January 20-22 we worked on a guest house in the sea town of Chernomorets, a small town outside Varna's rival, the Black Sea coastal city of Brugas. The house was the home of one of Kathleen's colleagues growing up, it was then turned into a bed and breakfast, and this past weekend we helped in the process of turning it into a nursing home.

shared sleeping quartersA total of 12 volunteers gathered to help, and we all stayed in the house over the weekend. Since there are so many beds we had free accommodations and rein of the kitchen and fireplaces. Saturday and Sunday we did a full sorting and cleaning; painted hallways, bedrooms, and the living room. We moved some furniture around too. Hospital beds are really heavy. There is still some work to be done before opening day, but we at least helped get it one step closer.

moving furnituredoing the trimming

For MLK Day this year I went into the school and gave a presentation to 1-4 grade about who Dr. King was, what he stood for and what he accomplished. Some of the teachers recognized the name but for the kids it was completely new. Since my village and school have a high population of the racial minority, the Roma, I think this was an important holiday to share with them.

I also shared with them the famous "I have a dream" quote. Then I gave them all a piece of paper and asked them to draw their dreams for the future. I collected all of them and then put them together in a sort of "I have a dream" quilt. I'm going to hang it up in the school for everyone to see. With them all mixed up you can't tell which drawing comes from who, and they can see how many of them are similar and that everyone wants something for the future.

Some of the drawings

December was a fulfilled month of Christmas cheer. In early December I spent a few days in the village of Zavet at the truancy boarding school. The boys there are from about 10 to 18. In the morning we watched a concert that they had prepared for us and passed out new shoes and winter socks that we bought with funds raised.

Preparing to watch the concertSingingpassing out presentsThen we held an intense ping pong tournament, brackets and all. This is when I met Emil, my new favorite, I accidentally beat him in round one.

watching ping pongAfter ping pong we broke for lunch. When we returned we split into two groups, me and Suzie were with the younger kids doing crafts while everyone else was with th elder kids in the gym doing HIV/AIDS awareness.

coloringAfter that everyone played volleyball. I did for a few serves, but this was a group of competitive adolescent boys, I was not good enough. They were kind to me about it though, they never asked me to leave the game, I subbed out on my own. We shared dinner with them in their dinning hall and then Raf, another PC Volunteer who had been on Bulgarian X-Factor over the summer, sang with his guitar in English and Bulgarian. Some of the boys sang and danced and they all had big smiles. It was a good day for all of us.

Raf singing In Varna, we had a Christmas mall day full of Black Sea Pirate fun with Santa. There was an outdoor Christmas village too, with rides for the children, hot food stalls, and mulled wine.

Merry Christmas from the Black Sea PirateIn my village for Christmas, I was also really busy. I taught the 5-8 graders "12 Day of Christmas" for the school Christmas concert, and had a lot of dance practice myself for the concert we had on the 23rd for Christmas and the 110 year anniversary of the community center. Also, in the midst of all this, I had a visitor.

Zachary!!!So I had to go pick him up from Sofia. Luckily he got in the day before the concert and he got to see me dance! When mom and dad were here they only got to see me practice, so I was excited about that. There were several performances and a bake sale of traditional Bulgarian Christmas food. Celebrating 110 YearsBake SaleWe, according to Hilbers tradition, made sugar cookies; which we passed out around town on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we spent in Varna. We went to the Cathedrale and the Black Sea before a dinner of two turkeys. Kerri made a turkey in the oven while the boys, Tim and Z, grilled one. It was a show down men vs woman. Black Sea in VarnaTurkey 1 going into the ovenNew Years Eve I spent in Shumen, a city about an hour west of Varna. I have some good friends there who were hosting a party. We made party food and bought champagne.

food spread Shumen is a university town so there are a lot of young Bulgarians who speak pretty good English. I was a good mixture of people and a very good way to kick off 2012.

Currently I'm working on a presentation and artwork piece for the kids about MLK Day which is next Monday. We also have English spelling bee practice which starts soon. We will have a school wide bee, then a regional one, and then if one of my kids makes it nationals in Sofia.

This year I celebrated Thanksgiving Week with the students at the school by making a 'Thankful Turkey' and showing Pocahontas. While Disney's Pocahontas is very unlike what really took place its a good, kid friendly, film to illustrate the voyage over to the New World and the differences between the native culture and the settlers once they arrived. I managed to find it in Bulgarian, dubbed and not with subtitles, so the little kids could watch it without falling behind in reading. They seemed to enjoy it, the Meeko and Percy antics are universaly funny and they were laughing quite a bit.

The 'Thankful Turkey' was a group craft project that we put together. I cut out paper feathers and had the kids write down things that they were thankful for. I collected them all back and made them into turkeys. With all the feathers from 2nd-8th grade we had enough to make two turkeys and put them up in the hallway for everyone to read.

On actual Thanksgiving day I cooked a small dinner for myself and my landlady Stoika. I have been trying to explain what stuffing is since its one of my favorite holiday dishes and I thought it would be easier if I just made it. I had difficulty locating a turkey this year so we had roasted chicken, but everything else was traditional; stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

Over the weekend I traveled to a friend's village to help with an event at her state run boarding school. We had different activities set up in different rooms/areas for them in the morning. We made hand turkeys and headdresses, silly putty, chocolate chip cookies and played sports ranging from football and American football to baseball. In the afternoon we all split up into four groups and had a scavenger hunt around the village. My team won.

This guy caught on quite well with football

Joe showing kids how to throw a football

making silly putty

making chocolate chip cookies

making chocolate chip cookies

headdress table

completed cookies

monkey in the middle in front of the school

Nichole before the Scavenger Hunt

The winning team before we were assigned our kids

scavenging

hunting

scavenger hunt fun

returning from the scavenger hunt

baseball

That night we all had a festive dinner in a closed down restaurant space in the center of the village. They let people use it for birthdays and celebrations and they let us have it for Thanksgiving. There was a ping pong table, darts and a very large area to set up a table; and dance later too. I brought a pumpkin pie, mulled wine and some cranberry sauce; everything else was supplied by the group. I helped with preparations; slicing and all that fun sou chef stuff when needed. We cooked three fresh turkeys purchased and dried in the village, mashed potatoes, zucchini casserole, carrot and orange salad, two types of stuffing, deviled eggs, baked pumpkin, root beer cookies, apple crumble and of course gravy.

Dinner Group Shot

A few weeks ago I went to Belgrade to meet up with Stine for a long weekend. We didn't really know what to expect from the capital of Serbia but it surprised us. The people were friendly and I understood Serbian for the most part because of its similarity to Bulgarian. They city was clean and well kept. There was plenty of stuff to do and see, and for the most part the food was good.

Stine's Chocolate Lava Cake at one of our tea breaksWe saw the old fortress of Belgrade, which lies at the very defensible junction of the Danube and Sava rivers on the top of the hill.

Walking around the fortresshiding in a watch towerthe view over the rivers on a foggy daytogether in a watch towerWe walked down the old bohemian quarter full of windy cobble stone streets and cafes as well as large wide pedestrian shopping zones full of stores I miss here in Bulgaria. There is also a student square and some new 'concept' stores/restaurants in the area of old town. Our favorite was 'Supermarket Concept Store' and we spent a lot of time there.

Zebra Crossing. So clever.

The churches in Belgrade are many and of the orthodox variety, but they're different then most of the ones I've seen. There was a tiny chapel near the fortress that had some of the best mosaics I've ever seen. The big cathedral, however, was barren on the inside. It had unfinished floors and no paintings on the walls or ceilings. Its beautiful on the outside, but very much so unfinished.

a small church with autumn leavesCathedral of Saint SavaWe went to the Nikola Tesla Museum, which was one of the best I've been to because it was so interactive, yet small and personal. There was guide that takes you through in English and some of Tesla's old machines from the World's Fair in Chicago are there and still operational as well as some models of the Niagara Falls Power Plant he helped design.

Stine at the Nikola Tesla Museum, in her Tesla Motors sweatshirt.

She Works for Tesla Motors.It was a great trip, and not just to see Stine again even though that was the whole point. I did enjoy Belgrade and I recommend it to anyone.

Now I am back in Avren busy with Thanksgiving preparations and celebrations. I've been spending quite a bit of time at the school this week and last. I found Disney's Pocahontas in Bulgarian and I've had showings of it at the school, its a good way to introduce Native America Culture. We're also making a 'Thankful Turkey'. I cut out paper feathers and had the kids write down things that they're thankful for on them, and then I made them into a turkey. I still have more sessions tomorrow, and then we're going to hang up the turkeys in the corridors for everyone to see/read.

This year I held a Halloween week at the school, 3 days of American Holiday Show and Tell Time. This time though, most of the kids already had a background of what Halloween was, due to our celebrations last year, so we got to do more fun stuff and less/no presentation. I only really had to show the 1st graders the presentation explaining the origin and traditions of Halloween since they weren't around for last year's. This year was better though because it really was a show and tell, I made a jack-o-lantern and brought it in to show around.

This year we made masks in every grade, they got to pick form one of three styles. They varied greatly in creativity, so I helped out by making one in each class as an example. The cat/batman shape was the most popular after I told them its not just a cat, but also batman. Then all the boys wanted one.

5th Grade5th GradeWith the younger ones (1-3 grade) we played the mummy game. They one we used to play at elementary school Halloween parties. Teams wrap one member with toilet paper so they look like a mummy, the first team done wins. I had Halloween themed rings as prizes; they were a hit. So much so that I had to give away all my Halloween themed stickers as consolation prizes so I would still be a class favorite.

2nd Grade3rd Grade

With the 8th graders we did a word search in English of common Halloween words, and with the 1st graders jack-o-lantern origami. I also gave everyone American candies, Jolly Ranchers, since it seemed to be in the holiday spirit.

Tomorrow night I am in Veliko Turnovo for the annual Volunteer Halloween Party. My costume is awesome, pictures will come later.

I have been pretty busy lately with my town holiday and birthday, and I was busy during September too since my mommy and daddy came to visit!

So this is a recap.

Sept first weekend - Donkey Races in Gurkovo.

A friend of mine is a volunteer in Gurkovo and his town's holiday is actually a Bulgaria-wide known event, a Donkey Race. The donkeys pull carts, which are decorated by the owner/driver. We had a Peace Corps cart and donkey. Someone from the town let us barrow it for the occasion. It was really a fun day. There were food tents and stands for candy and small trinkety things.

