COLD COLD COLD / PCV love

I clearly did not know what I was talking about when I titled my last post. It’s waaay colder in Bulgaria right now. Like super super cold. After we were slammed with a snow storm last week (two feet in Chiprovtsi in two days, major highways shut down, and emergency zones declared for much of the country), a “Siberian Cold Front” moved in with temperatures not forecasted to get above freezing for as far as the 10 day forecast goes. This morning, around 11 am, the temperature was minus 11 degrees Farenheit, windchill was minus 25. Schools are closed and people are staying indoors. Even the international news has paid attention (48 people have died from exposure related causes across Eastern Europe in the past few days). I’m staying warm-ish, but despite letting my pipes drip, they froze overnight. Not that I would have taken a shower anyways as my shower room is not heated. I sleep/live in my kitchen and it’s the only room I keep heated. The rest of my apartment is pretty cold… the distilled water I keep in my living room froze last night. If it gets too bad, I'll go stay with one of my friends in town with a wood stove, but for now I'm enjoying an excuse to make lots of hot chocolate and eat bowls of semi-heated cookie dough/other baked care package comfort foods.

Dozens freeze to death as 'extreme cold' grips Europe

In other news, I had a good week last week and a fantastic weekend. Spelling Bee, adult English, scouts-all went well and Chiprovtsi really does look breathtaking after a blizzard. On Friday, I went to Sofia to meet a group of volunteers to celebrate one of their birthdays. We sang karaoke (Neysa and I did a Bulgarian song-so funny and so terrible; the other PCVs who sang were all super talented and wonderful, we had a lot of heart…), ate amazing food, attended a music festival, went shopping, watched youtube clips of Toddlers and Tiaras, and bought a day pass to a gym (using an elliptical machine and showering in a warm…don’t have words to describe how great this was). Love my fellow PCVs! 

Neysa and I singing "Taka Me Kefish"

Cold and Snowy

...describe my second January in Bulgaria. Last week was rough: my hot water boiler broke and I had to cancel several planned activities due to heating issues in the school. BUT, now I have a new hot water boiler and rescheduled the activities. Besides continuation of the regular activities, I’ve added a few new things.

With Palma, we’ve begun prepping kids for participation in the National Spelling Bee. Last year was its first year and it was a huge success. Each school is given a bunch of materials (it’s an English spelling bee, Bulgarian is phonetic) and holds its own Bee. The winner goes to a regional Bee and then to a national Bee in Sofia. The whole thing was organized by a Peace Corps volunteer and her host organization last year; she extended an extra year to help institutionalize the program. Almost 200 schools will be participating in this year’s Bee from across the country. We had our first practice a week and a half ago and about 15 kids turned out. On Monday, I’ll show Akeelah and the Bee, a movie about spelling bees, with Bulgarian subtitles and we’ll start going through the practice list. Participants that make it to nationals get to stay in Sofia (with their teachers/PCVs) for two nights and receive a bunch of prizes.

This past Tuesday was the first conversational session for the advanced English adults. We held it after the beginner English group finished, from 7-8:30-ish. Quite a few people turned out for it, though there were more listeners than participators. The Zambian/British retiree who lives in Chiprovtsi also came. I haven’t seen him in over a year, but it was super helpful to have another native speaker for the students to listen to. Next week we’ll meet in a local guesthouse and practice restaurant conversations.

I’ve mostly finished law school applications! Huge weight off my shoulders—I feel like they were hanging over my head forever. I still have a few minor adjustments to make on the final one, but it’s mostly complete. Now I just have to figure out how to pay for it…

My kindle has almost been returned! A fellow PCV picked it up at Sofia Airport and left it for me at PC Headquarters. I haven’t had it since I left it on a chair in the Istanbul airport during the layover from Cairo and didn’t expect to see it again. It doesn’t have my name or any identifying information on it. My mom emailed the airport the next day. But it was New Year’s Eve and then a weekend. A week later my mom receives an email informing her the kindle was found and is waiting at the Sofia airport for pickup! I can’t believe someone turned it in or that the airlines/airport people coordinated to send it on to our destination. So happy! And impressed—dealing with lost and found during holiday travel time, sending it free of charge, and giving a personal contact number to arrange pickup. Bravo to Turkish Airlines! Love them: Turkish Airlines always has food and drinks, even on short flights. And shows a cute video of little kids fastening their seatbelts, putting on oxygen masks, and turning off electronics instead of the stewardess demonstration that no one really pays attention to. 

