LG's Excellent PC Adventure

Our little group has been in concentrated language lessons for an entire week and we've made some progress. We're in class for four hours a day and then have an assignment of one sort or another to complete. We've walked through the community and found the hospital, post office, police station, etc. We've found strangers to try to talk to and interviewed our poor host families until they've taken to drink. Tomorrow (Sunday) I have to make a map of the town with landmarks and street names. This is all part of our training for integrating into our permanent communities. The training program is very thorough and next week we'll be sent off on a visit to a current Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) for a couple of days. Every experience helps and we're moving toward sites of our own very quickly. We find out where we'll be stationed in two or three weeks and then begin receiving more specific training toward the jobs we'll be given. I spent the day in Plovdiv and wouldn't mind being there for the next couple of years. It's the second largest city in Bulgaria and has a great open public square.

This week I got home from class to find Veneta, Stoil & Baba Veltchka hard at work bottling tomato juice. I got plugged into the assembly line and we put up three or four dozen bottles of juice for the winter. Stoil washed the bottles, Baba Veletchka peeled and cut the tomatoes into chunks, Veneta put them through the grinder and I poured the juice from a large plastic pan into the bottles. Stoil recapped the bottles and put them into boiling water for 15 minutes to completely seal them. I enjoyed the opportunity to lend a hand. I was also allowed to cook dinner on Wednesday. This was quite a generous gesture on Veneta's part because it has been made exceptionally clear to me that she will do the cooking and cleaning and I will not!! So I made eggplant parmigiana (sp?)or the next thing to it when you don't have mozzarella cheese or an oven. We did, however, round up some delicious homemade tomato sauce, a couple of eggs, sliced eggplants, breadcrumbs and feta cheese. We (there was no way I was going to be allowed to do this myself) dragged the eggplant through the egg, the breadcrumbs and then the tomato sauce and fried them on one side, we flipped them, covered them with feta cheese and let them cook for a minute or two before removing them. When they were served at dinner Veneta, Stoil & Baba Veletchka oooh'd and aaaah'd, they each held up a piece for the others to admire and all exclaimed that this was the finest food to ever grace a Bulgarian plate. They smelled the dish and glowed with pleasure just being near it. They, in fact, did everything but actually eat the stuff. On a positive note, I won't be required to make dinner any time again soon.

Stoil and I have reached an understanding on the subject of his Rakia. We understand that if I refuse to have a glass of the Rakia he makes himself, I will be insulting him beyond tolerance. In the beginning of the week I had a "mnogo malko" or "very small" Rakia before dinner. The stuff grows on you and by Wednesday I had advanced to a "malko" and last night I became a man and had a "normal" Rakia. Later that evening I discovered that our pig speaks english. Rakia is a wonderful drink, and can be taken in modest quantities for its medicinal value.

The people of Saedeninie are very friendly and our tour of the police station was enlightening. We were supposed to find out what the dangers were in town and which parts of town to avoid. We were told that the danger was 'possible' pickpockets in the Sunday market and that we had the run of the whole town, day or night. It's a small town with a Midwestern flavor. We're in the valley and it's hot. Today was over 100 degrees and you could have cooked an egg on the sidewalk except as they say here, "the egg is missing and the sidewalk is broken!" I will upload photos of all and sundry when I get my own internet connection, but that probably won't be until November.

So until next week, "Ciao"