Peace Corps cart with volunteersSept 11-18 - Parents Visit

My parents were here for about a week. They flew into Bucharest because it was cheaper and I took the train up there from Varna to meet them since I've never been there. We had a nice reunion dinner and walked around town the next day. They had rented a car so we then left for Bulgaria and had the freedom to go where we wanted when we wanted. I'm not used to this here but it was great since I got to take them to a lot of places I like, or have really wanted to go. We went to Ruse, Zavet, a monastery near Svishtov, Veliko Turnovo, Shumen, Madara, Avren, Kamchia Beach and Varna. During their visit it was the first day of school so my parents got to witness the holiday celebrate in Avren for it. They also got met a lot of my friends, watch one of my dance practices, and tried a lot of traditional Bulgarian food.

At the Madara Fortress

First Day of School

Bucharest

Kamchia Beach : Black Sea Swimming

with Stoika

Sept 23 - Yunak town holiday

Stoika, my land lady was in charge of make the food for the town holiday in Yunak, one of our smaller villages. I decided to help out and learn how they make fish soup, baked fish and small fried fish. We went down to the village in the morning and watched the concert, and then handed out the food.

Deputy Mayor giving a speechGirls from my school dancingOctober 14th - Birthday and Town Holiday

October 14th here is Petkov day, everyone with the name Petko, or Petka, have a "Name Day" celebrated similarly to a birthday. Our church is dedicated to St. Petko so the town has a holiday. The town holiday schedule started at 8am at the church, then a 10:30 concert in the community center where I got to perform with my dance group, and then a free holiday lunch. Afterward I met up with some friends in the Mehana (village restaurant), talked with the family over skype, bought everyone drinks at the Raven's Head (its Bulgarian tradition to treat others on your birthday), and went to visit some neighbors who made me two different kinds of cake and had some champagne. Then I treated my landlady, her daughter, and her brother to an American feast of chili, coleslaw and fresh fruit. Then I headed to the bar run by my friend Minka before ending the night at my friend's house for dinner. It was a long day, but a good one.

in my outfitDancingpresentshomegrown rose

This September the Avren Municipality and the Russian Youth Complex Longoz will be joint hosting the first annual International Folklore Festival in Kamchia. The festival will last two days, Sept 21 & 22, and will feature acts from Bulgaria, Russia, Moldova, and if I can get everything in order America.

The youth director told me about the festival and asked if I could coordinated with other Americans in the area and have an act entered into the competition. She thinks it will be nice to have another culture represented, and since there are so many of us around here I said yes.

None of us can sing, so we were going to do a medley dance of common American dances ie YMCA, Chicken Dance, Electric Slide. It is a folklore festival though, and I gathered from my last conversation with the director that the American act needs to be more 'traditional'. Therefore, I have decided on line dancing to 'Cotton Eye Joe'. Hopefully we will be able to start practices next week.

Last Saturday some 'Varna Regioners' along with some volunteers from farther away meet up in Shumen at the top of one of the surrounding hills next to a giant monument to play some friendly pick up games of softball. There was fire grilling and camping that took place afterward too.

Most of them got there Friday night actually but I was delayed due to a Youth Parliament Meeting. You see, Friday night was August 12th, the International Day of Youth, so we had a meeting with our local village members, the municipal staff and the Russian youth leaders from the Kamchia Longoz camp to celebrate. I got to meet some people who are active in their own villages and interested in organizing some joint activities with me this year. We also talked about the 1st Annual International Folklore Festival in Kamchia, for which I am planning on having an American act. There will be folk acts from Avren, the Russian kids, our Moldovan twin municipality and hopefully me and some other PC volunteers doing a medley of American fad dances (YMCA, Electric Slide etc). It was a nerve racking meeting, having to speak in front of tons of people in a foreign language, but the cocktail/food reception after made the experience worth while. I got free food and to get some numbers from people, along with "na gosti" invites.

The next morning is when I went to Shumen to play ball. Its not too far away, but transport is difficult here sometimes and they had already started the first game by the time I got there. So, I joined the team that was down a player, the one that happened to already be winning by like 6. yay. We ended up winning that one and then took a break for relaxation, breathing and beverages. I went to the city center for some unfinished phone business and to grocery shop for snack food. When I got back they had redone the teams. These teams were more competitive then the previous ones and it was a more fun game, we did win again though. I think it was me.

score keepers, monument in background dog 'Otis' watching Then we collected firewood and enlisted the 'fire maestro' to make the fire. This was a long process because we didnt have an ax and we also didnt want to buy firewood. Therefore, we had to gather a very large amount of sticks and break them with our arms, feet or knees. We made a ton of food, juice and dip and settled in for the night around the fire. Scary Stories (brief mention of Chief Featherhead).

Me in the paper

Our Kelsey

Kelsey Hilbers is a volunteer from the Peace Corps in the Avren Municipality and works with the students from the Hristo Botev Primary School in the village of Avren. She is involved in the preparation of all celebrations in our school. At the same time, she introduces our children to holiday traditions of Americans – she tells how things are in the USA, what foods are served at the table, and what songs and dances are performed. Particularly interesting for the children of Avren was her description of Thanksgiving and Halloween. Everybody enjoyed drawing and making figurines - origami in connection with the celebration. Kelsey attends school during the midday hours, and during leisure time her and the children play different sport games, thus they interact with her and enjoy learning English. Often the young American is our guest in English classes and tells the children about the USA, her place of birth and American schools. In honor of the 21st of March, World Water Day, Kelsey demonstrated to the students modern ways of water quality investigation, like using chemicals for testing samples of different water sources. The most interesting for the children was to do the tests themselves. For the younger students there were games prepared with an ecological emphasis. The volunteer from the Peace Corps actively joined in this year’s honoring of Earth Day, April 22nd that started on the 19th with a showing of the film “The Sick Planet” and a discussion on ecological problems of human kind. On the next day there was a clean up activity organized for the school area, the sport area, the stadium, the park, and other nearby areas. Preliminarily, at her suggestion, was the registration in the green planet initiative of the Community Center of Smolyan for two school teams – “Profiles” (children from elementary courses) and “Young Nature Lover” (students from upper courses). The motto “ Bulgaria: A Liter Free Zone” armed every participant with enthusiasm and diligence. The planned sites were cleaned and the satisfaction and light fatigue made the sense of accomplishment from the finished work sweeter. During this school year the joint work between Kelsey Hilbers and the students and teachers of the Hristo Botev Primary School in the village of Avren will be very beneficial and interesting for the students.

~Avren Local Municipal PaperPortrait Section

A few of us regional Varna volunteers met up in Varna on August 7th to celebrate Navy Day. The Bulgarian Navy is headquartered in Varna so it is a big celebration. Down by the sea port there was a naval ship open to the public. It was the Cuauhtemoc, a training ship for officer cadets from the Mexican Navy. They do tours every year and this year they are in the Black Sea. We got to go on and walk around, take pictures, listen to salsa music and talk to sailors (if you knew Spanish).

the Cuauhtemoc the bow on deck Afterward we walked around the pier to the lighthouse and had a picnic lunch, then we watched an international youth regatta sponsored by the yacht club. They had boats from all down the Bulgarian coast, the Ukraine and Spain. We stuck around and watched the awards show since we had gotten to talking to one of the judges. They have another one on Friday that we're planning to watch.

awards ceremony mosaic on the lighthouse view from the lighthouse

In Bulgaria the First week of August is National Sea Week and some of the larger towns and municipalities along the Black Sea Coast have celebrations. The week concludes with Navy Day, which in Varna means all the Navy ships are open to the public (Varna is where the Bulgarian Navy is headquartered). There was not, however, anything planned in Avren for the week so I decided to plan an marine based eco day-camp with the kids to celebrate. I invited other volunteers to the village to help me run the camp and see the town.

townoutside my door

I planned the camp with some help from my colleagues and a friend. I made presentations (translated by PC staff) and got a hold of some movies to watch on the projector. I made invitations and asked the village store owners to put them up and gave them to any kids I saw in town. I enticed kids to come by holding a raffle drawing after the second day. Each kid that came the first day got a raffle ticket towards the prize, each kid that came the second day got the same, if you came twice you got more chances.

The first day we started off with some color by number sea and/or beach scenes. Then we had a presentation on the Black Sea, its wildlife, and the effects of pollution. There is a lot drilling/transportation of oil in/through the Black Sea so I had an interactive demonstration planned about oil spills. I had collected a bunch of sea gull feathers in Varna and gave one to each kid; they also had a cup of water that they proceeded to dip the feathers in. Clean water doesn't effect the feathers and they stays dry, however, when vegetable oil is added to the cup and the feathers are dipped in again the feathers get all wet and slimy. This means that sea birds cannot fly when they come in contact with oil spills. We then tried to wash off the feathers in a bucket with soap to see how hard it is to save them. Afterward, we watch a movie from the National Geographic Society Great Expeditions: Ghost Ships of the Black Sea.

translating the colors

rocking the sunglasses

presentation

washing oil soaked feathersWe then met up with the kids later after lunch and played some soccer in the stadium.

The second day we started with more color by number drawings, its a good way to keep kids busy while others trickle in late. Then we decided to have an outside playtime break before the presentation to help with attentiveness. Then we had a presentation on waves and how beaches are created. We then made 'seas in a bottle'. I drank a lot of Coca-Cola Light in the previous weeks to collect uniform sized bottles for this experiment. I also collected sand a sea shells from the beach. We put the sand, the sea shells, water and oil into each bottle. Then, when you turn the bottle on its side you can simulate waves and see how the sand moves with the waves. You can see how the top layer of water is the one that moves the most (the floating oil) and the middle layers stay mostly still (the water). We then passed out juice and snacks and watched Planet Earth: Shallow Seas from the BBC. We held the raffle after the last day for a Finding Nemo themed kite.

sand and sea shell stepwater and oil stepRaffle PrizeSome of the expansive collection of color by number papersAll in all I think it went very well. I was happy with how many participants were there and how smoothly the days went. There were teachers present both days and they were really helpful and happy to be there. I also had a good set of volunteers there to help me and we cooked some lovely meals together, eaten outside under the grapevines.

On July 9th 2011, I forayed into the wilderness of the Rila Mountains, along with fellow volunteer Erin, to climb the tallest mountain in Bulgaria. At 2,925.40m (9,597.77ft), Musala was named during Ottoman rule; 'Mus Allah' meaning "the mountain of Allah". We started from the skiing village of Borovets at 1350m at around 9:30am.

