This week promises to be exciting….all of us volunteers find out where our homes will be for the next 2 years. Thursday all of us journey from our small villages and towns to Vratsa where we have more informational meetings and where the announcement will be made regarding our sites. We will also meet the person who is our in-country Counterpart. This is the person we’ll be working closely with to design and implement programs in Community and Organization Development (or in Bulgarian – Mesno y Organizationno Raveeteeay). Yes, I will also be finding out more details about my specific job description. Many of the Counterparts speak at least a little English but not all do. It’s expected that we Americans can communicate basic needs in Bulgarian. I can do alright stringing a few words together, but I’m not at the full sentence stage yet, unless of course, someone just happens to ask me an exact question that is in my textbook (and that I remember).
Then we will be going to visit this new location for a couple of days. We’ll travel the bus and train systems with our Counterpart on our way there and then we have our first travel test on our own as we travel home to our host villages by ourselves a few days later. This visit will be an introduction to the community and will help us visualize our new home and work. We have another month of study within the Peace Corps “school” – more language and culture and job skills preparation. We will return to our sites permanently in the second week of June.
Just for fun….here is a Bulgarian word that I stumble over every time I try to say it….I will write it phonetically and encourage you to try and say it…it means “Here you go” or “Here it is.” Ready?
Za-po-‘vya-dai-tay (emphasis on the vya). It looks harmless enough doesn’t it? Once you get used to it, it just rolls off your tongue. I haven’t gotten used to it yet! :>)
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