Sept 24: Anita and I pickup our rental car and we hit the road to Ohrid, Macedonia (via Skopje).

Sept 25 Spending the night in Ohird, we head to Gjirokaster, Albania where we’ll spend the night and hang out with some Albanian PCVs. I have been told that there will be a once-every-five-year Albanian folklore festival. I’m really looking forward to seeing this and meeting up with several other PCVs.

Sept 26 The next day we’ll drive up the Albania coast and spend the night somewhere along the way.

Sept 27,28 The following two days, we’ll spend the night in Kotor, Montenegro. Kotor is home to the deepest fjord in Europe and is considered Dubrovnik’s little sister.

Sept 29 The next day, we’ll drive to Dubrovnik, Croatia for a short day trip. As you may remember, I have already been to Dubrovnik but it’s in the neighborhood.

Sept 29, Oct 1, 2 After spending time in Dubrovnik, we head on to Mostar, Bosnia for a day or two. After this, we head on to Sarajevo for the night. (I have three days alloted for Mostar and Sarajevo however we want to divvy them up)

Oct 3rd start heading back to Bulgaria, route to be determined! We’ll most likely spend the night in a national park in Montenegro.

Oct 4th return to Bulgaria.

Oct 6th RETURN HOME!

It is hard to believe that two years can fly by so fast, and yet, crawl so slowly. In the past few weeks, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect over what I have done and my decision to join the Peace Corps and how that decision has impacted my life. Clearly, I am no longer the same person- I now consider a country that I previously only had an idea where it was located on a map as my second home.

I came with only one goal in mind (despite being told to have have no goals or expectations)–to make a difference. Have I achieved this goal? In ways I never suspected I could.  Have I changed? Irreversibly. I now see the world in a much different light, I’ve seen how so many can do with so little, what true oppression and hardship look like and most of all, the influence the allure the United States really has on the world. I was so impressed with how closely my Bulgarian friends followed the US Presidential elections. On female teacher told me that Hillary Clinton was her greatest inspiration because she showed what women can achieve.

But before I learned all of this, I had to go through training.  As part of my 11 weeks of training, I lived with a family of Bulgarians. When I first meet this kind family, I could only tell tell them that I loved cucumbers (which isn’t true) and could ask if there was hot water.

My host family in Rila

Extreme cultural sensitivity on both sides bridged the language barrier and I quickly found myself a part of their family; traveling six to seven hours to spend Christmases and Easter with them.

Christmas Dinner

This acceptance wasn’t limited to a single family who took care of me during my training. There were many many people and families that helped this hapless American in the first frightening months of service (and it should be noted, those months fall on one of the coldest winters in recent memory). Their kindness and generosity were gave me the strength I needed to get through the winter and gave me confidence that I can to it.

My dance team and I

Me with my kindergarten class, Christmas 2008

The Peace Corps has three goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

I took care of goals two and three superbly. I maintained a blog, shared photos and answered many many questions when I went back to the States on leave. I lived the second goal every day, especially during the election. One of my friends would come into my office everyday to talk about the primaries and related news. It’s hard enough to explain the US electoral process in English, let alone in Bulgarian! My colleagues were wowed at my ballots; that I would actually a) vote in the primary, b)am able to vote on judges, initiatives, referendums, amendments, etc and c) actually vote!. The parliamentary elections for Bulgaria were in July and I took every opportunity to ask my friends for their opinions; if they believed anything would change and what would happen. Only one person told me he would vote (with pride he said he has voted in every election he’s been eligible). Everyone said nothing would change and one person observed that the only thing that would change would be who steals the money. As expected, Boiko Borisov was elected prime minister.

So now it comes down to the first goal: teaching sustainable skills and abilities. I joined the Peace Corps straight out of college and didn’t have many skills to offer compared to some of my colleagues who will are in the middle of their careers or entering retirement when the return. I was assigned to the municipality of Chirpan in their Department of External Resources. I was pumped and very eager to start. There was a lot aid out there and I was determined to use it to help my co-workers transform our city.

Alas, reality has a way of transforming plans. Shortly after being sworn in, the European Union halted all aid in response to rampant corruption. Other aid organizations followed suit and I found myself out of a job.

My counterpart and I

I rebounded and started to teach computer literacy, English, Ecology, American history, culture and holiday traditions as well as dental hygiene.

Teaching dental hygiene to my kindergartners with donated materials from the US

Teaching my kindergartner class "Old McDonald's Farm"

My students in the mahala

My most rewarding work has been in the Roma Mahala (Gypsy ghetto) teaching English. They have been my most enthusiastic students and their progress has been astounding.

