Alaskan Bulgarian

The Storm, the Cat, and the Essay

Came into Silistra last night in a storm. Rain, wind, and lightning flashing all over the place every few seconds. There wasn't much thunder though, just a quiet growl every now and then. That weather has mostly calmed down into a steady downpour today that almost kept me from hiking over to the internet club. But trouper that I am, you get to read this silliness.

For all those worried about the cat over this last week, she was happy to see me and hasn't stopped purring while I'm around, and she seemed to have done very well over the week. That's why I love cats. You leave them food and water and a clean litterbox and they're good for a week. Big dogs have the obvious playing bonus, since you can run with them and throw things, etc, but I really do love the whole self-reliance thing. It's awfully convenient.

Last Tuesday, while I was still in Pleven, Peace Corps asked a few of us volunteers to write a short essay about our experience to be translated into Bulgarian and put into a booklet that will go out to prospective communities around the country. Although I admit it's a bit cheesy in its shortness, I'm closing today with the essay I wrote, fit to be one of those gooey essays you can read on the Peace Corps homepage:

Coming to Silistra, I didn’t know how I would make myself a great, or even good, Peace Corps Volunteer. Peace Corps had trained me well and taught me how to live and teach in Bulgaria, but I had no idea how to make an impact in a town of 30,000 people. After a few months of helping move the town’s language school to a new building and a brief summer course in English, I found that the best way to be a volunteer was to live my own life.

A typical school day in my Bulgarian life begins with teaching at the language school. Although I’ve had experience teaching in America, the distractions for students in Bulgaria are all new and each day often turns into a lesson for me as I find new ways to handle each new series of interruptions. I finish most days with lessons taught and kids satisfied, but when I have time, I usually need to relax at the end of the day.

I relax best when I play sports. I usually try to introduce new sports to the kids in town, showing them the basics of baseball or how to play basketball well. Of course, I often let them teach me how to play football, although that usually ends with my being beaten.

Working with my students and other members of the community, I’ve gotten to understand Bulgarians and Bulgaria and see what things I can do with my life to make things better here in Silistra and the country. Through summer camps, classes, and community projects I live my life in Bulgaria as well as I can. And the thanks I get from my students and the people I work with is always the best reward I can get.