Responsibility & Tolerance

2:33am 1-4-06

Well it’s late to say the least and I have definitely had an interesting Tuesday night in Bulgaria. It started out quite slow and usual, I worked at the NGO for a bit and then after lunch I went to the municipality to talk about project ideas, and the needs of the city. After a lot of discussion I realized that my responsibility can be to find funding for these projects, my role and work at the municipality will be what I make of it.
I went home and read my current issue of Newsweek magazine, as I pondered my thoughts about how to improve the great yet dissolving city of Chirpan. I thought to myself what can I do, what should I do, what do they expect of me? Those are the repetitious questions, and I feel that they will adequately be answered in my following two years of service.
After some brainstorming sessions and some light reading, I hit up the gym. That is an experience in itself, A couple dozen juiced up tough guys wearing skin tight jeans lifting weights and flexing in the mirror every two seconds. Most of them are really nice guys, and it is a fact that Bulgarian power lifters are ranked amongst the highest in the world. I went home and took a shower which in Bulgaria is called a ‘douche’. Then I rung out my buckets of cloths and began to dry them on bars I set up in my bedroom. It takes a while but not as long as it would take if I tried to dry the cloths anywhere else in the house (Reason: because the rest of my house happens to be a toasty 40F). I tried that before and it took a week for the cloths to dry; heat is the key. I then began to cook my eggs and ham dinner, while the heat was still roaring in my bedroom. I soon found out that using two appliances in the house at the same time is not a good idea. The main fuse blew and I was left without any electricity in the whole house. So currently I am in the dark, bummer, ohh well it’s a 63amp fuse and I can find one in the morning, it will be a cold night.

(INTERSTING FACT: the language spoken by Tom Hanks in the movie The Terminal is actually Bulgarian)

My phone rings its, xxxx a good friend of mine, He wants me to head down to the Café for a beer, I say why not, its not like I can see or do anything in my place at the moment anyway, and its only 9pm so this invitation sounds quite appealing. xxxx, his lady, vvvv and yyyy are there; we have a couple drinks, and chat about the holidays. I told my friends I may go back to my training site this weekend to visit some friends. I tell them how great Krichim is and how I will be staying with a Turkish family. This strikes a fowl note with xxxx, he tells me that he doesn’t like the Turkish and how they are bad people, I give him a quick response about how ‘it’s a whole country of people how can they all be bad’, well in his opinion they all are. As he tries to explain his reasons to me; I think to myself, the ethnic tolerance issue in Bulgaria are worse than I thought. Here I thought that an educated 23 year old guy about to begin with his masters in economics would understand that discrimination, prejudice and segregation are wrong. As he began to speak of the Roma as inhuman, it dawned on me that I am in a sticky situation. I thought to myself is it even possible for me to find friends in Bulgaria that don’t think this way? Here I am in Bulgaria, trying to initiate positive change and promote understanding of these issues, and I wind up in a circle of friends that have absolutely 0 ethnic tolerance. Do I state my opinion and risk losing my only friends, or should I go for it and stand up to what I believe in and try to spark change in the minds of my Bulgarian friends. I have struggled to accept this point of view for quite some time while living in this country, and every time I come against these attitudes I have trouble finding the right words to say as a rebuttal. What I have come to accept is that many Bulgarians are eager to point the finger at Minorities because they have become a scapegoat to their own problems of poverty and struggles of living. I have however met several Bulgarians that understand the issues behind the poverty of minorities in this country. My co-workers at the municipality for example seem to have very progressive views and are willing to help promote ethnic tolerance. It’s a very touchy and controversial topic in Bulgaria and for me; is the most troubling. I personally feel that education combined with governmental support and anti-discriminatory laws is the only way to bring the Bulgarian Roma out of poverty. The situation Bulgarian minorities are in; is quite similar to that of the poverty stricken minorities in America after the abolishment of slavery.