LG's Excellent PC Adventure

It's been a busy, hectic and interesting week. I spent most of last weekend visiting Veneta & Stoil in Saedinenie and just hanging out with them. Veneta was very interested in knowing how I was doing with shopping, laundry and the like. She showed me, briefly, how to hang stuff on the line, but it didn't look like rocket science to me so I politely cut the lesson short when Stoil asked me to help him lift some propane tanks into his trunk. It was great to be 'home' and sleep in my own bed. Veneta instantly dropped back into her food-pusher identity and I basically had to waddle back to the bus. I probably won't get to see them again until Christmas unless they make the trip to Stara Zagora.

The PC Country Director and Medical Officer came to Stara Zagora to see how Matt and I were getting along and to check out our apartments. Both apartments passed the safety and security inspection so neither of us has to move. Then they took us to dinner at Rasputin's, which is Stara Zagora's version of Charlie Trotter's newest joint. It's way beyond a PCV's allowance tolerance! I asked for a flu shot and our Medical Officer (Andrea) brought one along and harpooned me just before dinner. The medical care I'm receiving now is the best I've had in years. I broke a filling a couple of weeks before training ended and mentioned that I'd like to have it fixed once I got to Stara Zagora. The medical staff told me that the only dentist I could use is in Sophia and they would set up an appointment for me. I went up by bus, had my tooth taken care of, had lunch and rode back to Stara Zagora that same afternoon. Our dentist has modern equipment and a nice manner. He found three or four other old fillings that are ready to go so I'll be taking the Sophia trip another few times. It takes a little over three hours each way by bus and the ticket runs around $15.00 roundtrip. On the Stara Zagora-Sophia run you get an assigned seat, a beverage service and a movie. I think of it as riding a very low slow airplane without any wings.

I've been working on getting my Lichna Carta (Green Card) since I got to Stara Zagora. The first step in the process was to register with the police. You stand in a long line and finally get to a very small window where a woman looks over your passport and all the forms you filled in beforehand. You were able to fill in these forms because the PC knows what you need and provided them during training. However, the woman behind the small window doesn't like the forms the PC provided, so she throws them away and gives you forms that she likes better. It doesn't matter that they are the exact same forms as the ones she threw away, she likes them better. Then you go away and fill in the new forms. When you're finished, you stand in line again and finally get to the small window, which is conveniently placed slightly below waist level, and bend way over to give the woman back the forms she liked better. She takes them and gives you a small document that she's stamped and tells you to go pay your "taxes", get a receipt and come back. You have to pay your "taxes" at a bank that's right next door so that isn't too bad. Of course, there's a long line but you're used to long lines by now. You pay your "taxes", get the necessary receipt and hop back onto the line to the small window. When it's your turn, you're told that you need four photographs and there are businesses across the street that will take just the right ones. The ones the PC provided are not ones she likes so off you go to have new photos taken. You wait on line for the photos and then get back on the line to the small window, clutching your precious new photos that you really hope the woman will like. When it's your turn at the small window you have to assume a very awkward position so that she can see your face and match it up to the brand new photos. It's entirely possible that your face wouldn't have matched up quite so precisely to the photos the PC provided so you are somewhat grateful to the woman for having the foresight to make you get new ones before she even checked. Then she gives you a receipt that shows that you've registered with the police and tells you to come back in ten days. So, of course, you do. You stand on line and, when it's your turn, you give the woman your passport and your registration form and ask for the forms to apply for your Lichna Carta. But wait, first you must pay some more "taxes". So you go to the bank next door, pay your "taxes" and return to the line. Now you receive a new form that has to be filled in on a typewriter, handwriting is forbidden. Fortunately, there is a small enterprise across the street run by two women, one of whom has a typewriter. You wait on line, hand her your blank form, passport and registration form and she goes to work. Once your form has been completed by typewriter, you get back on the line to the small window. When it's your turn you discover that you don't have a photocopy of your passport and learn that, incredibly enough, there is a small business across the street (next to the photography studio which is next to the typewriter business) that will photocopy your passport for you. There is no line at the copy business so you are able to get back on the line to the small window in record time. The woman looks over all your documentation very very thoroughly and finally sighs in defeat and accepts your application package. That's all there is to it; four weeks from today I can go back down to the police station, stand on line to the small window and receive my Lichna Carta. Couldn't be simpler.

Our Agency (REDA) is quite busy now. We've just been awarded a project to design a training program to help Macedonian food & dairy processors meet EU standards and code. I'll get to help set this one up and there's some urgency to it, as it will take place from December 8th to the 12th. I am also putting together a half day Customer Service training module to be given to employees of the Municipal Government's service center. On top of that we are evaluating whether to bid on a project to coordinate the development of an ancient Thracian archaeological site into a tourist attraction. That's me, food & dairy expert-customer service guru-archaeologist-tourist guy. Still, it gives me something to think about while I'm standing on line.

On a more personal note, I'm getting better at shopping and cooking. I made an excellent pot of lentil soup this week that carried me through five meals. I keep scrubbing the apartment and either it's getting less musty or I'm just getting used to the smell. I managed to do a couple of loads of laundry last night and although the spin cycle on the washing machine now shakes down the entire kitchen, my clothes come out ready for the line. I checked on the status of the clothes on the line this morning and discovered that most of them were, in fact, on the floor. I should have paid much closer attention when Veneta tried to teach me how to hang up laundry. Slowly I'm settling in here and it's beginning to feel almost as good as Saedinenie.

One last word about the Customer Service module I'm going to give to the service staff in the Municipality, among the first participants will be a woman who works behind a very small window in the police station. I do hope she's taken the time to fill in her required course registration form in advance!