It's baby season :)

So, it's baby season. Since October I have been to almost 10 mulitfas. Everyone makes sure to tell me exactly when we are having them because I love them so much! Below are a few pics of my friend's mulitfa from a couple of weekends ago. I've decided that this is kind of like America's baby shower...except this one is waaaay more extravagant. I probably explained all this in an early post, but I'm gonna do it again, so...blah. First, four or five baba's (grandma's) set to cooking at about 5am or earlier. They cook pots and pots of beans, rice w/ pork, cabbage salad, and banitsa. We also eat "halva" which I think you can actually get in the states and I am totally obsessed with. Women start showing up around 11 and so starts the flow of visitors that lasts well into the evening. First, you go into the room where the baby and mother stay. You talk with the mother and give her money, sweets, and sometimes clothes for the baby. This usually depends on how close you are to the family. After that you go into a different part of the house, or maybe even to another house where every room is filled with long tables. There are always other members of the family running around serving you, and making sure you are comfortable and have everything you need. After you eat, you simply leave...and you've had a good day. Below are some pictures of the last mulitfa I attended...we have one more coming up and after that we are done for at least a couple of months as no one here is ready to pop anytime soon...sad, I know. Enjoy!



A few of us sitting around the table enjoying the yummy food and probably talking about how and why I don't eat meat.


That's halva there to the left and the rice concoction in the middle.



One of the baba's servin' up a plate of goodness.

Me with the baby and Jamle behind me about to say, "When are YOU going to have a mulitfa?" Yikes.

Pazar

Quick little entry. Here are a couple of pics of our "pazar." This is sort of like America's version of a flea market. We have a pretty big pazar in Devin, the town closest to me on Wednesdays. Lots of people from the town go on that day, many take off work for it. You can get pretty much anything you want at most pazars. They sale anything from clothing (hot bulgarian fashion) to fruit (1 lev for a kilo of mandarins or apples...Mmmm) to household items (I bought an iron for 15 leva.) Prices are almost always negotiable at pazars. That's one reason I love them :) Our pazar here in Grohotno is a bit different. It is VERY small, and to my dismay there are no fruits or veggies for sale. But, it's a fun place for people to hang out when the weather is nice enough on Saturdays. I hear once spring and summer hit the pazar is a bit bigger...but for now, if I need sheets for my bed, or a hot wool sweater...this is where you can find me :)

Christmas in Bulgaria

SO, I spent my very first Christmas away from home this year. The holiday season was tough being so far away, but I made it through and had a great time. Because my village doesn't celebrate Christmas, I spent it in Sapareva Banya with my host fam and two other wonderful Peace Corps Volunteers (Joe 1 and Joe 2) who lived with my host fam before me. Christmas here wasn't TOO very different. I spent alot of my time cooking, as food is a big part of any event here. On the 24th we ate only vegan, so I was a happy happy girl. The next day, however, was a meet fest...only after we opened our presents from Santa. I spent the New Year here in Grohotno. Again, spent the entire day cooking with some of the women here in the village (Banitsa and Baklava...mmmmmm) and at 12 we went outside and danced in the street for hours to the light of fireworks. Below, I'm posting pics of a holiday program they had at the school, and some pics of Sapareva Banya.
Rajun :)



Making tikvi (pumpkin) banitsa Christmas Eve Morning with Joe2.




Writing my name on my very own stocking!







Christmas Eve Dinner

All of us in front of the tree we decorated

The 8th grade girls here doing traditional dances

Santa visiting the 2nd graders!

Snow in Grohotno

This is how far the cable reaches from my router (in that box) in through my second floor window and to my computer!


The router to the internet is sealed in that box and we nailed these two pieces of wood together so that it was tall enough to reach the signal from the dish.



Our first snow! This is the hill outside my house where all the kids sled.

First snow and a frozen creek outside my house

Ok, so I've already told most of you we got ALOT of snow in Grohotno. The weather is around negative 14 celcius and the snow hits me mid-thigh in most places. I know I'm a southern girl and live for the sun, but oddly enough, I'm kind of enjoying this winter. When it isn't dark and gray it's rather refreshing. Some of you have also been curious as to how I have internet in my village...I've put a few pics above to show you.

Rajun :)

Random Update

Hi All!
My apologies for not updating any sooner. To be fair, I warned you all that I’m really bad at this. Anyway, I finally have internet in my house. It’s not very dependable, but most of the time it comes through for me…so I’m a happy girl! I took a few pics of the place for you all so you can get a better idea of my living arrangements. Work is still well, but with BAIRAM (totally not the way you spell it, I know) coming up, everyone is planning for that. I’ll be going to Sapareva Banya (my old stomping ground) for Christmas to spend with my host family. I’m very excited!
I got a visit from my program manager last week. This is a routine visit that he, or other program staff make as a general check up. Everything went well, until he asked if I have had any guests yet. I explained to him that because of the village that I live in, I am not allowed to have male guests over for a visit. He talked with my counterpart to see if he could make some sort of compromise with her. I love the village that I live in, and want others to be able to experience it. After a long discussion between the three of us, we realized there would be little leniency. This is one village you do NOT want to be seen as morally corrupt in. They understand that I’m American and I do things quite a bit differently. For example, I like to run or walk quickly for fun (what?!), I don’t eat bread when I’m served French fries for dinner (for shame!), and I’m sorry, but I just can’t drink plain yogurt water (you must be sick, drink this.) As you can see I’m getting pretty brave, but this is one line I’m not quite willing to cross yet. I do, however, have the most amazing neighbors in the world! This family has been a God send, and they agreed (shocked that there was ever even any question) that any male visitor I had would be more than welcome to sleep in their spare bedroom. Problem solved. So, that’s it for now, pics are below….and, as always, keep me updated about what’s going on in the States!Rajun :)






My two hungry kitties, Shaker (Turkish for sugar) is on the left and Gubi (Bulgarian for mushrooms) is on the right


My kitchen



This is where the magic happens, ps that's not dirt it's rust haha

This is the shower, I have to plug in the boiler you see to the left for 3 hours for a 20 min. shower

This is the living room/bedroom...and those are my collages that I still can't figure out how to hang on these walls

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