This wasn’t the job I assigned up to do. But I had been told over and over again: Don’t have any expectations. But if you do, make them really low. In training, I was told that “[My] work is to go out and find work.” I believe I did that and keeping that objective in mind keep my frustration in check.

Despite the ambiguity of our work here, it seems everyone has a “I wish I could have done more…”. But as pointed out by the Peace Corps staff at our last gathering, that is a typical reflection of Peace Corps Volunteers on their way out: they believe their job is never done. Which I suppose is true to some degree. Being a development volunteer it can be difficult to see the results of our work and sometimes creates the feeling of “what am I doing here!?” And everyone in my group has had this feeling. Alot. Long cold winters, ambiguous working conditions and cultural differences can make it challenging. But I’ve made it through and I’m happy with the work I’ve done.

A brief recap of some of my highlights (minus the ones mentioned above):

• I helped the local At-Risk Children’s Center (now renamed “The Center for Municipal Support”) organize an annual charity football (soccer) tournament to raise money for their projects. These projects have included purchasing rehabilitation and multimedia equipment. They are in the process of preparing next year’s tournament.

• Created an update-able Bulgarian-English Phrasebook for the local police department at one of Bulgaria’s most visited cultural landmarks (the Rila Monastery)
• Taught proper dental hygiene to local children and distributed free toothbrushes and toothpaste.

My biggest success is still in the works but it’s pretty much “a sure thing”. A few weeks ago I had a meeting in Sofia with a rep from Colgate-Palmolive Oil company and he has agreed to give my town as many dental supplies they need to continue my lesson. This means Chirpan, a city of about 13,000, will be receiving enough dental supplies for every student enrolled (and I’m sure plenty for the children not in school in to Roma ghetto outside of town)! AND my meeting has spurred talks for a partnership between the Peace Corps and Colgate (legal details still have to be hammered out) so that every volunteer in Bulgaria will have access to these materials for similar projects!

I can’t believe it’s all coming to an end. Two years have flown by faster than I could have possibly imagined. I have enjoyed (almost) every minute and have no regrets serving. In the process I have learned a tremendous amount about the world and myself, met some truly wonderful people both American and Bulgarian, made lifelong friendships and fallen in love with Bulgaria and the Balkans as a whole. It will be incredibly difficult leaving. But two years is long enough and I’m ready to come home!

A perfect location for all the head hanchos to meet and lead the country, right? In the distance you can (sort of) make out a little “rook” like building. That is the site where the Bulgarian and Russian armies turned back the Ottomans in 1877-78. It was Bulgaria’s Saratoga.

Given this history of the area, it’s too bad the building they built to rule the country looked like a UFO…

I’m not really sure what they were going for there but it’s interesting nonetheless. A flying saucer with a smoke stack.

As I walked closer to the building, there was very noticeable graffiti above the main entrance.

On either side were two gigantic inscriptions

The jest says “Workers of the every country unite and move forward! Others something something something our strong something something to work and to something something something.” It doesnt’ help when a lot of the letters have fallen. And the photo doesn’t include most of the wording…

On the other side I took a photo for creativity and not so much legibility:

From what I can read, this one is also similar; a call to arms for the proletariat to rise up.

I then found a small opening in side of the building and crawled through. I walked upstairs and found a huge conference room which once looked like this:

but now looks likes:

It was pretty impressive to be in what was once and glamorous and awe inspiring room only to see it tattered and vandalized.

As you can see, the former glory of the communist regime now lays in ruins. It was breathtaking standing in the middle of the of the room, looking at the impressive murals. It was some what ironic looking around at these ravished iconic depicting the Might of the Proletariat.

Note the rose in the hand by the quill. As mentioned earlier, this building is in Bulgaria’s rose valley. Bulgaria is the world’s largest producer of rose oil (between 50-75%, depending on what stats you look at)

There was a definite theme of astronauts, though to my knowledge, there have been no Bulgarians in space. I took these images as soviet propaganda of the USSR’s supremacy over evil capitalism in technology.

The most impressive mural was the one over the middle of the room. It once looked like this:

But now it looks like this:

It reads: “Proletariat of every country, unite!”

There were some pictures that looked intentionally vandalized. Like this one:

I’m not really sure who those dudes are. Perhaps the center on is Marx? I would think the right one would be Gerorgi Dimitrov, the founder of communism in Bulgaria, but I can’t say for sure (he didn’t sport a beard as far as I know).

