JUST A MOMENT IN TIME:

I’m sitting on a train waiting to return to Plovidv. There are about 15 minutes before departure, but sitting in a warm comfortable train sure beats the cold hard bench in the dreary little train station.

My view from the window is of kids, adults and dogs romping in last night’s snowfall. The consistency….perfect for snowballs, snowmen and snow forts.  This group has put together a fort, probably about 3-4 feet high, in an open area across from the station. Behind it a street parallels the tracks. They have globbed together and shaped the fort to look like a giant meatball with an entrance resembling a bear’s den.  The opening is just the right size for kids and dogs……no adults allowed. The German Shepherds are racing around, distracted from each other only briefly when a snowball comes their way.

Earlier in the day as we walked through one of the many beautiful parks in Hissar, we stopped to watch two families sledding and making a snowman.  I smiled at the sight of the sled with the metal runners. I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since my own childhood. The snowman was “man” size.

It is moments in time like this that help highlight the similarities between Americans and Bulgarians. To me these scenes were about family and the importance family plays in the lives of people from both countries. I could easily have been back home watching this very same scenario in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Philadelphia or even the nation’s capital.

Lynn

The Heat Pump Is Blowing Cold Air!

The Heat Pump Is Blowing Cold Air!!

Three weeks ago Lynn and I did a blog on “Staying Warm”. We ended that blog by saying that Mother Nature had been very good to Bulgaria so far this winter because it had been unseasonably warm. We never should have said that! Within a couple days of posting the blog, all of Bulgaria settled into one of the worst cold spells in a decade. But – like with so many other things here – we learned several new things.

First – we have a new Climatique (a heat pump). Most of the new (and upgraded) apartments have these. They are great. They take the heat from the outside, amplify it, and blow it into your home. In the summer, they reverse the process, and they are air conditioners. However, if the outside air is very very cold (down around 0) and dry, then they can freeze up, or just not work correctly. Every so often ours would make “grinding sounds”, and would blow cool/cold air. Once we even saw it blowing a white mist into the room. Thankfully this did not happen often.

Second – Small 20 dollar space heaters are awesome! Lynn bought one of these in December. It was on sale, and seemed like a good idea. Actually – it was a great idea! When the big system was blowing cold air, we carried this little “turbo heater” into the room, and it warmed things up. We also used it in our bed room (which does not have heat) to keep it warmer during the night.

Third – Bathrooms in Bulgaria are NOT heated. Most bathrooms are in the center of the building, and have a water tank heater in the room. Since the bathroom doubles as a shower stall, the idea is to just take a shower to heat up the room. But if you want to use the bathroom for other things early in the morning, or in the middle of the night; it can be awfully cold. I also found out that many folks in Bulgaria just don’t clean up much in very cold weather.

Fourth – those big communist marble buildings that do not have any central air conditioning in the summer don’t have any heat in the winter. There is one big university cafeteria that we visit often. There is no heat in the building. Everyone eats with their coats on! Since the food gets cold pretty quick, we only went there once this month.

Last – if you spend most of the day with your shoulders “crunched” up around your ears, your shoulder muscles tend to get pretty sore by the end of the day. Thankfully, we figured that out quickly, and stopped doing it.

All of these things were really very minor. We know there are many folks home in the US who have been colder than we were this month. We were really in very good shape. We were warm most of the time with very little change to our routines and life. However, we know that was not the case for many other volunteers. We talked to one volunteer who is living in the mountains south of us, and his water pipes had frozen five days before. He had no water, and was not sure how to fix them. Others were living in sleeping bags much of the time. If you want to get a real sense of what life is like for most volunteers here during the winter check out this blog entry.   http://vanceandvickie.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/living-in-long-underwear/

Lynn was seeing many of the people in the mahala getting bags of coal from horse-drawn carts that constantly went around the streets. I was working in a new site with a large wooded area across the street. There were people over there all the time looking for dead pieces of wood they could take out.

In the last two days, the weather has gotten more normal, and the ice is melting. And the heat pump is working correctly again! We hope the real cold is done for the winter, but this time, I don’t think we will say that. February is still winter – even in Bulgaria!

Mike

STAYING WARM!!!!!!!

It’s winter, and it’s cold here. Not Wisconsin cold, but cold .In the city of Plovdiv, we see things that we only thought we would see if we had been in a village.  Smoke is one of those things.  Smoke is everywhere around us.  You can smell it the minute you walk out of our building.  You can see it hanging like a deep white haze every day.   And it is spewing from small chimneys on the roofs of homes like it was coming from the furnaces of communist’s factories.  The smoke is a symbol of the work which is put forth to try to keep warm – even in the cities.  

