A Week in Pazardjik

So life has been going in Bulgaria. This week I have spent four days in Pazardjik (where we go for hub)-- two days for hub with all the trainees and two days for special language training with a few others. Everyone else went on site visits to see other volunteers, but my group and 4 others wanted to do more language. We are getting ahead of everyone now, so that's good.

For several days it was raining all over the Balkans and they had to evacuate a lot of cities (none that I am ever in). It seems like it has more or less cleared and it's really hot.

On Monday evening I went to see a play with the other trainees in Krichim in the Chitaliste (where we have our lessons). Of course it was in Bulgarian and we only understood the odd word, but it was nice to see some local theater. At one point a piece of set fell down, but they were smooth. Some of the castmemebers are kids I have in school, so they were glad to see me there.

So all in all, it's been a good week. Yesdterday a current volunteer in Pazardjik took three of us on a tour of the Mahala (the Roma ghetto). She works there in youth development. The Pazardik mahala is the third-largest in the country (about 20,000 people live there and it is about a square mile big). It was extremely desitute, but no more so than the mahala in Krichim. It was just much bigger and much, much more crowded. We didn't get mobbed as much as we would have had we not had the volunteer with us. She is actually Indian, and the Roma are originally from India, so she physically fits in there and they have completely integrated her.

Seeing the mahala made me look forward to beginning my work in Straldja, where I'll have the opportunity to teach in a totally Roma school part-time inside the mahala. I hope I can integrate myself as effectively as Anessa has (the volunteer in Pazardjik).