Wednesday was the Day of Babas and here in my village we had a celebration in our chitalishte. I went while the kindergarteners were napping and found the place warm from the stove and the folk music loudly playing. Some people were up and dancing the horo while everyone else sat at tables filled with food they brought and homemade wine. I sat at a table with five babas who would yell at me to eat more salami. "Yash!" they'd say as I meekly grabbed another piece of meat, "Mmmm, fkoosno." Then a diado came and sat next to me, resting his battered accordion on his lap. He started to play, the notes filling the room with music, and the five babas began to sing. They sung old folk songs of love, youth and loss. They all sounded similar to me, all with a somber melody. The diado tried a more upbeat song but he didn't know it all and only one baba knew the words. I just listened, amazed that people with so many missing teeth could sing so well.
Barack Obama has been big news around here, of course. I went into town to watch the Inauguration with four other volunteers. We all enjoyed the historic, and long-awaited for, moment. In Bulgaria when you are celebrating something you say chestite, or 'congratulations'. It works for all occasions. Chestite Birthday! Chestite New Year! Chestite New Haircut! Chestite New Axe! When you are celebrating something or you recently purchased something nice for yourself, it is tradition to share your new fortune by passing out sweets to your friends. So we all had bought chocolate candies and passed them out at work, celebrating the inauguration.
I was at my colleague's house watching the news with her husband and they were talking about the Obama Inauguration. He has very limited English but he's always excited about practicing it on me. We joke him endlessly because one time when he wanted to say that he likes banitsa, he ended up saying, "I like to be banitsa." At one point in the broadcast he looks at me and hesitatingly says, "Obama is lemon?" and he raises his hands. "Ummmm, what?" I respond. "Obama is lemon?" he says again. He raises his left hand and shakes it, "Lemon?" "Ohhhhh, yeah, Obama writes with his left hand. LEFT. It's LEFT."
So I bought an axe yesterday and walked all over Razgrad with it resting on my shoulder. I felt like a much, much smaller and weaker version of Paul Bunyan. I run into a Bulgarian friend on the streets and he grabs my axe to inspect it. "How much did this cost?," he asks. "There should be some metal here. This wood will wear down. I know where you can buy a better axe." I take it to my colleague's apartment and her husband inspects it. "It's strong," he says. "But you should put some metal at the top of this handle. How much did this cost?" As I'm walking to the bus I pass by an elderly couple sitting on a bench. The old man looks at me and says, "An axe?" Yes, I reply. "How much did it cost?" I take it out for him to look at. "Yeah, there should definitely be some metal here. I know where you can get a better axe." Then he says some things I can't understand and I laugh when he laughs. On the bus I run into a friend from my village and she says, "An axe? How much did that cost?" Oh the joys of a new axe.
By the way, it cost 20 Bulgarian leva.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Bulgaria at the Holidays
So, I've been busy celebrating the many holidays (St. Nikolai Day, Christmas, New Year's, Yordanov Day, Ivanov Day, and everything else you can think of…did I mention Christmas?) Although I'm not a fan of resolutions, I've decided to do some this year.
I pledge to... ('promise' was too strong of a word)
…update this blog regularly since apparently people who care about me read it to make sure I'm still alive
…dance more often
That's all I've got so far.
Before I start my official post I've got some things to write about. First off, my camera is broken but I can post pictures taken from my cell phone. That means I have to limit what I can capture since I must meet two conditions: there must be natural light and both subject and my hand must be very steady (and you try keeping kindergarteners still for more than 2 seconds). Also, yesterday Russia (or Ukraine, depending on who you're talking to) cut off Europe's supply of natural gas. Because Bulgaria doesn't have much reserves it means that people are living without central heating and it means we can't bake any more bread (no bread!!). Today the kids only had 15 minutes of each class every hour and tomorrow they may not go back. Luckily for us in the village everything is heated with gas stoves.
---official post begins now, everything above this line is completely worthless information---
CHRISTMAS
Snow!
The Christmas tree in Razgrad with an unused mosque in the background.
We had a Christmas party for the kids in the village. The kindergarteners and I had been preparing songs, dances and poems. Everyone gathered in the chitalishte, cultural center, and the teachers (incl. me) were given beautiful flowers. My favorite part was when Diado Koleda (Santa Claus) came for a visit. Santa was different from what I remembered though. He was very skinny, had a raspy smoker's voice, talked loudly and often, and reminded me of Christo from the village…hmmm, makes you wonder. He passed out gifts and each kid had a prepared poem to say. Then the five older girls had a special Christmas dance prepared which was done to a rap song and had them shedding the top layers of their clothing. It was a crowd pleaser.
Medinki, Christmas cookies made with honey.
Then I went to Razgrad, the "city", to spend Christmas Eve and day with my colleague and her family. We had a traditional Bulgarian meal on Christmas Eve which has 7, 9, 11 or 13 dishes on the table (or else it's unlucky). The meal is vegetarian and consists of bean soup, dried fruit from the garden, bread, homemade pickled vegetables and homemade wine. They leave the food on the table over night to keep the spirits pleased.
I thought it was strange there wasn't that magical Christmas feeling as we went to bed. I woke up before the kids and walked out to find…an empty tree. New Year's Eve and Name Days are bigger here than Christmas. Besides a visit to the Orthodox church to light a candle, the day passed like any other. Then at night we sat down to a meal with the neighbors. We had steak, shish kebabs, potatoes, pitka (traditional sweet bread) and afterwards we had my homemade pumpkin pie.