For decades Mike, and I and in time Shawn and Scott had rituals and routines tied to the seasons for the downing, transporting, splitting, stacking and finally the burning of wood to stay warm through the cold winter months of the Northeast. This year"s work was for next year"s heat, giving the wood time to age. It all started when we moved into our first house in Ashland, Ma.,( a little 800 sq ft ranch) and ended when we went south to Texas 23 years later. In a tiny room at the end of the that first house was a Ben Franklin stove which we burned so hot at times it would glow orange.. It is a wonder we didn’t burn the house down! As we upgraded houses though, the wood stoves improved incrementally as well. It was always a good feeling when we saw the three or four cords of wood stacked in the garage ready to burn.

All those experiences swirl in our heads as we watch the many ways in which Bulgarians go about trying to stay warm through the winter. The possibilities range from a central heating systems, to the burning of a variety of materials in stoves to most recently electric “climatiques” which double as air conditioners in summer.They are usually good for heating one room.

During the summer in Varshets we watched as truckloads of wood would be delivered to the front walk of many a household. The work, so familiar to us of splitting and stacking began. My host family had a central heating system and burned wood chips. They too had a truckload delivered out in front of the house, which was then carted by wheel barrel or bucket to a holding bin, much like a coal bin on the basement level of the New England house I grew up in .

So often, Plovdiv feels much like a large village as the activities here mimic the villages. In the fall neighbors had coal delivered to the front yard and worked for days bagging it and hauling it to the basement. The little balconies of little bloc apartments became storage areas for little piles of wood. The “thunk, thunk, of the ax slicing through rounds of trees could be heard coming from hidden backyards, or front sidewalks as families prepared for winter’s cold.

Nothing made from wood is simply discarded. As apartments are upgraded, from old wood framed single paned windows and doors to new double-paned air-tight ones, the old are stored in the back yard to be used as needed or left beside the trash bins for someone else to quickly rescue and transport home. Often it is either the elderly or the Romi, who travel about on their bicycles outfitted with large plastic milk cartons strapped over the rear wheel or with baby carriages converted to wagons that salvage them.

As I travel through Stalipinovo (the mahala where I work) men, women, and children of all ages are participating in some way in the “heating process”. Young boys are sent to buy a bag of coal from a street vendor, hoist it on their shoulder and start climbing the two to eight flights of stairs, to bring it home. Little, little children are responsible for picking up the smallest pieces of wood for kindling on the site where it was split by someone three times their size. Wood splitting is rarely rounds of trees. Usually it will be a shipping palette, pressed board scraps, or broken furniture from construction or renovation sites. One day I stopped to help an elderly woman struggling with three plastic bags full of wet punk wood she was trying to bring home. As I approached her from the back I could see she was having a hard time managing the ripping bags and the weight of the wood as she stopped every few yards to rearrange her load. Together we managed to get them closer to her home, but I couldn’t help but think of how little heat they would provide for such a great effort. She could not afford the luxury of “seasoned wood”. 

Staying warm may also be the result of reducing the size of your living space considerably. Many families, particularly in the larger village homes stay in one or two rooms for the winter, relying primarily on the cook or wood stove for heat. Day beds are part of the furniture (even in the kitchen) year round, but take on a new life as the kitchen becomes the bedroom when night falls in winter. Adding a plaster exterior to the old brick homes helps as well as those new windows and doors, but that requires an income stream larger than the pensions of the elderly.

We are very fortunate. We have a climatique, air tight windows,and insulated walls. Not a draft can be felt. We know how fortunate we are and we are thankful for this good fortune. Many volunteers like many Bulgarians struggle daily to stay warm. If they are totally dependent on a wood burning stove, it may be hours after arriving home before they begin to feel warm. If they are in an old building which "leaks air" like a punctured air mattress, they are fighting  a loosing battle to be warm. Mother nature has been kind to Bulgaria this winter,even to those fighting the battle to stay warm,. It has been unusually mild. We can only hope it will continue that way for another month or two.

Lynn & Mike

What's In The Bag? A "Mini Adventure"

What's In The Bag???

Lynn and I have almost gotten comfortable trying to do just about anything.  We still get “goofed-up” or terribly miss-understood, but it is happening less and less often.   But it still happens.  The big difference is that now we do more laughing (along with our colleagues) about what has happened.  Following is an example of one of these events.  