Kukeri in Razlog

After we returned from Egypt, my parents and I travelled to the southern Bulgarian town of Razlog to see their Kukeri festival on New Year's Day. Kukeri festivals are a Bulgarian tradition held in different towns between January 1st and Lent. Not celebrated in my region, I missed seeing any Kukeri last year, but had some idea of what to expect from other volunteers.

At the Kukeri festival in Razlog, men dressed in goat hair costumes with terrible, phallic shaped head masks, and large bells and in bearskins with a chain around their necks, tethering them to a costumed minder with a big stick. Others, and most of the women and children participants (though a few of both dressed as Kukuri and bears) wore a mix of traditional folk attire and tall cone shaped hats, often with the men in women's clothes and the women in men's and women as men, and large hats.

Each neighborhood in Razlog, a town of 14,000, had their own group of Kukeri, musicians, and dancers that paraded/danced into the town square at a set time. Children in the crowd carried sticks and bags. With the sticks, they tapped the backs of strangers, wishing them good luck in the coming year in exchange for coins. Some kukeri wandered the crowd and “captured” men for money by lifting them off the ground until they paid in coins. Seven neighborhoods participated 11-2pm, each with Kukeri, bears, costumed residents dancing the horo, and musicians.

In Bulgaria, the tradition cites Thracian festivals for fertility and harvest as its roots. It is likely a mix of  ancient Thracian festivals for fertility and harvest, influenced by pre-Lent celebrations of the Middle Ages. Many of the Kukeri practices are shared with European Mummers and other mid-winter merrymaking "revelry, unruly or forbidden behavior, under the cover of masks or disguises." The folk costumes, scary Kukeri masks, and faux fights are meant as a for parody good and evil, similar to Mummer plays in the UK. Like them, performances for money/faux begging (or occasionally real ones) are part of the tradition. 

Kukeri in Razlog, Bulgaria

         

Courir de Mardi Gras in Savoy, Louisiana, USA

The Kukeri festival in Razlog reminded me of the Courir de Mardi Gras celebrations held in Cajun towns in Louisiana. There, men dress in costumes, ride horses to the village farms to collect items for a party, then parade/ride horses with musicians in tow to village center for a day of dancing and all day celebrating. The picture above in Savoy is credited to Herb Row [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons].

For background on Kukeri and European Mummers this website is the best: Mumming  
For specific details on Bulgarian Kukeri, though not all of it applies to all festivals, this website had the most in English translation: Kukeri

Coptic Cairo, Museum of Antiquities, and the Citadel

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

Back in Cairo, we visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, an overwhelming museum with art, giant statues, sarcophagi, mummies, and gold everywhere—the museum houses more than 250,000 artifacts from the past 5,000 years. The animal mummy room, treasures from King Tut’s tomb, and the wooden carvings with stone eyes were some of my favorites. The folding bed Tut used for travelling (it had hinges that looked just like those on modern doors) and the board games found in King Tut’s tomb were unbelievable. It is so interesting to me how 5,000 years ago, people still liked board games and found travelling beds (with metal hinges!), useful. My mom really liked the well-preserved 4000-year-old wooden boats. The amount of treasure, high quality craftsmanship, and giant gold boxes-sarcophagi-coffins of King Tut’s tomb were also pretty incredible. Can’t quite fathom the amazement of  Howard Carter must have felt when discovered the tomb in the 1920s.

In the Royal Mummies Hall, the mummies had skin, hair, and fingernails. It was easy to discern individual facial features and some looked about ready to wake up. 

Coptic Cairo

Egypt is 90% Muslim, Coptic Christians make up about 9%, with other Christian denominations accounting for most of the rest. We visited the Hanging Church, a 9th century Coptic Church build on top of the Water Gate of Roman Babylon. It is named the Hanging Church for its appearance during the annual Nile floods. When the waters of the Nile rose, the church would appear to be floating, supported from below by the old Roman towers. 

Below are pictures of Mahmoud, Mom, and I walking through Coptic Cairo and a mosaic from inside the courtyard at the Hanging Church depicting Mary, Joseph, and Jesus during their 3 and a half years in Egypt while Herod’s purge of baby boys. 