At the trail head outside BorovetsThe bridge over this water is where we

stretched, since thats good for you

The first portion of the hike was up a dirt road through relatively high pine trees, the tallest I've seen in the country. We were in the shade for most of this and the going was good. We took one backpack with us and we switched every hour who was carrying it.

tall pine tree

our first water break

Once we came to the edge of the trees there was a stream and a picnic table. We stopped and had some water and trail mix (thanks mom for sending the craisins) . The next part was, in my opinion the 2nd hardest part of the whole trek. It was not particularly steep, but completely in the sun and very hot.

sunlit path

Alphabet Soup Sign

Then we got to a very awkwardly marked turn. It looked like nothing more then a tiny dried up stream bed going off to the left, but that's where the red trail marking arrows were pointing. Also, there was a tiny rusted white sign that said Мусала. Seems pretty straight forward I know, but I shoulda taken a picture of it so our confusion would be understood. We did turn though, and it turned out to be the right way. It was peaceful, we saw no soul for an hour (which had us worried close to the end), and there were trail markers the whole way.

trail after we left the roadwondering about the trailMusala from a distance

frolicking like in the sound of music

crossing a streamthe first site of others/buildings in an hourThen we finally did reach the first mountain hut and the first two of the 7 Rila Lakes. We took a break here for lunch and to fill up our water bottle with very very cold and awesomely tasting water from the fountain. Then we went on a hike through the rest of the lakes up to the second mountain hut, Ледено Езеро or ice lake, located at next to the highest of the Rila Lakes.

Lunch spot

height of first mountain hut

one of the lakes

another lake

rock climbing

2nd mountain hutIce LakeThe last stretch up to the summit was the hardest part, and possibly one of the hardest things I've ever done. The air is thin up there, and less oxygen to already tired muscles going up a steep and pebblely path meant a lot of small breaks and very few steps in between. We did make it to the top though, in 6 hours form the trail head outside Borovets, 1350m to 2925m; 4429ft to 9597ft, which I think is pretty good.

the last little bitpanorama

the other side

victorious rock piles

adding a rockadding a rocksummit markerWe made it back down a lot faster since we took a short cut. You see, there is a gondola from the Borovets town center up to the first mountain hut. Most people take this up in order to cut out the first 3.5 hours of the hike. This is cheating. We did take it down though since we needed to catch the last bus from Borovets to Samokov where we were staying the night.

walk to gondola

gondola

The beginning of July was very busy. The 4th was on a Monday and then on the 5th we had to report for a conference in Tryavna, a village in the northern part of the Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains), held in honor of completing our first year of service.

The 4th of July

For the 4th of July some of us volunteers got together in a village in the northeast region of Bulgaria for some celebratory camping and fire cooking. We decided it would be cool to hike to the Thracian Rock/Tree Circle outside of town and camp inside it. I'm not entirely sure of its original purpose, but it looks cool.

Edge of the rock/tree circle, with uprooted rocksa view from the top of the circlea break in the circle that I cam only assume used to be a road/entranceWe bought food to bbq and some drinks on our way out of town and lugged it all the way up there. It was a pretty walk but it took about an hour, and as it was July it was quite warm, so we stopped to sit in a small cave for a bit to rest; where we found a seashell fossil. We were told the day before that there was a waterfall nearby, so the local volunteer took us to see it.

Cave with friends insidethe waterfallNow, up to this point this was a gathering of Americans for the largest and most important American holiday. However, it is our job to share American culture with others we welcomed some Bulgarians to join us. We taught them some card games and told them that we were gonna bbq to celebrate America finally being free from England, kinda like Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Also, I had brought s'more ingredients and I shared with them how awesome s'mores are. So it was kind of liking a working day.

Camp Fire Grilling

Mid Service Conference (MSC)

MSC was comprised of 2 fully packed days of sessions. Ranging from topics like PC updates, JFK's legacy, volunteer experience exchanges, and specific project overviews. It was actually mildly useful, which was nice. We got to hang out in Tryavna for a few days which is know for its preservation of National Revival architecture (aka Bulagrian culture reviving under Ottoman rule). That coupled with the facts that 1) its in the mountains and 2) we are all together again for the first time in months, made it a very pleasurable weekend.

Town Square and Curch

The other thing that made MSC so memorable was that some of the more assertive volunteers planned a talent show on our last night after dinner. My friend and fellow Michigander was one of these people so I decided to participate. Joe and I had a Harry Potter Wizarding Duel. It was awesome, and I won. I also helped with the act that closed the show, a rendition of Friday by Rebecca Black remixed with Baby by Justin Beiber, they have the same chords. Some of the acts were comical like my skit, while others were actually talented people. Both things were enjoyable though, as was the PC staff, Bulgarians and Americans, who did a rapping act. It was hilarious. They were in costume. Then after the show was over we had karaoke.

Tom introducing the show, Audry and him sang afterwardsPavs and Tom singing Journey "Dont Stop Believin"

Compote is fresh fruit preserved in sugar water in jars for the winter. Usually, especially in small villages like mine, this is homemade. Yesterday we made cherry compote. The cherries didn't come from the garden, but instead from the village of Priceltsi, which is known for their cherries during this time of the year. They are super duper tasty.

The first thing you need to do is wash and de-stem the cherries, as well as clean the jars to make sure they dont have latent food particles or bacteria that will ruin the fruit while it sits. Then you fill the jars with the fresh cherries and cover each one in 5 spoon fulls of sugar. To me this is too much sugar because cherries are naturally sweet, but this is not something I know how to do so I'm not arguing with it. Next, you fill them up with water, just to about a cm under the top.

Some have screw on lids and some have lids that take a special tool to fasten on, and are quiet difficult to get off. Once the lids are on you have to submerge them in boiling water for I am not entirely sure how long to seal them and make it vacuum tight. We did this with a giant black kettle in the back. It was set up on bricks and we started a fire and then placed the kettle on top and filled it with hose water. After the jars were in there for enough time we took them out and placed them upside-down on the ground to make sure the seal was good.

Now we have to wait for them to age and stuff. Good thing there are already strawberry ones in the cellar.

one batch from after the boiling stage setting

large kettle for boiling and sealing

This past Friday some us municipal workers and a group of students from all around the Avren Municipality, along with some chaperons and a three other PC volunteers who so graciously came to help, cleaned the Kamchia Beach. Kamchia is Avren's only beach area, its about 30km south of the more popular, crowded and commercialized Varna beaches. Kamchia has a more rustic and outdoorsy feel to it. There are hotels but its more popular to stay in small bungalows or just camp on the beach, which is what we did.

The clean up featured students from our 5 schools; Avren, Dabravino, Trustikovo, Priceltsi and Cindel. All together there were 43 students and 6 chaperons from their respective villages to help run things. Each school was a team and the one that collected the most trash won.

Avren Team Trustikovo PriceltsiAvren frolicking on the beachWe made a Peace Corps Volunteer team too, we had absolutely no chance of winning because we were very out numbered, but we did our best.

Hannah and Sara

ErinThe municipality supplied us with lunch and we hung out a bit after the clean up before the awards ceremony. Peace Corps is celebrating its 50th year of operation this year, and Peace Corps Bulgaria its 20th year in country since the fall of communism; SO they have been featuring events like this to help celebrate. PC sent me 25 shirts to give out to the most active participants in the clean up. The top three teams got shirts, and it creepily worked out be to exactly 25 kids, but I guess thats a good thing.

Shirt counting and sizingGiving shirts to Avren, we got 2nd placeAfter the event was over the kids got bused back home and we hung out on the beach and camped out. There was a moderately priced restaurant right on the beach, as well as showers and toilets that were free. Which is relatively uncommon here. There were other people camping out, some of which we made friends with. We went swimming, sat by a fire and relaxed after a long hot day of trash collecting.

Chasing Seagulls boats

So I just got back from a vacation with some other volunteers traveling from the Macedonian border in the southwest to the Black Sea Coast city of Burgas. We visited other volunteers along the way and stayed with them in their villages, towns or cities.

First was Matt in Kolarovo southwest of Petrich and very close to the Macedonian Border. We did some day hikes around the area; in the Belasitsa mountains and in the much drier valley area east of Petrich which in appearance reminded me of NorCal.

Heading east from Petrich

a town over the border in Macedonia

Matt's entrance way, with kiwi treesNext was a stop in Sofia in route to Acenovgrad where Tyler lives at the edge of the Rhodope Mountains. We hiked up into the Rhodopes to Acen's Fortress, whom the city is named after. The boys also played some basketball with local kids at the school. I even played a few games, and for the record I didn't cause us to lose.

Acen's Fortress (ruins)

the only standing part of the fortress, seen from the road schooling in basketball

Next was Burgas, the other large city on the Black Sea Coast and the biggest competitor to Varna which I had to see it for myself. Chris, a volunteer who lives there, believes Burgas is better. I beg to differ but we are both partial, and he hasn't actually been to Varna yet. Something that will be rectified soon.

Burgas pier that brave people jump off ofNow I am home and getting ready for a beach clean up at my municipality's beach, Kamchia. It will be this Friday with the kids from the municipal schools, and some volunteers are coming to help out as well.

This past weekend I went on an excursion with other employees of the municipality to some famous sites in the Starna Planina, the mountain range that stretches west to east across Bulgaria dividing the north and the south. It was a two night/three day affair and we had our own bus the whole way.

Kazanlak

Our first stop at the base of the south side of the Stara Planina, and one of the centers of rose production in Bulgaria. They make tons of rose based products and have a big festival every year during harvest season.

Ethnographic Complex

Here there had two houses in the style of 19th century Bulgarian architecture. One was a peasant style house and the other was middle class. The of course had a rose garden and we sampled rose liquor and jam. The jam was good, the liquor smelled good...

Rose GardenMiddle Class HouseJam and Liquor

Thracian Tombs

Thrace was an ancient kingdom present in Bulgaria during the Roman Empire. Spartacus was Thracian. There is a Thracian tomb in the city of Kazanlak, and it has been preserved under an outer protection building. You can't go in the original, but they have a copy next to it that you can go in. The artwork is similar in style and quality to that of the Hellenistic period of Greece. There was another tomb, most likely of a Thracian king Seuthes III in a burial mound outside of Kazanlak. This one you can go in and the original tomb pieces are still there; a sculpture of the King's head, a horse bridal, pottery, a vine crown, some coins etc.

Protective Building over the Thracian Tomb in townEntrance to the Tomb of Seuthes IIISeuthes IIIFrom inside the tombShipka

Famous because of its location near a mountain pass, the Shipka Pass, it was the location of the Battle of Shipka Pass during the war between Russia and the Turks from 1877-78.

Monastery

The Shipka Monastery was built after the Bulgarian and Russian forces finally ousted the Turks, putting an end to Ottoman rule in Bulgaria. The church is built in the style of 17th century architecture in Russia in honor of their aide. The churches bells are cast out of cartridges found on the battlefields.