Lynn and I enjoy going to the grocery store together.  Lynn often needs some help carrying back food, and we still have fun trying to figure out what some things are on the shelf.  There is also the large “Bazaar” for most of the block before the grocery store with 20-plus booths filled with vegetables, honey, wine, etc.   We both enjoy getting fresh food at these booths. 

Since the weather is colder, we are finding we are spending more time cooking up soups, stews, etc. than we did in the summer.   Lynn is still the “master Chef” in the kitchen, but there is always lots of cutting, pealing, chopping and stirring for me to do.   We enjoy working together to see what we can create in the kitchen. 

For the past couple of weeks, we have been craving some good “old-fashioned” chili.   We can’t get any beef for chili meat, but there are other meats we can substitute. In addition, there are plenty of hot spices and hot peppers here that we can work with to make a good chili.   We decided that we wanted to make the chili with a base of beans.  We wanted red kidney beans.    We had already made a simple white bean soup in December, and we have made lots of other bean soups in the past.   As we walked along the bazaar, you could see the plastic bags with the white beans next to the bags with the larger red beans.  We just had to find out how much the red beans cost, and how much the bag weighed.  The first couple of booths had bags with more than we needed.  We found a vendor with the right size bag, and bought it. 

When we got home, we got a large bowl of hot water and put all the beans into the bowl to soak overnight.  On Sunday morning, we got up and started making all parts of the chili.  Meat was cut and browned, onions, spices, tomatoes, etc. were cooked up.  The beans still seemed a little “crunchy” to us, but we put them in with everything else, and had this very large pot filled with a rather good tasting chili.  We knew the crunchy beans would soften up as they cooked for the next several hours. 

We had our chili Sunday night.  It was good, but the beans were still crunchy.  We also noticed that some of the beans seemed to have split exactly in half.  But, the chili was still good.   We had enough for two other meals.  One for Tuesday after our evening conversational English class, and the other we froze. 

Tuesday’s chili still had those crunchy beans.  This just was not making any sense to Lynn and I.  We started “poking” around more in the chili.  Many beans had split in half.  They no longer had the red color, but were white.  The red color seemed to be a thin film that cooked (or slipped) away.  And… they were still crunchy.  They never got soft.   We looked at each other – and at the chili, and asked “Are they PEANUTS?”   That did not make sense.  We had never heard of peanuts being sold in the bazaar.  They were in bags next to the white beans we had cooked before.  But they were not red beans like we were used to, and they did taste a little like peanuts. 

So… I started asking about peanuts at work.  Sure enough - - Those red bean-looking things in the plastic bags are peanuts.   A couple of my colleagues wanted to try our “peanut chili”, and kept asking if this was a special “American meal”?  It is not! 

But we still have one more meal waiting for us in the freezer, and maybe those peanuts will get soft!  I doubt it!  Actually, the peanut chili is not all that bad. However, I don’t think we will make it that way again. 

So… just when you think you are getting adjusted to life here, you buy peanuts when you thought they were beans!!  Keep laughing. 

Mike.   

Buying Wine In Bulgaria

Sell No Wine Before Its Time - - NOT in Bulgaria!!

Like so many other simple things in Bulgaria, buying wine here is almost like entering into another dimension. YES – you can buy bottles of wine in the larger grocery stores, small neighborhood stores, and smaller kiosks along the streets. But, I’m not sure how many people (other than me for the first few months I was here) purchase it that way.

In Bulgaria, grapes are literally everywhere. If you have a house (in a village, or in a city) you will have grape vines covering your car, back yard, or walkway. In addition, there are large vineyards scattered around the country on the lower slopes of the many mountains in the north or south of the country.

This year was very wet, and produced a “bumper crop” of grapes. Grape prices plummeted, but wine production went up. So… where is all the wine? Almost every house makes their own wine. Most of it is a deep red wine, but there are also some white wines. At Christmas, name days, and holidays, the homemade wine will be served. But, it actually appears before that, and throughout the cool months. And like the grapes, it is everywhere.

The vineyards are south of Plovdiv. If you are driving on the roads in this area, you will find many places where there are cars pulled off the side of the road, with bottles on the hood of the car. Just stop, and buy it. When you go into the larger barzars, you will always find some of the vendors selling homemade wine. I’m not sure where they get the wine, but it must be local.

Buying wine at first can be slightly daunting. But where alcohol is concerned most men will overcome any fears to get it. These wines are not like the legendary Paul Masson wines that “will not be sold before their time”. The grapes are harvested in September and October. I was told to wait (at least) till the end of November to purchase homemade wine. Also, the homemade wine is not packaged in corked bottles. You simply take a plastic 2 liter water (or beer) bottle, and “fill-er-up”. When I first saw these, I thought they were selling coke. The bottles were the same size, and it was a dark red wine. I’m glad I took a second glance to figure it out!

