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