The nectar is done!

So, as posted before, I hunted rosehips in the mountains last weekend. This weekend, I made nectar compot. It was kind of a long process, but definitely worth it. Isabelle, one of my best friends here, guided me through the whole process. We spent about 2 hours cutting the ends off of every tiny rosehip. After that, they soaked for an extra hour. They were then boiled together with apples, sugar, and “dulla.” I’m still not exactly sure what dulla is or if we have it in America, but it’s amazing. After boiling it, we spent about 4 hours mashing the rosehips and straining the juice. The next day we poured them into Queen’s juice bottles and sealed them in a cauldron outside. They should be all ready to drink this spring, so book your plane/train/bus tickets, kids!
PS I actually am working as well, it’s just not as interesting as what I do afterwards, sorry.
Till later,
Rajun





Isabelle













Squeezin' juice from the rosehips

Mustafa explaining something

Pretty self explanatory

Acting like it's actually hard work :)

When it's time to party, it's time to party

So, today I didn’t have to go to my office (the museum) because it is the day after the election. This, of course, doesn’t mean that I didn’t work, in fact, I find myself working more and more in my house, rather than at the museum. I guess this is for a number of reasons. First, the museum is right in the center of town and it’s a prime “na gosti” location. At any random time I’m entertaining anywhere from 2 to 8 people in my office. Second, my boss has a tiny case of ADD, and can’t stand to sit for long periods of time and frequently says, “get up, we’re going for a walk.” Third, I don’t have internet in my office yet, and the majority of my work involves researching funding sources on the web, so I have to go to the school here (because it’s the only place in the village with internet) to search. So, today I woke up to a call from the director of the school who wanted me to come and translate “some documents” for him from Bulgarian to English. I was super excited because it sounded really profound, and I’ll be honest, I was kind of puffed up at the thought that this man trusted me to translate documents! When I got to the school, dictionary in hand, there he stood with a box of pain relieving gel from England. Nuts. I took a deep breath and with the best of my Bulgarian ability, told him that he was to rub this on his sore muscles twice a day. Not as official as I’d hoped, but hey…if I have to help Grohotno one torn ligament at a time…so be it. So, my friend Jemkata had a birthday today. She’s been talking about it all week, she was so excited! She made tons of banitsa and this huge cake for the occasion. One of the 3 local cafes shut down for about 4 hours and about 10 of us ladies hung out and ate, drank, and played horo. I don’t want to brag, but my sugar cookies were a pretty big hit, too. Posted a couple of pics below, so maybe you can get the jist of it all.
Ciao, ciao…
Reggi





this is the guy who owns the cafe we partied at


Misle, the birthday girl, and me



Playing Horo with the gals




Me trying to play "Kurchek" to no avail

Mulitfa and what not

So, I had a busy little weekend here in beautiful Grohotno. I considered this my first “real” weekend, as it was the first time I wasn’t completely dazed and confused. This past week I worked a lot at the museum. Working here is a lot different than in the states, obviously. I get to the museum at about 8:30. I talk with my boss for half an hour or so about what I did the night before, or I get filled in on the latest gossip. After that we head down to the café where we meet 3 or 4 other ladies and we have coffee for an hour or so. THEN, it’s time to get to work. Usually, if we work for an hour straight we have to take a “pucheefka” or break. This means more coffee and maybe visiting the school or someone’s house. It’s really hard to get used to as I was kind of a work horse in the states. I find myself doing research and translating museum stuff after hours at home. I have to get used to leaving thins undone at times I suppose.
ANYWAY! This weekend. Saturday I went to something called a “Mulitfa.” This happens when a new baby is born in town. All of the women (no men allowed) go to the house of the new mother bearing gifts. Some people bring clothes and toys for the baby, money and sweets for the mother, and something to cook (pasta, veggies, beans, whatever) for the Baba’s. After we gave the gifts we sat and visited with the mother and baby for a bit, and then we were whisked away to a room with a long table and many chairs. There were 3 other rooms in the house set up just this way. Then, we were served tons of food that the Baba’s had been preparing all morning. Later, I attended a birthday party of Dulek who turned 1 this week. Everyone came bearing gifts again (I bought her a stuffed elephant, which I’m pretty sure was her favorite gift) and then we all sat around long tables and ate sweets, and random goodies. Just as I thought the party might be coming to an end, as I was stuffed and pretty tired, here comes the main course! What more food? You better believe it, we were there for hours, but it was a lot of fun. I really enjoying sitting and talking with the older women of the town, but it’s tough sometimes, as most of them know only Turkish or limited Bulgarian.
Sunday our clocks were rolled back and I had a knock on my door at 8am. It was Mustafa, my 17yr.old friend/tutor who said to get dressed, “You’re coming with my mother and I to the mountain.” Ok, I quickly got ready and was met outside by Isabelle with gloves and a bucket. We hiked about an hour up the mountain and picked rose hips for hours. It was so much fun and I saw some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen in my life. I took pictures, but they don’t nearly do it justice.
So, that was my weekend. Till next time!



Guelshin helping me cook!



While picking rosehips we saw this lizard, apparently if it crawls across your hand it means good luck!

YEAY!

Babie's presents for Mulitfa

Baba's cookin' up a storm!

Everyone coming to see the Baby!

First bit in Grohotno!

just a view


don't be jealous...it isn't attractive ;)



The Mosque




Love the leaves here in the fall!





View of the main...ok, the only street






My house is the tall one at the end

Ok, so after trying to recruit everyone I know to the wonderful world of facebook I, too, have succumb to the evil that is blogspot. I feel like this is going to be like the many journals I have in my parents basement all empty except for the first pages dated, “January 1st, whatever year” and reading, “Dear Diary, I’m going to write in you EVERYDAY this year.” Anyway, maybe I’ll surprise myself.
So, I’m here in BEAUTIFUL Grohotno, a small village in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria. I arrived last Thursday, and am loving it with all of my heart. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and the colors of the leaves right now are SO vivid. Since being here I’ve been overwhelmed with the hospitality of the locals. I haven’t had the chance to cook one meal in my new kitchen yet, because the families here have sort of taken me in and cook for me constantly. Just the other day I decided that I wanted to make some yummies for everyone as a surprise…a sort of thank you. I snuck into my house and started making apple crumb cake…I must have forgot to shut the window because before I knew it my little kitchen was FULL of people helping me, and awing at the beauty that is the sugar cookie. We ate a myriad of desserts that night for dinner and I was able to get rid of a few of my leftovers at least J
During the day I’m working with the local chitalishte, which is like a sort of cultural center. My office is in the museum, which is a loft above the chitalishte full of historic Turkish/Bulgarian artifacts. The ladies over the center already have a few project ideas for me to be working on, which is great. Besides translating the information cards in the museum, and teaching a couple of English classes, I’ll also be creating brochures and a website for Grohotno. The bigger projects include working in conjunction with the municipality for plans and possible funding sources for an eco path. There is also talk of coordinating a few cultural exchanges with groups in both Turkey and Greece, which I am super stoked about. It’s a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I’m really excited to get to work.
Besides that I’m just kind of wandering around finding people to hang out with. I have a wonderful group of 4 teenage girls who must think I’m at least a little cool, because they come over every night and teach me kurchek (Turkish belly dancing) and drink juice. I didn’t realize how much I depended on my former American site mates during PST and the anticipation of seeing the others in the group every two weeks at HUB. I was honestly blessed with the best site mates in the world, who I now consider family, and some other really amazing volunteers who have become really special to me. So, yeah, now my downtime is spent a little differently, but it’ all good :)
Till next time, or next year,
Rajun :)

ps above are a few random pics