LG's Excellent PC Adventure

Two guys came to my apartment earlier this week to install a high-speed cable for my computer. The same company that provides our internet access at work had agreed to wire my apartment and Petya's too. I was told that it would cost 15Lv a month and that there would be some limitations on speed or quantity or something. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out what I'm being told. But sure enough two days and several hours after their appointed time, Moe and Curly showed up (I was already there). The first thing they did was look over the plan of attack. Then they shattered my neighbor's planter that contained his tree and had been moved into the hallway for light. Next they punched a large hole in my wall inside the front door before they finally drilled a hole through the frame where the landlord had carefully indicated he wanted it to go. Once that was done, they ran a cable into the room I wanted to use for my computer and put a connector on the end of the cable. Then they explained to me that it wouldn't work, because I use a Mac and the 15Lv/month service only works in a Windows environment. Then they left. So, now I have a high speed internet cable sitting on the floor of my room and people wonder why I'm not particularly grateful. I can have it hooked up to my computer but that will cost 33Lv/month and that isn't what I was promised. At the moment we're at an impasse. I refuse to pay and they refuse to provide me with service. Negotiators are being called as we speak.

I did finally get to pick up my Lichna Carta today. Now I am officially a temporary citizen of Bulgaria. I even get to pay the Bulgarian entrance fee when I go to the museum. Every Bulgarian has a Lichna Carta and must carry it on their person at all times. The police have the right to stop you at any time and ask to see your card and if you can't produce it, you can be fined.

From the day I arrived in Saedinenie until I moved to Stara Zagora, Veneta & Stoil worked every single day in their garden. They spent the summer growing, harvesting, bottling, canning and preserving food for the coming Winter. This isn't done out of any sense of rejection of buying one's food in stores, it's done for survival. They live off of the food they grow all year long. I was given a great opportunity to watch and in some cases to help them as they made juice and jams and compotes and dried fruits. I plan to head back to Saedinenie this weekend, but this will be my last trip there for awhile. On Saturday morning the pig will suddenly succumb to a severe case of cut throat. As Tony Soprano might say, "Tomorrow the pig sleeps with the fishes!" Judging from the size of the pig, it promises to be very unpleasant for the fishes. I've been invited back to join in on the party. It may seem strange that butchering a pig is a cause for celebration, but there are good reasons for it. It's traditional in villages for families to acquire a piglet in January or so every year and fatten it for slaughter in December. In many cases this is the only meat they will be able to afford during the following year so in terms of stocking the larder it is an occasion to celebrate. There is also an historical reason, during the 500 years of Turkish rule in Bulgaria, the Turks were allowed to confiscate any and all food from the native Bulgarians. The only things they didn't take, because they were Muslims, were the pigs. The Bulgarians believe that the pigs kept them alive. Therefore, there is usually a party of some kind built around the slaughter and butchering of the pigs. None of the pig goes to waste. The pig becomes sausages, chops, ribs, bacon and ham. The skin is scorched and eaten as the hog is butchered. Veneta & Stoil even make soap from some undetermined part of the animal. I do plan to take pictures and some video of the event if it doesn't get too ugly. I might be able to post some of this online if it isn't too graphic. I saw the pig on my last visit to Veneta's about two weeks ago and he's doubled in size since I left in October and must weigh in at better than 300 lbs now. It's going to be very interesting to see how Stoil and his sons plan to take him down. I'm assuming that hand grenades from a safe distance are probably considered bad form. Anyway, it is comforting to see that he's no longer the cute little fellow I used to talk to after drinking Rakiya.

I've begun working with a group of seven disabled women who formed a small hand knitting enterprise about a year ago. They live here in town in a Municipal institution that is no better or worse than similar institutional homes in the States. These seven women knit scarves and shawls which we then deliver to a crafts store in Sofia. We select, buy and deliver the yarns to them and give them the patterns for the various pieces. They do the knitting and we deal with all aspects of the financial transactions. There are a whole catalog of problems facing this small enterprise right now and I'm trying to work out a viable plan to keep them going. The most pressing concern is that the funding that has been supporting them has ended. They aren't in a position to become self-supporting yet and cannot continue without our assistance. We cannot continue to provide that assistance without acquiring additional funding. Even if we do get new funding, it is not certain whether they will ever become independent of some sort of assistance. Apart from attitudes formed by a lifetime of receiving State care and a general lack of basic business skills, the law requires them to turn over 70% of any income they receive to the Home. It takes them approximately 24 knitting hours to produce one hooded shawl. After costs are deducted and the State claims its 70% of the remainder, the knitter is left with about 6 Leva or roughly $4.00. The reality of the economics here produce a massive disincentive on the part of the Disabled to work. So my current challenge is to find a way to keep them afloat long enough to discover a way to make them self-sustainable and provide them with enough income to make the effort worth their while.

I want to thank my brother-in-law, Greg, for his generous offer, on behalf of his company, of 250,000 lbs of yarn. I am assured that this is enough yarn for at least a dozen sweaters and several pairs of mittens.

Next week I will travel to Sofia on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for my final dental appointments. The dentist is a Bulgarian who was trained in Sweden and is used by the entire expatriate community. He has up-to-date western equipment and I feel very comfortable with him. I have meetings set up with various people in Sofia for each day and hope to find the beginning to solving the funding problem for the knitters. I also have a small stack of documents that have been translated into or written in English which have to be edited for grammar and spelling.

That's life in the big city.