Yesterday an elderly lady came to me and stephanie and told us that we should be speaking in Bulgaria..ummm. Unsure how to reply to such a ridiculous comment we just told her that we didnt understand what she was saying. Can you even imagine going up to two people in the states from a different country and telling them to speak english to each other. The town is only 2000 people and they all know that we have only been here 2 months. But i digress.

Bulgarians love to know everything about you when they first meet you. The first questions out of everyone’s mouth are “are you married” “how old are you” “where are you from” “tell me about your family”. That’s quite a bit of information to give out upon the first five minutes of knowing someone. But it’s really normal. For me, it’s taking time to get used to. They ask how old we are in front of students while we are teaching and no one thinks it’s strange. There are so many times that i have to remind myself that it’s not rude here to ask really personal questions.

This weekend is stephanies birthday. We are going to travel to a monistary near Plovdiv. I’m really excited to see it. We should have a great time! I’m trying to travel as much as I can in PST (pre service training) b/c it doesnt count against my vacation time. Although, one nice thing about Bulgaria PC is that when we travel in country on weekends after we swear in, it doesnt count against us. Only m-f and when we are out of the country.

I dont think that i could ever tell you how beautiful Bulgaria is. I hope that my pictures can show some of it but i doubt it. There are three mountain ranges, caves, and a beachline. I haven’t even been to the beach yet b/c i’ve been so busy going other places. There are huge lakes and long and wide rives. There is never a shortage of something to do if you like hiking. It’s incredible.

He asked if i was there and my family said no. He freaked out a little and then they said hold on i’ll check. They saw me lying in bed and told Adnan that i was sleeping. Then my host mother was soooo worried. She asked if i was ok, kissed my head to check my temp but really i was fine. I just didnt know how to tell her that i was having a bad day and needed a break.

Although there was much worrying and confusion i belive i make a good choice by skipping. We didnt really do anything in class yesterday and I feel so much better today and i’m much happier. And i finally feel normal. It’s not like me to attend everyclass at school. I didnt do in highschool or college and it just wouldnt be me to do it in bulgaria! :-)

Bulgaria has a huge Roma population. They are a people that immigrated to eastern europe from India a long time ago. The language that they speak is closely related to Sandskrit. Girls in Roma communities usually marry around 12-16 and have many children. Bulgarians usually only have 1-2 children. The Bulgarian population is actually decreasing every year b/c they have so few children and after some time, Roma will have a larger population than Bulgarians.

This community of people are extremely marganilized. It’s straight from the US in 1950. They have segrated schools, people won’t wait on them at restaurants and they are very poor. The teacher that we have been working with wont call on Roma students and told us that when we have our own classes not to give them high grades but not too low. Just pass them through the system, or they will be in your class again. They dont have textbooks and many of them have learning disablities. Also, the Bulgarian language is their second language so all the classes are even harder for them than the other children. It’s really sad to see.

I went to grocery store and a small roma boy came in w/o shoes and was very dirty. He had money in his hand and was trying to buy something. The lady shooed him out! It was awful and hard to watch. I didnt do anything at the time b/c i was so shocked. I have never seen something like that before. The little guy HAD money. He was loittering around or making noise.

Another Roma boy was in one of my classes and i’m certain that he needs glasses. He cant copy words off the board, but he really wants to. If i write them in his notebook he copies them right away, but his letters are terrible. He cannot copy very well and i think it is due to the fact that he cant see very well. After he copies what i have written, he begs me to write more for him.

It is common to hear the Roma referred to as gypsies, theives, lazy, and stupid. But from what i can gather they are hardworking and trying to do the best they can on the limited resources that they have. Many fields are worked by Roma men, women, and children. Entire families work all day long for only a small amount of money. My friend Eric was talking to some Bulgarians and some of the field workers were walking by and the Bulgaria stopped a worker. He took some of the strawberries from the field worker and gave them to Eric. It was really shocking!

During my stay here in Bansko with Katherine we talked about Roma students in her class. She said that her students usually follow her lead. There was one child who was constantly picked on by students and she told the students that the student was her friend. After that the student thought “hey, if that kid is friends with Miss Clark, then maybe i should be too”. That was one of her main ways to combat it in schools. Other volunteers do a lot of outdoor activies involving the two groups so that the children can stop the hate from a young age.

At my permanent site there is a 100% Roma school. It’s not the one i’m working at but i hope that i can get the students from my school familiar with the other school’s students. I think it is so important for the racism to stop!

I have to teach a class on friday. I am a bit stressed about that one. But my counterpart told me what books they use and i brought them with me. i’ll have to ask what lesson they are on tomorrow so i can plan my lesson for friday. It should go ok.

Today was crazy. I traveled to Chirpan, Bulgaria (two hours away) and then met the director for lunch, met the students, had a teacher meeting, and then coffee with all the teachers afterwards. This may sound easy, but please remember that my bulgarain language skills are not too good. What’s worse is neither are there english skills. So they kept asking me why i was so quite, which was frustrating at times. But i understand their point of view. It just seems that in Bulgaria people dont try and see mine. They are always expecting things from me but fail to remember that i’m totally out of my element in this country.