Project Progress

7-19-2006
It’s another Wednesday in the office, my lunch break is soon but my appetite is nonexistent. I usually have problems eating and sleeping when I am stressed out or have a lot on my mind. Work is going great, I am working hard on a two projects and so far everything is going according to plan. I also have been playing soccer regularly with guys at the local stadium, and seem to be well liked in my community. So then why is it that I wake up sometimes with horrible anxiety and a feeling down? Everything seems to be going fine, it’s something I just can’t quite put my finger on. I feel very content with my location, and feel relatively comfortable with all other social aspects of my life. The last few months have been a pleasant breeze, and now at the heart of a remarkable summer I fall off the happy train. Perhaps there is such thing as too much alone time, and too much self reflection. I find myself constantly thinking about past regrets, analyzing and acknowledging personal character flaws. How does one make one’s self a better person? How is it possible for someone to rectify and erase past events and situations? This is what I am talking about!! I guess I am just a deep thinker with way too much time on my hands. I truly believe that through hard work, self realization and unselfish compromises one can truly self improve personal character.
So where do I go from here? I am about a year into a 27 month assignment living in the middle of a struggling Country. I am not alone, nor do I feel alone, well at least not most of the time. I have a crew of supportive and interesting PCVs that I talk to regularly. Also the internet allows me to frequently trade emails to friends and family back in the States. I have an unwarranted feeling of loneliness insecurity and bitterness right now, but with any luck I should snap out of it by the end of the week.
Like I mentioned before I have two Baba’s (Baba is the Bulgarian word for grandmother) living below me. They both own the house and live in separate sections below me. I would go as far to say they represent good and evil! Julia is the evil Baba who goes through my apartment when I am not around, complains about me to Painka(other baba) and stripped my apartment of appliances prior to me moving in. Painka is always very kind and regularly invites me into her place for coffee, or a full meal. She is constantly doing small favors for me such as helping me clean my house, washing my stairs, and folding my laundry after it has been hung to dry. I really appreciate all the things Painka has been doing for me, her warm heart is very comforting. She tears up sometimes while talking to me about her deceased son. She tells me she enjoys doing favors for me and treating me like a son because she no longer has one, and since we both live alone its good to have someone to talk to. OK time for lunch……….

