Well, I've been meaning to update for a while, but things kept cropping up. Friday night I went down to Sofia on the midnight bus. I was going to play some American flag football and hang out in the evening. It was going to be good times. And it was, for a little bit.
I got in to Sofia at 8 in the morning. The bus ride had been good. I didn't get a perfect night's sleep (I don't think I ever have on a bus), but I got some sleep. I went to Peace Corps headquarters, muddled around the internet for a bit, looking for news on the debate, then just before ten, I took a taxi over to the National Sports Academy for some football.
Surprisingly, there were even more people there, ready to play, than there had been in spring. At least six teams of more than seven players were there with each player putting up eight leva for the orphanage fund. Flag football here has a short but already infamous history. First, the B-14s have won the tournament both times, mostly because they have a speedy little former high school quarterback who runs much better than he throws, and he throws really well. It's still nice to watch the B-14s beat, say, the Marines' team, but the streak has got to end sometime.
The second major thing about the tournament is that bad things happen. People inevitably get hurt, for one thing. I think 3 people were medivac'd to America for reasons related to last spring's tourney (they all came back, fortunately). This year hasn't seen a medivac yet, but a kidney got bruised, a head was smacked severely, and my wallet and cell phone were stolen.
You see, the weather was perfect for fall, crisp clear and warm. Everybody was playing in shorts, but wearing pants everywhere else. What you got then, was a side of the field covered in pants stuffed into backpacks. Some pants were tossed loosely near backpacks. Mine were completely in my backpack. However, when I came back from the first game I played (We--a mix of volunteers--beat a Bulgarian rugby team by a touchdown. They couldn't throw, but they could run and they were huge. They were scary more than good. Still, we won!), I noticed right away that my wallet wasn't in the pocket as it should be. That, as one would expect, freaked me out a little.
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I didn't want to make much of a fuss. These missing wallets usually tend to turn up at somebody's feet and the person who freaked out about it usually gets chuckled at. So I quietly searched every pocket of my backpack and clothing until I was sure it was there. Then I noticed that my cell phone, too, was missing. That gets a person's attention.
So I went loud and started telling people, and when it got to one of the admin guys at the game, a full announcement was made telling people to watch out for their stuff. Anyway, the wallet and phone are gone.
After the day had ended, I went to a nearby police station to file a report. Not because I enjoy going to Bulgarian police stations and filing reports about things I know are gone, but because I need a police report to get a new Bulgarian ID card. Amazingly, and this was the American Football Day Miracle, the police station was filled to the brim with really nice people. My friend and I sat down, and one of the officers asked us very politely if we wanted to fill out the forms ourselves or have another officer help us out by listening to our Bulgarian and doing it on a typewriter. We opted, of course, for the latter.
That introduced us to Krassimir, who was easily the nicest public servant or customer service person I have met in Bulgaria. He didn't know English, but he made jokes, helped us out when we made the odd mistake, and didn't get angry when we didn't know exactly what we were supposed to say or do next. It was pretty incredible, and if you ever lose anything in Sofia, I recommend that you do it Studentski Grad, so you can go to the station there. Highly recommended.
So instead of having a night of fun, I took the fifty leva advance I had gotten from one of the admin guys at the game and went home to Silistra by 1 AM bus. Yay!
The next morning, one more night of less than perfect sleep later, I got home and was relaxing when my home phone rang. Apparently there were two Alaskans in town and they'd be at a church service in town.
So, having never been to a church service in Bulgaria, and wanting to meet some Alaskans, I took a quick shower, dressed up a bit, and hurried downtown to the Protestant church. Interesting thing, a church service here. It was part Christian rock concert and part revival, with the younger Alaskan, a great guy named Jonathon, presiding over the revival duties. There was some great translation as just about every outstanding English speaker in town goes to that church, which is an interesting coincidence I have yet to explore. People were healed, and Jonathon, some of the basketball regulars, and I arranged a game for four o'clock.
Had lunch, coffee with a friend in the center, then some basketball. Turned out to be a great day that I would have missed if my wallet and phone hadn't been stolen. Strange how these thing work out.
For now, I have to focus on getting the wallet rebuilt and, more exaclty, run off to Bulgarian lessons, which I'm late for. The exciting details of my rebuilding the old wallet will follow, I'm sure.
Posted by Rob at October 11, 2004 04:19 PM