Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The End of Rugby Season

10-17-2006

Last Saturday morning I traveled to Sofia for the Murphy’s Misfits annual Charity Rugby tournament. All donations of the tournament went to the Cedar Foundation an NGO that works out of a town called Kazanluk in central Bulgaria. An Irishman named Mark works with this organization and has done a lot of work with orphanages and other disadvantaged youth including an orphanage for the developmentally disabled kids.
The tournament was a lot of fun and was attended by an assortment of people including local press and even Peace Corps Bulgaria country director Carl, his wife and his son. The day was a complete success; and everyone who participated seemed to have a great time. The weather was perfect and the atmosphere of the tournament was very heartwarming.
Mark set up a small game to include his group of 7 developmentally disabled kids that he had brought to the tournament. It was a lot of fun playing with these kids and watching these kids try and run with the rugby ball. The joy and compassion that Mark has brought to these kids is truly beautiful. These orphans do not have much of a chance in society do to mental and physical disabilities. Simple things such as including these kids in activities, promoting new interests and just showing care and compassion really give these kids a chance for a better life. I admire Mark a lot for all the good he has done in Bulgaria and all the work he has put into local charities such as the Cedar Foundation.
After the tournament my friend Peter and I drove to the nearby town of Pernik to meet with our other rugby team ‘Varna RFC’ for a training session. After we met with the team and checked into our hotel we walked down to the field and began our practice. I was a bit tired from playing rugby all day and did not have my usual amount of energy. I made an effort to save a bit of steam for the following morning when we would play the current league champions ‘Pernik RFC’. Despite my lack of energy the practice went quite well; that is until the last lineout of the practice. This is when disaster struck………..I was lifted up in the air to catch a ball and when I was dropped 4ft back to the ground…..one of the spikes on the inside of my boots go caught on the top of another players boots. This caused my ankle to go sideways and for all of my weight to come crashing down on the side of my ankle pushing it completely sideways and snapping at least 3 ligaments in my ankle. I new right away that my ankle was in bad shape; I felt my ankle turn completely sideways and heard a series of quick pops.
After some bad traffic and some jumping around on one foot; I made it to a Hospital in Sofia. I went directly to a doctor who was referenced to me by the PC medical staff. As I hopped into the room and set my large backpack on the floor the doctor looked me in the eyes and in English said “ be careful with that bag there are a lot of black people around”. At this time I was with my English friend Peter; who then helped me hop down the hall about 100yds to the X-Ray room. When we arrived at the waiting area and sat down I looked at Peter a bit confused and said “ did that doctor say what I thought he did” he looked at me and laughed and said “I think so”.
I am assuming the doctor was referring to all the Roma people that were in the hallways and waiting areas of the hospital. This is the first time I have ever heard them referred to as ‘black people’. Well it just goes to show how prevalent prejudices are in each level of Bulgarian society; even many of the educated Bulgarians have prejudices toward the Roma.
I had my foot x-rayed by a very old machine that must have been made 20-30 years ago, and of course I was not given any type of protective covering……..so if I turn out to be infertile or have mutant children……. I know why. I sent Peter home before my x-ray so the trip back to the examination room after the x-ray was a bit tiring. It turns out hopping on one foot for long distances can be quite a work out. (in the states I would have been given a wheelchair). The doctor told me that the bones were not broken and that I had torn at least 3 ligaments in my ankle. He then proceeded to put a plaster cast on my leg. He placed the plaster directly on the skin which immediately concerned me because I have quite a bit of leg hair. So as you can imagine during the last few days all of my leg hair has slowly been pulled out. The cast has resulted in more pain for me than the initial injury. I personally feel that putting a plaster cast on a sprained ankle is a bit primitive. But I am in Bulgaria so I just have to go with the flow, and take things as they come. On Thursday morning they will take the cast off and give me an MRI; I will then know how serious it is and exactly what ligaments have been torn. After this experience in a Bulgarian hospital I feel quite good and even more justified about my current efforts to improve the hospital in Chirpan. Better supplies and equipment can really make a persons hospital experience much more comfortable. After they put on the wonderful plaster cast they sent me on my way. I then hopped out of the hospital on one foot and managed to take get a cab to my friends Andrea and Boudreaux’s place in Sofia to crash for the night. I did not receive crutches until the following day when I had my appointment with the PC medical staff.
So now I am stuck in my room tapping away at the computer keys dreaming of the day I will be able to play sports again. I am thinking the next few months will be quite challenging without having sports as an outlet for stress and anxiety. My isolation will become amplified and my social options will be limited. But this too will pass, and I am sure I will be up and walking around in no time.
My best PC friend Mitch has decided to resign as a PCV; he will be going home next week. It is always hard when friends leave, this is my 3rd close friend that has left the PC and gone back to the states. Luckily I still have a couple close friends that live nearby, so all is not lost.

