I am so excited about moving to Polsko Kosovo. I wonder if Caroline, Rita and my friends at the Nora Springs library remember the book we read titled The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo? It’s about a woman who went to Kosovo, Serbia, with her husband who was a lawyer and volunteered his services to help Kosovo recover. While there, she volunteered to teach students how to speak English. She formed a book club with her students. They read the book Old Man and the Sea, thus the name of the club and the title of the book about her experience. In her epilogue, she encouraged anyone who ever thought about doing any type of volunteer work to just do it. I took that as a pretty clear sign while I was weighing my decision to retire and apply to the Peace Corps. With that in mind, here I am, I’ve been assigned to Polsko Kosovo! Is it another sign or just a coincidence? Do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do.
Polsko Kosovo is in the north central agricultural region of Bulgaria. But it’s not like the north central agricultural region of Iowa. This area is very hilly and more like what I would call the foothills of the Balkan Mountains which run through the middle of Bulgaria east to west. I got a pretty good view of the area through the train window on my way to visit.
The train ride was fun! My counterpart accompanied me. She is the history and geography teacher from my school in Polsko Kosovo where I will be teaching. The trains from Vratsa to Mezdra and Mezdra to Gorna Oryahovitsa were rather old but comfortable, but from Gorna Oryahovitsa we rode an old- fashioned one that clacked along the tracks and had the seats in compartments along one side and the aisle along the windows on the other side. When we got close to Polsko Kosovo, we got up and hung our heads out the open window and watched the fields and hills roll by. It was just the funnest! We both grinned from ear to ear…Iva because she was almost home, and me because I was hanging my head out the window…of a train…in Bulgaria.
The return trip alone was fun, too. I sat in one of those compartments with a couple of other people. The first stop after leaving Polsko Kosovo a gentleman got on carrying a huge white sack that seemed to be alive and he was talking to it. He laid it on the floor at his feet and it continued to move, then I heard it cluck. Chickens! When I asked how many he had in there, he thought I wanted to know how much he paid for them which was 5 leva (about $4.50 US). I asked again how many pila were in there. This time he understood what I was trying to ask and said 5. The old man next to him chuckled and said, “Pet za pet!” which meant “five for five.” I took a picture of one of the chickens peeking out a hole in the bag, but it’s kind of creepy.
The rest of the trip home was uneventful except for my toilet experience. I had to go but had been instructed to never leave my baggage unattended, and since there was no way I could get my huge suitcase in the toilet on the train, I just waited until I got back to Vratsa. I headed straight to the toilet and discovered that I had to pay 30 stotinki (cents) to use a hole the ground that stunk like a roadside outhouse. Oh, yeah, the 30 stotinki included toilet paper. At that point, I probably would have paid a lot more to use their nasty facility.
There was a big celebration in Borovan last weekend with lots of activities in the town center which is a huge open area in front of the municipality. A celebrity sang and I think people probably danced, but we left before much got started. Saturday morning I hung my clothes out on the line and, as I was heading back into the house, I noticed Ivan and Nikolinka doing something out back by the sheds. They saw me and motioned for me to join them. They were skinning a large lamb, and after watching for a while, I decided I might as well help if I could (which didn’t involve any more than carrying water for them) and learn something. I do believe I could do that if I had to to survive.
The next morning I woke up to a wonderful smell of something roasting. I think I mentioned that my room is in the house next to Ivan and Nikolinka’s house. They were using the stove in the kitchen of “my” house to roast the lamb. I thought I didn’t like lamb and had no intention of eating any of it, but when they took it out of the oven a couple of hours later, they pulled off a piece and I couldn’t resist. It was very good and I ate a lot of it later. Nikolinka’s sister, two nieces and daughter and their children came for dinner. It was a great meal that lasted about three hours. I thoroughly enjoyed getting acquainted with some of my hosts’ family. One of my language trainers came with her daughter also and ate with us. That was a treat as I really enjoy my language trainers.
My Bulgarian is coming along. I feel confident that, though I probably won’t pass with flying colors, I know enough of the language to get by for now. It is customary to continue language tutoring once a volunteer has moved to the permanent site, and I fully intend to take advantage of the opportunity.
Thursday of this week I will travel to Kyustendil near the Macedonian border to visit a currently serving volunteer. I will visit his school, observe him teaching English and get acquainted with his counterpart. I’m looking forward to the trip as much as I am looking forward to learning about teaching English as a foreign language.
I really need to admit to my husband some more of the food I’ve been eating here, but that will have to wait for another time.
Thanks for reading! ~Joan
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