Monument

Also built to commemorate the Liberation of Bulgaria.

Me and LucyGabrovo

Over the mountain pass from Shipka, and the home of the House of Humor.

Ethnographic Village

For all intensive purposes this is a mini Greenfield Village done Bulgarian style with old buildings and working shops including a kinfe maker, a mill, cowbell maker, confectionery, tea and herbal remedy shop, leather goods, fur goods, a tannery, a saw mill, a toy store, a pottery store etc.

Artwork at the entrance of the villagerug dryingwagons"village" centercowbell makingCenter

We had lunch in the center of Gabrovo at a very nice traditionally styled Mehana and had time to walk around and see the sights. I coulda gone in the House of Humor but I figured I'd saved money and watch some comedies when I got home instead.

Lunch SpotApriltsi

In the middle of the highest area of the Stara Planina, used to be 4 villages but when they got big enough they merged together.

Center

We had some time to just relax and have coffee in the center. We went to the fruit and vegetable market and saw old houses.

Statue with a Stork's nestDevicheski Monastery

Founded in 1830 has a family monastery. There was a glass case inside that held 15 human skulls. There was nothing labeling who they could belong to or why they were there. This glass case was also next to a small decorative gateway that had a rudimentary drawing of the all seeing eye, making it even more creepy.

Troyan

The city developed as a craft center for the region, the Arts and Crafts Museum there showcases this.

Craft Museum Craft Museum

Troyanski Monastery

One of the more well known monasteries in Bulgaria and is the 3rd largest in the country. The interior and exterior painting on the central church area was done by the same painter as the Rila Monastery (the largest and most popular in Bulgaria). It also holds one of the most famous pieces of Eastern Orthodox artwork, a three handed Mary.

Nature Museum-Cherni Ocum

Taxidermied mammals and birds along with a butterfly collection to showcase the nature found in the Balkans.

Elmer Fudd SeasonRed Robin

The Cyrillic Alphabet was created for the Slavic people by two brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, during the First Bulgarian Empire. It was a way for the Bulgarians to read and write in the vernacular, kinda like Dante did for Italy. They celebrate this on the 24th of May, its a holiday for students and teachers, the alphabet and literature. The first graders end school in the 24th of May to celebrate them learning the alphabet and the ability to read. I had the day off work so I went to watch the celebration at the school.

3&4 Grade Girls danceSchool wide 'horo' danceSchool wide 'horo' dance

Kaliakra

We left Avren around 8:30 to go to Kavarna (about 67km north of Varna) for the folk festival. What we didnt know until we got there is that we weren't dancing until 6pm. SO we decided to take our bus and go out Kaliakra. Its a peninsula that jets out into the sea with cliffs dropping down about 230ft. There has been a fort/fishing village there since the Thracian times and you can see different stages of ruins amongst the impressive number of flowers and birds, including the rare shag. There are also 3 types of dolphins in the water around the peninsula and quite a few legends and stories (with statues to commemorate them). Also, my friend Hannah rode up on our bus with us to be my personal fan and picture taker during the dancing competition, so she got to come on this little excursion as well.

the fortress entrancehidden beach cove"Remains of Dwellings" "MiLiTARY ZONE"man with a broken bow

at the endThe drop at the end down to the sea

Общобългарски младежки фолклорен събор „С България в сърцето”

All-Bulgarian youth folklore festival "With Bulgaria in the heart"

So my dance group, that I have been practicing with every Thursday since August from 2-4pm danced at a competition in Kavarna this past Saturday. This was my first performance with the group and I was really nervous since we were on a raised stage and there were TV cameras. We danced 2 of our dances and I got to get all dressed up in costume. The choreographer for the guys congratulated me after, so I must have done well. Oh and we got a trophy too.

men

I am right in the middle

again in the middle

with Hannah (XAHA)

So this year Earth Day had the misfortune of coinciding with Good Friday. All was not lost, however, since we did a clean up earlier in the week with the kids at the school, kindergarten and the community center as part of a nationwide peace corps volunteer initiative to have a liter free Bulgaria.

Good Friday was spent in my house but upstairs with Stoika, Dori and Stella learning how to make Kozunak, a traditional Bulgarian sweet bread made before Easter and then eaten on Easter. I watched the first batch of dough being made, and while it was rested and did some rising I made the second one by hand from scratch.

8 eggs to 1 kilo of flour1st batch donemy batch done Then we dyed eggs, the first of which had to be red for Jesus' blood. Dori took it out of the dye and drew a cross on mine and Stella's foreheads for good health. We had food coloring type dye and also a shimmer kinda paint substance to color 50 hard boiled eggs. On Easter morning you take these eggs and break them against one-another, whoever is holding the egg that doesnt break wins.

faint cross on headeggs being dyeddyed eggs painted eggs We had eggs in every other color of the rainbow and let them dry while Stoika rolled out the Kozunak dough into loafs and braided some into roses. Most of them were filled with локум, or as we call it in America Turkish Delight, but one lucky one was filled with homemade plum and walnut jam.

walnut and plum jamlokymbraided breadThey were then topped with almonds and sugar and set to rise again before baking. Each batch of dough made about 4 breads. So we collectively made 8.

Bread Loaf shaped ones

While the bread was baking I went out to find Chris and Sam to do some Earth Day cleaning. Sam had been working on Chris's house so there was building waste, in addition to the normal trash on the side of the road that we had to collect. We got about 7 bags in 45min.

insulation scraps

"bright idea"

gnarly old mattress

Earth Day Clean Up

We had a clean up brigade today at the school. During their largest recess type break the kids cleaned up the school yard, kindergarden, and community center areas. Some brave soles even ventured up towards the stadium. We collected 7 bags at the school, those that were from the stadium the kids never carried back down the hill; they threw them away up there so there were a few more undocumented bags.

The teachers had also made a board up in the hallway about Earth Day with drawings from the kids of the forest, the sea, and factories polluting the air and butterflies.

7 bags at the school

Getting stuff out of the tree

Kindergarten yard

School yard

Earth Day Board

Factories polluting a kindergarten Великден (Easter)

The kids made crafts for Великден and they are on display for the rest of this week in the hallway. There are painted eggs, flowers and things made from recycled materials.

She made three of the things next to her

She braided these flowers together

an egg from 3rd grade, with hair

Easter Table

Lazarovden (Лазаровден) is a Bulgarian holiday that is celebrated the Saturday before Palm Sunday, one week before Easter. Its a name day for people with the name Lazar, or any derivative of that, but that's an old name and you don't come across it often anymore. Mostly this holiday is for young women of marrying age; they dress in traditional clothing and sing and dance around at various houses and collect presents on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning the older ones dance the horo in the center and throw wreaths into the river, to be fished out by potential husbands.

Tsvetnitsa (Цветница) is the Bulgarian term for Palm Sunday but it actually means "flowers day". Anyone named after a flower, like Violeta who is one of the twin sisters of Dori and daughter of my landlady, has a name day. There are also Bulgarian Orthodox traditions since it is the Sunday before Easter. Everyone in the village goes to the church after the Lazaruvane dance in the center and donates some change for candles and willow branches. You light a candle on a tall stand for the health and happiness of living family members and friends, and one in a container on the floor for deceased family members. The willow branches you take with you and form into wreathes on the way down to the river. The Lazaruvane dance again, this time along with the eligible male bachelors, and you throw the wreathes in the river.

I celebrated all this with my Bulgarian family that I celebrated Christmas with; Stoika, Dori, Violeta, Niki, and Stella. Violeta gave me some chocolate in the morning in honor of her name day before we left for Kozichino to celebrate on Sunday morning. Kozichino is the village where Stoika was born and still has a godfather and some cousins. Its about a 2 hour drive from Avren and we took a windy old back road as a shortcut looking for a special flower in the woods.

I had camera difficulties about the time we got to the river, my battery died, but I have some pictures from before that.

Meeting in the morning at the restaurant before the official festivities

Warm up dance

Pony

Playing around at the restaurant

Heading into the center

Procession through townGetting ready to danceSinging

Dori and Violeta joined in the dance

Dori leaving the church and heading to the river

At the river enjoying the viewNiki watching the Lazaruvane walk downLazaruvane

Stella and the stream

I went to the theater last night in Varna with my co-workers from the municipality, the community center, and their family members. Our mayor bought tickets for those who signed up to go and we saw the Balkan Syndrome. It was a comedic play on the intricacies of Bulgarian culture, and from the parts that I understood it was quite funny. It was nice to get out and do something new that required me to be slightly dressed up. The play was in the building I had a press conference in last year, in the center of the city near the Sea Garden. It was one of the first times I've been to Varna for an evening during the week, there were people out and about, but its not tourist season yet so it wasn't super crowded which was nice. In a month or so it'll be hot and crowded and not as pleasant.

March 22nd is World Water Day. The Peace Corps has access to water testing kits and since I used to test water every two hours when I worked at a pool for 7 years I figured this was right up my ally. I got water samples from three local sources; the Provadiya River (taken from the river in the town of Provadiya by Huelo), the Black Sea and this little pond down the hill from my village that people go fishing at. The kit tests Turbidity (aka cloudiness), Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature and pH Level.

The "lake" and a beer bottle tree along the road to get thereI registered the "lake" on the World Water Monitoring Day website so that other groups can see our results and we can look at theirs. We can add more sites in the future if the kids want to work more on this, or we can keep monitoring the pond and see if the levels improve with trash clean ups and other events/projects we do during the summer.

I figured the actual water testing, with chemicals and all, was not a good idea for the little kids so for the younger grades I took a coloring book on the water cycle I found for free online from the U.S. Geological Survey and translated it into Bulgarian. The kids in 1-4 grades colored it in a competition. The winning group gets their 8 page coloring book posted on the wall in the hallway for everyone to see, and hopefully read as well.

Coloring Book and Water Testing KitTeam Work on Team A grades 3&4Team Work on Team A grades 3&4First Grade Reading Out-loud 2nd grade had some materials already that were about water2nd Grade Teams A&B We determined from the three water samples that the Provadiya River was the cleanest, it was the clearest water and had a pH of 7. The Dissolved Oxygen test must be done right away since the levels decrease if the water is stored for a long period of time, so we were only able to do that test on the "lake". Therefore, I can not be held accountable if the cleanliness of the Provadiya water doesn't necessarily support aquatic life since the presence of oxygen is slightly important for that. Either way the kids enjoyed shaking test tubes and stuff so it was a success.

