LG's Excellent PC Adventure

If you're doing anything until the cows come home, you have to stop at 7:40 pm. That's when the cows go home past my house anyway. There are eight of them and they wander up the street every night at twenty to eight. It makes an excellent counerpoint to the herd of goats that marches past at 7:00 am every morning and serves as an alarm clock for me. There is also a herd of turkeys that a Baba drover moves through the vacant lots across the street, but on an irregular basis.

Sunday was Saedinenie Day and we had a big celebration that included fireworks, a speech by the President of Bulgaria, a re-enactment of the military engagement that took place and a Hora (line dance) that included the entire town and lasted for several hours. Many of Veneta's relatives came to town and one of her aunts turned out to be a fortune teller. Veneta asked her to come back to Saedinenie later in the week to tell the fortunes of the five Americans and she seemed quite pleases to have been asked. My fortune, told from cards and coffee grounds, is that I will be hugely successful and very rich, I will return to the States and start a new business with an old friend and live an extremely long, healthy and happy life. I admit I was sceptical at first, but now I truely believe that Auntie has a gift. It's eerie.

We had language classes for four days and two independent projects to complete during those days as well. We held our second community meeting to help design a project for us to work on until we leave. Together with two ladies from the Municipality we have agreed to try and get trash bins installed around the park to help alleviate the litter problem. Our second task was to meet with a member of a local minority group to interview him/her. Veneta introduced us to a Roma woman (gypsy) who's been her friend since childhood and we talked to her for an hour or so over coffee. All of these experiences are designed to teach us how to integrate into our new communities.

On Friday I learned that I will be living and working in Stara Zagora for the next two years. It is a large city in the center of the country and is supposed to be very pretty. I'll have an apartment eventually but they haven't rented one yet. On Tuesday I go to Pazardjik to meet my counterpart. Each PCV is teamed up for the duration of his/her stay with a counterpart from the sponsoring organization. Then on Wednesday, my counterpart will take me to Stara Zagora for a brief orientation. I'll meet the people I'll be working with and get to see some of the city. On Friday I'll head back to Saedinenie to get on with the rest of my training. I know that I'll be working with an organization that is building support structures for small businesses with a focus on disabled people and impoverished women. We will be getting involved with designing micro-credit projects and training workshops. It all sounds interesting now, I'll know much more by next week.

Today I went with Veneta & Stoil to the Monastery outside of Assenovgrad. The Monastery was pretty and interesting. On the way to it Stoil and I played Let's See How Fast A 1985 Lada with three working cylinders, two working gears and one working brake Can Go. The car has linoleum on the floor and hums along at twice the speed of smell. It was a great day with perfect weather and a beautiful ride through the mountains. Veneta's daughter owns a restaurant in Assenovgrad and we had lunch there before hiking up to the Monastery. Bulgaria is a mountainous country and I've begun to notice that mountains go uphill. It seems to be required!!

I'll try to get some pictures of Stara Zagora online next week. Until then, watch out for cows.