LG's Excellent PC Adventure

Just like in Chicago, Spring comes and goes here. One day it's warm and sunny and the next it's blustery and cold. I bought an umbrella this weekend because it dawned on me that I spend a lot more time walking here than at home. On rainy days at home, I got into my warm dry car in the garage and drove it to work. Then I parked right next to the door and ran between the raindrops to get inside. Anywhere I went during the day I traveled by car and the biggest inconvenience I ever faced was getting from the car to the building without getting soaked. Here I walk. It takes about fifteen minutes to get from my apartment to my office and about twenty minutes to get back home. It's the same distance but it's downhill to the office and uphill home. If I need to go to the market, I walk. The telephone in town is another fifteen minute hike and the big stores on the outskirts of town take almost an hour to reach on foot. There is a good public transportation system, but you'll get soaked waiting for a bus. So I broke down and purchased a fine umbrella. The weather reports were immediately revised to exclude any forecast of rain for the duration of the Spring.

The whole concept of waiting your turn on line is different here. I received a package last week and went down to the Post Office to pick it up. Just like at home, packages that are too big for the mailman to carry have to be picked up by the recipient. You get a notice and take it to the packages window and present your id. Then you pay 90 stotinki, get two or three forms stamped and take your package away. While I was on line, several people came in, walked straight up to the front of the line, completed brief transactions and left. I mention this because it is perfectly acceptable to cut into the line if you have a quick transaction. No one in the line objects as long as you don't tie up the service agent for longer than a minute or so. This applies to most lines, not just the post office. The Municipal Information center has just installed a "Take-a-number" system to help control the amount of time people have to wait for an agent. The biggest complaint from both the customers and the agents is that no exceptions are made for people who just have a quick question or a fast transaction. Imagine walking up to the front of a long line, butting in and saying, "Oh, this will only take a second." You would single-handedly bring back tarring and feathering. This system is more cordial and works very well here unless there is a loud American in the line. "Hey, wait your turn! The back of the line is over there!" Fortunately, not a lot of people understand me.

However, when it comes to lines to board a bus, all the rules go out the window and survival goes to the strong. I once waited for a bus to Saedinenie in an unruly mob of forty or so people. The bus stopped with its door directly in front of me. There was a space of about two feet between me and the door and I was the last person but one to board. People flowed around me like I had taken root and I still can feel the bruises on my ribs from being elbowed aside. I report with pride that I did manage to beat an elderly lady laden down with packages onto the bus. I got the last seat and then surrendered it to her anyway. That, by the way, is a commonplace courtesy here as well as at home. Anyone who obviously physically needs your seat more than you do is welcome to it.

I just finished giving two customer service seminars to the employees in the Information Center. The hardest thing to get them to realize is that the citizens coming in for help are actually their Customers. I don't think that this is particularly a Bulgarian perception as much as a Government employee perception. So most of the seminar was spent trying to help them change their way of looking at their customers. The argument that seemed to be most acceptable was that, although their customers don't have an option to go to another Municipal Center for information or service, they do have an option to behave well or badly when they come in to ours. If they are treated like valued customers rather than units to be processed, they might choose to behave well in return. "Okay, we'll treat them well, but we still won't think of them as 'customers'." Small steps, small steps.

As you may or may not be aware, I've had a couple of personal emergencies back in the States. Because the most recent emergency involves an immediate family member I am being given Emergency Leave. I have felt that from Day One, the Peace Corps has treated me extremely well especially since my arrival in Bulgaria. Emergency Leave has to be authorized by the PC administrators in Washington and requires a request from a family member and confirmation by a physician that the situation is serious. Once my EL was approved, the local PC staff have jumped through hoops to get me onto a flight back to the States. I spent last night sleeping in the 'Sick Bay' in the PC office in Sofia and today one of the PC drivers will take me out to the airport for my flight home. Everyone in the office has gone out of their way to give me as much assistance and support as they possibly could during a stressful time. I plan to return in about a week and they will meet me at the airport and put me on a bus back to Stara Zagora. By the way, I'm leaving Bulgaria on the prettiest day we've had here in six months!