Ben Ezra Synagogue and Abu Sirga Church

Egypt’s Jewish population numbered around 80,000 in the 1920s, but is now estimated to be as low as 200. The Ben Ezra Synagogue near the Abu Sirga Church in Coptic Cairo. It has been housed in the shell of a 4th century Christian church since the 9th century. It is supposedly built on the site where the pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the reeds and where Mary drew water to wash Jesus.

Citadel of Salah Al-Din and Mohammed Ali Mosque

The Citadel was home to Egypt’s rulers for 900 years. Saladin started construction in 1176 AD to fortify the city against the Crusaders. The Mamluks enlarged the complex, adding harems and palaces. Mohammed Ali, an Albanian soldier in the Ottoman army who rose to power after the French departure in 1801, replaced them with the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. The Mosque of Mohammed Ali, also known as the Alabaster Mosque, was constructed in Turkish style with alabaster dominating the interior décor.

Khan El Khalili Bazaar

Khan El Khalili Bazaar, mostly geared towards tourists, it was constructed in the 14th century and lies near one of the most sacred Islamic sites in Egypt, the Mosque of Sayyidna al Hussein.

We ended our Egypt trip with a Felucca ride on the Nile.  

Tombs, Temples, and Shisha in Luxor

One of Queen Hatshepsut's Obelisks at Karnak Temple, Luxor

We spent a whirlwind day touring in Luxor, flying there in the morning and returning after a late dinner of kushari, mint tea, and shisha. Kushari is a mix of noodles, rice, lentils, and fried onions with a spicy tomato sauce and a garlicky, vinegar sauce.

During the New Kingdom, Egypt’s capital was moved to Thebes, modern day Luxor, around 1000 years after King Menes chose Memphis as the Old Kingdom capital. The construction of underground tombs in the Valley of the Kings (Tut’s tomb was found here) and the large temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor occurred during the New Kingdom. 

The Valley of the Kings, Three Tombs, Luxor. This is the valley where Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut in 1922. Though Tut’s is most famous thanks to it being the only tomb yet found undisturbed by tomb raiders, it is by no means the only one there. There are 62 tombs belonging to Pharaohs, plus tombs of queens, nobles, and priests dug into the limestone mountains.

Pictures were not allowed in the tombs. This is of Dad and I walking with our guide. Some entrances to tombs can be seen in the mountains behind us.

Temple of Hatshepsut

The Temple of Hatshepsut was once one of three in a massive complex carved into the stone on Luxor’s west bank. She was the first and most famous of Egypt’s female pharaohs. Hatshepsut lived from 1473 to 1458 BC. To gain power, she married her half brother Tuthmosis II and briefly took control after his death. To maintain her power control, she then married her stepson/nephew. When he died, she seized full control and undertook large-scale building projects. To gain support of the high priests, she constructed the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and gave them full control of its management in exchange for their endorsement of her continued power. She also built obelisks at Karnak Temple.

The Colossi of Memnon are 18 meter tall monuments built by Amenhotep III. They were part of a large temple complex, but the faceless statues are the only intact parts not covered by sand. 

 

Karnak Temple

The Karnak Temple is an overwhelming place covering 2 square kilometers. It was constructed by different pharaohs over the course of 1500 years and was the most important religious site of the New Kingdom. Records show it had 81,000 people working in or for the temple, plus owned 421,000 head of cattle, 65 cities, and 83 ships. 

The Temple of Amun, the main structure of the Karnak complex, is one of the largest religious monuments ever built and could contain both Rome’s Saint Peter’s Basiclica and London’s Saint Paul’s Cathedral with room to spare. The temple houses 10 cathedrals, the 134 towering stone pillars of the Hypostyle Hall, two 30 meter high Obelisks, a sacred lake, a sphinx lined avenue, a boat dock, and giant statues. Most New Kingdom pharaoh’s added to the temple’s archetechture in some way, but it’s primary construction occurred from 1550-1069 BC.

Pictures: Entrance along avenue of ram headed sphinxes. Courtyard. Columns in Hypostyle Hall. Mom and Dad at the Central Court, Karnak Temple. 