A typical Bulgarian Christmas tree.
Lighting candles in the church.
NEW YEARS
New Year's Eve Bulgarians have big celebrations with their families. They eat a lot of traditional food, they drink lots of homemade rakia and they light a lot of explosives. There is a tradition of baking pitka and placing a coin in the dough. It's believed that the person who finds the coin will be wealthy in the new year. Once the clock struck midnight the winter sky was filled with huge fireworks exploding from all corners of the city. People were holding the fireworks, lighting them and then throwing them into the air from their apartment balconies. They certainly start the new year fearless. And boy must fireworks be cheap because there were a lot.
After that we walked to the center where the Christmas tree was. Music was playing and people were dancing and drinking. Soon the mayor came out and said some well wishes. Then I saw one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen. They were lit so close to us that the explosions seemed to fill the entire sky above us. We craned our necks to watch the lights and literally be showered with fireworks debris…it was magical. After the show, a band came out and played Bulgarian folk songs and we all grabbed hands and started dancing the horo around the square. We left once we felt frostbite set it.
Yes, that close.
Horo in the square.
There is a tradition on New Year's Day in Bulgaria where the children make a special decorated stick, a soorvachka, and they pat the backs of the adults, saying a blessing for the New Year. Two boys came to my colleague's house and they blessed us on the back, which is believed to make our wishes come true and make the new year productive and fertile. In return, those blessed give the boys a gift of apples, nuts and a coin.
P.S. I know the pictures aren't showing up, something is wrong with the program (or maybe it's my 90s era internet connection). Slowly I will try and re-post them but until this program starts working I won't be posting any new pictures.
I pledge to... ('promise' was too strong of a word)
…update this blog regularly since apparently people who care about me read it to make sure I'm still alive
…dance more often
That's all I've got so far.
Before I start my official post I've got some things to write about. First off, my camera is broken but I can post pictures taken from my cell phone. That means I have to limit what I can capture since I must meet two conditions: there must be natural light and both subject and my hand must be very steady (and you try keeping kindergarteners still for more than 2 seconds). Also, yesterday Russia (or Ukraine, depending on who you're talking to) cut off Europe's supply of natural gas. Because Bulgaria doesn't have much reserves it means that people are living without central heating and it means we can't bake any more bread (no bread!!). Today the kids only had 15 minutes of each class every hour and tomorrow they may not go back. Luckily for us in the village everything is heated with gas stoves.
---official post begins now, everything above this line is completely worthless information---
CHRISTMAS
We had a Christmas party for the kids in the village. The kindergarteners and I had been preparing songs, dances and poems. Everyone gathered in the chitalishte, cultural center, and the teachers (incl. me) were given beautiful flowers. My favorite part was when Diado Koleda (Santa Claus) came for a visit. Santa was different from what I remembered though. He was very skinny, had a raspy smoker's voice, talked loudly and often, and reminded me of Christo from the village…hmmm, makes you wonder. He passed out gifts and each kid had a prepared poem to say. Then the five older girls had a special Christmas dance prepared which was done to a rap song and had them shedding the top layers of their clothing. It was a crowd pleaser.
Then I went to Razgrad, the "city", to spend Christmas Eve and day with my colleague and her family. We had a traditional Bulgarian meal on Christmas Eve which has 7, 9, 11 or 13 dishes on the table (or else it's unlucky). The meal is vegetarian and consists of bean soup, dried fruit from the garden, bread, homemade pickled vegetables and homemade wine. They leave the food on the table over night to keep the spirits pleased.
I thought it was strange there wasn't that magical Christmas feeling as we went to bed. I woke up before the kids and walked out to find…an empty tree. New Year's Eve and Name Days are bigger here than Christmas. Besides a visit to the Orthodox church to light a candle, the day passed like any other. Then at night we sat down to a meal with the neighbors. We had steak, shish kebabs, potatoes, pitka (traditional sweet bread) and afterwards we had my homemade pumpkin pie.
NEW YEARS
New Year's Eve Bulgarians have big celebrations with their families. They eat a lot of traditional food, they drink lots of homemade rakia and they light a lot of explosives. There is a tradition of baking pitka and placing a coin in the dough. It's believed that the person who finds the coin will be wealthy in the new year. Once the clock struck midnight the winter sky was filled with huge fireworks exploding from all corners of the city. People were holding the fireworks, lighting them and then throwing them into the air from their apartment balconies. They certainly start the new year fearless. And boy must fireworks be cheap because there were a lot.
After that we walked to the center where the Christmas tree was. Music was playing and people were dancing and drinking. Soon the mayor came out and said some well wishes. Then I saw one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen. They were lit so close to us that the explosions seemed to fill the entire sky above us. We craned our necks to watch the lights and literally be showered with fireworks debris…it was magical. After the show, a band came out and played Bulgarian folk songs and we all grabbed hands and started dancing the horo around the square. We left once we felt frostbite set it.
There is a tradition on New Year's Day in Bulgaria where the children make a special decorated stick, a soorvachka, and they pat the backs of the adults, saying a blessing for the New Year. Two boys came to my colleague's house and they blessed us on the back, which is believed to make our wishes come true and make the new year productive and fertile. In return, those blessed give the boys a gift of apples, nuts and a coin.
P.S. I know the pictures aren't showing up, something is wrong with the program (or maybe it's my 90s era internet connection). Slowly I will try and re-post them but until this program starts working I won't be posting any new pictures.
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