Nasdrave!!!!

10-17-2006

It is a sunny yet deceptively cold afternoon in Bulgaria, I have not written in this blog for a while, so I figured it is time to play a bit of catch up. I have plenty of free time right now, but I will get into the reason for that a bit later.
Last week there was a national holiday for the municipalities of Bulgaria.(Bulgaria seems to have a holiday for just about everything) On Wednesday night we had a big party at the local hotel restaurant. Bulgarian parties are very drawn out and slow (yet very social and fun), the dinner usual lasts hours. We received the salads at 7:00pm and did not receive the main course until around 10:00pm. This of course leaves plenty of time for drinking rakia and dancing. These two things seem to be Bulgarians favorite past times. From what I have observed Bulgarians love to dance, I get a kick out of watching them sometimes because they are usually dancing to 80s music or the latest hip-hop music. There is something a bit humorous about a group conservative 50 year olds dancing to new hip-hop songs about sex and partying. I of course usually hang on the sidelines and observe, I am a bit more of a wallflower than a dancing machine. However toward the end of the evening, after I have drunken enough liquid courage aka ‘rakia’ to give me confidence in my dance skills, I hit the dance floor. It was quite funny last Wednesday as I rose from my seat to go dance everyone started clapping for me. I guess I am still a bit of a novelty around town and they get a kick out of my integration.
There was one very low point of that particular evening that I feel deserves to be noted. I was sitting with my colleagues having a good time when all of a sudden people started staring at me. The mayor and vice mayor gave me concerned looks that I will never forget. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable, and wonder what the hell was going on. I then noticed that several of my colleagues were looking attentively up at a television above the table. Ivan a colleague of mine walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder and looking concerned he calmly said that another plane had hit a building in New York. As the whole table looked at me attentively to gauge my reaction; my heart dropped. It was one of the lowest feelings I have ever felt, it was a bit weird I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. I felt completely uncomfortable because I had no idea what was going on, and everyone was looking at me. A million thoughts raced through my mind; I immediately thought of 9-11 and feared that another disaster had struck New York. As I stood up I could not shake the look of concern and fear on my face. I walked over to an area where I was able to clearly see the television and then became a bit relieved when I saw that there was minimal damage to the building and it appeared to be only a small plane. This situation really freaked me out, and it took almost an hour for my nerves to calm down. Thank God this situation turned out to be a simple accident; without any terrorist involvement. I guess if this situation has taught me anything, it is that we are not in the clear yet, and tragedy could strike at any moment. It is a scary thought but this world seems to be getting more and more dangerous and unpredictable. When radical ideas mix with innovative and high-tech weapons it can spell disaster. I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling I felt last Wednesday night, it was a unique and low feeling, and one I will be happy if I never feel again.
Friday afternoon my municipality had an annual municipal soccer game. The game consisted of the municipal team including my colleagues and I vs the municipality administration, which included the Mayor, Vice-Mayor and a few councilmen. It was a lot of fun and my team ended up winning 2-1. I feel very lucky to have a good relationship with my municipality; they are great about including me in activities and have truly accepted me into their circle. I ended up getting a prize at the end of the match for being the fastest on the field, which is not saying much because most of the men were about 20 years older than I; with beer-bellys to prove it. After the game we had another municipal party which included an obscene amount of alcohol and a bit of snack food. This party started at 3pm and when I left at 9:30 I did not foresee it to end anytime soon. I was amazed at the amount of alcohol some of these guys consumed. The table reminded me of the aftermath of a college party; there were empty beer bottles and vodka bottles that covered the majority of the table’s center. It was a lot of fun talking to the guys and joking with them about similarities and differences of American and Bulgarian life. About every 15 minutes someone would say ‘Nasdrave’ and everyone would tap each others glasses and drink. Nasdrave is the Bulgarian version of ‘cheers’ but it is accompanied by a set of strict rules.
1) when you toast you say nasdrave to each person at the table
2) You must touch glasses with them if they are in your range
3) You must always look the person in the eyes when saying nasdrave
4) Never! Nasdrave with anything that does not contain alcohol.
If you do not have alcohol in your cup you simply sit out the nasdrave, because if you toast with something without alcohol it is considered very bad luck.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Rugby Season

