A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

Fond February...

Another month has gone by and I’ve managed to post, well… nothing.  It’s been an interesting month full of good, bad and everything in between.  I’ve seen a couple of sayings here in Peace Corps that I’ve mentioned previously proved true.  First is that time flies by and will only go faster the longer you’re in country.  It’s almost like the old adage that the older one becomes the faster time goes.  The second is the truism that my former sitemate Jen left me – everything felt here is magnified.

 

The beginning of the month saw the end of the semester and I had to give grades for the first time in my life.  I never realized how much of a negotiation grades were.  I had students openly debating with me the difference between what amounts to a B and C.  In most cases I broke down and gave them the benefit of the doubt.  So much for being a hardass about grades. (Pictured: Good times this month dancing on the bar at KDK)

 

Right after the semester end I attended a PC workshop called Project Design and Management (PDM for short) on creating and organizing side work here.  The workshop was useful overall, but I felt it came up a bit short of what they could have taught us.  Instead of showing us how to fund and write grants for things we’re working on, the simply showed us the steps for organizing them.  I honestly feel that they should have taught us the things from this workshop a few months ago and then followed it up with a grant writing workshop this month.  Especially since most of our schools want us to try and bring in some money of some sort.

 

As for projects I’ve had what’s called a goro dolo (in BG – up and down) month.  Progress was made by meeting with the Youth Center on the trip to England I’d like to take and creating a library there.  I also continued to help organize the Play Writing Project.  Baseball was talked up only to run into a brick wall that is funding.  There’s a grant from Major League Baseball for promotion of baseball around the world for PC, but the deadlines seem to always be shifting.  Another problem is that I don’t know if I have time at this point to put into this project.  But this leaves me in a jam of sorts since there’s genuine interest in baseball here and I have multiple people asking me about it lately.

 

On the positive side my English Club is going fairly well at this point.  I have a core group of people coming who get along well with each other and seem eager to practice their language skills.  Also on a positive note, the Youth Center is in need of someone to help out with leading kids at international conferences.  There’s a strong possibility that I will begin to do this during school breaks. (Pictured: Penko, friend and barman for one night - I think it's a great shot)

 

One example of the frustrations that this past month has brought with projects is with the library I want to create in the Self Access Center at school.  I have access to some books and students willing to clean and reorganize the area.  But finding time for the students to work is the problem.  It has to be in the afternoon, but Friday’s are the only day I have available.  And every Friday this past month has been busy – end of semester grades, PDM, school being canceled, and finally something called Fashing which I’ll explain later.  This upcoming Friday is a national holiday and the schools will be closed.

 

Teaching is going well for the most part.  In some ways I feel rejuvenated and have begun to be more proactive in what I’m teaching especially to my British Literature class.  Instead of just covering the text I’ve taken to showcasing the entire story, not just the selected text which allows me to teach about themes and the background.  For me, at least, this is much more interesting.  My 8^th class kids have been working on European Union country projects.  If they ever get over being sick (over half of each of my 8^th classes are currently out sick) they’ll actually turn in their reports and present their countries. (Pictured: Pinjo looking contemplative)

 

As I mentioned, this past Friday was something called Fashing at the school.  The only way to describe it is by combining a traditional school dance with Carnival/Mardi Gras and then add a bit of a talent show.  What made this particularly interesting for me is I was approached by a few students and asked to dance “with a group of other teachers”.  I was a bit leery, but agreed as long as other teachers participated.  I showed up Thursday afternoon prior to Fashing and discovered that there were only going to be myself and one other teacher dancing.  What’s more, we were to dance the “Macarena” and the other 50-something teacher didn’t know it.  Realizing it was too late to back out I did my best to teach her how to do it. 

 

But then the real fun started.  As I mentioned, this was part Carnival and it had a “retro” theme.  Not having a costume to wear, I stupidly asked the students to help me come up with one.  Next thing I know I’m going in drag to the Fashing, am having a student do my makeup and am trying to make sure my blonde wig is on straight.  I was more than a bit reluctant to go into the party, but realized I had two options: be embarrassed or have fun with it.  Of course I chose the latter and ended up having my picture taken more times in one evening then I probably had in the previous 2 yrs.  I won an award and even made the headline “American Transvestite – Hit of Fashing” in one of the local newspapers.  As one teacher told me on Monday, I’m already a legend. (Pictured: Photographic proof of the legend with two of my 11th class gentlemen)

 

Choir is going well.  It looks like we’ll be going to Rome for a competition in November.  I feel really accepted by them and I look forward to practice and singing more and more each week.  This evening practice was basically canceled since too many people were absent so a number of the guys ended up at a pool hall for an hour or so just having a good time.  I’ve also started the dance lessons again.  Thus far I’ve learned part or all of the Waltz, Cha-Cha, Salsa and Tango.  I never knew I loved to dance so much.  The only difficulty is that lessons overlap with Choir.  The compromise is that I miss 30 minutes of each.  My choir director isn’t happy with my leaving early – but it’s a price I’m willing to pay.

 

Socially this has been a bit of a rough month as well.  I don’t know if it’s the doldrums of winter but I feel generally unsatisfied with the way things are now.  I fully understand that most PCV’s would love to switch places with me.  I have a very active social life with numerous friends.  I go out many times a week to cafes, bars, discos, etc.  I’ve also gone to PDM workshop with other PCV’s and spent time hanging out in Plovdiv with some of my closest friends in PC.  But I feel frustrated with seeing the same people and doing the same thing all the time here in Haskovo.  I think at some point I stopped making new friends here and I miss that.  On top of that, I’ve grown to feel that I put in all the effort with my PCV friends.  This is something I noticed I did with friends in the past in the states.  Whilst it can be enormously rewarding I would just like experience people reaching out to me once in a while.

 

This problem rolls over into women.  There’s one woman in particular that frustrates me to no end because we have wonderful times when together, yet she never calls or seeks me out to do things.  I guess women befuddle me in general, which is funny considering the vast majority of my friends are women. 

 

I’ve also taken to taking pictures again.  My friend Kalina had me do a photo shoot of her, my first ever of a person.  Everyone who’s seen the pictures have commented on how well they came out and that I have a good eye.  I wasn’t that impress with what I took, but given some of the limited resources I have here (no real tripod for example) they did come out rather well.  I was also asked to take pictures the night the owner of my local pub, KDK, tended bar.  Good times were had I can assure you. (Pictured: Kalina)

 

One final note – tomorrow is the first of March.  There’s a Bulgarian tradition of wearing things called “Martineetzas” for health and good fortune.  The idea is that you wear this red and white bracelet until you see a stork for the first time.  At that point you take it off and tie it to the closest tree branch.  Not sure where it comes from but there have been scores of stands up in the center selling them.  Apparently everyone in Bulgaria wears them.  I still have to buy one – but will certainly do so tomorrow.

 

Well, I think that’s certainly enough for one post.

Posted by: mjmarble at February 28, 2006 23:43 | link | comments (1)