Business Time

06-23-09


The Announcement:


Thursday June 18th was quite a day. My trainee group and I traveled to the Peace Corps office for the site placement and counterpart meeting conference. As you may have read, and I don’t blame you if you haven’t, the conference is when we find out where and kind of what we will be doing for the next two years!

Upon arrival to the Peace Corps office, we found all the pre-service trainees gathering. I am gonna go out on a limb here and say they were kind of excited. Actually, I don’t think anyone has been that excited since landing in Sofia, last month. It was AWSOME!
(ps. Awesome in Bulgarian means the number “8”. That does indeed cause confusion. This becomes especially confusing when I’m nodding my head. Basically, imagine someone shaking their head “No” ecstatically saying the number “8” that is kind of what it’s like for my Bulgarian friends.)

We had to wait an entire hour before Peace Corps would tell us where we were going to be living! They made us listen to important information before telling us where we would be. I think a few people were hospitalized from anticipation. How cruel Peace Corps can be some time… Maybe not that serious, it was still hard.

The site announcement was sweet! Peace Corps staff drew a big out-line of Bulgaria in a parking-lot. Within the map of Bulgaria, they placed colored sheets of paper each with the name of the different sites. All the trainees and staff stood around the map. The senior staffs called up groups of 4 or 5 trainees to receive a red rose and were guided to their place in Bulgaria! Once, we were standing at our site, they gave us an envelope with some details about our job.

My name was finally called and I was led to my site. In the words of a fellow trainee Jon; whose placement is near to mine, “We won the Peace Corps lottery!” I will be living and working in a small village (population 800) in the Rhodopie Mountains! Not too far from the boarder with Greece.



Counterpart Meeting:

We met the people we will be working with later that day. My counterpart is named Nevena. She works in the mayor’s office. She does not speak any English, but she speaks really good slow Bulgarian. I can understand her fairly well. I am still surprised at my Bulgarian language progress.

The Peace Corps programs split up and everyone went to different hotels for a few days to learn about adapting to different cultures, working with counterparts, and putting together a first 3 months of service plan.

The hotel was very nice! It was surrounded by mountains and had a river flowing in front of it. They had breakfast lunch and dinner for us as well. The hotel was only 1 km out of town so that was also convenient.

Friday night a group of COD trainees and I saw a Bulgarian Metallica cover band! They actually were not too bad. That or this has been the longest I have gone not seeing live “pop” music since I was 16 years-old.




Saturday afternoon a fellow trainee, Greg, and I hiked a nearby mountain. It was incredible how high we got in such a short time! The area our hotel was in is a haven for top-rope and lead climbing. On our hike we saw a lot of great climbing routs. It would be incredible to be climbing in some of these spots because the view is absolutely amazing! My experience at the conference was a lot of fun and productive.



Nevena, a peace corps staff member, and I met to discuss possible goals for the first 3 months. The work I will be doing sounds way cool. I will be teaching English, working with kids, teaching a computer class, and maybe doing some out door education types of things. I want to translate “Leave No Trace” into Bulgaria. Let me know if you think the department of natural resources would have a problem with that or if you have any other ideas relating to out door things to teach kids.


Where I’ll be Living:

After our few days at the hotel, we traveled to our permanent sites to scope it out for a couple of days! Sunday morning, I traveled to my permanent site with my counterpart. We took a bus part of the way and traveled by car the rest of the way. The drive into the mountains is astounding. The road winds through the mountains following a river. The mountains are covered in evergreen trees. My counterpart told me the air is cleaner up there. At first I thought that was just some kind of home town pride type of comment, but she is right. It is hard to explain but, I felt good in the Rhodopies.

The town I am living in is nestled in between a few peaks of the mountains and situated on a hill. I like it. The school, library and mayors office are quite nice for a town that size and there are at least 4 different bars and restaurants. When we arrived into town I met the mayor, his wife and the English teacher. The reception was very warm. I am happy to have been placed in the village.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, which is owned by my landlord. They served me French fries with Seirene. I can not believe I have been in Bulgaria for a month, and have never had French fries with Seirene! Probably one of my new favorites.
After lunch, they took me to the place I will be living for the next two years. It is a three story house. The first floor is a bakery, I have the second floor, and the top floor is a young family. I have a sweet porch, a dishwasher and a washing machine. The bed I have is the best bed I have slept on in Bulgaria and every thing is very clean. Now you may be asking yourself “Sounds nice Dan…But where is your Peace Corps experience?” Then I will respond with “well actually I don’t have a microwave or an electric stove for that matter. I will be using a wood burning stove for cooking and I guess heating” That should be an interesting experience.

During my short time in my village, I was able to meet quite a few of the local people and tour the main buildings of the village. The people are very receptive but don’t really understand why I would ever leave the United States to come there. Actually, most everyone was making fun of me for it. I don’t take offense to that one bit. I mean Peace Corps is really an irrational concept when you think about it. But obviously, 30 years of history is speaking volumes.

One day we were able to hike on the trails around the village. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Lake Superior Hiking Trail but, these are mountains. The trails are so cool! I am now justified for buying all that stuff from REI now.

My short visit to my permanent site has really energized me. Returning to pre-service training, I am now even more motivated to learn Bulgarian. We have a month left and a lot to learn. It is going to be hectic, but how I can serve and help out Bulgaria is becoming clearer to me. Well, here goes nothing.


Joke:

Q: If Al Borlin and a cat had a child what would it be called?

A: A Plaid-a-puss!

**My Brother made that one up. Thanks Andrew, keep them coming**


Cultural Observation:

As a country, America needs to eat feta-like cheese more often.