Luxor Temple

The Karnak Temple complex is connected to the Luxor Temple by a three kilometer, sphinx lined avenue. Luxor Temple was built by pharaohs Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC and Ramses II (1279-1213 BC) and lies in the center of town. The Barque Shrine was partially rebuilt in by Alexandar the Great and reliefs in it portray him as an Egyptian pharaoh. In the central chamber, the hieroglyphics were frescoed over by Christian Romans who used it as a chapel in the 3rd century AD. After the city declined, the temple was slowly covered by mudbrick houses, debris, and village life. 

In the 14th century the small mosque seen in the wall below was built. Excavation work began in 1885 revealing the temple as seen today, but the mosque remains. The entrance to the temple once had two obelisks, but one is now found in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Pyramids, Camel Rides, and ANCIENT Egypt

Egypt has such a LONG history. Around Cairo, we visited sites at Memphis and Giza from the Old Kingdom. The Old Kingdom began around 3100 BC.

Memphis and Saqqara

Memphis, capital of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, was founded around 3100 BC by King Menes after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Though the capital was later moved to Thebes, Memphis remained an important city for 3000 years. Herodotus described it in the 5th century BC as “a prosperous city and cosmopolitan center.” But it was abandoned in the 7th century during the first Arab invasions and there is little remaining of the ancient city today. The Mit Rahina outdoor museum contains some a smaller sphinx and some statues and a massive statue of Ramses II is housed nearby.

Saqqara, a 7 kilometer area of in the desert near Memphis, served as the city’s cemetery for more than 3500 years. Colonnade entrance to the Step Pyramid consists of 40 original columns each in the shape of a bundle of papyrus or palm stems.

The Step Pyramid of Zoser is the world’s oldest major stone structure, built in the 3rd Dynasty around 2630 BC.  The pyramid was designed by the architect Imhotep. Imhotep was later deified, ancient recognition of his accomplishment of moving design from the previous mastaba tombs to pyramids constructed from cut stone. The Step Pyramid is surrounded by a sprawling 15 hectare funeral complex enclosed by 1645 meter long wall. 

There are numerous pyramids around the region, but the other big ones we saw were the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid of Dashur, 10 kilometers from Saqqara. The Red Pyramid was the first true pyramid, built by Pharoah Sneferu 2613-2589 BC. Below is a view of the Bent and Red Pyramid from Saqqara. 

Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), Chephren, and Mykerinus

The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) was built in 2570 BC from about 2.3 million stone blocks each one weighing around 2.5 tons. It has lost 9 meters of its height since it was constructed 4500 years ago, but still stands 137 meters high. In the picture above it is on the far right. Though it appears smaller because it sits on low ground, it is the highest of the three. Chephren Pyramid stands 136 meters high, Mykerinus, 62 meters high.

There were very few people at the pyramids and the other tourist sites in Egypt. We never had to wait in line and some of the places seemed strangely empty. Even though we didn’t arrive particularly early, we bought three of the 300 daily tickets to climb/crawl inside the biggest pyramid to see Great Gallery. There wasn't much there, but the nearly vertical climb through a passageway 1.3 meters high, 1 meter wide was an experience. 

Mom and I riding camels in from of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Chephren, Mykerinus

The Sphinx

Named the Sphinx by the ancient Greeks for its resemblance to a mythical winged monster with a woman’s head and lion’s body who set riddles and killed anyone unable to answer them. In Arabic, it is known as Abu al-Hol (Father of Terror). Part of its beard was taken in the 19th century and is now on display in the British Museum in London. Arab travelers hammered off part of its nose between the 11th and 15th centuries.

Nile dinner cruise with belly dancer and twirler. Though it was a little cheesy, it was definitely worthwhile especially to see the Sufi zikr dance. The zikr, which literally means “remembrance,” was at least 20 minutes of constant spinning and dancing. 

EGYPT

Cairo from Citadel of Salah Al-Din 

After Christmas, we travelled to Egypt for a vacation. Flying from Sofia to Egypt took nearly an entire day, with a five-hour layover in Istanbul. When we arrived, our tour guide helped us through customs, and chatted with us during the drive through Cairo to our hotel in Giza city. Giza and the pyramids are on the opposite side of Cairo, across the Nile from the airport.  

