so much fun. We went to meet with my dance group at our dance hall. After everyone
changed, we boarded a bus for no more then 5 minutes and then got back out again. Everyone walked to the top of a hill covered in snow. When we arrived, some of the dancers were making preparations for some type of cultural tradition. It turns out though Trifonovden was Friday it was being celebrated with the community on Saturday. This was a holiday to celebrate the fruits of last years grape harvest and bless the land for the following. I drank red and white wine from metal bowls that had a grape branch floating in the wine. This is more symbolism of blessing next years harvest with this years fruits. The mayor came to the event. He broke traditional Bulgarian bread, drank some 
wine and cut a branch from the vineyard. A priest came and blessed the vineyard and followed it with a small religious ceremony which had me trying my hardest to keep a candle lit in the wind :) . After the ceremony, we all walked down the hill to another part of the festival that had kukerie dancers, who scare off evil spirits. There were also baba horo dancers. I did a little horo in the mud and snow to amuse my dance group.Jim and I had intended on making chicken pot pie for dinner but we ended up blowing a fuse and killing the electricity in the apartment........this lead to eating out and some really amazing chicken. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, enjoying amazing weather and eating a lot of M
&M's.Today was a little more confusing as far as still trying to figure out this partner to IST.........I'm finished trying to figure it all out. I'm just going to watch it unfold and quit worrying about it. This evening was very productive. I watched presentations at intellect instead of meeting with my climbing group. I wanted to talk to one of the teachers about creating an informal English speaking group that would meet in a cafe or restaurant in Karlovo. This would help the students to practice their skills outside of the classroom. She and I set up a meeting for Friday at lunch to discuss. After this I went to meet with one student who I will be working with on another project. He and I are working on a project for a youth gallery opening. The theme is "Youth Art and its Future", or at least that is what it is for the moment. He and I made some great headway by laying out a calender of what needed to occur and how to meet our gallery opening deadline. We discussed meetings, materials and funding needed and layout of the exhibit. The best part about this project is that the money raised will be given to the local orphanage........a great way for the local youth and the community to be active and support a local charity. I'm really looking forward to working on this project. Well its been a long day, that I just remembered it began with a glass of red wine.........I was stopped by the gallery owner on my way to work to sit for a spell and try his natural red wine. Who am I to turn down wine at 9:00 am :)
"How long should you try? Until!"
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