7-24-2006

It is 1:41PM and is as usual, hellishly hot in my office. The weekend is finally over. thank God! It was a busy and nerve racking weekend, but on the whole very successful. It was not a weekend of rest but a weekend full of important work. I accomplished some important tasks and worked hard to make everything run together smoothly.
Thursday afternoon I took a bus to Burgas and met with Dr. James Jackson founder of Project C.U.R.E.. We casually became acquainted at dinner and briefly got to know each other through pleasant conversation. On Saturday Morning I sent a Municipal car to Pick up Dr. Jackson in Aitos a small town near Burgas. After Dr. Jackson arrived in Chirpan, I greeted him and set up a time for us to meet for dinner. Dr Jackson, our vice mayor, a translator, our hospital director, the hospitals head nurse, my municipal counterpart and I all enjoyed a wonderful dinner full of intriguing and significant conversation. The next morning after breakfast Dr. Jackson spent about 2 1/2 hours analyzing our municipal hospital and asking our hospital director exactly what equipment and supplies were most needed. The assessment went very well, and our hospitals staff seemed very pleased and anxious to continue with this project. Dr. Jackson personally told me that he was impressed with the hospitals staff and management and mentioned that he looked forward to working with our hospital by sending hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies and equipment directly to our hospital. I feel very relieved that the hospital assessment went so well, and now feel recharged and ready to continue to work on this project. The stage is now set to bring a large shipment of much needed medical supplies and equipment to Chirpan’s Municipal Hospital. The next step however will be a huge challenge because I now need to solicit enough funds to cover the shipping costs of this container. The average shipping cost is between $15-20k, however the average container contains $500k worth of medical supplies and equipment. So when it’s all said and done, my municipal hospital will be given much needed supplies and equipment that will increase our towns medical care significantly. It was difficult and disheartening walking through the hospital during the assessment. To see children and adults with such outdated equipment, and lack of medical supplies was tough to see. One man in particular was lying motionless in a soviet era bed using a rusted IV stand and no patient monitor. Each breath was a low and coarse gasp for air and sounded like it would be his last, I still can’t get that sound out of my head, it gave me an eerie feeling. I asked Dr Jackson if he had a hard time with some of the things he had seen, and he looked at my kindly and said “ it never gets easier,….. I sometimes need to walk around the corner and cry.”. Later that day Dr. Jackson told me about how the orphan population in parts of Africa are getting so bad(due to Aids) that they burry the live infants with there dead mothers. Dr Jackson was at a funeral one day when a baby was buried with his mother, as the coffin lowered the babies aunt came screaming and said she would raise the child. The women died about a month later of AIDs. The baby later was added to that cities population of 180,000 orphans.
I have met many people in my short 24 year life, but have never met someone quite like Dr. Jackson. He has lived an extraordinary life and his accomplishments are utterly amazing. Dr. Jackson accumulated a fortune in the 60s by smart business moves and real estate deals. He had all that he could possibly imagine and more, but at the end of the day was completely unhappy. He spoke to his wife of many years about the never ending rat race of greed and prosperity and dug deep in his soul for a solution. He asked his wife the last time that they had both been happy…. she thought about it briefly and then told him it was when they were young and before all the wealth. Dr. Jackson’s solution to the problem was to systematically get rid of all the money, and surprisingly his wife was behind him 100%. After about 2 ½ years the money was gone and he began doing things that he was passionate about. He traveled all over the world and helped government officials solve financial and economic struggles. He entered into the medical world while he was in Brazil, he was approached by a physician who told him about a community of 300,000 people who lived without any medical treatment facility. Dr. Jackson’s new friend created a small clinic set up in an old house in the impoverished neighborhood. He watched thousands of people pile into the clinic and absorb all the medical supplies within a very short time of the clinics opening. Dr. Jackson then pledged that he would personally gather and send medical supplies to this clinic. Within 30 days of making phone calls in America, Dr. Jackson was able to gather hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies for the clinic in Brazil. And basically that is how Project CURE began. Now he has 7 large where houses, 7,500 volunteers. CURE has shipped containers to over 100 countries and helped hospitals so remote that you need a canoe to get to them.
Just listening to the life stories of Dr. Jackson was truly inspiring. How he gave up wealth for happiness, and how he made his life work to improve the lives of people all around the world. His business knowledge and expertise has been sought after by governments all around the world. I spent the last two days with this man, and learned a lot from our one on one conversations.
Another interesting fact About Dr. Jackson is that he is the first American ever to travel to North Korea. He was personally invited by head government officials in 1991, to attend an official celebration. After jumping through several hoops with the US government Dr. Jackson boarded a plane with several other communist government officials and headed to the unknown. It was fascinating to hear about the details of his 14 day trip, and to hear about his conversations and treatment by their government officials. I feel very grateful to Dr. Jackson for spending the time to travel to Bulgaria and personally assess my hospital.
Well now its time for me to work hard and gather the funds for the shipping of this container. I have made a PowerPoint presentation of this project and will send it to America by the end of the week. I also plan on setting up meetings with development groups such as Lions Club, and Rotary upon arrival in the USA September 2006. Hopefully with the help of development organizations in the USA, and the help of medical Dr’s and individuals I will be able to generate enough funds to have the container shipped to Bulgaria.(all funds are to be sent directly to CURE and are tax deductible). OK well that being said I will have more information later on, for those interested drop me a line at Laketrev@hotmail.com , or if you would like more information about Project C.U.R.E. you can check out there website at http://www.projectcure.org/ .
Things have been going great here lately, I have been quite busy but my productivity has given me a bit of a morale boost. It feels great to get things done and to show my mayor and hospital staff a glimmer of hope. The hospital staff especially, are very excited to receive important equipment such as defibrillators and baby incubators to their hospital. I am sorry if this BLOG is a bit boring or perhaps I shared a bit too much about Dr. Jackson and my Hospital project efforts, but anyways this BLOG is just an update for the people who care to know how and what I am doing.
TPEBOP

Current Events

6-27-2006

It is another hot and uncomfortable day in the office. We have a fan going but it does not seem to cool down the room much, which is around 90F. I made my first trip of the summer to the Black Sea last weekend. My friends and I rented out a flat and had a great time swimming and soaking up the rays on the beach. We went to a place called Sunny Beach, its about 30 minutes North of Burgas. It is the main tourist spot on the Black Sea, so things were a bit expensive and crowded. But it was great to be able to enjoy the hot sun and cool down in the Sea. In three weeks I will be heading to Sozopal a small town on the Black Sea. It’s a bit less touristy and has beautiful beaches.
Starting next month I will have to cut down on my weekend traveling. Do to a new Peace Corps policy I will only be allowed to leave my site two weekends a month. PC wants people to spend the majority of their free time mingling with the locals, not traveling or meeting up with other volunteers. Unfortunately for me, travel weekends are what keep me sane. It’s hard to go though week after week of speaking only Bulgarian. It’s nice to have weekends free to break up the routine. The new policy is going in affect due to a few PCVs who basically broke a lot of rules and did things that were harmful to the PC image.
6-29-2006

I am back at the office, and sweating profusely again, but I suppose it’s not much cooler in the US these days. Wow it’s been almost 11 months since I left home, time really does fly by. It seems like yesterday I was impatiently waiting for my PC invitation letter, and now here I am almost finished with a full year of service.
Today is my Baba’s( the old lady who lives below me) name day. A name day is the day dedicated to the saint you are named after. Painka(the baba) and I had lunch together and discussed various things in my broken Bulgarian. I bought her some flowers, which she seemed to really appreciate. She lives by herself and seems to be very lonely most of the time. Usually when I have a PC friend over she invites us into her place for coffee.
Well today I am trying to hammer out the final details on a small medical clinic project I have been working on. The Application is due August 4, and still has a lot of finishing touches to be made on it before it is suitable for submission. Project writing is a very long and slow process, they really have to be perfect in order for approval. I am new at this sort of thing, but am grateful for the opportunity to learn a new skill. I truly feel that the Peace Corps experience is an education in itself.
Well its time for me to quit slacking off and hammer out a couple more sections of the proposal.