Cairo traffic is wild. With a population of more than 20 million, everything seems to be in motion. People are cooking, eating, chatting, and working down every street. Car horns are used as a part of the language of driving, announcing a vehicles presence, alerting an unseen danger, or just adding to the cacophony of noise the competing donkey and horse carts, mini buses, trucks, three wheeled tok-toks, and pedestrians create.

Cairo Street

Our guide in Cairo was Mauhmud, from Memphis Tours. An Egyptologist, he was a fantastic guide and interesting to get to know during our trip. He shared his story of the Revolution, during which he brought his son to Tahrir Square and helped guard the Museum of Antiquities from looters. Listening to Mahmoud talk about the Revolution, describe the pride he felt in changing his country, was inspiring. 

We almost didn’t go to Egypt because of the protests during their recent parliamentary elections. I’m so glad our apprehension didn’t prevent the trip. There was no threat to us the entire time and the few protesters that remained camped out in Tahrir Square were peacefully drinking tea whenever we passed by (we didn't seek out the square, it's across from the Egyptian Museum). 

Tahrir Square

Christmas in Chiprovtsi

For my second Christmas in Bulgaria, my parents visited from the U.S. It was really really great to see them! We had an excellent time celebrating holidays and relaxing with my friends in Chiprovtsi. 

Our only snow before this week was an early fluke storm at the beginning of October.  Two snow days made up for this a bit and we had a white Christmas. Dad and I on a walk through town. 

Holiday presentation at the local school.

The first time Mom and Dad visited Bulgaria, we stopped by the monastery and chatted with the priest. He mentioned American apple pie and Mom has wanted to bring him some since. We brought over warm apple pie on Christmas Eve and he shared some of his drenki (they're like sour cherries) infused rakia. 

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Elsa and Stalin. Dinner was delicious. According to tradition,  Christmas Eve dinner is vegetarian, and Elsa had made many of my Bulgarian favorites: sarmi, peppers and beans, and three kinds of pumpkin/squash. There was also a 'kismet loaf' with a small coin for luck hidden inside. When her grandsons arrived, the loaf was broken into 10 pieces, each guest taking one. Mom found the coin in her piece. She should put the coin above the door frame in her house to have luck for the rest of the year.

Halloween

 Friday’s Halloween party at the school was a success! The kids’ decorations looked great and they loved the games. I woke up early to finish mixing gross things for the mystery box and to make sugar cookies. At 10, Jordanka and I began putting up decorations. By 12:30 kids were already hanging around the gym where the party would not begin until 2. Before the party, the scouts gathered in our room to be treated for their hard work (green sugar cookies, popcorn, and borax slime making). A few mummies also needed to be wrapped in toilet paper.

The party began with Jordanka and Palma explaining Halloween and its associated traditions. Then each student paraded their costume in front of the other students and our judges (the director and administrators). Then they milled around carnival style to look at the pumpkin exhibition, bob for apples, play the candy corn guessing game, and reach into the mystery box (spaghetti, olives, gelatin, red food dye, a plastic glove frozen full of water). After the winners of the costume contest were announced, we began the piñatas. FYI: Fishing line is not sufficient for piñatas. There was so much candy… no leftovers. Especially popular with the kids and the adults were the bags of candy corn and candy corn pumpkins my mom sent. They decided they looked more like teeth (they certainly don’t resemble corn). More than a few kids were walking around with orange, yellow, and white vampire-ish fangs.

Once the floor was picked over for candy, the kids colored until it was time to hike to the kindergarten. We brought just enough candy to treat the little kids and the ladies working there. Proceeding through town in costume must have been quite a site for local residents. I’m glad everything went well. I felt bad for not celebrating Halloween with the school last year. This year, Halloween was definitely celebrated.

Halloween Prep Time

Halloween is coming to Chiprovtsi!!! The scouts have been working hard with the preparations and decorations for the party this Friday. We'll have a Mystery Box, bobbing for apples, art corner, Monster Mash dance, relay games, costume contest, pinatas, and guessing games. When the party finishes, we'll parade in our costumes through town to visit the kindergarten.

Best slime recipe
Ingredients: Elmer's Glue, Borax, Water, Food dye

Combine 1/2 cup Elmer's Glue & 1/2 cup warm water. Add food dye if desired.
Combine 2 Tablespoons Borax & 1 cup of water in separate container until Borax dissolves.
Add borax-water to the glue mixture slowly, by the spoonful, while stirring. It will start immediately changing consistency and you probably won't need all the borax water. With less, it's exactly like the Gak stuff I remember from the 90s. With more, it is Silly Putty. With serious bounce.