If you don’t want to purchase wine from a car hood, or at the bazaar, you might be able to get it from the 10 gallon plastic casks outside of some of the small neighborhood stores. They sell it by the liter (and I think they supply the empty plastic bottles). You can get white, red, or merlot! “Step right up – and have a taste”!

Since buying wine this way is a step down (well – maybe a couple of steps) from a screw cap bottle or even a box wine, you have to be careful about what you buy. My first couple of liters was purchased from a bazaar booth, and the bottom of the plastic bottle had a “sludge” coating. I can’t really say it was very good - - but it did not cost much!

But, in the past couple of months, I have learned more and gotten a bit more sophisticated (if that is possible). So… here is the short story (with pictures) of my Christmas wine buying trip. My NGO helps and support small farmers in the Plovdiv Region. Some of these folks have vineyards. Because of that, we have an “inside track” on where some of the best homemade wines can be found.

On December 23rd, we traveled southwest to a small town to purchase the wine. We had called before, and gotten the price, and placed an order. There were three of us going. We were purchasing 50 Liters of wine! (We wanted to be sure there would be wine for the holidays!).

So… where would you go to buy the wine? By the side of the road – to a local farm – to a small bazaar - - - NO you go to the local high school. It happens that the father of director of the one high school in town is the best winemaker in the area. We go into the director’s office, and there is a small coke bottle with red wine to test. It is very good! We pull out our cash, and pay.

Then there is a call made, and we leave the school to go to the road where our car is parked. Soon, another car pulls up behind ours, and the transfer is made. (Are you picking up on the similarities of this transaction, and purchasing “contraband” in other countries.)

By the way, as you can see from the pictures, we have moved up in the scale of purchasing wine. None of the “little 2 liter bottles for us”! We purchase it in 5 liter bottles – with a bigger yellow screw cap! We shake hands, wish everyone a Merry Christmas (with all this wine, it should be merry), and head home.

I was not sure how all this would really work. Our fridge can not hold 5 liter bottles. But since it is winter, you just leave the big bottles on the balcony. We purchased a 40 cent funnel, and transferred the wine to smaller bottles in order to pour into a glass. Possibly most surprising, was that the wine was really good. Today is January 9, and I will finish off my 10 liters today. Thankfully, I had some help during the holidays to drink it. But we will have to make plans for “second run” to the village soon.

In the meantime, I will go back to the grocery store and buying wine there. But when I’m drinking the store bought wine, I will be thinking about the next batch of 5 liter bottles.

Have a healthy heart and Stay warm – have a glass of warm red wine!

Mike

Oh – if you would like to read a review of the “Beers of Bulgaria” check out this link. Brian is another Peace Corps volunteer, and he did an “exhaustive” study for his blog. http://windowtobulgaria.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post_29.html

While Shepherd’s Watched Their Flocks…..

While Shepherd’s Watched Their Flocks…..

Merry Christmas from Bulgaria!!

Bulgaria’s contrasts constantly amaze Lynn and I. Shepherds watching their flocks were one of those surprises. When my host family told me they had sheep, but they were grazing in one of the mountain pastures, I pictured a large fenced in field. Then as we were driving around, I started noticing men standing in fields with long sticks in their hands. At first, I did not understand what they were doing. But then I realized that whenever I saw these solitary figures in the pastures or on the slopes, there were always sheep nearby. They were shepherds! They would be with their flocks rain or shine, day and night. The Shepherds could be very old or middle aged. Even in the heat of summer, they always seemed to be colorfully dressed. And… they all carried a staff!

As I hiked around our training site, I would come upon shepherds in fields with spectacular views of the mountains as their constant companion. I became awed by these lonely people. I found the phrase from the Christmas carol sung during midnight mass running through my head… “While Shepherd’s watched their flocks by night”. As I watched them watching their flocks, I realized what they were doing had not changed much in 2,000 years since that first Christmas.

Over our short time here in Bulgaria, these shepherds have become one of my symbol for the old traditional parts of this wonderful (and confusing) country. And with Christmas just days away, we thought it would be appropriate to show you who the angel called to visit the manger that night 2000 years ago.

And like those first shepherds, we don’t have gifts to give. However, we can share some of the things we have learned in our short seven months here. Hopefully, one of our insights will make you smile, cause you to reflect, or nudge you to appreciate what you have even more.

Things we have learned:

It seems to rain more often when you always have to walk in it.

