MASS EMAIL #3: A new chapter, but not yet...
Greetings, again.
A lot has happened since my last letter. For starters, I now know where I will spend my next two years. Funny background, for those of you who don’t know: my official assignment here was in “Rural Development”. So, I was mentally prepared to live some simple, bucolic life and packed for such a life (even contemplated purchasing overalls). My actual assignment is quite different. There is a road connecting Eastern Europe with Western Europe (it’s a lot smaller than you’re imagining) and another running from Turkey to Ukraine. I will be working the next two years in the town/city at the crossroad of these thoroughfares. A place called Haskovo. The municipality represents about 80,000 people. Included in that number are Bulgarians, Roma (the separate-but-equal Bulgarians), Turks and Armenians. It’s really quite diverse and borders on being cosmopolitan. There is an enormous fresh fruit and vegetable market, open every day, Italian, Chinese, Turkish and Greek restaurants (a real treat here, where variety means a different brand of salami), fun bars, a ton of cafes, parks, a movie theater or two, two universities, local (and seemingly talented) silversmiths, and a well-stocked public library. Here’s the best part (those who know me well can appreciate my excitement): renovation was just finished on the local theatre (as in dramatic stage) and they put on at least half a dozen plays a month. I just missed an Oscar Wilde play, in Bulgarian of course.
I have been given two assignments in Haskovo: the first is with the International Relations Department of the municipality. I’ll be working with the local efforts to prepare for entering the EU, strengthening local international representation, cross-border projects, and writing proposals for international funding (EU, USAID, etc). The team seems fun and laid-back, which is nice, since I packed like I was going to hoe corn for two years. The other assignment is with an NGO (non-profit organization) called Ekar – representing the interest of various disenfranchised groups (children, women, handicapped, etc.) They really lack focus (in fact, I could write an entire email on the lack of strategy in both assignments and the country as a whole), which is a little daunting, but also means I have a lot of wiggle room to create pet projects, which I am already formulating (social commentary in another email). It’s a small organization with a lot of enthusiasm and support, so good things may come.
While in Haskovo, I stayed in the place which will soon be my apartment. It’s about a 10 minute walk to the center of town, is clean and well furnished (including TV, VCR and washing machine), has two balconies and is almost too big for one person (almost). I joined the Peace Corps to live better than I did in New York. Who knew? The only drawback of the apartment is that it is located in a student block apartment building, which means it will be like living in a discotheque for 9 months out of the year (on the flip side, most college students know some English which could be nice in a jam). I was there for the official site visit three days, but stayed for the weekend because it was so great. By the time I left, I had already had five overnight guests – all of which were excited to return once we finally leave training.
To add to the good news, I received a rather unusual treat in my assignment. Typically, Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to a location rather remote and without any other volunteers nearby (it is not unusual here to take a 4 hour bus trip to visit someone for the weekend). Being in a large town, many trains and buses run through Haskovo (including a direct bus to Istanbul), making the journey in and out of the city rather easy. Also, John, the friend I mentioned in the last email, was assigned to Haskovo and will work about 2 blocks from me in the regional administration. Many of you may have heard me joke in the States that I was welcoming all the bad luck I’d been having because I felt I was going to cash it in soon. Well, I might get the opportunity to do just that. In the meantime…
All of the excitement and pending greatness made returning to training seem even more painful. Training, if I haven’t already described it, is like being put in a meat grinder. They don’t care who you are going in as long as everyone is the same going out. Anyone who has an individualistic streak finds it dull and excruciating. Anyone intelligent finds it condescending and trite. Anyone with a problem with authority finds it infuriating. You can guess how I feel. Every morning we sit in class and learn basic Bulgarian phrases (I woke up at 7, tomorrow I will wake up at 8), have lunch (read: bitch session), then spend the afternoon interviewing managers and youth and craftsmen only to fill out worksheets (WORKSHEETS!) about what we gained from the experience (not much, since we couldn’t let the conversation flow naturally, thanks to the !@#$ing worksheets), have coffee (bitch some more) and then off to home to have choppy conversations in a mix of Bulgarian and English and eat some food that we wouldn’t eat if it were polite to pass. I can say, if this is any reflection of what purgatory would be like, I recommend deciding now to be virtuous or sinful so that there is no question when the time comes.