10-9-2006

My back is really hurting right now……I am sitting in the office with a few colleagues… they are working on there English homework and hammering me with simple questions that make me laugh a bit. It has been a while since I wrote in this thing so I am trying hard to recall notable events from the last few weeks to write about……….ok I guess I can write about rugby.
A couple weeks ago I played my first game for the Varna RFC; it was great to play competitive rugby again. It was the last game of the 2006 season and the winner was awarded 3rd place in the league. We played Locomotive of Sofia in the town of Pernik and ended up winning by a substantial margin. I played some pretty solid rugby considering it was my first match of the year. I was awarded a man of the match T-Shirt by a teammate, and we all received bronze medals for our victory. After a few beers and some traditional Bulgarian food my friend Peter and I traveled to Sofia for a match with my other team the Murphy’s Misfits RFC. We played a short social game against a team from England; the English team was in Sofia for a bachelor party and wanted to get a last minute game together with a local Bulgarian club. We were more than happy to accommodate them; however my body was pretty much destroyed after the second match of the day, so I skipped the social and took a 3 hour bus ride back to Chirpan for some R&R.
The next Morning I headed by bus to Dupnitsa; a small town in the Rhila mountains. Dupnitsa was the location for my MST (mid service training); that’s right folks I made it half way through already!!!!!!!!!!!! MST was overall a pretty good time; it had been quite a long time since I had seen all the volunteers in my group. I enjoyed seeing everyone and it was great to share stories and play some Texas hold em with my PC buddies. The classes were not completely miserable like they were during Pre-Service-Training; they actually were helpful and provided new information and resources. I decided to leave Dupnitsa on Thursday and skip the experience exchange day with the new PC group; I was a bit worn out on travel and wanted a day of rest before I began my weekend traveling. This early departure worked out quite well for me, the night after I left 75% of the PCV’s and staff got food poisoning from a bad batch of ‘mish mash’(Bulgarian dish). So I got pretty lucky and dodged a bullet by leaving a day early.
The next morning my English rugby buddy Peter picked me up in Chirpan and we drove to Varna for our rugby game. We ended up missing an exit and driving about 40 miles the wrong direction toward Romania instead of toward the Black Sea. We showed up about 2 hours late and missed our rugby practice. The next morning we played a game against Mercury of Sofia. I scored two tries the first half; one of them was an 80 meter run with a hand full of broken tackles. The second half I scored another try in the first 5 minutes and then left the game in the tenth minute after my neck got wrenched toward my chest in a ruck. The coach and team president was quite happy with the way I played and the 3 tries that I had scored. It felt good to have a good game with my new club; it makes me feel a bit more accepted and respected by my new teammates. After the Social Peter (he is 6-6 just so you know) Antonio (6-6 another Giant), Stoyan and I went to a hot spring on the edge of the Black Sea. The springs consisted of a series of 3 1ft deep pools of hot mineral water that slowly crept through the rocks from one pool to the next and eventually ending up in the sea. It was quite relaxing and therapeutic to lye down in the hot mineral water and then to go for a swim in the cold yet refreshing Sea.Varna sponsors have pumped a lot of money into the club recently in hopes of a championship season in 2007. Next week we will play the current league champions Pernik. I think we have a very good chance of beating them this year. The Varna team I Play on fields an impressive squad with a lot of experience and talent. We have three Bulgarian national players including my friends, Antonio National team Captain 6-6 240lb+ and Stoyan our inside center who is built like a tank. I am really hoping my back and neck heal up by next weekend; it would be a shame to sit out one of the most important games of the season. Well I guess I will stop writing about rugby, it is interesting to me but perhaps a bit boring for those who have no interest in the sport.
Bulgaria has officially been accepted into the EU, they will join in 2007. I am a bit surprised that they were accepted and will leave it at that. It is probably something that I should keep my mouth shut about while speaking publicly. Romania was also accepted for 2007, so I guess we will all have to wait and see what type of changes this new acceptance will trigger.
My group of PCV’s known as the B18’s seem to be dropping like flies. From what I hear there is nothing new, or abnormal about a portion of PCV’s quitting before their official closure of service. The B18s started out with 50 and now we only have 41 volunteers, this number is about average and I expect another 5-10 to drop out by the time we all COS in October of 2007. I respect all of the other volunteer’s decision to quit and know that many of volunteers leave the PC because of circumstances out of their control, such as health, or family issues. I am completely committed to staying in Bulgaria for my complete term. My Peace Corps experience has proven to be extremely challenging and at times a bit depressing, but I know that I have what it takes to finish, and to make an impact on the community I serve. I am certain that whatever impact I leave on my community will be minor compared to the impact my Peace Corps experience will have on my life and my way of thinking.