We had regular language classes until Friday when we headed back to Vratsa for another session with the community and organizational development group. This time the focus was tourism promotion and small business development. It was very interesting and inspiring. There is so much I want to do at my permanent site. It is such a beautiful place. I want people to want to visit, stay in one of the bed in breakfasts in town, take a carpet weaving class, hike or mountain bike to the waterfall or one of the old monasteries, eat homemade cheese, drink homemade wine, buy a carpet or two. Anyways, now I have even more ideas about future projects for the next two years and better understand the resources that are available to me.
After the conference, we celebrated the birthday of one of host mom of one of the volunteers in my my training group. Birthdays are celebrated a bit differently in Bulgaria. It is the responsibility of the person having the birthday to treat everyone else. They usually carry chocolates with them and hand them out to people that wish them ‘Chestit Rozhdenden’ throughout the day. Then the birthday person prepares enough food, wine, and rakia for any well-wishers that stop by. People still give presents to the birthday person, like clothes or flowers. But, if you give flowers in Bulgaria, they should be an number, even numbers of flowers are given only at funerals. I made peanut butter cookies for my gift (thanks for care package with Jif!). The party was a blast. All the neighbors came as well as her family and the training group. We ate outside at a long picnic table and danced different variations of the horo, the traditional Bulgarian dance until late.
Birthday Toasts...Dancing the Horo...Bread: the ever present companion to all meals...
If you toast with a non-alcoholic beverage in Bulgaria, it is believed you will have ugly children.
No comments:
Post a Comment