Merry Christmas

This tree is in a town called Lyaskovets and I love the "balloons" they use for lights.  They aren't really balloons but they are big!  I'd say bigger than a basketball. 

Wishing everyone a holiday season filled with

                             Love

Laughter

                                                                    Peace 

Saturday

Today has been a lovely day.  It's been a day of baking gingerbread, shelling walnuts and making Christmas cards while listening to a variety of Christmas music - American and Bulgarian.  It's been a day of reflection of Christmases past and of family and friends - old and new. 

What I have observed so far is that Christmas season here is less commercial than what I'm familiar with in the US.  And celebrations don't begin too far in advance - just a week or 10 days before Christmas.  I have heard ads on the radio for holiday sales, and probably if I watched t.v., ads would be there too.  The village stores have stocked some Christmas items like a few toys, decorations and candies.  But I'm not missing Black Friday, the constant messages of buy, buy, buy, nor the frenzy I often feel between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  One obvious reason - no Thanksgiving at the end of Nov. here.  Regardless, things seem more mellow here.  People are preparing for community celebrations - singing, dancing, readings, etc.  Oh, and one thing I don't like is firecrackers and bottle rockets.  For the past week or so they've been pretty loud and frequent in the evenings. 

Tonight I joined ladies from the village at a "disco" in the village for dancing, camaraderie and a "tumbler" (aka raffle).  There are many prizes so lots of people get to go home with something.  They are simple but it's the idea of the drawing of numbers adds to the fun of the evening.  Prizes ranged from a roll of toilet paper, soaps and creams (essentials) to vafli (favorite wafer sweets), napkins with a Christmas design and one adorable mini-poinsettia (items for fun).  A lady at my table won 2 items several minutes apart and she got two identical stick-em hooks in the shape of a flower.   :>)  It's fun.

In my English classes I've been sharing Christmas vocabulary.  One thing I have realized is that there are no candy canes in Bulgaria.  No one I've spoken with seems to know that they are pepperminty sweet treats.  I looked for (basic) ribbon for gifts and I didn't find any.  Granted I may not have been looking in the right places, but I looked in the villages and in the bigger towns so I don't know how common it is here.
  
Here's a little bit of info on Bulgarian holiday tradition (I borrowed the info from worldofchristmas.net, and put my comments in parentheses).  Much of it has been explained to me but I wanted to double check my understanding. It's a time when families gather and share food and gifts.

Christmas Eve Celebrations
Prior to Christmas day celebrations, Bulgarians observe a 40 day fast, until the eve of Christmas. (I wasn't aware of this until I read it.  I don't think many people observe this in the village I live in.) The fast begins on November 15th of every year. During the fast, people stay away from animal products, yoghurt, cheese, butter, eggs and milk. Christmas Eve is as important as Christmas day during which an extravagant vegan meal is prepared for the entire family. Christmas season starts off from 20th of December and extends up to the 26th of the month. It is commonly believed in Bulgaria that Mary gave birth to Christ on Christmas Eve, but announced the birth on Christmas day. This is exactly why mothers of a new born announce the birth of their babies only a day after they are born.

The Extravagant Feast
Bulgarian customs state that the Christmas feast should have more than seven meals or nine, and that it should be an odd number. This is because there are seven Gods in Bulgaria while nine is the number that symbolizes the nine months of pregnancy. The dishes made on Christmas Eve bring out unique flavors. These dishes contain beans, cabbage, round leaf and involve dried fruits (oshav) and nuts. Children, pregnant women and the old are exempted from the fast. The Christmas meal is a meal which marks the end of the fast and soon after meat is presented on the table, it's time to eat. Banitza, a traditional dish, is served with cheese, poultry, pork, etc. It makes for a joyful completion to the fast. Small pretzels are prepared during the festival for young men (koledars) who visit places and sing for the health and prosperity of the house.

Christmas Traditions In Bulgaria
Bulgarians follow the ethics of the Eastern Orthodox Church according to which the forty day fasting period and the much adored Christmas Eve meal are prominent. The exchange of Christmas gifts has become an important aspect in Bulgaria, especially for children. This was not too common in the past. This is done on Christmas morning and the western myth of Santa Claus prevails among Bulgarian children. During the 20th century came the advent of the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree usually stays in a house until New Year Eve or sometimes even after. 