"lake" pH Test Provadiya River pH TestBlack Sea pH TestDetermining Results

This past Monday and Tuesday I was in Pazardzhik, a city between Plovdiv and Sofia on the other side of the country, to help my teacher friend Lexi at her language school. She wanted to do a lesson on American vs British English, and as I am an expert, I offered to help. We covered spelling differences, alternate word choices, and words that mean different things in both dialects. We taught 6 classes of 8th, 9th, and 11th graders, some with Brett if he had spare time from the orphanage he works at in town. The lesson went over well and they all seemed to enjoy it.

8th GradeAfter class on Tuesday I went with Brett and Lexi to play with the kids at Brett's orphanage. They mentioned that they were going at the end of class at the school that day and 5 students came with them to volunteer. Some had been before, but some were new like me. The kids really enjoyed having all of us around to run around and give piggy back rides. I dont really know how they manage all those kids during play time with less people, I was completely spent after two hours there.

Brett, student volunteers and kids

the building

We celebrated International Woman's Day on Tuesday. Obviously there are no boundaries to this holiday, being international and all, but people take it more seriously in Europe and don't really know about it in America. All the female municipal employees went over to a conference room in the other buildings where this was awaiting us:

Drinks and SnacksThe mayor set this up and gave a speech and a champagne toast, some of his staff (men) read off passages about why women, moms, wives and grandmas are so great. Some people got three flowers, Stoyka my landlady and friend was one of the special ones. Everyone else got one flower and free reign of what they wanted from the table. I stayed to help clean up after and got some leftovers. Then the work day was over at 12:30 and we got the rest of the day off for being women.

Champagne Toast Stoyka I tried to track down some expat women and share my leftovers and general Woman's Day celebratoriness with them but I didnt find any. I went to the school instead, since all the teachers are women, and brought them cookies and snacks. They already had a giant cake and gave me some, and this cake was decent by American standards. It tasted like what we know as cake and had what we would consider frosting so it was awesome. I got a flower from the director too, which is currently with my other one in my makeshift old wine bottle vase, an idea that I stole from Hannah.

It got really cold here this past week, back bellow freezing and with snow, so everything is quiet again around town. Good thing I planned stuff inside with the kids. They are going to participate in an artwork contest through the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Each kid draws or paints a A4(8.5/11) piece of paper with the topic "Life in the Forests". The art is due April 15th to the European office in France. There will be places awarded 1st to 5th and a winner for each region who will all attended the Tunza International Childrens Conference and receive their awards/money.

The tradition of Kukeri is not limited to only Bulgaria but to this general area of the world. Usually the dances of the kukeri take place just after New Years or before Lent. The kukeri scare away evil and insure there is a good harvest, health and happiness in the village in the coming year. A group of dancers dress up in homemade scary outfits and dance with giant bells around their waists. Each village or town has their own costumes and they vary quite a bit. Some are colorful and some are scary.

Yambol Group A colorful groupmasksRomanians Romanians They dont practice kukeri in Avren, or in this area of Bulgaria, so I traveled to visit Neysa who's village does have a group. There are local holidays for kukeri and big festivals. I went to the festival in Yambol with Neysa's group and got to watch the youngest member get dressed.

Getting DressedGetting Dressed Getting DressedAdding the beaded hatFull Costume: with rabbit skinVillages and towns send their kukeri groups with choreographed dances and they compete. I think there were around 60 in Yambol this year, they have one every year, and Neysa's village got 13th place.

Neysa and villagers

another team in the competition areaNeysa's Village Competing after competing The festival was an all day thing. Aside from the people dressed as monsters and the sound of very loud cowbells all day long it was a familiar feel; there were food tents, popcorn, cotton candy, balloons, trinkets and anything else that is normal at a street fair to have.

Balloons for Sale There are volunteers that live in Yambol so there were a lot of people visiting for the festival, meaning I had people to travel on the 4 hour train ride with. Always a good thing, especially since this train ride was so packed (due to the fact that is was a long holiday weekend) that there were no seats and we stood in the corridor almost the whole time.

Baba Marta (Баба Марта) is a holiday only in Bulgaria celebrated on the first of March. Grandma March is a legendary women who is very temperamental, much similar to March's weather, she can be nice and warm or cold and mean. Mainly this day is celebrated by giving friends and family martenitsi, bracelets of red and white thread. White represents purity and a wish for good health, red is the symbol of life, blood and passion.

You have to wear the martenitsi until one of three things happens:

1) You see a stork in the sky, the apparently migrate this time of year

2) You see the first bud on a fruit tree

3) April 1st

If 1 or 2 happens then you take the martenitsi off and tie them to trees, preferable a fruit or nut one, for a good harvest. If 3 happens you take them off and put them under a rock, also for a good harvest.

Dori told me another legend on Monday (Feb 28th) when she gave me thread and showed me how to make them by hand, most people opt to buy them in the stores these days. When Khan Asparuh united the various tribes of Bulgaria to create the First Bulgarian Empire around 680AD he used carrier pigeons to send messages to his allies in said tribes. When the birds were in sight they were shot down and the messages read. The blood from the birds got all over the white piece of paper aka message that was tied around their legs, and that's why the colors red and white are used. I spent most of my day in the office Monday making martenitsi, and the evening upstairs with my landlady where she showed me more difficult and time consuming ways that looked way better.

Martenitsi Making Monday

at the end of the dayThe school had a concert for Baba Marta much similar in style to the Christmas one, but it was better attended by women then men and generally in a happier attitude then Christmas. Every guest got a martenitsa from the 7th grade girl chosen to play Baba Marta and all the kids got one from the baba who came by to watch dressed as Baba Marta.

Baba Marta givin stuff out to the kids

Puppet Show and Baba Marta

Martenitsi with presents

First Grade

Dance Group

This past Friday I was in Sofia, the capital, for a Tourism Workshop to meet with people in the industry and other volunteers that have insights to offer. Most useful for me I think was the session on making tourism maps. We dont have any for the municipality and I am currently working on a prototype to show people here of just Avren. The sites, restaurants, places that rent rooms, cafes and gas station in the village will be marked and I hope to get it on the website and then make one for Kamchia, where the beach is, and the other villages in the municipality. We, according to municipal publications, have a monastery somewhere, old burial mounds, a fortress from the middle ages, and two nature preserves, BUT no one who wanted to visit these things would be able to find them. Hence the map.

Nichole and the Woman from the Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism

Tomo and the women from the Bulgarian Tourism ChannelWe also had a meet and greet with tourism organizations in Bulgaria. There were several that focused on rural tourism which was nice to see since that would be a strong point here. Varna is a largely developed tourist destination, so is Sunny Beach. One is to the north and the other to the south so something different would stand out rather then be lost. That's my idea at least. We'll see if I can get a partnership with some of these places going.

Saturday we went to Pazardzhik to celebrate the birthday of a fellow Pavolche member and hang out. We got delivery pizza. It was awesome to be able to do that. Call someone and have food show up at the door. I never used to do it that often, but you miss it when you can't.

The feast of St. Trifon Zarezan is a holiday celebrating the patron saint of vine growing and wine production, it is celebrated in Bulgaria on the 14th of February. The more western holiday of St. Valentine's Day is celebrated in Bulgaria as well, and has been gaining popularity in recent years, similar to the commercialized Christmas that has become more popular here in recently ie. Santa, elves, reindeer etc. Traditionally the professional holiday dedicated vine growers is more popular, especially in smaller rural villages, like mine. It symbolizes the turn from winter to spring and the need to start the farming process, in this case pruning.

People meet in the vineyards and cut the first vines, form them into wreathes and wear them. Читалищета (community centers) have gatherings afterwards. Here in Avren there was a holiday lunch held with one kebapche, kufteta, and bread roll for each person, along with cups of locally produced red and white wines, free for each person. There was a traditional Bulgarian bag pipe player, folk music and dancing. The mayor, and his staff were present, and the mayor gave a speech.

Man Dancing with a Vine Wreath

Traditional Dress and Food Counter

Bulgarian Bag Pipe

Bulgarian Bag Pipe and Dancers

Mayor's Speech

Another volunteer, Brittany, who lives not too far from me in Shumen, held an HIV/AIDS training course at the Bulgarian Red Cross for Peace Corps Volunteers and Bulgarian Red Cross student volunteers. It was a one day thing on Monday January 31st since it was the end of the semester holiday and the teacher volunteers wouldn't have to miss class. I headed over there on Sunday night and met up with everyone for dinner, there are three PC volunteers living in Shumen and collectively they managed to house everyone.

Peace Corps and BRC Volunteers Brittany gave a presentation about the Bulgarian Red Cross, their programs in Shumen, and what our local chapters may be able to help us with. Then we played a few games that we can use in our various schools to teach the students about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

The presentationHIV/AIDS Game 2HIV/AIDS Game 3

Two staff members from the PC office in Sofia came too. They brought a lot of materials for us to use in our schools for sex ed and HIV/AIDS awareness, and a book specifically for the teachers that is all in Bulgarian, which I imagine will be the most useful. I am planning to meet with the municipal education coordinator this week and talk about what schools would be the most receptive to doing an awareness day with me. The school in Avren is small and does not include high school age students, but the next town over does and that is where I think I have a chance of making this happen. I know the director there and she is open to me coming down there and doing stuff with the kids, the question is whether or not any teacher will help me out with this subject since I will need a fluent Bulgarian speaker.

We shall see.

On January 21st the was a Bulgarian holiday called Babin Den (Бабин Ден) which is a women's holiday. Baba means grandmother in Bulgarian, but when you say Babi it means something similar to midwives. The Babi helped women deliver children in the village before there was westernized medical care available to them in neighboring large citites like Varna. So this day is dedicated to them and open to all the women in the village. We met in the Community Center for food, dancing, a traditional clothing contest, and a general all around party.

Opening of the ceremony during a foggy Avren day

washing of hands with holy water The only men that were allowed in were the DJ and the accordion player. Women who had children within the past year were given special gift bags. There was food, wine, and horo dancing after that. Most of the older Bulgarian women were dressed in traditional outfits for a fashion show/contest of the most colorful/best looking. My landlady, Stoyka, had to work this party since she works in the cafeteria of the Community Center SO I got to wear her family's outfit to enter into the contest. I tied for first place and got a certificate, a printed picture of me walking the "catwalk", and a giant sweet roll.

Presents for the new mothers

Food: Meats (sausage and chicken), Salad, Banitsa, Salad again, and Pickled Veggies Outfit from the frontOutfit from the back Stoyka and IVictory Janet and Denise some of my local British Expat friends came as wellThen came much more dancing in the forms of traditional Bulgarian horo and the Romani kuchek. Everyone participated in both dance styles, including the kids, and it was great fun. I was dance adopted a few times by some babas who wanted to teach me better kuchek, its harder then it looks.