7-7-06

It feels like the Sahara desert outside but we closed the window in the office and put paper over the window, which in collaboration with a high powered fan makes the office temperature relatively comfortable. I pretty much have my Medical clinic project finished and ready for submission. The application needs a few finishing touches, and I still have to translate two sections but it feels good to have the bulk of it finished. It’s Friday and I am really looking forward to the weekend. Living alone makes me a bit crazy at times. I have felt a bit depressed this week; I guess it’s just a sudden spell of homesickness. I have not slept well and have constantly felt alone and down, but hopefully I will be able to blow off some steam this weekend and get back to normal. I just don’t like the feeling of isolation. I know plenty of people in town, but don’t really have the type of friendship network I had in the states. I get plenty of exercise at the stadium, but the majority of my time out of work is alone in my room. For the most part I am used to this lifestyle now, at first it drove me nuts, but then I started to get used to the feeling of isolation. I don’t actually feel like this is a good thing however, because now days after a long weekend I am eager to get home and away from other people. I actually felt the opposite while I was in the states, I hated being alone and enjoyed the constant company of others.
I guess the major reason I am nervous about coming home (for a couple days in September) is because it will feel a bit too comfortable, and I think it may be hard for me to leave. I completely love Bulgaria, and the lifestyle I am living, I have plenty of time for self reflection, and time to learn from other people. So basically I don’t really have much to complain about with the way things are going. Kind of like in the Joe Walsh song ‘I can’t complain but sometimes I still do’. Like I have said before I have no regrets and feel lucky to be able to volunteer in such a great country. However the bottom line is that Peace Corps is a challenge. It’s not the easiest thing to do, and at times it can be very difficult. It’s hard to leave a comfortable lifestyle for a new and different one. The out of site out of mind way of dealing with homesickness I feel has worked for me. Perhaps it will not be a big deal at all when I come home. I guess I am a bit of a worrier at times; the truth is I have been living abroad for a good chunk of time, and am not really sure how I will react when I step on American soil again. OK well enough of my bantering………

7-17-2006

Well I Just came back from about a week away from my site. All of last week I was in a small town up north called Zavet. I was working at a small youth camp teaching baseball and touch rugby to kids. I really enjoyed interacting with the kids, and teaching them new things. I slept each night at my friend Will’s pad in Isperih; a small town near Zavet. On Wednesday Will and I hiked to a cluster of recently excavated ancient Thracian tombs near his town. The tombs are dated at 200-400BC. One of the tombs was a tomb of royalty, and was very well preserved and excavated. When driving around Bulgaria you will always see 30 foot high lumps in the farm land, these are un excavated ancient Thracian tombs. The royal tomb that I visited contained the body of a 35 year old man and a 25 year old woman. The woman had a hole in the back of her skull. The reason for this is the following: Thracians men had many wives and when the husband died his favorite two wives would tie one ankle and one wrist to each other and have a knife fight to death. The winner of this knife fight would then be killed and her body placed in the tomb with her husband. Talk about a lose-lose situation! After we visited the tombs we hiked a bit further to a old Mosque built around the 16th century. It was a very small but fascinating mosque tucked away near a cliff side. All around the Mosque were pieces of clothing tied to branches; this is because if you are sick or need some type of healing you are supposed to cut of a piece of your clothing and leave it behind on this holy and healing land. This mosque has a number of different superstitions; most of them are for good luck or fertility. After we left the Mosque we hiked up the Cliffside and climbed into a few ancient caves nearby. I really enjoy visiting other volunteers, especially in the small towns because there is usually an opportunity to see historic and beautiful things. Bulgaria is a country of deep roots and a country with a fascinating and long history. I feel like I could spend years here and not see half of what it has to offer. A few weeks ago I visited the Rhila Monastery, which is the most famous monastery in Bulgaria. It was great to finally see this place, which like other monasteries was once a Bulgarian hide out for religious and cultural freedom while Bulgaria was under Turkish rule.
After I finished with the summer camp I met up with a group of friends in Sozopal( a small town on the Black Sea). It was great to hang out with my other PC friends and to relax on the beach. I made it back to site last night and am now busy finalizing my medical clinic project, and preparing for a hospital assessment this weekend. I am having the Director of Project CURE come here from the USA to assess my hospital to see if we qualify for the $400,000 donation. Well….. if all goes well I will have a crucial step completed and be ready to solicit funds for the transport of the container. So basically it will be time to scrape together $15,000!
I hope all is well back in the States, I definitely feel a bit homesick now and again. I look forward to spending time with you guys in September when I come home.
Довиждоне!
Тревор лиес лейк