So, dear readers, I've been a bit busy as of late. Last weekend I went on an overnight hike to the Seven Rila Lakes in the Rila mountains. I went with a Peace Corps group, which was fun even though I never thought that a hike with 50 people could be fun. The lakes are high in the Rila Mountains, and lovely enough to be a spiritual experience. Even after so much walking, I felt refreshed and happy at the end. I have a ton of photos, and will post them when my technological situation permits.
On Monday my training group met with one of the vice-mayors of the municipality for dinner and talk of our community project. She is extremely supportive of our project (installing educational signs on a local eco-trail with help from local youth), and even managed to score free supplies for us.
In Tuesday we met with teachers and students to talk about the project and environmental ethics. Our educational focus with them is how to protect nature while enjoying its beauty.
On Wednesday we traveled to our hub-site to have (...drum roll please...) more meetings! Actually most of the meetings are important (Peace Corps staff, if you are reading, the exceptions should be made clear on my evaluation forms), and some are actually interesting and informative. Even so, at this point in my training, I am beginning to tire of them. I suppose that is the nature of this beast we call training; it is supposed to be hard, and I'd likely gripe about it being too easy if it wasn't.
As much as I feel ready to be finished with training, I must admit that it is working. I am now able to have a conversation in Bulgarian, even if it is a bit elementary and my conversation partner helps correct my pronunciation! Another landmark: I am starting to understand silly advertising slogans on billboards. I know they are pretty much the least advanced form of the written language in any culture, but it is much more than I understood even a short time ago (baby steps here folks!).
On Thursday (after more meetings in the morning), I traveled with my friend Will to visit a currently serving volunteer named Shane in Stara Zagora. It was nice to meet other volunteers (its a bigger city and so we met another PCV who is done and about to be on his way back to America-COS-ing in PC-speak) and hear their perspectives. It made me even more pumped to get to know people in my permanent site and start my work!
On Friday we visited a bird rehabilitation center and environmental NGO where Shane works, and asked him about environmental work in Bulgaria. The organization that he works for, called Green Balkans, does some great work. The bird rehabilitation facility is remarkable. Many important, rare or endangered species live there. They have even had successes with captive breeding and releases, which is not easy to do. Apparently though, my future organization (the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds) and Green Balkans have a somewhat tense relationship. I'm not sure of the history of the spat, nor would I dare to speculate in a such a public forum. So far I respect both organizations and their work. There are some examples of the two organizations cooperating; let's hope they increase in the future. In my book, there is no such thing as doing too much conservation work.
Now, after several hours on three different buses, I am back in my training site. After that week, venturing to coffee with a friend or doing a little homework will be the extent of my day tomorrow!
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3 comments:
A word of advice, if I may...
Those endless series of meetings can be really tiring, but try not to waste them. Keep the contacts of the people you talked to and remember (ot write down) what are they interested in in terms of joint work.
That is because there will be a time during your service, when you will be practically on your own: your counterpart will give you tasks to do and will involve you in your host organization's work, but that will not require a lot of your time. You will need to think of other initiatives to start, your own projects to develop - and that's where all the people you've met 3 or 4 months ago can help you.
Just call - they will remember you, since you're probably the only American most of them have seen for years, and a lot of them will be eager to work with you.
Good luck :)
I can't help but notice that other PC Bulgaria people have managed to post pictures to their blogs....
Yes, other PCV's also have functioning flash drives! Fear not! The pictures shall come when I have internet access to MY computer.
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