Horo HoroDori teaching me a new horoShe is one of my very best child friends He is my buddy at school Kids Dancing Kuchek Lessons

Kuchek Lessons Stoyka doing some dancing Kuchek

My trip to Dubai for New Years was a success and great fun. I had no problems with the flights, airports, or buses to the airport. Although the check in lady in Sofia almost didnt let me check in cause she thought I needed a visa to get into Dubai. It took me and the lady two counters over (bless her heart) to convince her otherwise, but I saw this as more of a funny oddity then a real problem.

Day One was sleep in late, and get Malek into the country. Then pool with a Burj view. Dubai Mall (the largest in Asia) walk through and Taco Bell for dinner. Then the Souk al Bahar to get some souvenirs and a travel shisha pipe and sit on their steps to watch the Burj Fountain Show. Then to Nasimi Beach on the Palm Frond Islands for a relaxing evening in bean bag chairs.

Ly's pool view, Burj

Dubai Mall Aquarium

Shark

Sting Ray

Food Court, Taco Bell Souk al BaharWaiting for Fountain ShowNasimi BeachNasimi Beach Day Two was New Years Eve and we spent the morning at the beach, JBR I believe. Then we had Fudruckers and went home back to Lyaila's for NYE prep. We spent the evening and start of 2011 on the Roof Top of Trilogy nightclub near the Burj al Arab (looks like a sail, is a super nice hotel). The club supplied noisemakers and feather hats and we had a great view of the fireworks.

Ly, me and SteezDubai Geography LessonBeachFudruckers' Southwest BurgerThey have every restaurant you could want, or not, and they deliverCoke Zero I had the honor of opening the Champagne Richmond ShotNoise MakersHappy New Year Feather HatsRoof TopBurj al Arab and their Firework Display Day Three we had Nandos (after an extremely long wait) before we all headed to the Palace hotel to be picked up for our Arabian Adventure. That included dune bashing, sand frolicking, more dune bashing, watching the sun set, riding camels, holding falcons, hena, eating BBQ in the desert camp, belly dancing and shisha. It was a great day, but then I had to go to the airport 2 hours after we got back, that was not so great.

The Palace HotelCamel Viewing Dune Bashing Dune Bashing Sand frolicking Sand frolicking RainbowsOnyxSunsetSunsetShe almost touched itCamel FalconHenaArab BBQEating Tents

December 22

There was a Christmas Holiday Bazar (market) held in Kamchia to raise money for the foundation that aides underserved children in the municipality. They have it every year, normally it is here in Avren, but since the community center is under construction they held it at the Russian resort center on the sea because it is empty during this time of the year. Each village in the municipality had a table and the brought homemade breads, cakes, cookies, meat dishes, wine, rakia etc to sell. All proceeds go to the foundation. So we had a Christmas Bake Sale basically, but Bulgarian Style.

Avren school director on the right, selling Christmas cards made by the kids

Priceltsi brought a whole roasted pig, it went for 240 or something

Priceltsi

Dabravino

Ravna Gora

Culinary School in Sindel

Kazashka Reka

Tsaravetsi

Sindel

Baba made Tekvanik, its pumpkin, cinnamon, brown sugar and walnuts cooked in philo dough

Baba also made pitka

saleSale at the Dabravino Table

December 23

There was a holiday concert at the school on Thursday, their last day before the holiday break. The kids did skits, sang songs, did a puppet show and some dances.

My tutor was in charge of this segment :)

its a mixture of lots of different grades

puppet show

Snow White is a Christmas Princess and those are elves

girl a little in front had a solo, she is really sweet and I dance with her mother

guys in the back row sang, girls danced

girl on right sang a salsa sounding song while they dance

Mambo No 5

Moemba Dance

Traditional Dance Group for the village

Traditional Dance Group for the village

Traditional Dance Group for the village

Traditional Dance Group for the village

Snow White and Santa gave all the kids candy gift bags

I had been helping get the room set up and finishing up the decorations earlier in the week so I had lunch with all the teachers in the teachers lounge after we cleaned up the concert room a bit. It was nice to sit a relax with all of them, and we got to talk a little bit about what they would like me to help with in the new year so it was a very fun and productive day.

December 24

Christmas Eve is just as big here as Christmas. There is a big dinner, that's supposed to be vegetarian, with seven dishes. We ended up having too many so we put a few bowls of nuts on the table and made it 14, we also had a little bit of roasted pork just because.

It was me my counterpart Dori, her mom my land lady/Baba (so I was basically at home), her two kids Niki and Stelli, her twin sisters Niki and Violeta and Niki's boyfriend. We snacked on nuts while Niki the son dressed up in traditional clothing to go caroling with the other boys in town, as they do on Christmas eve.

I helped to decorate the tree in the morning before everyone got there

Baba and Niki in his outfit

Ivan, Niki, twin Niki, me and VioletaWe then had dinner and opened presents. I made peppermint bark for the kids, got my landlady some yarn because she knits all the time and got a bunch of nail polish for the sisters to pick from. I got a stocking full of candy, a poinsettia, a shirt and some socks! Christmas Eve also happens to be Stelli's Birthday so Dori had gotten her a big cake and candles.

14th Brithday Candlage

December 25

Violeta had to work at the train station early Christmas morning so Dori drove her into Varna, I hitched a ride in to head to Hannah's apartment where other volunteers had collected the previous night for holiday festivities. There were even 2 PC volunteers from Morocco that were there. One had found Lexi on couch surfers and planned to come, and the other just happened to be traveling around Bulgaria for the holidays so we had them both with us.

group shot under the tree, Kerri, me, Lexi, Morocco 1 and HannahI got there at 8:30 so I had breakfast and spent the whole day helping to get stuff ready for dinner, going to and from the store, showing people the seaside and snacking to tide myself over for our great feast. Also, Hannah had internet if you were careful enough to not touch the grey ethernet cable too much, SO I got to make this video call :)

Pavolche!! That light in the middle is the camera LCD screen, it has a picture of me on it :) We did Secret Santa just before Christmas Dinner, which Hannah had organized for us all to even include the Moroccan fellows so everyone had a gift.

Morocco 1 got a Levski hat

Priscilla got Santa ear muffs

Tom got booties and a pirate eye patch

Morocco 2 got this doodle thing

Lexi loved her present

Brent got a bear ears hat

Audrey got jewelry Dinner was really good, and we managed to eat most of the food, which was relatively surprising. We had two turkeys, fish, cheesy garlicky mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, gravy, peppermint bark (from me) from scratch chocolate cake, spiced cider and snacky type things.

Dinner Buffet Style seating arrangements food

Later we found out that there were 3 Euchre players so we taught some people the game and played a few rounds.

Not too shabby of a week.

and I leave for Sofia tomorrow night to go to Dubai and see monkey and friends

Over the weekend I went into Varna (which was mildly difficult since my morning bus had stopped running due to the fact that there was a foot and a half of snow on Friday and I had the day off work, but I got there none-the-less out of the kindness of a fellow municipal employee who drove me in because he was going too) to hang out with friends before we all went out separate ways for Christmas, and to do some last minute shopping.

My front door Friday morning My stairs My stairs after I dug them out I will be spending the 24th here in Avren with Dori my counterpart and her family, of which her mother is my landlady. So I will essentially be at home, just upstairs. I will be bringing Mince Pie to that dinner since I got a jar of Mixed Fruit Mincemeat form Marie at the pub. I've never had it, but its a traditional British thing for Christmas, so it shouldn't be awful. On the 25th, if it is so possible, I will be going to Varna to spend Christmas with other volunteers. Some of which will travel across the country to get there, so that will be nice because I only have to go 30 min to see people I never get to see. For that I am bringing green beans and peppermint bark. Also, we have organized a secret santa.

It was for all this I had to shop for on Saturday. I found out there were no candy canes in Bulgaria, so I bought very hard round unappealing looking peppermint candy to crush up and put on top of the bark. I made a test batch, they taste fine, even if they dont look festive.

I also played in the lit up Christmas village in the center of Varna, it gets dark early these days.

Last weekend I went to the town of Chirpan , its near Plovdiv where I was for my conference. My friend Kevin lives there and he is a Youth Development Volunteer that works in the Municipal office of Social Help there and they do a lot of projects with the kids in town. This past weekend there was a fundraising volleyball tournament for his organization and he asked a bunch of us volunteers to come out and play on teams. We each had to pay 5 leva to play and the proceeds went to his work. There were two Bulgarian and two Volunteer teams of 6 people each.

Team and Rule announcements

watching the other teams warm up

Team PC 2 and the Bulgarian kids

Team PC 2 huddle

I was on team one of the PC people and we took 2nd place, after the fireman team from Chirpan. The other volunteer team took third. The first place prize was 3 2l bottles of beer, 2nd 2 bottles and 3rd and 4th 1 bottle each. We hung out in the gym with the other teams for a bit and then went to lunch.

awards precentation

Since there were 13 of us Kevin found us a place to stay Friday and Saturday nights at the municipal guest house. Its a glorified cabin in the woods, probably really nice in the summer, but it was a little chilly in December. But we all got you hang out, and each had a bed, so it worked wonderfully.

Checking out the upstairs, bed area, of the guest houseOn Friday we went to the house after dinner and celebrated Jessica's birthday with surprise cake and baklava. Then some good ole American fun.

Birthday Gift PresentationBirthday Cake Cuttingthe limboThe Chirpan FC team was having an official dinner in the dinning room on Saturday night and they invited us to join them for food, a raffle and dancing. They were really nice, and we even shared our S'mores with them. Yes we found marshmallows in Bulgaria. We had to compromise with the gram-crackers, and we had to broil them in the oven, BUT they were awesome so who cares.

Chirpan FC dinnerS'moresBulgarian food, American desert

So I had two official Thanksgiving Dinners with other Volunteers here in Bulgaria. First was on Friday night, since we all had to work Friday Thursday night wasn't gonna work out. It was in Varna at Hannah's place; she got the Turkey and we all brought a dish or two. I brought pumpkin pie; we also had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, peas, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, pecan pie, and chocolate cake. Along with that a slew of beverages we also had Craisins acting as cranberry sauce.

Tyler Carving the Bird The drumstick boysIt was amazingThat night I went to Dragodanovo where another volunteer lives. She works at a boarding school there for truants. Since the winters here are freezing she had a clothing drive for her kids and a day of activities and crafts. They also cooked some pumpkin bread and cookies to give out to people around town. They had a lot of fun. That night we had a Thanksgiving dinner there with the volunteers that came to help, and some Mormon missionaries in the nearby town of Sliven since they are American and all.