In the end, this was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen since being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria. I felt a strong connection to history; seeing this building as it lay in ruins, not preserved like a museum. For better or worse, this made the whole experience seem more “real”. I also appreciated the fact the building is now near a cow pasture and the surrounding area, including the steps up to the building, is covered in cow shit.

Buzludzha

Last weekend I went to Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria’s second capital. It was stunningly gorgeous and I regret waiting so long to visit. I took several photos and I’ll let them do the talking. The full album is linked below.

Tsarevets, the fortress in VT

Tsarevets by day

Veliko Turnovo from Tsarevets

Veliko Turnavo

Brussels criticised Sofia for failing to cut links between virtually all political parties and “rings of companies”, a phrase used by Ahmed Dogan — the kingmaker in the ruling coalition and leader of the ethnic Turkish MRF — to explain how parties are funded.

Last year, Transparency International rated Bulgaria the most corrupt EU nation. Despite numerous pledges, Sofia has not convicted a single senior official of graft and has sent to jail only one crime boss since the end of communism in 1989.

Suspected criminals have received temporary immunity from prosecution after registering to run for parliament.

The agriculture and environment ministries, both controlled by the MRF, and the construction and the economy ministries, controlled by the Socialists, have been allegedly involved in some of the most notorious schemes in the past few years.

Here are the main scandals:

JACUZZI AND INTIMIDATION

Valentin Dimitrov, director of the state-owned heating utility Toplofikatsia Sofia was sacked in June 2006 after an audit showed he had misused over 15 million levs ($10.63 million), installed massage chairs and a jacuzzi in his office, and claimed for a boat and a water scooter on expenses.

He was later charged with money-laundering and tax evasion after prosecutors said they had received a signal from an unidentified Austrian bank that he had a deposit of 1.6 million euros in it.

The scandal led to the dismissal of then Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov in June 2007, after a senior investigator accused the minister of trying to blackmail him and influence the probe into Toplofikatsia. Ovcharov was investigated but not charged.

The Sofia City Court sentenced Dimitrov to 14 years in jail on June 25 after he was found guilty of misusing more than $4.2 million from the loss-making utility.

ENVIRONMENT CARE OR BENEFITS

Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals lodged a complaint against Bulgaria at the European Commission in 2007 for effectively blocking a planned $250 million investment in its gold operations in the country.

For more than two years Environment Minister Dzhevdet Chakarov had refused to sign environment permits for two gold mines, and Dundee had argued that the heart of the matter lay in the political interests of his ethnic Turkish MRF party.

The government and Dundee settled in March 2008 after Dundee agreed to pay a substantially higher fee to Bulgaria for exploring a gold mine, and allowed the state to take a stake in a planned gold and copper producing plant.

EU FARM AID SCHEME

In Feb. 2007, the police services of Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland exposed a criminal network accused of abusing funds worth 7.5 million euros ($10.5 million) in EU pre-accession farm aid.

The network consisted of over 50 Bulgarian and various other European and offshore firms and was allegedly run by two Bulgarians — Lyudmil Stoikov and Mario Nikolov — who were said to have close links with the government, the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF said in a letter to Sofia last year.

“There are powerful forces in the Bulgarian government … who are not interested in punishing anyone from the circle around Lyudmil Stoikov-Mario Nikolov,” the OLAF letter said.

The group was allegedly involved in tax evasion, subsidy frauds, forgery, money laundering and illegal imports to Bulgaria, as well as exports to the EU before 2007 of Chinese rabbit and chicken meat.

Nikolov and Stoikov — the latter donated 25,000 levs for the election campaign of President Georgi Parvanov, a Socialist, in 2006 — were arrested. Stoikov was later released after no evidence of his guilt was found.

Stoikov is under investigation for alleged money laundering in a related case, prosecutors have said.

In July 2008 after pressure from Brussels, Nikolov, together with eight other people, was charged with participating in a criminal group and document fraud.

A Sofia court temporarily suspended the trial in mid-June as one of the defendants, Ivan Ivanov, won temporary immunity after registering to run in the July national elections.

BROTHERS AND ROADS

Veselin Georgiev, former head of the national road agency, resigned in February 2008 after media reports he had arranged contracts worth millions of levs for his brothers’ construction firms. He was later charged with conflict of interests.

MEET THE CRIME BOSSES

Former Interior Minister Rumen Petkov was forced to step down in April 2008 after two former high-ranking police officers were arrested and accused by prosecutors of irregular phone tapping and passing sensitive information to crime bosses.

Petkov, a senior member of the Socialist party, said then he was “responsible for some appointments in the ministry through which I misled the leadership of the country”. He later said he had met accused crime bosses and former members of the police anti-terrorism unit, Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov.

