Last and final

Vessi and Viki after completing our Where Peace Lives Project


Some colleagues and kids I worked with



My handprint on a project we did during training

My wonderful host family

Mark and I in Plovdiv

Well, during the course of 2 years, 13 postings isnt too bad right?! Ok ok, I know that I have done a horrible job at keeping up to date with my blog, although I knew I wouldnt do too well, I guess some is better then nothing. Well as the title indicates, this will be my last and final blog. I am actually spending my last full day in my site, in my apartment and it is beginning to sink in!

The last couple months here in Bulgaria have flown by very fast. Mark and I went back to the United States in April, which was great to be home and see family and friends again...not to mention eat the food! It was also great once we got back to Bulgaria as it split the rest of our time up with only 6 months left. In July we were able to use the last of our vacation days to go to Israel. That was an incredible trip. We spent about 6 days in Jerusalem in the old town. There is so much to see there and it was just a completley different type of trip that we had ever taken before. I didnt care too much for the heat, especially in the arid climate, but the trip was great. We went to the Dead Sea as well and spent a day going over to Jordan to see Petra, which is one of the Wonders of the World. When we got back from our Israel trip time really picked up. With meetings we had to go to for Peace Corps, or spending a few last weekends with our Peace Corps friends on the beach (I know we led a rough life here)!!

Mark and I feel incredibly blessed to have met the people we did while here in Peace Corps. Our friends decided to throw both Mark and I bachelor and bachelorette parties (seperatly of course!) here in Bulgaria! It was pretty great as they are the people who have been a part of our relationship from the beginning! With all of these fun things that we had going on the last couple months, time has flown by and I find myself at the last day in my site.

As Im packing up my apartment, moving stuff next door to the new volunteer who will replace me, and trying to decide what to pack, I have been thinking a lot about my time here. Although I have had many ups and downs not only with my work, but also my apartment, I will miss it in some ways as this is the longest I have lived in one place besides my parents house! Mark and I have a great trip after our service that we will be taking going to Scotland, England, Italy, Poland and France so we are looking forward to that. I would like to say that I could sit down right now and write about how much the Peace Corps meant to me and how it will effect my life in the future, but honestly, I am still working through all of this. I wouldnt have changed this experience for anything, not just because I met Mark, but because I learned so much and I grew up. So in a couple months if you are still curious about my time here, ask me then what this time meant to me, cause I know I will be able to process it more then!!

I want to thank everyone who stuck with reading this blog...I know I was pretty disappointing! Also thank you for your support through my service. This experience pushed me in ways I didnt know that I could handle, and I wouldnt have been able to making it through this time if I didnt have the support of all of you. So thank you! I would like to say that I will continue this at home to keep everyone updated on my life when I return, but I dont want to make any promises!! So thats it for now! And I will see you all again in the States!!

p.s. The blog about Mark and I adopting here in Bulgaria was written by my bored sister and brother in law!! For those who are still confused about it, we are not adopting, and for that matter, Bob is not really a popular name for kids here in Bulgaria! Also, that is a picture of the boy from Deliverance, not a real person!! I enjoyed the joke though, hope you all did too!!

NEWS

Well, with much deliberation Mark and I have some news. We are ADOPTING!!!!! There is a local boy in my village who has touched our hearts in ways that we never thought possible and since we are going to be coming home soon we decided that we'd bring him with us. While we finish up our time in Bulgaria he will split his time between Seattle and Coeur d' Alene. We hope that you all will give him as much love and support that I know you are capable of. His name is Bob.

Another week down....

My niece Madison


Madison Noel McGee

Only a few more to go before I travel back to the states for a couple weeks! If I didn't have that trip to look forward to, I may go nuts! I feel like I'm sort of in Survivor the TV show, because all I think about and talk about sometimes is the food that I will eat when I'm back home. A few weeks ago in fact, Mark and I were at his place and spent the weekend watching the show Top Chef. On top of that, all we talked about was the food we will have when we are home! We made a deal that this was our time to indulge and we wouldn't worry about calories! Even though I'm going to have to worry about it later and fitting into a wedding dress, but its all worth it!!