Food table 1

Food table 2Then we had in-service training (IST) with all the volunteers that came in this year. Right now that is 84 volunteers, and we all stayed in a hotel in Plovdiv (the 2nd largest city in Bulgaria) for 3 nights; attending two days of meetings. Some of the sessions were mandatory and some were choice sessions, that way we could go to sessions about what would be most useful for yourself and your site. Plovidv is nice, I prefer Varna, but that's just me.They do have a nice old town though, and some randomly high hills that are good vantage points.

Amphitheater New Town CenterCool Building side

After IST the group from Pavolche, where I lived for my 2.5 months of training with 5 other volunteers (Katie, Matt, Tom, Joe and Nichole), went up into the Rhodope Mountains to Nichole's village, Kasak, to help her start the world map project. It was a 4 hour, or so, bus ride up there, but it was really pretty. Her town is small, but the people there are really friendly. The World Map Project was developed by a volunteer in the Dominican Republic as a way to give kids access to a world map in order to learn geography and technical skills. You can do it on a wall, a canvas, the ground, pretty much anything. The area just needs to be twice as long as it is tall.

Figuring out how big to make the mapMeasuring it outTaping the borders Mixing blue paint for the background Ocean ColorHave the kids paint An Ocean

The next step is to draw grid lines over this blue area that correspond to a smaller printed-out grid from the workbook. Then the kids enlarge the map square by square, making it way easier to draw by hand. Setting up this grid is easier said then done.

Figuring out the grid linesWe let the former accountant do the math We didn't actually get to draw the grid lines on because the room was a bit damp and the paint took a while to dry. But we had some fun with the kids while the paint was drying. We played tic tak toe, hang man, chess and a little of the limbo.

After this playful work day, we cleaned up the brushes and roller and buckets (as best we could..) and then set out on a walk around town and then made some Minestrone Soup, Sugar Cookies and like we do in Pavolche played some UNO.

We played a lot of UNO in Pavs. So we made this quick version where you can double up cards, I got dumped with 6 Draw 2s so I had to take 12. Matt thought it was funny :)

I made a wolf for Pavolche

So I've had a busy week. Doing Thanksgiving stuff with the kids, making pie from scratch and packing stuff up and cleaning before I'm gonna be gone next week to Plovdiv for IST (In Service Training).

For the school I made a presentation about what Thanksgiving is and what we do to celebrate, and then I went to each class over Wednesday and Thursday and told them about it. We made hand turkeys, and turkey origami for the older ones. The kids really enjoyed it, some of them got really creative with the turkeys.

4th Grade

2&3 Grades

2nd Grade

2nd Grade

2nd Grade

2nd Grade

2nd and 3rd Grades

1st Grade

7th Grade

So I photo documented the process of pumpkin pie making because I assumed it would be labor intensive. I started on Monday night, and finished on Thursday night. Monday I cooked and scoped out the pumpkin; attempted to mash it but it didnt work out too well, it was stringy and clumpy.

On Tuesday I got a mixer from my landlady, aka Baba Stoyka, to try and fix this problem. It helped, but wasnt quite enough. So on Wednesday, when the pub was open, I took my pumpkin down there and asked if they had a blender, or food processor. They didnt, but Chris said he had a smoothie maker so he went home and brought it over. I had to do it small batches, but it worked!

Then I went home and made evaporated milk. To do this from milk you need to cook it on low for like 2-3 hours. I was not down for this so I bought powdered milk and reconstituted it with only 40% of the water. It worked nicely.

On Thursday after dance I went home and made the crust (which I hate doing) and put it in the fridge to set. It was during this time that I realized I didnt have a rolling pin. So I used my SIGG water bottle my mom got me for Christmas a few years ago. You can see it here covered in flour:

thats my milk

mmmm pieI havent tried it yet; but the little one is for the office and the big one is for dinner so I will eat some of it sometime today. It smelled good though, so I have high hopes for it.

I have a busy few weeks coming up, so its nice that this one has been so calm. This weekend sometime I have to go into Varna, the big town near here w/ a grocery store, and get brown sugar and evaporated milk so I can make Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving (b/c my mother already mailed me the spices, how nice). I have a curry night at a British house Saturday, and my landlady's brother and daughter are coming over during the day. They have to kill some of the bunnies, the bigger ones. It sounds sad, yes, but they eat them. She cooked some for me once, it was very good. I don't think I want to witness "it" though, because sometimes I help feed them, and they're cute and fluffy.

Next week I'm going into the school again to visit each class and give a little presentation about Thanksgiving. What we do, why we celebrate etc. And then we'll make hand turkeys, piligrim/indian hats, and for the older ones prolly origami since its more advanced, but still only requires me to purchase paper. Then I have dance for an extra long session since I am foreign and find some of it difficult, and that's on Thursday aka Thanksgiving. But its ok we're doing our dinner on Friday. A bunch of us from the Varna region are meeting up in Varna, everyone brings a dish. Standard Thanksgiving fare. It should be nice.

Then I have another conference next week. We have to travel Sunday to Plovdiv and check into the hotel. The conference starts Monday and goes until Wednesday. Not sure of the itinerary yet. They sent us a questionnaire asking what we wanted to cover and they'll base the schedule off that. So it should be pretty useful. Sometime during the conference, when we're all together, we'll go to the theater and see Harry Potter and the Death Hallows Part 1. I am stoked :)

Veliko Tarnovo is in the center of the country in the northern half.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=veliko+tarnovo&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

There is a Halloween party organized there by volunteers because its relatively easy for everyone to get to. There are some volunteers in the area and they rented out an entire guest house for Friday and Saturday nights. Some of us traveled as a group since we all needed to leave from Varna and got to the Blue House around 7:30. I had a nice reunion with my friends and we hang around and then went to a Karaoke Bar. I'm horrible at singing but it was fun. They had dark beer there.

Reunion in the House

Karaoke Bar

Ra-Ra-Rasputin

In the morning I got up and took a walk, went exploring, and found some Dr Pepper. There is an old fortress in the city that's really famous. I saw it, but didn't pay to go in because it was 11 leva. I walked around the old town and then wondered over to the newer areas. The city is built on a bunch of hills, it was a tiring walk to be honest, but worth it. It was a good adventure.

Old Fortress, One of the Top 100 Places to See in BG

River Near the House

The Church in the Center

Shopping Street

On the University Building

River in the Center

I found a short cut back

The Low Road

Red Leaves

That afternoon some of us went on a brewery tour at the Bolyarka Brewery and had a beer sampling. Tomo's previous site mate had told him about it so he set it up. You can try beers here that are not widely available in Bulgaria, and apparently they will start to export to the US soon.. My favorite, of course, was the Weiss Beer.

Beer Tour

Bottling Area

Beer Tasting

Group Shot

Taking the Scenic Walk Back

That night was the Halloween Party. My group from PST in Pavolche was a rubix cube, as there are six of us, it worked out nicely.

Rubix Cube at the Beginning of the Night

At the End of the Night

Sara as Luna Lovegood

Tom and Tyler as members of Kiss

Kevin and Jef as Greasers

All in all it was a great weekend. I got to speak English and explore a new city, which may be one of my favorites so far here in Bulgaria. It had charm.

I organized with my tutor to go into school last week and do some projects with the kids for Halloween. I went and saw every grade when they had art time or individual homework/study time scheduled. I made a little power point, in Bulgarian, with a brief history and a bunch of pictures of how we celebrate Halloween. We hooked it up to the new projector the school got from his EU grant and the kids loved the giant pictures on the wall. I'm thinking it was good for the teachers to see you, how the new stuff can be used for the kids. Oh and the British kids in the school helped me out with translations and generally being excited about Halloween, it was awesome.

After the presentation we made origami pumpkins, ghosts, bats and ballon pumpkins. In the younger grades we made masks b/c the more intense origami would have been too difficult for them.

First Grade Pumpkins

First Grade Masks

2nd Grade Masks

2nd Grade Masks

3rd & 4th Grade Pumpkins

Said Power Point on the Wall

3rd and 4th Grade Balloon Pumpkins

3rd & 4th Grade Pumpkins

I'm a bit behind on writing this, but I've been busy planning Halloween stuff for the kids in the village. The weekend after my birthday I went on a trip to Edirne (Одрин in Bulgarian) Turkey with the dance group from Avren that I joined. I wasnt good enough to dance with them then but they took me along nonetheless to observe.

We took a bus from Varna down the coast through Burgas, then through Malko Tarnovo before crossing the border into Turkey. I, being the odd American out, had to get a visa. But its not a problem really, you give them 20 USD and they give you a sticker in their passport thats good for 3 months. Its nothing more then an entrance fee.

We went to an old fortress/monument in Edirne before we went to the hotel. It was on the top of a hill and overlooked the whole city.

There's a really intense system of bunkers up there left over from one of the many was fought over the territory. Its been Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish in recent history. These bunkers were occupied by the Turks, and the Bulgarians sieged and I believe, unless I understood this incorrectly, the occupied it for after five days. Its called the First Balkan War and it was 1913.

Rows of bunkers, they ran along both sides of this "road" and there was another one parallel to this

That there is Dori, and some other people from out group, these particular bunkers were at the front of it all, near the edge of the hill looking over the city.

Dori again, that black thing was padding that was wrapped in some shiny black stuff b/c it was really low and you have a high possibility of hitting your head.

Dori and Zori going into one of the bunkers.

Cannon and city and me.

Then we went to our hotel and all checked it, which seemed to take forever, I think there were other buses of people, other Bulgarians for this statue opening celebration thing that my group danced at. We had dinner in the upstairs restaurant and all the Bulgarians sang and danced, like the do when they're all together, even if they dont all know each other.

Regular old horo dance, hold hands and go in a circle with cool foot moves. Some of these are our dancers, others are from the other bus from Burgas.

The men of our group doing part of their official dance. The one on the end in blue is Niki, Dori's son.

Dimitrova on the left and the women in the middle not in yellow are both from Avren and they had a birthday.

Traditionally, back in the day women would dance with bread at celebrations, this is them joking about it.

A current take on old traditions, vodka.

Mya, she's a teacher in Dabravino in the municipality of Avren, and she's a fairly good singer as well.

The next day we all, very tiredly, got up for breakfast and then they dressed in their dancing outfits, we packed up the bus and drove to the church. Since this area used to be Bulgarian territory there's still some Bulgarians that live there. This church was a Bulgarian Orthodox Church for these people and they were unveiling a statue.

Dori helping niki fix his outfit.

Statue to be unveiled.

The group before the ceremony, Bulgarian flag on the left, Avren flag on the right.

Inside the church.

We weren't the only people dressed in traditional Bulgarian clothing.