 

Another tradition that is observed even to the present day is inserting a silver coin in a loaf of bread. An elderly person cuts the loaf and distributes it equally among members of the family. The person who finds the coin is believed to have good fortune for the rest of the year. Future predictions are usually made while everyone is seated around the table for the feast. People are keen to know to more about their fates and in some homes it is done by breaking open a walnut. If it turns out to be good and delicious, the person is believed to be lucky, while the one with empty walnut has nothing but bad fortune awaiting him/her.

 

All for now.....

 

 

Tidbits

Last Weekend I watched "Dances With Wolves" over two evenings.  The first time I saw it - oh so many years ago - I liked the scenery but thought it was too long and questioned some of the acting.  This time I liked the scenery and questioned how in the world a white man could become so fluent in an Indian language in just a few short months!  From my current perspective, I'm not buying it!

How can I tell it's gotten colder?  In the hot summer, I took a shower every day.  Now I'm down to maybe once every two or three days and only in the middle of the day.  The unheated, tile bathroom is pretty chilly and I can't face it first thing in the morning or later in the evening. (But my kitchen is nice and warm.)

Remember the "good ol' days" before national store chains and big-box megastores?  Life in a village requires one to be more accountable for mishaps.....you break it - you bought it.  So that 2/3 full bottle of liquid cleaner I accidentally knocked onto the floor while reaching for something else was purchased and is now in with my cleaning supplies. 

The Last Week of November

It's definitely autumn - on it's way to winter.  Daytime highs have been around 40 lately and night time lows below freezing.  This weekend I got a chance to get out walking - I go in the afternoons now, not early in the morning.  Today the sounds I heard as I walked in the hills above town were numerous chain saws cutting firewood in the village blended in with the usual cacophony of dogs barking.  I can see that I'm going to have to challenge myself to stay active outdoors during the chilly days of winter! I have posted a few new photos.

However my kitchen is cozy and warm.  I am now using the kitchen table as my desk. The computer cable just reaches, but I have to move the table closer to the fridge which makes for acrobatics whenever I want anything out of it.  I have a big radiator (33" long) which does a good job of heating up my kitchen and bedroom - there is no door between the two rooms.  I do not heat the second bedroom and it stays around 40 degrees.  Needless to say I don't spend my time in there.  In the villages here, there is no central heat - you just heat one or two rooms and close the others off.  I remember my grandparents doing that in their house when I was little.

Two of the libraries where I work have small rooms and wood stoves to keep them warm.  The third library is a large room with only one wood stove.  Luckily my desk is near the stove but I'm still wearing more layers of warm clothes and I've started heating water for tea on the stove to keep my core warm.

 Last week was a little out of the ordinary. Peace Corps held an In-Service Training for all of us volunteers who arrived earlier this year.  It was great to see everyone I haven't seen in a while - for most that is last June.  There was useful information and ideas for our different areas of service.  Questions were asked and answered.  And there was lots of sharing about our journeys over the past 5 months. Everyone has concerns about the pace of learning the language.  It's important to me because no one I work with in the villages can speak English well.  Some people have the opposite challenge - everyone they work with speaks English, so there is little opportunity to learn and practice Bulgarian.

We were in a town called Kazanluk which is the "Rose Capitol" of Bulgaria. Not this time of year, of course. There was great food (I had broccoli for the first time here), delightful camaraderie with other volunteers as well as PC staff. It was nice to travel 3 hours to a different part of Bulgaria - not too far away, but different.  And hearing other peoples stories and situations, made me appreciate the people I am with in my 3 villages even more than I already do.  I'm thankful for their kindness, patience and support. So many people have been so generous with me - sharing food out of their gardens, and now out of their cellars; inviting me to visit; inviting me on organized day or weekend trips; giving me a ride to the train station at 7:00am; and now with winter - knitting me warm booties to wear on my cold tile floors.  Everyone is patient with my Bulgarian and appreciates my efforts at learning it.  I fell very blessed and look forward to deepening these relationships over time.

