A Chronicle of my Changing Times.

People I know... (Part 3)

I finally have a moment to finish up this extended posting on people I know from my time in Bulgaria.  It’s interesting for me to look back on all of these people as one group since most of them played distinct roles at widely different moments of my tenure.  Anyways, here’s some more people.

Freddy is an EVS volunteer at the Youth Center from Germany.  He really is a good guy, although sometimes more than a bit irresponsible (a source of frustration for many people around him).  I had a lot of interesting café conversations with him on Germany's history and it's role in the world.  We also had more than one fun night out drinking (and usually dancing).  He is really good with the kids, especially with some of the problem kids I had at the tutoring project I did at the orphanage.  Well, he was good with them as long as his patience lasted… This picture is typical Freddy, looking at the women in the SI Swimsuit Issue with 3D glasses.

Melody has the distinguished honor of being the very first PCV I met – we somehow found each other via a website months prior to our Staging in Chicago.  We talked just about every night for a month prior to beginning our service.  Funny enough we ended up only 45 minutes away from each other in BG.  Loud and brash, she’s a fun person to be around most of the time.  I have too many memories that include her in one way or another to list here.  At times it seemed like she was everywhere because everyone had a story that had her in it.  Along with her is Eric, another PCV and one of her closes friends.  He’s one of those great guys you’re just glad you know (and every woman fawns over).  I know many a woman/girl in my town who, after Eric stopped by one weekend for a party at my apartment, would have gladly traded having me as volunteer in Haskovo for him.  Up until my day of departure I had a couple friends asking how he was doing and if he was coming by again.

Stanko owned KDK, the bar that was my second home for my first 14 months in Haskovo.  Before owning KDK he was a fairly famous DJ in Haskovo and thus enjoyed setting the music up for his club – and the music was one of the things I truly loved about KDK.  He is really good friends with Kalina (who I introduced earlier) and dated Lina (who I’ll introduce in a minute) and thus was around me quite a bit.  Honestly, my Bulgarian stunk when I first met him, but he apparently liked me.  I was told that I was the first American he had ever met that he liked and that I changed his prejudice against Americans.  One of my favorite memories of him is watching him get Kalina’s 13 year old brother drunk one morning at lunch.  He had been out drinking all night (bad day) and Kalina, her brother and I were there to try and sober him up – yet we all ended up drinking with him.

This is a picture of my sitemate at the end of service, Katie, and the Spanish EVS volunteer at the Youth Center, Mirian.  I don’t know what I would have done with the last few months of my service without these two.  This picture was taken on my last trip out to the seaside, and how you see them is pretty much how I’ll remember them – very close, relaxed and smiling.  Mirian especially has the ability to put everyone around her at ease.  Plus she’s a very hard worker with lots of ideas (and not a half bad Spanish tutor).  Katie did her own thing for the first few months she was in Haskovo, but after a while we ended up hanging out all the time – especially with the Tobacco guy John (from Wales) who bought us free drinks and told hilarious stories.  She’s also good people.

This is Phillip and Pancho (who was introduced earlier.  The two of them were inseparable for the longest time, whenever I saw one the other was at his side.  Phillip actually surprised me because he is more than a bit unassuming.  The first 10 or so times I met him I didn’t know he spoke English because he just sat in the background.  One day he completely surprised me and started talking wonderfully, albeit a bit halting.  From then on I sought him out and we had some great conversations, usually over drinks in the evenings.  He has to be one of the most laid back, non pushy people I have ever met – but in a really good way.

This picture is of Lina, myself and Venzi.  I met Lina the first summer I came to Haskovo.  She was the girlfriend of Stanko (introduced earlier) and thus I met her in KDK.  We have a lot in common and we talked a lot when she was in Haskovo.  She’s one of the best English speakers I met during my tenure, she about to head to Belgium to study for her MA in International Politics at BSIS – a school I was considering attending, she lived in my neighborhood and  she’d traveled quite a bit.  We had great times together in KDK dancing, playing pool or singing songs to each other.  We had a running bet that I wouldn’t know the lyrics to 4 songs in a row Stanko would play, sometimes I’d win – sometimes I’d lose.  Venzi is the nicest Bulgarian guy I have ever met.  He’s spent copious amounts of time in South Africa working and thus speaks fluently, albeit with a slightly funny SA accent.  I don’t know that I’ve ever met a more agreeable guy inside of BG or out.

This is Rumy, my counterpart at work, dearest friend, and so much more.  What’s funny is that when we first met she didn’t like me one bit.  In this picture of us, taken at the teacher Christmas Party my first year, I don’t believe she cared for me much either.  Maybe I was a different person then.  Who knows?  But now I can’t imagine my life without her.  Nowadays I talk to her every night (morning for her) on the phone.  She is a wonderful teacher and a very hard worker.  I really could say so much about her, but I’m reluctant to do so.  I’ll finish up by saying that I remember when I first came to Haskovo I was sent out with the “young women teachers” to a fancy restaurant.  Being outgoing yet enormously nervous I talked about whatever came to my mind and asked what I now realize were rather impertinent questions.  It’s no wonder that I made a horrible impression.  She of course hates this picture and will probably yell at me for posting it.  But I think it's the best picture we have together, even if I look more than a bit scruffy in it (I thought this was an informal teacher party - turns out that everyone came dressed in their best clothes and I looked like a bum!)

This is Stan, my first real Bulgarian friend.  He studies at a university in NY and was home for the summer.  Honestly, I had met and befriended Barbara (who you’ll meet in a moment) and he was interested in her, thus we hung out a lot and became like the 3 Musketeers for a while.  Through him I met the foundation of what would become my friends for the next couple years.  Unfortunately, he never made it back to Bulgaria for any length of time during the rest of my service so we never really got to hang out again.  Maybe now that I’m back in the states…  In this picture he’s entertaining with songs and his guitar. 

This, as I mentioned above, is Barbara.  She’s from The Netherlands, and was in Bulgaria – strangely enough – on vacation when I met her.  We both were being registered by our “handlers” at the police station.  When I heard her speaking English I struck up a conversation that led to café that led to a great friendship.  She eventually ended up crashing at my place for a while my first summer leading to what I can only assume was crazy PC rumor mill stories about me.  She’s a truly kind hearted person and out of the blue collected and donated dozens of books (getting the shipping paid) for my English library in my school.  Staying in touch has proven difficult at times, but I hope to hold on to her friendship.

The final person I want to introduce is my Bulgarian Little Sister, Angie – pictured here with the Carol, who I introduced earlier.  She’s a wonderful woman and I enjoyed watching her grow while I was in Haskovo, although I still think she has some things to figure out about herself and what she wants out of life.  She truly surprised me one night when telling me about some personal difficulties.  I asked her what her other friends thought about this issues we were discussing.  She blinked at me and said that I was the only one she with whom she felt comfortable talking about this.  I kinda felt awestruck.  I’m going to work to try and keep in touch with her because she also makes it onto my “good people” list.

Well, that’s the list of people I wanted to share.  There obviously are a lot of others out there who made a difference and who I had good times with, but this was for the most part the core group of people with whom I spent time.  I consider myself very lucky to have met so many wonderful people that made my time in Bulgaria just fly by.  They also made it extremely difficult to leave.  These people are a big reason that I felt, and still feel, like I have a home there. 

Posted by: mjmarble at August 03, 2007 04:40 | link | comments
friends, daily life

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