Personal side note, then I will part. There are a few of us, not anti-American, but not flag-wavers either, who have been really struggling with who we are and how we “fit” (if we weren’t typical Americans, now we are really atypical). We wondered aloud how we were going to embrace the Bulgarian way of life and view point and if we’d have to change who we were to do so. It became this enormous issue that made us irritable and really closed to much of the cross-cultural experience. One-by-one that tension broke, and it broke for each of us in the same way – we discovered something really different, even American, about ourselves that we liked and wanted to keep. I went for a long walk in the rain. Dripping wet and barefoot, I realized I wasn’t here for shelter or superficial acceptance. A friend started caring dog food to feed a stray litter of puppies (a common site here, and one that is ignored) and realized that it was fine to care about something, even if no one else did. Once we embraced our own differences, the differences of others were so much easier to enjoy. And, rather surprisingly in a homogeneous culture, people seemed really open to our otherness. My dripping wet clothes and hair were only met with smiles and friendly greetings. When my friend bought dog food for the litter, he didn’t have small change (always an issue here). The store owner just smiled at him, knew what he was doing with the food, and let him take it with an IOU. …Being me is something that I’m good at doing and was glad to realize I needed to do here too – it was the good friend I’d been missing.
Thanks to all of those who sent me packages. I haven’t actually received them yet. We have packages sent to our hub site and haven’t had a hub meeting in about 1.5 weeks. I will go there next Thursday. I can’t wait. Also, I have a cell phone, for those who want to chat (incoming calls are free for me, so call away). It is, from the States: 0-359-886-874-713. Two good calling cards are: http://www.speedypin.com/ and http://www.masterbell.com/. Don’t forget the time difference (7 hours ahead of NYC and 8 ahead of the Midwest). Once I get to Haskovo I will have a landline, which is cheaper to call, but it’s not for another 3 weeks or so. Plus, don’t make the American assumption that a landline is clearer than a cell. Not necessarily so here.
I hope you are all doing well, and appreciate your support and well wishes. Keep them coming – soul food goes well with salami.
Love and hugs,
Jen
A lot has happened since my last letter. For starters, I now know where I will spend my next two years. Funny background, for those of you who don’t know: my official assignment here was in “Rural Development”. So, I was mentally prepared to live some simple, bucolic life and packed for such a life (even contemplated purchasing overalls). My actual assignment is quite different. There is a road connecting Eastern Europe with Western Europe (it’s a lot smaller than you’re imagining) and another running from Turkey to Ukraine. I will be working the next two years in the town/city at the crossroad of these thoroughfares. A place called Haskovo. The municipality represents about 80,000 people. Included in that number are Bulgarians, Roma (the separate-but-equal Bulgarians), Turks and Armenians. It’s really quite diverse and borders on being cosmopolitan. There is an enormous fresh fruit and vegetable market, open every day, Italian, Chinese, Turkish and Greek restaurants (a real treat here, where variety means a different brand of salami), fun bars, a ton of cafes, parks, a movie theater or two, two universities, local (and seemingly talented) silversmiths, and a well-stocked public library. Here’s the best part (those who know me well can appreciate my excitement): renovation was just finished on the local theatre (as in dramatic stage) and they put on at least half a dozen plays a month. I just missed an Oscar Wilde play, in Bulgarian of course.
I have been given two assignments in Haskovo: the first is with the International Relations Department of the municipality. I’ll be working with the local efforts to prepare for entering the EU, strengthening local international representation, cross-border projects, and writing proposals for international funding (EU, USAID, etc). The team seems fun and laid-back, which is nice, since I packed like I was going to hoe corn for two years. The other assignment is with an NGO (non-profit organization) called Ekar – representing the interest of various disenfranchised groups (children, women, handicapped, etc.) They really lack focus (in fact, I could write an entire email on the lack of strategy in both assignments and the country as a whole), which is a little daunting, but also means I have a lot of wiggle room to create pet projects, which I am already formulating (social commentary in another email). It’s a small organization with a lot of enthusiasm and support, so good things may come.