Someone recently sent me a delightfully long email recently telling me about her life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.  I liked her comment about blogs being "one way conversations."  This is pretty much my experience and while I enjoy sharing my experiences here in Bulgaria with everyone who reads my blog (I know there are quite a few of you - thank you!), I have to remember that I'm predominantly doing it for myself as journal of my life here. But feel free to comment on anything of interest to you, or email mail me about something interesting in your life. I've been in Bulgaria a full 8 months now. Lives move on.....change or don't change.......just know even though my weeks are busy here, I do think about my friends and family and I always appreciate updates from you.  And yes, I have been meeting new friends but remember Girl Scouts?  Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.

English Class Update

I seem to be posting here on my Blog only occasionally now - my schedule is busy.  My weeks have generally settled into a pattern of English classes in the village I live in and two other villages every week.  I'm really enjoying the people I work with. I visit Kinder-gardeners in 2 villages and we have a lot of fun.  We've played with colors, numbers and the alphabet; have watched several Power Point songs, with words for fruit (Yummy in My Tummy!) and adjectives (tall/short, fast/slow, etc.).  And at the end of the lesson they like writing the words we used - following dotted lines of the words in English. They are happy with action and writing.  It's a blast! In one village I also work with 1st and 2nd graders in a combined class.  There is a lot of variety there - sometimes they like the lessons, sometimes they focus on something else.  When they aren't interested, I walk around and see what they are doing so they know I am there.  The 7th graders include a few kids who know quite a bit of English and those who know very few words.  One class they liked was a class on Microsoft Word vocabulary in English after someone else gave them a hands-on lesson of Word. My final class with children includes a boy who is about 11 and a girl who is about 6.  They both are really interested and when the lesson is "easier" it's a review for the boy and when it's more "advanced" I try to have a simple variation for the younger one.

I have 5 small groups of women in the 3 villages.  Some have been studying with another Peace Corps volunteer over the past couple of years and have a good start on vocabulary.  Others are new to English and want to proceed very slowly - which is fine with me! The 5 groups total about 12-16 women (and one has 2 school girls too), so everyone gets time to ask questions and read exercises.  And all the women bring something different to each meeting - questions which get me thinking about English in new ways; or great laughter - often at my attempts to pronounce a long, complicated Bulgarian word (definitely laugh-worthy).  These times together are highlights of my week and keep me busy.

I have more refining I need to do with my planning process, but I am feeling more comfortable now.  Once I realized I am NOT an English teacher and that I am offering more casual conversational classes, I felt better.  Our classes are pretty informal which allows personal interests to come through our conversations.  Another neat thing, is if I can't explain something because I don't know the words in Bulgarian yet, someone else in the class who understands usually explains in perfect Bulgarian! I use a couple of "English for Bulgarian" books which I bought here and they are helpful because they explain details in Bulgarian. I only have one copy so I have to take out exercises and information that I may want to use.

Last week I shared a few thoughts about the American holiday of Thanksgiving.  It seems like most had heard of it.  And there was interest in the menu.....the only thing not familiar here was cranberries.  I think canned cranberries might be in grocery stores in the bigger cities.

A Weekend at Nikiforova House (Никифорова Къща)

This weekend I went on an “Excursion” with 8 members of the Woman’s Club in my village (and one very helpful husband). We traveled by car about 1½ an hours from my village Saturday morning.  The rural roads tend to be rough with potholes and uneven pavement in many locations.  We made a few unplanned stops due to two ladies who got carsick - not very much fun for them.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that there was much laughter by all, including the ladies not enjoying the car ride.  When I’m feeling nauseous I don’t feel like laughing.  The roads are also scenic and curvy.  And Bulgarian drivers do like to drive fast, Dancho slowed down once the ladies started feeling woozy and he responded right away when they asked for emergency stops. 

If I were at “home” in Arizona right now, it’s most likely that I would be the one in the driver’s seat.  I haven’t driven at all since arriving here over 7 months ago.  I love driving and usually when I move somewhere new, or visit somewhere new, I can’t wait to go exploring.  That usually includes a car getting me from point A to B to C…. I look for cool places to go walking and hiking; I look for grocery stores and/or farmer’s markets that carry what I like; I try new restaurants and I just drive around to get to know the new area.  Obviously that’s not happening here now.  The odd thing is, is that I don’t really miss it.  So many aspects of my experience here are new that I’ve been pretty engaged just being wherever I am.  I’ve had my share of bus journeys and once in a while a train or someone driving me.  Once in a while I imagine where I might go if I was able to drive, but generally I haven’t missed it.  This is surprising to me.