Business partners Galev and Hristov, charged with running an organised crime group and racketeering, spent some six months in custody until mid-June when they were released after registering to run in July elections, winning temporary immunity.

SYPHONING TAXES

The former head of the State Revenue Agency, Maria Murgina, resigned in February after prosecutors said they were investigating a sizeable fraud involving value added tax. No details were made available but local media quoted police sources as saying the damage to public finances was more than 1.0 billion levs.

In May, Murgina was charged with abuse of power, putting pressure on a subordinate and document fraud. She denied any wrongdoing.

LAND SWAPS

In March, the national security agency and prosecutors raided the agriculture ministry and seized documents in an investigation into large-scale illegal land deals. Prosecutors are investigating swaps of thousands of hectares of state-owned arable land and forests for private land that took place in 2008 and 2009.

Bulgaria has lost 8 billion levs in the past four years due to swaps of high quality state-owned land for cheaper, fragmented private land, according to a report by an anti-corruption coalition of 30 non-government organisations.

The Sofia-based anti-graft Centre for the Study of Democracy said the swaps had become “the most conspicuous and intolerable form of political corruption in Bulgaria in 2008″. (Reporting by Irina Ivanova; Editing by Sara Ledwith)

Walking down the main street in the Roma Mahala (Gypsy slum) with (lt-rt) Trevor, Mustafa and me.

(lt-rt) Mustafa, Toby (Trevor’s brother), Tommy. Mustafa and Tommy are fantastic football players and eager students

My class at the church in the mahala.

Trevor and I at the entrance of the mahala

That’s it for pictures I’m going to steal. I’ll post more late

As it was our last day, we were really light on the “teaching part” and focused more on the “let’s have fun part”. I ran through the commands I’ve taught them (stand up, sit down, run, walk, etc), played Red Light, Green Light and a rousing game of Duck Duck Goose (I swear, that game is like crack for Bulgarian six year olds). Then I asked them all to draw me a picture so I could take it home with me. They were really eager to do this. Here are a few of their drawings:

However, once they finished their pictures and discovered that I had a picture of Pluto for them to color, they became much less interested in completing their picture for me!

I had a blast teaching them and I will sorely miss them. I wish them all the best in the first grade.

Last day of school

The Roma people have historically been kicked around. During communism in Bulgaria, they were rounded up and put in separate communities only allowing them to enter town on market days. However, most Roma people are suspicious of outsiders and intentionally separate themselves. This is the biggest obstacle trying to enter the mahala-they don’t really want you there. Given this, you usually have to be invited in by someone. I didn’t have any Roma friends so this was a problem.

We walked to the edge of mahala and sat on some steps overlooking the slum, hoping to get noticed by a group of guys asking us what we were doing. We could see being out and about, some obviously wondering what those white dudes were doing looking into their neighborhood. No one came up to us to see what we wanted. We then decided to take a leap of faith and walk straight into the mahala, uninvited. We decided not to walk down the main street but a side street instead saying “hello” or “good afternoon” to everyone that made eye contact with us. We hadn’t been in the slum for more than two minutes when one of the many people eying us suspiciously asked us what we were doing in their neighborhood. We smiled, introduced ourselves, shook their hands and explained ourselves. Straight off the bat, they asked us if we were missionaries (I’ve been asked this before having been to mahalas in the past so I was prepared to dispel this quickly) As soon as I told them that I was an American looking to teach English for free, their skepticism vanished. It turns out, there is already an English group taught by the pastor of their church. We were, in fact, standing in front of their church (Adventist) and they invited us in to see their place of worship. We stressed that we were not religious and that our English lessons would be open to anyone who wanted to attend.

After our tour of their modest yet lovely church, they said their group would be meeting at six that evening. We were amazed how quickly everything went- in literally five minutes from entering the mahala, we offered a room, class and time to teach English. They then took us out to a cafe; one of the nicest I’ve been to in this country. It was on the second story, outdoors and offered a nice view of Chirpan in the not-so-far distance and the bustling street below. I wrote down my name and number for one of my new friends and he let the pastor know that an American would be joining their class that evening.

That evening we returned. I made copies of the first twenty pages or so of the text book I usually use. It’s the same book the Peace Corps provided for us to learn Bulgarian but translated for Bulgarians to learn English by a PCV. There were about eight students and the lesson went very smoothly;everyone was eager to learn. They had their second lesson the next day (Wednesday) and at the end of that class, they wanted us to return for a third day! My new friends, are quite simply, awesome.