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

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Easter All Over Again

This past weekend was Easter as celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church. I had plans to visit Veneta & Stoil in Saedinenie and then go with them to Asenovgrad to celebrate Tsonka's birthday. I learned during the week that the new crop of volunteers would be going to their host families the Friday before Easter which was the day before I was scheduled to go to Veneta's. I called Veneta to find out if she had forgotten that she'd have a 'new' guy the day before I was supposed to arrive and she said that she remembered but it didn't matter because it was Easter and I had to be with the family. I was touched and assured her that I'd come. My plans were to travel by bus to Saedinenie on Saturday.

Saturday morning my phone rang and it was Veneta asking me when I planned to arrive so she could plan lunch. That was a bit unusual as it has never mattered when I showed up before. I told her what time I thought I'd get there and that I'd see her soon and I was looking forward to it. I took the bus to Plovdiv, transferred to the North Bus Station and, while I was waiting for the bus to Saedinenie, my phone rang again. It was Veneta making sure I was on my way and wanting to know when I'd arrive. This happens as frequently as fish ride bicycles so I asked her if anything was wrong. She said "no", they just wanted to make sure I was on my way.

When I walked into Veneta's front courtyard, the laundry on the line indicated that the 'new' guy was either a woman or a man with somewhat eclectic tastes in undergarments. Inside the house I found Veneta and Mickey (the new trainee) standing together with looks of relief and after saying my "hellos" I began to translate all their questions for each other. In the entire Bulgarian population, Veneta is the person I can communicate with the best. She knows which words I understand and works at using them in ways that make sense to me. She manages to make it sound as if I know what I'm saying and Mickey was visibly impressed. She said she felt a bit overwhelmed and didn't know if she could ever learn to speak as well as I do! With a perfectly straight face I advised her not to use the measure of my skills to set her expectations, after all, "I have somewhat of a gift in these matters". Later I confessed that I am the very worst in my entire group at language. It is nice to know that, until they begin their lessons, I'm better than most of the new guys.

We had a meal and I helped Mickey and Veneta get to know each other and then the four of us piled into the Lada and set off for Asenovgrad and Tsonka's party. It is the custom in Bulgaria to boil and paint the Easter eggs on the Thursday before Easter. If you can't do it then, it must be done on the Saturday. Veneta had a large basket filled with painted eggs to bring along. Tsonka and Vasil own a restaurant/cafe and the music was pumped up and the rakia was flowing when we arrived. It was a typical Na Ghosti, a party that has no predetermined time for ending. We ate and drank and sang such Bulgarian classics as 'Stari Moete Priateli' and 'Tezi Pari'. You should have been there! Then, at ten minutes before midnight, we all picked a painted hardboiled egg from a basket, took a candle and walked around the corner to one of Asenovgrad's forty churches. We joined a crowd of several hundred people there and lit our candles. At midnight the church bells rang and everyone wished everyone else a healthy and successful year. Then we squared off, two by two, and smacked our eggs together. The idea here is to break the other fellow's egg while leaving your own unscathed. You continue whapping eggs with your group until there's only one left whole. My egg surrendered on the first knock and was promptly peeled and eaten as an example to all the other eggs.

We went back to Pchela (Tsonka's cafe) and ate, drank and sang a little more. Stoil, by the way, never touches a drop when he's driving. Then at one or two in the morning we were able to leave for Saedinenie and some sleep. Easter morning we all got up and had coffee and breakfast. Then we just sat around and I did a little more translating and then we had the Easter lamb for lunch. At lunch we did the knocking eggs thing again and, this time, I picked a champion egg..but I'm not sure what it meant because in the end I just broke it and ate it anyway. At 3:30 pm I started back to SZ loaded down with food, wine and rakia from Veneta because SZ might not have food now (you never know) and got home in time for a fireworks display that seemed to be aimed at my balcony. I went to bed tired, happy and very very well fed.

On Monday I planned to have Brian and Matt (the two volunteers here in SZ) over for dinner. I intended to make moussaka and went out in the afternoon to buy some of the things I still needed, primarily yogurt and eggs. There are half a dozen little stands in our marketplace that sell eggs so I headed there first. It may interest you to learn that on the Monday after Easter, the only eggs in the country that haven't been hardboiled are those emerging from the egg-end of the chicken! The spaghetti was pretty good, if I do say so myself.
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