While in Haskovo, I stayed in the place which will soon be my apartment. It’s about a 10 minute walk to the center of town, is clean and well furnished (including TV, VCR and washing machine), has two balconies and is almost too big for one person (almost). I joined the Peace Corps to live better than I did in New York. Who knew? The only drawback of the apartment is that it is located in a student block apartment building, which means it will be like living in a discotheque for 9 months out of the year (on the flip side, most college students know some English which could be nice in a jam). I was there for the official site visit three days, but stayed for the weekend because it was so great. By the time I left, I had already had five overnight guests – all of which were excited to return once we finally leave training.
To add to the good news, I received a rather unusual treat in my assignment. Typically, Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to a location rather remote and without any other volunteers nearby (it is not unusual here to take a 4 hour bus trip to visit someone for the weekend). Being in a large town, many trains and buses run through Haskovo (including a direct bus to Istanbul), making the journey in and out of the city rather easy. Also, John, the friend I mentioned in the last email, was assigned to Haskovo and will work about 2 blocks from me in the regional administration. Many of you may have heard me joke in the States that I was welcoming all the bad luck I’d been having because I felt I was going to cash it in soon. Well, I might get the opportunity to do just that. In the meantime…
All of the excitement and pending greatness made returning to training seem even more painful. Training, if I haven’t already described it, is like being put in a meat grinder. They don’t care who you are going in as long as everyone is the same going out. Anyone who has an individualistic streak finds it dull and excruciating. Anyone intelligent finds it condescending and trite. Anyone with a problem with authority finds it infuriating. You can guess how I feel. Every morning we sit in class and learn basic Bulgarian phrases (I woke up at 7, tomorrow I will wake up at 8), have lunch (read: bitch session), then spend the afternoon interviewing managers and youth and craftsmen only to fill out worksheets (WORKSHEETS!) about what we gained from the experience (not much, since we couldn’t let the conversation flow naturally, thanks to the !@#$ing worksheets), have coffee (bitch some more) and then off to home to have choppy conversations in a mix of Bulgarian and English and eat some food that we wouldn’t eat if it were polite to pass. I can say, if this is any reflection of what purgatory would be like, I recommend deciding now to be virtuous or sinful so that there is no question when the time comes.
Personal side note, then I will part. There are a few of us, not anti-American, but not flag-wavers either, who have been really struggling with who we are and how we “fit” (if we weren’t typical Americans, now we are really atypical). We wondered aloud how we were going to embrace the Bulgarian way of life and view point and if we’d have to change who we were to do so. It became this enormous issue that made us irritable and really closed to much of the cross-cultural experience. One-by-one that tension broke, and it broke for each of us in the same way – we discovered something really different, even American, about ourselves that we liked and wanted to keep. I went for a long walk in the rain. Dripping wet and barefoot, I realized I wasn’t here for shelter or superficial acceptance. A friend started caring dog food to feed a stray litter of puppies (a common site here, and one that is ignored) and realized that it was fine to care about something, even if no one else did. Once we embraced our own differences, the differences of others were so much easier to enjoy. And, rather surprisingly in a homogeneous culture, people seemed really open to our otherness. My dripping wet clothes and hair were only met with smiles and friendly greetings. When my friend bought dog food for the litter, he didn’t have small change (always an issue here). The store owner just smiled at him, knew what he was doing with the food, and let him take it with an IOU. …Being me is something that I’m good at doing and was glad to realize I needed to do here too – it was the good friend I’d been missing.
Thanks to all of those who sent me packages. I haven’t actually received them yet. We have packages sent to our hub site and haven’t had a hub meeting in about 1.5 weeks. I will go there next Thursday. I can’t wait. Also, I have a cell phone, for those who want to chat (incoming calls are free for me, so call away). It is, from the States: 0-359-886-874-713. Two good calling cards are: http://www.speedypin.com/ and http://www.masterbell.com/. Don’t forget the time difference (7 hours ahead of NYC and 8 ahead of the Midwest). Once I get to Haskovo I will have a landline, which is cheaper to call, but it’s not for another 3 weeks or so. Plus, don’t make the American assumption that a landline is clearer than a cell. Not necessarily so here.
I hope you are all doing well, and appreciate your support and well wishes. Keep them coming – soul food goes well with salami.
Love and hugs,
Jen
posted by Jen at 11:00 AM
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