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