A chronicle of my experiences as a Peace Corps Community Organizational Development volunteer in Bulgaria.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Oh, That Chalgah Singer!!

Bulgaria has Chalgah singers and you don't! These are invariably slim attractive women who sing very passionately while striking poses that require them to thrust various body parts hither and yon. While they are not necessarily scantily clad, although most are, what clothing they do wear is usually fitted as a second skin. The music is unlike anything you'd be familiar with and is typically Bulgarian. It's a bit like pop rock with a dash of Bulgarian folk music under a Turkish influence. I don't think the music itself is as important as the presentation, which is always extremely dramatic. It's also interesting to note that all Chalgah singers only have one name, Maria, Daniela, Tatiana, etc. Chalgah is bigtime here and there are a couple of channels on tv that are dedicated to the art form. The nationally known Chalgah singers are every bit as famous here as Britney Spears. There are magazines devoted to following their lives just like movie stars and every little girl wants to be one.

On Saturday I went to Plovdiv to meet up with Brian & Kate so we could go to Saedinenie together for our Community Project Benefit Concert. Our community project had been to get trashcans installed around the town center and park, but time ran out on us before we could get the funding although we did have the plans in place. We were going to throw a concert for the town and use the proceeds from ticket sales to buy the trashcans. The ladies from the Cultural Center organized the concert after we left town and set it up for last Saturday. They did a fantastic job, the concert was great! Local talent got up on stage and sang and danced and played musical instruments. It was mostly school kids, but the current PCV in Saedinenie sang a Beatles tune and Pavlina, Stoil's daughter, got up and belted out a couple of Chalgah type numbers. Then an announcement was made that we had a 'special' guest who'd come to help out. The sound system blared and out came...Tatiana!! Yes, that Tatiana. Tatiana the very very famous Chalgah singer. It was as though (your favorite singer's name goes here) had popped out on stage at your local high school benefit talent show. She was tastefully attired in red leather pants and a furry white semi-top with a sleeve. Oh, and of course she was wearing the mandatory nine inch spike-heeled boots. She lip synched her way through several of her best known numbers and blew kisses to the crowd. For her last song, every little girl in Saedinenie under the age of ten was invited up on stage to dance with her. I will predict that Saedinenie will produce several of the next generation of Chalgah singers as a direct result of that gesture.

This week was fairly quiet. I had a couple of lessons with my tutor and I think it will go fine. On Wednesday night I decided to do a small load of laundry. It's been very cold here lately, in fact it snowed during the day on Wednesday, and I have to hang my laundry in the bathroom to dry. It takes about the same amount of time as it does when I hang it out on the terrace but there isn't as much space so I have to do a small load every couple of days to be able to get it all to dry. Every time I use the washing machine it breaks and I have to go down to get Hristo (my landlord) to come up and fix it. This time I was almost going to go down and get him before I started the load, but I didn't. The machine had been running for about three minutes when all the electricity in the entire apartment went out. I thought that the washer had shorted out and taken the fuses with it. That meant no water and no heat. I went down to Hristo's apartment and dragged him up to discover that the washing machine was fine, it was the fusebox itself that had blown up! So he simply ran a wire that bypassed all the fuses to restore electricity and promised to get me new fuses shortly. I finished the load of laundry without further incident.

There are many different types of Peace Corps experiences. For example, volunteers in small towns or villages have a much different experience than those of us in larger cities. In many ways their experience is much more akin to what I think of as a 'real' Peace Corps experience. The Peace Corps goal of integrating fully into your community seems much more attainable to volunteers in the villages. I hope that in time I will become more a part of the 'community' here in Stara Zagora, but for now I feel much more comfortable and much more a part of the community in Saedinenie. I still feel like a visitor here in Stara Zagora. Apparently, this is a pretty common feeling among newly placed volunteers. There is a predictable drop-out rate among volunteers who arrive at their new homes just as Winter sets in. We've lost two more campers this month and the grapevine says that several more have their bags packed. The problem is that we're new in town. We don't have defined jobs or responsibilities. We're not involved in anything relevant or meaningful. Many of us don't speak the language very well. It's cold. It's dark. We don't know anyone where we live and the people we do know live too far away to visit without a major hassle especially in bad weather. And, of course, the Holidays are coming up. Family and friends back home will be missing us and we'll be wondering why we are here and not there. Eventually, a percentage of volunteers just decide that they can be doing something more useful with their lives and head for home. However, the majority stay and just keep on plugging away. The PC tells us that we'll spend an indeterminate amount of time in the 'swamp'. We'll feel like we're not getting anywhere and we're always bogged down. It'll take us time to get out of the 'swamp' and to find things to do that will be fulfilling. It's made clear to us that we have to find these things ourselves, no one is going to hand them to us on a plate. Some volunteers just stop looking for anything to do and are content with the rounds of visiting and socializing that take place. Some volunteers throw in the towel and go home. But, most volunteers just keep trying to find something to do that will help their community in some small way and will make a small difference in people's lives. Eventually, most volunteers are successful.

Those, at the moment, are the challenges that I and several of my friends are facing. There is no defined roadmap out of the 'swamp' but we all share ideas and encourage each other in small ways. The ray of light at the end of this tunnel is the knowledge, based on PC experience, that when it's our turn to leave, we won't have had time enough to even begin all the meaningful projects that occur to us.

I, personally, am hoping to work with disadvantaged Chalgah singers who were born with two names.


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