Name Day: Angel, Mihael, Raicho...

I'm a day behind, the name day for people named after the Archangels, aka Michaelmas, was yesterday. In Chiprovtsi, I was given cherpi'd with candy, led a scouts meeting, and taught adult English. A typical Tuesday. According to this website, which sends me reminders on namedays and explains their background, Archangel day is a special name day. 

This is pretty much directly from the website's explanation:

At the table, the oldest man breaks the bread in four places and pours wine on it from a clay bowl. The woman of the house catches this wine in her hands and sprinkles it around the house while praying: “Saint Archangel, Saint Nicholas and all saints, help us. We pay homage to you and cut the bread like a cross so that wheat grows up to the waist! This year what we could, and next year what we want! Now with a bowl, next year with the kettle!” 

Then she gives everybody a piece of the bread. The piece is taken with both hands and a blessing is said: “As much wheat in the piece of bread so much heaps of wheat and health in the house! Amen!”

It is important to celebrate Michaelmas and honor the Archangels, because Archangel Michael, it is believed can make a persons death quick and easy or long and suffering. If a person is smiling when they die, it is because Michael is handing them a golden apple before he takes their soul. If they're suffering, it is because he is late. 

I'm not exactly sure how this fits, but Rangel is one of six brothers who divided the world among themselves. Rangel received the land of the dead. 

Vitosha

Already in Sofia for training, today I went hiking on Vitosha with some other volunteers. We had hoped to take the ski lifts halfway up and then hike to the peak at Cherni Vrux (7,513 feet). Unfortunately, the lifts were not working so we hiked straight up instead. We made it to the Aleko Hut (6,040 feet). Weather was perfect and the views were beautiful, but I am sooo tired now. It was a long day.

Yikes. Zurich.

I just saw this commercial on CNN International and couldn't quite believe it was for real.


Zürich_Tourismus_Expat from Reto Caffi on Vimeo.


I found the link to its video at thepresentperfect.wordpress.com She had a very similar reaction to my own.

Halloween - VT

I spent the weekend in Veliko Tarnovo to celebrate Halloween with other volunteers. It was so great to see everyone and relax together for a few days. I even got to see a movie (my first since last November!!), go bowling, and play air hockey. All in all, a fantastic weekend. Plus, my spiderman costume was awesome. 

Elections

Chiprovtsi elected a new mayor this past Sunday. One of 9 original candidates, he won the runoff election by 17 votes. I was impressed by community involvement. Held on consecutive Sundays, local voter turnout for the elections was 67% and 69%, respectively. What was the voter turnout in your last elections? Louisiana's voter turnout in 2010 was below 40%. 

Dimitrovden

Bulgarians celebrated Dimtrovden on October 26th. Dimitrovden, besides being a big nameday holiday for anyone named Dimitar or Dimitrina (the third most common Bulgarian name) is also celebrated as the holiday that marks the start of winter. St. Dimitar, legend has it, rides a red horse and brings frost alongside, snow falling from his white beard. St. Dimitar is also the patron saint of builders and carpenters. Houses and construction projects should be finished by this date and the fieldwork brought to an end. A traditional gift for a Dimitar or Dimitrina are white flowers bound by a red thread—the white flowers symbolize a mellow winter, the red thread the health of the recipient in the coming year. If there is a full moon on Dimitrovden, it is believed, the winter will be mild, spring will come early, and the bees will fill the beehives. Graves are cleaned and fresh bread is brought to the graveyard.

St. Dimitar was born to a Christian family in Saloniki in the late 200s. His family’s beliefs, however, were not public and upon inheriting wealth from his parents, he was made a town chief by Emperor Diocletian. As town chief, Dimitar was supposed to persecute Christians. He did not do this and was caught preaching to townspeople. He was thrown in to prison, tortured, and, on 26 October 306, killed. His remains were transferred to a small church and are believed to be responsible for curing ill people and saving Saloniki from conquest.

