Site Announcement Soon

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! :>)

Language Learning - Again

Well the past 5 weeks has certainly been an adventure. Learning a language from scratch is really challenging. In Sedona in French club at least I had past knowledge to reference – words or distant college memories of learning. I still have the learning memories but I have no vocabulary reference. And some of my alphabet references are just plain wrong in Bulgarian. I have to be actively conscious when practicing Bulgarian (which I’m not 100% of the time) or else I make very common mistakes most English speakers make. For example ‘B’ is a frequently used letter, but it is pronounced ‘V.’ There is even a word that is just ‘B’ which means “to.” “I am going B Sofia…..I am going to Sophia. There are a couple of others too --- ‘H’ is pronounced N and ‘X’ is pronounced H. I find these the most challenging because I have 50+ years of practice saying them in English – it’s so automatic…..apparently this is a common mistake among English speakers.

People who love grammar would be having a great time here…learning Bulgarian is easier if someone is familiar and comfortable with English grammar. There are references and parallels to English grammar but then there are those patterns which are non-existent in English. Similar to French, Bulgarian has verb conjugations for 1st, 2^nd, & 3^rd person singular and plural. Unlike English, definite articles (i.e. the) are suffixes. So the word dog – koocha – becomes “the dog” by adding koochata. Of course there are definite endings depending on whether or not it’s masculine, feminine or neuter. I have some of it down, but I am very confused by a lot of the grammar. When I speak with my host family I am thrilled when I can remember the correct word for the noun or adjective (forget the right ending) and am completely overjoyed when I use the proper from of the verb!! So far we have communicated in the present tense only, but on Monday we were introduced to the future simple tense – you add ‘shtay’ in front of the verb and change the verb ending appropriately (don’t ask me what that is quite yet….)

I frequently pull up French words in my head especially when I can't think of the Bulgarian word. French was taught here in schools prior to Communism. Some of the old timers remember learning it in schools, but haven’t used it much since. After communism arrived they were taught Russian (of course). Now students and adults are actively learning English throughout the country. That will be one of my projects once I move to my 2-year site…..teaching English. I’m not sure yet whether my audience will be adults or kids or both.

Yes, study the Bulgarian language is challenging and frustrating, but I do know more than I knew 4 weeks ago and I know with time, study and practice.....I will be able to communicate. I will!

Bits and Pieces

Another example of funny miscommunications:

A week ago, I asked my language trainer to come for a visit (na gosti) after classes. I had a few questions Z to make sure we are understanding each other. For instance I want her to know that I appreciate her cooking for me (when was the last time you had someone preparing you 3 meals a day, 7 days a week?). I also wanted her to know that sometimes I don’t eat “more” not because I don’t like it but because I’m used to eating differently and my body is still adjusting to the different foods here. And when I eat too much at one time, I don’t feel good. I also wanted her to know that I am grateful for her washing my laundry for me. I asked if there is anything I can help with.

And I said I appreciate all the things she talks about even if I can’t understand them. One thing that came out during this interpreted conversation was that I asked my language trainer what Z means when she says “Blu.” The way I here Z use it is to indicate that something is good or beautiful, but the language trainer didn’t recognize it as a Bulgarian word. No problem – villagers often speak more of a dialect. So when asked what “Bloo” means, Z said she wasn’t sure but it’s an American word she picked up from me. HA!

Today is shower time once again – yippee. I have come to greatly appreciate and eagerly anticipate a shower. Today it has been one week since I had my last shower. I’ve learned to take sponge baths (not really – more like wet-wipe wipe downs) the days in between showers. And my hair seems to not get super dirty (Who knew?). “Why don’t I ask for showers more often?” you say? Well, aside from the fact that I don’t think she does it any more often herself and it requires the effort of building a fire for the boiler, and I’m supposed to be assimilating into the culture, etc. ….. I am now looking out my window and this woman, 10 years older than me is splitting firewood with an axe so I can have a shower. Hmmm. I could offer to help, but it’s been 25 years since I’ve split wood. Maybe in the fall if I have my own wood-burning stove and I need to split wood, I’ll reconsider, but right now my body and mind are saying “No way.”

Easter Weekend

Today I woke up early and decided to go for a walk right away. It seems the last few times I’ve tried to work it into my day time schedule – Z has had a different plan for me. So if I want to walk I think I have to do it before “our” day begins. :>)

Every day is filled with surprises when you don’t know the language….yesterday I was pretty sure I was told that we were doing chores because today, Sunday, would be a day of rest (as was Good Friday). So I thought – great another day to catch up on homework. Not so………after breakfast I started working on some of my homework only to hear a commotion outside – 5 people arriving at the gate. I find out these were Z’s daughter’s husband, his two kids, one girlfriend and one additional young friend. I think her daughter stayed in the city, Sofia (accent on the So – SO-fia). O.K. looks like we’re having an Easter meal, and it looks like they’re settling into the guest bedrooms. It’s a gorgeous day and we sit outside. Z serves a meal she has spent much of the morning preparing (cukes and tomato salad with feta, yellow cheese & salami, potatoes cooked in sunflower oil with salt and pepper and a variety of meats (mostly pork) and sausages. The family also brought a few meat items as well as 4 litres of beer and home-made Rakia (vodka-like). The festivities begin. The hard-boiled eggs we colored yesterday were brought out and the egg-breaking ritual begins. It appears that one of the young men is going to have a very healthy year next year (see Saturday’s posting).

