Wow..school starting again means the cities and villages seem to wake up, and I am excited to be overwhelmingly busy again so quickly. The first day of school was September 15th. I don’t remember that our first day of school in the USA is quite like it is here. The students come to the playground, where a presentation is given, with speeches, and introductions (especially to the new first-graders, who sing, and the 12th graders are behind them)..on this first day, there are only shortened forms of the classes(maybe 15 minutes), and then all the teachers meet in the teachers lounge to receive a blessing and greeting from the churchman..by noontime, we’re all at a banquet, happily eating, drinking, and dancing..my feet hurt so much by the end of the day. After the banquet was Horo dancing class..seriously I danced like 5 hours that day.
On Friday, we (me and my great team) from a nearby village finished our HIV/AIDS training..the second part..the sports day, which our team will be doing a local radio interview about tomorrow morning.
There are 5 villages in the local municipality..I had been to 3 of those before this past weekend, and ended seeing both of the other villages, completely unplanned this weekend. There was a very interesting fundraiser by a group of English people..it was nice to hear everyone speaking English around me..it’s been a while. The fundraiser had some interesting ways to raise money..unfortunately I did not bring my camera. For instance, there were 5 shirtless guys (some of them quite hairy)..and they offered to the highest bidder, the opportunity to place 4 wax strips anywhere on the hairiest guy..I have to give it to the emcee, he got people to bid way more than I expected.
After the fundraiser, was a banquet for our Horo (traditional Bulgarian dance) group’s 1 year anniversary! I again, didn’t bring my camera..but, it was a fun evening filled with food, drinks, and always dancing..
The other village I visited this weekend was a surprise from my Bulgarian teacher, Petia. This time, I did remember the camera, and you can check out the new photos at the new pictures link at the bottom of the blog. We visited an artists’ house and workhop..it was amazing..the house, the workshop, their dogs (that look like mini lions)..the whole place just oozed creativity. And the woman that was the owner had won an International contest about 15 years ago in Japan. They have had visitors from all over the world. This is the website for Nadia Alexandrova’s workshop..I really like the second link, showing their house and workshop
http://nadyaartceramics.1gb.bg/english.php
http://nadyaartceramics.1gb.bg/family_and_art_shop_en/
So, every week, I have 2 villages I visit. One on Monday, and another on Thursday..or at least I’m working on getting it down to only that. But being there only one day a week also means a lot of work on that one day. For the first village, today we spent the day writing out our Q&A for a local radio broadcast about our recent HIV/AIDS events (training and a sports day), put together pictures and a synopsis for the newpaper, and finalized all the receipts and paperwork..along with meeting many new great people in the village. Both the secretary of the cultural center and I were drained of energy by the end of the day..she is a hard worker, which I can see by the respect all the people in village give to her, and by all her help in completing this project.
Oh..and if I haven’t responded to e-mails lately, I’m trying to..by this weekend.
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