Kids are kids – everywhere

Walking is wonderful – you get great exercise, you are outdoors, you see more things, and most importantly – it slows you down.

Reducing the size of your plate reduces the size of your waist!

Buses – are great for teaching you patience because you have to wait for them.

Americans have no idea how lucky they really are

People are highly adaptable (peace corps volunteers everywhere prove that every day).

Shared values create bonds of friendship no matter where you are.

TV really is worthless – particularly when everything is in another language.

Even in a large group of people, you can be very lonely

Culture is so much more than food and customs - - it’s a very different way of thinking!

The things you miss the most are the things you thought about least

Two hour dinners help build strong families, and good friends

Life is a constant challenge – it’s your approach that makes the difference.

Stepping out of your comfort zone opens a world of possibilities

It is easy to set priorities when you have nothing!

How easy it is to be so happy with so little!

Never -- never give up on your dreams!

It is amazing how much a strong love can grow even stronger!

Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Весела Коледа и  Честита Нова Година

Lynn and Mike – in Bulgaria

Private Things - - Rated “R”

Now that I have gotten your attention with the picture and the “catchy” title of this blog, I will explain something that no one in the Peace Corps fully explained until we got here!

The photo at the beginning of this blog is a picture of the toilet at our training center during the first ten weeks we were here. It is called a “Turkish toilet”. I assume it is called that because during the 500 years of Turkish rule, this is what Bulgarians used! By the way, this is a “co-ed” bathroom.

So.. for a guy taking a “leak”, this is not a problem. But ladies must squat – no matter what! Our training center toilet was actually comparatively clean. However, it was not without some problems. Our training building had two floors. The second floor bathroom was directly over the one we used on the first floor. If you were using the first floor bath, and someone flushed (yes – you can flush them) upstairs, the pipes would leak and droplets would start dripping on you. When the drops started falling, you would always speed up (or try to stop) whatever you were doing. It only took a couple of days for all the ladies in the training group to only use the second floor toilet.

One other thing about the first picture is important. You will notice there is a small wastebasket near “the hole”. There is generally nothing unusual about having a wastebasket in the bathroom. But ALL of the toilets (Turkish or Western) have a small waste canister near them. In Bulgaria toilet paper is NEVER put into the toilet! You wipe yourself—stop the automatic reflex to drop it into the toilet, pull the paper out, and put into the convenient, nearby waste container. I really don’t know why! I have not asked! I just do it - - because that is what everyone does in Bulgaria!

Although all of the public toilets in Bulgaria are Turkish, many homes have western style toilets. Following is a picture of the toilet in our home. It is probably more recognizable.

Some of you may be wondering where the shower (and curtain) is located. Well – the entire bathroom also doubles as the shower. We close the bathroom door and turn on the shower. There is a drain in the center of the floor. Although it is a little inconvenient, ( you have to mop the floor after a shower, and the floor may be wet for several hours after a shower), it is really a very efficient system. But, it is very different from the large, plush, multiple bathrooms found in US homes. In Bulgaria, functionality trumps pampering, pleasure, special features, and large baths.

Following are some photos of the men's bathroom in my office building.

Notice the plumping (or lack of it) in all the sinks.

The urinals are not functional. Except for one pipe that perpetually drips water onto the floor. It is kind of like an eternal flame, but this is a perpetual drip. I’m really not sure when it gets cleaned, but it is at least once per month.

The door is off the hinges, and there is a broken window next to the door (this helps keep the room cool in the winter, and allows “fresh” air to constantly flow in).

Early in November, the fire department inspected our building. Trash and the piles of papers which were in the empty offices were tossed out. My bathroom got a new door - - with a lock! A couple of days later, they locked the door, and put a “CLOSED” sign on the door!

Lynn’s situation is similar. There are 25 teachers, and approximately 500 kids (grades K-4) in the building. The teachers share the Turkish toilets with the kids.

Using Turkish toilets can force some “behavioral” changes. First you have to strengthen your quad muscles in order to use the toilets. Second – there is an art to doing this without soiling your clothes (I have not figured this out yet!). Third – you try to be much more “regular” so you use them as little as possible. Fourth – you have to be very careful about what is in your pockets. Each year several volunteers have their cell phones, wallets, money, or ID’s eaten by the “terrible Turkish toilet”. Fifth – After a short time in Bulgaria, everyone is more comfortable talking about things like this.

All of this quickly blurs into the daily fabric of life in Bulgaria. Soon you are not even noticing the toilet - - - until your cell phone slips into “the hole”!

Mike