St. George and St. Dimitar are popularly portrayed in folklore as twins or brothers. Georgovden (St. George’s Day) in May marks the start of summer, Dimitrovden the start of winter.  Below is a popular legend about them I found on  http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Lifestyle/Folklore/Pages/2610Dimitrovden.aspx

There was once a poor man who used to go finishing every day. Once he caught a small fish. It spoke to him with a human voice and begged him to let it go. The man was merciful and went back home that day with nothing to eat. Some time later, he caught the same fish but it was now bigger. He let it go again. The same thing happened a third time. The man decided to release the fish again but the it spoke to him: “Poor man, don’t let me go this time. Take me back to your house and cook a meal for you and your wife. Then, bury the bones under the mangers of your mare”. 

The poor man was feeling sad for the fish but obeyed its words. Soon, his wife gave birth to two boys, and the mare to two foals. One boy was named Dimitar, and the other George. The boys grew and became strong and handsome lads. One day, they saddled their horses and set off to travel around the world. They reached a crossroads. Georgi took the left road and Dimitar - the right. Some time passed and Dimitar received a sign that his brother was in danger. He headed to look for him but all he could find was his horse – Georgi had been eaten by dragons. Dimitar managed to make the dragons return the soul of his brother. The twins mounted their horses and became saints. Thus they soared to heaven and started helping ordinary people on earth. 

School Work

Along with cold weather and first snow last weekend, I came down with my first cold of the season. But, thanks to nightly election gatherings and concerts I had three whole nights without scheduled activities this week to recover during. I winterized my apartment and made some much needed progress on law school applications.

Work at the Municipality was understandably slow this week. Elections are on Sunday. There are nine candidates for mayor. That is a lot for such a small community and it seems like everyone is somehow personally involved. I’m interested to see what changes occur after the election results. I helped make a powerpoint of nature reserves and eco-paths in the area for some visitors from Macedonia. But, on a much more exciting note, I SUBSTITUTE TAUGHT for a teacher’s 5th, 7th, and 8th grade classes! I loved it. The 7th grade English class was the toughest: it’s the biggest class at school (18 kids) and a lot come from other villages so I don’t know them real well. Even so, it wasn’t bad. We reviewed homework and I introduced the present perfect tense.

I can’t believe how much I enjoyed substitute teaching. I’ve taught adults and I’ve taught kids in non-classroom settings, but this was my first time as a ‘real teacher,’ even if it was just as a substitute. Before I became a Peace Corps volunteer, I never really spent time with kids-I didn’t babysit or family members nearby with children younger than me. I never thought I would enjoy being around kids, but they’re great and I look forward to my activities at the school. It helps that the teachers and school director are fantastic, but beyond that, I love the general happiness and enthusiasm of the kids. It never fails to put me in a better mood when I walk to the school and hear a student call my name from the windows or run across the yard to meet me.

 I’m sure if I taught every day, it’d be a lot more difficult, but the kids behaved quite well.  Teaching them isn’t too different from teaching the adults, except the kids are  a lot easier to discipline. With older adults, it’s sort of awkward when they behave poorly and they are way worse about speaking out of turn or interrupting a struggling classmate.

With the scout groups, we worked more on Halloween. The older group discussed fundraiser ideas, made a poster for counting bottles, and talked about ideas for the Halloween party. They saw the half finished piñatas the younger group made and wanted to do the same, so that’s what we’ll work on next Tuesday.  I never would have guessed I’d be doing this much paper mache… While making decorations, the younger group went wild over the sequins and plastic googly eyes I received in a care package.

Once a week, I help lead an elective geography/ecology class for 5^th and 6^th graders (CIP class). This week, I tried teaching compass use. I’d observed another volunteer teaching it during a summer camp. He made it look so easy! My efforts sort of worked. I should have probably gone over it with the teacher ahead of time, because when I finished explaining and showing everyone how to use them and started asking them different directions to practice with; she re-explained and showed a different way.  They mostly ended up confused and lost interest. I’ll try again with the older scout group at a later time and see if it will work better, then maybe attempt again with the CIP.

After collecting the compasses, I passed out sidewalk chalk and a list of items that can be found in nature (something scary, something young, something without purpose, etc.).  The students selected three items to draw and then presented how they chose the images and discussed similarities/differences among the drawings. I think being outside and enjoying the mild weather made this activity a lot more popular than orienteering.