LG's Excellent PC Adventure

This week has been fairly busy so far. The funding has come through for the project with the ladies at the Home for the Disabled and we've been out to see them twice. We'll begin renovating their workroom next week and I've begun taking photos and video of them and the facility so I can put either an album or a movie online soon. None of the ladies was interested in becoming the manager of their enterprise and they suggested that we give the job to Malcho. So Malcho (a wheelchair-bound, Roma, dwarf) and I are starting to write up the Business Plan for the enterprise. He is extremely positive and enthusiastic and also seems to be determined to have me do as much of the work as he can possibly offload. But this is an exercise in futility on his part because I am supposed to transfer skills here and, after raising two sons, I'm an expert at delegating. We're beginning to look at designs for new products and we're creating a website to display and sell our hand knit crafts. All in all it's quite interesting and everyone involved is determined to make the project succeed. While we were designing the project, we agreed that one measure of its success would be if additional ladies asked to join as we went along. Apart from creating a self-sustainable enterprise, we're looking to improve the living conditions and self-esteem of the participants. An indication of improvement will be to have non-participants ask to participate. Last week we welcomed our first new participant and now the Hand Knit Crafts of Stara Zagora cooperative has eight knitters and Malcho!

The kids at the Languages High School are working on their movie scripts with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, we missed having our meeting for three weeks in a row due to vacations, my trip home and a miscommunication between me and my tutor. In spite of that, three groups have done first drafts of their scripts and one has completed an initial revision. I suggested that the kids form themselves into groups of four or five so they'd have enough people to share the work and not too many to impede forward progress. One of the 'groups' is a young woman. In the beginning Iliana would drag one or two helpless volunteers along to give the appearance of a group. Each time we'd meet, she'd let me know that 'Ivan' was being replaced by 'Zdravka', 'Stefka' was being replaced by 'Maria' and so forth. Finally, she said, "I really want to do it all myself, I don't work well in groups!" So she is Scriptwriter, Producer, Director & Cinematographer. I remain the Executive Producer on all films and she's stuck with it...I own the camera. One of the other groups has eight or ten people and is still trying to write the first page of their script. Several members of this 'company' appear at each meeting and assure me that they are nearly ready to begin and will have an initial draft very soon. The groups that have written scripts have all produced comedies. Two of these are actually inoffensive enough, with editing, to have some promise but one would undoubtedly lead to my immediate expulsion from Bulgaria and the PC. On the other hand, it would be the funniest movie of the three.

This coming Saturday I'll go back to Saedinenie to visit Veneta & Stoil. Saturday night we'll drive to Asenovgrad to celebrate both Bulgarian Easter and Tsonka's birthday. After dinner we'll go to church (at the monastery in Bachkovo) and then drive back to Saedinenie. On Sunday we'll have a proper Easter Feast at Veneta's and then I'll be allowed to waddle back to the bus to go home to Stara Zagora where I'll fast for a week! Veneta gets her new PC trainee on Friday, so I'll meet the new guy just a day after he arrives at their house. I offered to come visit on a different weekend but Veneta wouldn't hear of it. Easter is a holiday for families so I have to be there. Hopefully, the new guy won't mind. I don't think it would have bothered me when I first arrived.

Finally, last night we had a good old fashioned thunderstorm. Lightening, pouring rain that lashed at my windows and winds that shook the town all reminded me of home in the Mid-west. Now the lime trees are beginning to blossom and soon the town will smell like tea brewing, or so I'm told. Stara Zagora keeps getting prettier every day!