Please read Monday first....
Tuesday – I take
the early (8:00am) morning bus to D2 (15 minutes) and go to the “office” in the
community center/library. Today when I
arrive my counterpart tells me she has to go the larger town for an errand or
two, but she will be back by noon. She
suggests I visit the Seniors Club and possibly the kindergarten. First I spend
a little time checking emails using my laptop.
This library does not have computers for the public to use, but they
would like to find funding so they could have them. Then I go to the Seniors Club and check out
their new computer – after saying “hi” to everyone there. I transfer some photos from last Saturday. All three villages I visit participated in a
nearby festival where the Babas (grandmothers) sing and there is a competition
for the best chicken soup. I enjoy
taking photos and I put them on the Seniors’ computer so they can look at the
photos. Next I work with two women who have studied some English and
want to learn more. We spend about an
hour practicing exercises.
Then I am
invited to Penka’s house for “na gosti.”
I met her once before in the grocery store and this time she wanted me
to visit her for lunch. She is 83 years
old and speaks very good basic English and her reading vocabulary is even
better! What a treat to have lunch with
her. She has lots of vitality and had
quite an interesting life as a neurosurgical nurse for 32 years. She lived in Libya for 4 years at one point. She’s lived under both communism and
democracy. I enjoyed her perspectives.
She sent me home with some huge and very sweet green grapes off her vines.
Yes, it’s grape season – green, red, purple/black. It’s one of the highlights of the harvesting
season. Many folks make their own wine
and then from the remnants of the wine-making process, they make rakia. Men pride themselves in their rakia-making
abilities. They share the brandy-like
beverage with everyone all year long as well as discussions about whose is
best. All grapes off the garden vines have
seeds (of course) and everyone eats the grapes with the seeds. Pop one sweet, juicy globe into your mouth,
taste the burst of sweetness and crunch, crunch, crunch. Enjoy.
Ask me next year if I’m used to eating grapes this way….at this point
I’m not quite there but I refuse to be the American spitting out the seeds in
public. All colors have been sweet (and occasionally sour) but my favorite ones
are the really dark purple/black ones.
Right now I have more grapes than I can possibly eat – I’m doing my
best, but some are going bad before I get to them.
After lunch I met with my counterpart. She showed me how to send photos via
Skype. I showed her some of my Facebook
photos. We talk about schedules. Then I catch a late afternoon bus (about
4:45) to a neighboring village near the one I live on. It’s only about 10 minutes away, but I get
off the bus there, while it goes to the bigger transportation hub town. Then 60 minutes later I get back on when it
returns to continue its route to other villages including the one I live
in. I’m home 10 minutes later. So the bus trip to go 10 kilometers takes an
hour and 15 minutes. That’s o.k. I use the time in the in-between village to
study Bulgarian.
When I get home I have popcorn for dinner and go for a walk. Yup – didn’t have anything prepared and food
prep sometimes just takes too long! The
one thing I miss most here is New Frontiers Deli – I would love to pop in and
grab a salad to go, or some new, cool item like raw lasagna!
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