We stayed in a guest house just outside a tiny village named Miykovtsi.  I’m uploading photos.  It was lovely.  An elderly couple run it and it’s meticulously clean and comfortable.  As soon as we arrived and dropped off our bags in the bedrooms, some of the ladies got right to work in the kitchen.  Bread (Pitka) was made, meat made into meat patties for the grill.  Lots of delicious Bulgarian food – canned goods from summer gardens (peppers stuffed with pickled cabbage, pickles, hot peppers, eggplant, green beans).  

I looked for places to offer help, but everything was moving along very well without my help.  It’s like a big family gathering where everyone knows what needs to be done, only I’m the guest here and as I watch – the routines and food are not familiar to me.  I don’t know how things are done, or dished up or put away afterwards so I watch and learn. And of course, washing dishes is helpful in any language.

After a lot of eating and chatting, several of us went for a walk to the center of the village.  It’s about a mile to a mile and a half away, and a bit lower in altitude.  It was a beautiful autumn day and the walk felt good after a big feast.  We found a café for beverages.  One thing I love about the Bulgarians I’ve met is that they love to socialize.  They chat, they laugh, and they laugh some more. Even though I’m still understanding only a few generalities, and a few details (not necessarily in the same thread of conversation) I love watching the cheerful interactions.

We walked back and spoke with the owners a little while.  We were given apples right off the trees and medlar as well.  I still haven’t tried a medlar – they aren’t quite ripe enough yet.

Someone pulled out a deck of cards and they were playing gin rummy (or rummy – I‘m never sure what the difference is.)  I recognized it and jumped in at the next hand.  But as I went along I discovered there are different rules than I’m used to here.  You can’t lay down any cards in runs of suits or numbers until the score you would have is at least 44 (face cards being 10).   And they play with the jokers.  You can use a joker as a wild card and down the line if someone has the card the joker is substituting for they can change it out and then they get to use the joker (but this can only happen after they’ve laid their first cards down totaling 44 or more).

I excused myself after a light supper and went upstairs around 8:45 – very early on a Saturday evening.  I was tired and my brain wasn’t doing a great job listening to Bulgaran any more today.  I did a little reading and settled in for a snooze to the rhythm of the coversations and laughter in the dining room below me.  It was an only partially successful endeavor.  Around midnight, everyone called it a night and we all headed off to sleep.

Sunday was a new day.  I was up by 7:00 and headed out for an early walk.  It was peaceful.  Being in nature soothes my soul.  I feel connected.  Breakfast was homemade Pitka or Banitza again and very tasty – similar to layers of phyllo dough with feta cheese, although the cheese they make here in Bulgaria is called Sirene (sear-a-nay).  More chatting and sharing – Soduko, Crossword Puzzles (none of us knew what the river in Brazil is that has only 3 letters).  Another walk exploring the hills around us. And there were many apple trees rich in fruit.  Everyone enjoyed picking apples and I was the beneficiary of about 10 pounds of apples.  Time to bake!  Then another meal before packing up and heading home.

It was a delightful weekend.  Yes, I wish I could communicate more with the people around me, but for now I am mostly an observer and the 3 or 4 word sentence queen. And every day I practice making peace with being where I am with my language skills while I continue to study and practice little by little.  One day soon, I expect all the little pieces I've learned and have in my head to come together and flow freely out of my mouth!  He-he-he. Until then I am very appreciative of everyone's patience and assistance.

Enjoy the photos!

Autumn Harvest

I am still receiving gifts from gardens.  I visited Hrisa's garden early last week and got lots of peppers and parsley. Katya took me to her garden last Friday and I came home with leeks, turnips, walnuts, tomatoes and parsley.  Wow!  A popular way to eat turnips in Bulgaria is to grate the raw turnip and serve tossed with oil and salt.  It's supposed to be a good companion to drinking Rakia!  I'm posting photos of the morning visit to the garden.  I have lots of eating to do!