Look! Its the traditional bread offering.

Our group with some Bulgarian official in charge of Bulgarians abroad.

The veil being pulled of the statue.

Unveiled statue, this is when the group danced. I dont have pictures of that because I was taking video on Dori's camera for her.

We then had a few hours to see Edirne, go to the markets, get some food, relax before we drove back home.

Inside the market under the mosque.

Turkish sweets, and they had samples at this place.

Central mosque.

Old house. All in all it was a really good trip. Quick, but good. I got to spend time with people I work with outside of the office. Which is difficult because almost all of them commute into work from Varna or other villages in the municipality. I've been to dance practice since this, and because they're no longer preparing to preform really soon I can learn all the dances slowly and be ready for the next one. :)

So October the 14th is a town holiday in my Bulgarian village of Avren. The church in town, Bulgarian Orthodox, is dedicated to saint Petko (Peter). In Bulgarian people are named after saints, and every saint has a day, when your saint has a day its called a Name Day. Its celebrated like a birthday, so since the town is dedicated to St. Petko its like the towns birthday, and its my birthday :)

We went to the church in the morning. The priest guy wore his special holiday robes, instead of his black ones:

People got candles at the door and lit them in honor of their family members. The ones on the ground are for the dead, the ones on the stand for this living:

When you leave you have to take a cup of this. Its a traditional gift from the church on holidays. Its wheat cooked with sugar and a little lemon something, with a hard sugar ball on top. It wasn't bad.

Then there was a town celebration in front of the municipality building, Those red letters hanging from the entrance say "Happy Holiday Avrenians". Thats the mayor there at the mic giving a speech.

Then the children's horo group danced. They are the ones I see at the school when I'm there, and sometimes I watch their practices since they're right after mine.

The my dance group went. I'm not good enough to preform yet, but they told me yesterday that I', going to be for the next time they have something to preform in... kinda exciting

After the concert there was a lunch in the community center cafeteria for everyone. There was red and white wine (both excessively sweet), bread, kebabche and kufteta (grilled pork things), and a traditional pork soup that used to be made for people, back in the day, when they were really close to death and it would heal them. So now they do it for remembrance when they have a celebration.

So during all of this its was my birthday, and people wished me a happy birthday "Честит Рожден Ден" and stuff like "many more", "good wishes" , or "health and happiness" which I dont exactly remember how to say at present.

You have to buy chocolates and hand them out to people on your birthday so I brought a box to the celebration and gave them out to people, and I made some banana bread for the office. I got flowers from Dori, Stoyka (my landlady), Zori and Tedi, the mayor, Minka and Ivan and Krasi which is a normal gift for your birthday. I also got a scarf (green!) a watch, and a mug.

It was a really good birthday actually with the celebration all day, and not having to be at work. I did go back after lunch b/c the people from Varna didn't have a bus til 4:30. I sat at my desk googling Halloween origami and making it to find out which ones will be good for children to make for the Halloween party me and Svetlana are gonna throw. My English friends and I cooked a duck for dinner and relaxed, played pool and then went to Minka's for a bit.

So a few new things have surfaced.

I have some friends at the school now, I go almost every afternoon to play with the kids.

When it gets colder and we can no longer be outside, I'm hoping they will still like me enough to play my slightly educational environmental games. I'm going to trick them into learning...they wont know it at all.

I also found out that the town holiday (thats normal here, all towns have a holiday where people get together, usually at the community center Читалище, and celebrate their town being there) is St Petko day (St Peter). Bulgarian's are normally named after saints, or a name derived from a saint. So when that saint has their "day" all people named after him/her celebrate it, its called your Name Day. The most well known name days in the West wold be those for St Valentine and St Patrick. We, although, celebrate them in a completely different manner. Anyway, all saints have a day and the church in town is dedicated to St Petko so everyone celebrates the town that day by feasting together and going to the church. This day is October 14th, what a fine day for a town wide celebration, I could think of nothing I would rather do that day.

I joined the dance group here in town. So far I'm still learning and I need a lot of practice. They're really good. BUT when they got invited to dance in Turkey in October they still asked me to come with them since I am technically part of it and all. Its still technically an unofficial trip since all international travel must be okayed by the PC, but I have a tentative yes, pending a submission of a international travel request form. So, I will be going to Edirne (Одрин) by bus from the 16th to the 18th of October. Not a long trip, but its not that far. Just over the border really.

So School started last Wednesday, the 15th of September. They take the first day of school seriously here. They all walk their kids to school, and bring flowers for the teachers and director (principle) and there is a ceremony outside before anyone is allowed to go in. The have this traditional bread with honey.

This is the bread, one person holds it, and the person next to them holds a bowl of honey

Each kid gets a ripped off piece dipped in honey and then they walked under a wreath, held by 6th graders, into the building. The 1st graders went first, cause it's kinda like a holiday for them. They make this huge ordeal outta it. The director gives a speech, the mayor sent his regards via Dori my counterpart, they recite some sort of poem thing, all the parents huddle in the back of the class taking pictures and video. Its like a ceremony and its kinda cute, I forgot my camera otherwise I'd put pictures of it up.

I went into the school at the end of the week to see when I could have time with the kids and what type of stuff they want to do. I could just pick something, but I'd rather them be interested. I suggested art classes, eco classes, sports, learning english etc. I have a meet the 1st graders tomorrow and then progressively all the classes and slowly I can organize some sort of schedule of activities. This move slowly over here, its hard to get used to, but as the Bulgarians say Споко (relax)

So this weekend was cпоко, I went to the beach and had a bonfire with other volunteers in the area. We had hot dogs and brownies, sometimes good ole american fun is best.

Sara and I set up the seats; Aaron, there in the bck, was in the group that did the hard work of making the pit

Hot dog buns (baguettes) salad and dip

Brownies

PS

look what I found in Varna

yes, that is on tap Guinness

Long Week

This past week and a half has been long, and all over the place, but seeing as I like traveling and adventure in general I really enjoyed it and it was awesome. Last weekend was the end of summer volunteer party in Varna. Friday night I was invited to a country music party at one of the British establishments in Avren so I went to that instead of the first night of the Varna party. I went on Saturday to the volunteer party we hit up the beach and then to the hostel where we were all staying.

On the beach, making Sara a mermaid

We went grocery shopping and made a giant amount of Mexican food, which was amazing! The tortillas we tried to make failed but the rice worked, the guac was awesome and we actually found ground beef.

mmmmmmm

There were about 15 people, give or take, and we had a good dance party in the basement. We woke up Sunday and went into the center together, then got some Thai food in Varna proper and I headed back to the village.

Monday was a holiday and as I didnt have to work I took the early bus back into Varna and met some people at the beach. Tuesday was the start of my conference in Sliven, but since that is on my side of the country I went to work that morning and then headed down in the afternoon. Tuesday-Friday I was in Sliven at a Project Design and Management conference centered around environmental projects. The conference was for both the COD and YD programs and I got to see my friends again from my training group who all live on the other side of the country. They decided that since they were already on my side of the country that they would go through Varna for a night en-route home. We went down to the beach for the evening and stayed with a volunteer who lives nearby. Saturday we showed people around town and people left on buses or trains when they needed to. Sunday I was back in Varna with people who live nearby to get some food at the larger grocery store and some table cloths from the second hand store since I was in need of them.

So the Academy in Blagoevgard (B-grad) we had last week turned out to be pretty helpful. Besides seeing my friends again we actually did productive things during our sessions and I think I'll be using a lot of the stuff we went over; EU funding and it process, how to teach English, and how to teach HIV/AIDS awareness in a country that doesnt have health education like we do in the US.

Also, they have the American University in Bulgaria in B-Grad so the movie theater plays movies in English and there is a bowling ally/pool hall, so our evenings were well spent. Inception was only 3.50LV and a game of bowling was 4LV. We stayed in one evening too. A lot of us sat on the steps outside with some snacks and drinks, someone had a guitar and we sang songs and had a massage train.

The guitar is in there somewhere

Massage TrainDuring the afternoon once we had a pick up football game in the park. COD program versus the TEFL program. I played some the second half and COD won, not really b/c of me but I was there.

After the training was over we were meant to travel home right after that. I figured I had 11 hours on a train no matter what and I might as well go with my Pavolche peeps up to the Rila Monestary before getting the train back b/c the chances of me being all the way over there again are pretty low. We went up in the late morning, it took two windy buses up into the mountains but it was worth it.

The Rila MonestaryThe archways outside the Chapel at the monestary center

I took the bus straight from the Monestary to Sofia where I met Brittany and Dan, ate subway, and got on the night train to Shumen. Brittany lives in Shumen (on the same train line as Varna) so I got off there with her and slept a bit and took a bus to Varna, and later a bus home, Friday afternoon.

Next weekend I'm traveling about as far as possible from where I live while still staying in Bulgaria and being in a decent sized town, Blagoevgrad

View Academy Travel in a larger map, to go to an additional training session with the Peace Corps that they decided to call an Academy. I'm not entirely sure why but the COD and TEFL programs will both be there while the YD one will be split into groups and sent to different sites to learn first hand from current volunteers.

Despite this less then fortunate set up I think it will actually be quite useful. One, I get to see my Pavolche friends, and two they will be covering topics that I want to know more about, how to teach english and how to apply for active EU programs in Bulgaria.

This link is from youth day, there was an online article written about it. The first paragraph is about the Youth Parliment that was recently formed hre and how the mayor, dep mayor and secretary were there to kick off youth day. Then there were various sports activited and awards handed out. The next line after that is about me and some of the other kids that had to talk in front of the whole group.

Yesterday the municipality celebrated youth day with all the kids in the municipality in the soccer stadium. Kids were bused in from the other villages in the municipality and they had a afternoon of fun and games. The mayor, dep mayor, and secretary (my counterpart Dori) were there and they gave little speeches. I also had to give a speech, which actually went pretty well considering I hate talking in front of people and I had to do it in Bulgarian. The fact that they gave me flowers for it probably helped.

They had two hora troops perform the children group and the youth group. Dori's two kids danced, Stella in the youth group and Nikki in the younger one. Each village, that had enough kids, had a soccer team of 8 and they played 30min games tournament style. Avren made it to the final! We lost by 1 though... Between each game they had little activities for the other kids to do so they wouldnt get bored. The had three legged race and musical chairs.

It went pretty late but it was a good afternoon and I got to meet a lot of new people. Like the camera guy for the municipality, Petco, he wants to have my birthday party in the church. I also met two 16yr old American twins who live in Dubravino, another village in the municipality, Sarah took my number and said they will invite me over for Mexican food. I'm super stoked for that.