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.