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GOAT ATTACK!

6-16-09


One month ago, I began my Peace Corps training, and it has just about sunk in that I am, in fact, in the Peace Corps. This has easily been the largest change in the shortest amount of time during my life (or at least a close second to puberty).

Day in and day out I am speaking Bulgarian. My laundry is being done by hand and, I am pretty sure I don’t remember how to drive a car. So, in other words, “completely different from Eden Prairie”.

Since my last blog entry, a lot has happened. Let me see if I can remember most of it.

Last week, my fellow trainees and I held a community meeting to find out what types of community projects we could work on in the short 7 weeks we have left of training. With the assistance of our language trainer Toni and COD (Community Organizational Development) program staff Katya, we were able to communicate with a group of 30 local community members about the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of our training village.

The conversation was quite lively. It seemed like the people wanted to know about us, and our families, more than coming up with project ideas. We did however, receive many ideas for a project. Some of the ideas included; painting the bridge in town, cleaning the area around the river, building an information kiosk, and (my favorite) planting 5 trees in the town square each representing one of us.

At the time of this post, the project that we will be working on has yet been decided.

CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!!

Continuing on… Last week we also had placement interviews! Which means, I met with the COD managing staff so, they can make a final decision about where I am going to be placed within Bulgaria for two years!
{ok. real quick.}
Peace Corps Bulgaria consists of three programs COD (Community Organizational Development), YD (Youth Development), and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) everyone in Peace Corps Bulgaria works within one of these programs.

The interview went well. I have said it once, and I’ll say it again. The staff of Peace Corps Bulgaria is phenomenal. I have complete faith in this organization that they will help me be an effective peace worker over the next two years.

One part of the permanent site placement process is a mid term language review. We had it yesterday so, as you can imagine, trainees were on pins and needles for the last week. Anyway, long story short, I find out where I will be living and working for the next two years on Thursday (6-18)!

Peace Corps makes it a fun ordeal, I guess. On Friday (6-19) I will be traveling to my permanent site for a few days to scope it out and introduce myself to my future co-workers and neighbors.

So there you have it. CLIFFHANGER part 2.

(Yes, I have resorted to cliffhangers to keep people reading my blog.)

So, that’s HUGE!

On Sunday (6-13), I helped Ivan and Ivanka can Raspberries and Cherries. This was way cool! The thing I really am impressed with is how self sufficient they are. They grow their own produce, with great variety, and are able to store it for the winter. They are old pros at it too! They had a big metal box where they put about 80 jars of cherries and raspberries. They filled the box with water and built a fire underneath the box to boil the water hence, sealing all the cans.

On Monday (6-14), There was a concert in the town square supporting the up-coming parliamentary elections in Bulgaria. This was also way cool! Ivanka, sings in the local folk choir that performed. There were traditional dance performances and a comedy routine as well. In the routine there was a lot of drag and a lot of music jokes (where one actor would ask another something and they would respond by lip syncing a well placed song). It was hard to follow given my low level of Bulgarian but, the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Alright, to wrap things up; a joke and a query:

Q. Why don’t ant-eaters ever get sick?
A. Because they are full of Anty-bodies!


Cultural Query:

In America, when you ask someone how are you, the response is usually “Good. Thanks” in Bulgaria “Thanks. Good”. Any thoughts?



Whatcha doin?



Can you can?



Town Square and Traditional dancing



@ the folk show



Ivan and Ivanka




A couple fellow trainees taking a break (Val/Meg)

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Chris and school director



Tastes that good too



Great Work Team!