The family gets along well. There is a lot of animated conversation and they seem curious about me and laugh every time I try to say something in Bulgarian. The four 20-somethings have all studied English in school for multiple years, but no one speaks more than a word or two (a lot like me with my Bulgarian). Sometimes they respond when I say something in English so as is typical, they can understand more than they can speak. A scenario I am familiar with! The meal is leisurely – eating, drinking, smoking (I’m glad we’re outside). Around 5:00 one person goes to the little grocery and gets 4 more litres of beer. Wow! Around 6:00pm I ask to go to another PC volunteer’s home where there is internet access to try Skyping my sister, son and Erik. Z walks with me, I’m not sure if she wants a break or if she just wants to make sure I get there and back safely. (It’s only about 6 blocks away in a very sleepy village – I feel very safe here.)

What a joy it was to talk with Jane and Erik for the first time since arriving in Bulgaria. Hearing familiar voices of encouragement that I haven’t heard in a month. I didn’t get to talk with Ryan – was probably sleeping and didn’t pick up. Understandable! There is a 10 time difference between California/Arizona and Bulgaria. So when I was talking with Jane and Erik they were just beginning their Easter Sunday as I was close to the end of mine.

By the time Z and I returned home about an hour after we left, the party (and smoke) had moved inside. I hung out for a little while, but then headed up to my smoke-free room. During the day a lot of cigarettes were smoked (and one communal Cuban cigar – yes I too, had a puff – no, I didn’t inhale) and a lot of alcohol consumed. I was frequently offered beer and Rakia, but after a couple of sips I was done. I drank water, a bit of Coca Cola and other soda akin to carbonated Kool-Aid. What is interesting to me is that there were no sloppy drunks given the amount of alcohol consumed. There were many animated discussions but no heated arguments and no fights. I can’t tell you if anyone was slurring their words – I’m not sure I would know. I was told a few times that the son-in-law does not drink when he’s working in Sofia - he owns a taxi. And one of the reasons they stayed the night was so they could drink as much as they wanted and didn’t have to drive home.

Learning Curve

OK - so I have just uploaded a photo taken at the Grand Canyon in February 2011. Why you ask? Well, it seems I have "locked" my Bulgarian photos in my Windows Live Photo Gallery. Another project for another day.......hmmmm.......how to upload photos that have a little lock symbol on them. In the meantime enjoy the Grand Canyon!

BY THE WAY - look in the right column and you will see a LINK where I HAVE UPLOADED SOME PHOTOS. Again, I'm learning so they are not organized or captioned, but at least you can look at them! Ha!

An Emotional Journey

The honeymoon is over. I think for the first 10 days or so here in Bulgaria, I was running on adrenaline and excitement. Once I moved in with my host mom and began to settle into the program I began feeling my emotions again. I’ve had a few emotional releases – one was laughing so hard I was crying –during language class. The trigger was the struggles of a classmate to pronounce a long word which I too was having difficulty pronouncing. I began laughing at the funny and foreign sounds coming out of their mouth and couldn’t stop. It was an acknowledgement of pent-up frustration and worry of trying to learn this challenging language. I felt great afterwards and my classmates also got a chuckle at my laughing fit.

Then the following week, a senior staff member came to our classroom from Sofia for an hour-long check in. He came in the second hour of our class day and the first hour (on a Friday) was tough. We were reviewing some of the grammar from the week and actually having to speak in simple sentences. Everyone was a little burned out and struggling. So when my turn came to share how things were going, I began to speak and burst into tears. I didn’t know that was going to happen, but again it was a release of the frustration and angst of being in a world so utterly different from my comfort zone. I vented about everything that was “wrong” and again, felt much better afterwards and let everyone know I was o.k. – I just needed to “let it flow.”. I’m trying to be a good sport here, but I have to acknowledge that I have been really challenged by the intensity of our classes, the expectations for acquiring skills and info on the Bulgarian culture and organization and structure of municipalities. It’s all good to learn and know but it is a lot!!! The intention of this training period is to get us new volunteers up and running with the language so we can begin integrating into a new community in June – the community each of us will live in for the next 2 years. The goal is not depth and accuracy necessarily, but enough to get around, buy food and be safe. When I get scared is when I think about the 2 years and there is soooo much to learn, and of course, wanting to “make a difference” even if it’s only a small one. What calms me is to just stay focused on today and these three months of training, and that I don’t need to know everything in order to get started.

I’ve met several volunteers who have been here since last June, and they all are very bright souls. Their eyes are bright and smiles wide. And yes, they have the side-to-side head shake down for yes (Da!). They share their stories and I find it inspiring, because they too, faced many of the challenges I am feeling at the moment.

This week we’ve been studying vocabulary about transportation and time. Tomorrow we go to the larger town 20 minutes away without the assistance of our language instructor. Getting there is no problem, there is a van that seats about 12 people. There is only one bus stop in town and we know we have to be there at 7:10 (the van may come any time between 7:10 and 7:30). We pay 2 Leva and 50 pay Stotinki which is about $2 for the ticket. Coming back we actually have to go to the large bus station, ask for and buy a ticket to our specific town and find the right bus (out of about 12) to take home. Since we are doing this as a group of 5, there are no worries. It’s preparing us for doing it on our own, soon.

In Vratsa, we meet with the other 3 Community and Organizational Development Volunteers for a day of information from senior staff members. Tonight I have some reading to do to prep for it.

Overall I’m good. I have had moments of wondering “Did I really sign up for this?” Yes, I did. I remind myself about wanting to experience another culture by immersing myself in it. Leaning a new language and learning about myself as I stumble about in a world totally new to my physical, emotional and mental self. I know that I am building a base from which to live the next two years and that I’m shaking things up inside of me. Actually not only the next two years, but beyond as well. Last week I was wishing I could “come home for the weekend,” but I can’t. I’m here and I have shifted gears into engaging on a deeper level than just the rush of adrenaline of a new adventure. O.K. time to go study some of that Bulgarian vocabulary and grammar. Love to you all!