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!"