Things here are going pretty well I have gotten into a sort of routine that if I knew there wasn't an end to, I would worry, but for now it works where I'm at. It helps to have the wedding to plan, trips to look forward to, and that I only have about 8 months left. My work continues to be the same. I go to the local kindergarten twice a week and teach English, the rest of the time I am at the center working with the kids I've been working with the past year. We have started a project I found from the states called Where Peace Lives. It works with the kids on topics like conflict resolution, problem solving and bullying. At the end we will do a mural and send it to another country, and they will send us theirs.

As with most things I've tried to do here, they don't always go as expected. If I sit and think about it sometimes I get frustrated, but I have learned to accept that I've done what I can, and that I can only do so much. If something doesn't work, I can't put it on me. Maybe in another situation or time I would feel like I've done more, but at least I know I've tried.

Not much else to report. I'm so anxious to get home. I will be glad to finally do some hands on stuff for the wedding, although we have packed our 2 weeks full of meeting people, going all over Seattle and Coeur d' Alene, eating all sorts of food and stuff for the wedding, I'm so excited. Most of all to meet Madison. Although I get to see her on Skype often, its not the same as meeting her and seeing her in person!

Well, not much else to say. I will write again when I get back. Hoping the weather will be better, and Mark and I will hopefully have one last trip to plan while still here in the Peace Corps. Thank you all who still check this regularly! Specially you Aunt Monie! I appriciate the support!!

The countdown officially begins!!!

Well, in an effort to try and write a little more often, here is another entry. As of right now, I am about 8 1/2 months away from being done!.....YAY!!! Although I started counting down once the year mark passed, there is something more exciting about counting down during the same year that I will finish here!!!

The holidays passed, and it was kinda bittersweet. I spent Christmas with my host family again. Christmas Eve is the main celebration day, and with lots of great food. Christmas day was just nice to be able to relax in a warm home with family around. For New Years, we went to Plovdiv again, like last yer. The group was smaller and its become a nice support that we have gotten here. Just like last year, we brought the New Years in eating great Arabic food and dancing the traditional Bulgarian horo up on stage. If you stare at the feet you can tell who the Americans are because our feet are going all over the place, and the people next to us are tripping and giving us looks to stop messing them up! It was a nice break for the holidays. Mark and I spent a few days in a smaller town called Bansko that is known for their skiing. It was nice to be somewhere new and different. So with the holidays past and winter still here I'm just trying to stay distracted and busy.

My organization wil be starting a project in February called Where Peace Lives. We will be working with the kids on acticities aimed at conflict resolution and working to enlarge the kids views on the world around them. At the end, they paint a giant mural that will be exchanged with another country. I'm excited about starting this because its something new and completley differnt then what weve been doing. Other than that, I am still working with kids and English, and just trying to stay busy.

Mark and I will be coming home in April for 2 week now. I will be in CD'A for about a week and the rest in Seattle. I am so excited to go home! I will meet my niece for the first time and to see my sister after more than a year! I am very excited! A lot of what we will do is stuff for the wedding. We have set the date for February 6, 2010, and with getting home around December, we dont have much time to do things. Its nice to have this to focus on though as the months can drag on here. After w get back to Bulgaria in April, we will only hae about 6 months left. Heading into summer will make that a lot easier too. So, thats about it for right now!

Im sorry things arent as entertaining as things were last year, with birds and things breaking, but its been pretty nice with less stress. Anyways, I hope everyone is well, and I will update again when something changes!!

Its about time...

Wow. So as most of you know, I am not good at keeping up with things. Looking back and seeing that I have only written once since in my permanent site, and it hasn't been since January! So to all of you who like to follow whats been going on I am sorry for that! Instead of writing n extravagant amount of information I will recap with 5 updates.

#1: I am now an aunt! Most of you already know this though. When I found out I was doing dishes at Marks and started crying. It wasnt the response Rebecca was looking for, and it confused Mark on if he should be happy for me, or if he should respond some other way! It was a hard time for me because as being my only sister and her first baby I was supposed to be there. I had told her before I left that she had to wait til I came back, but obviously they couldnt!

Madison Noel McGee was born July 30th. Wow, that was a hard day. I woke up for work and saw my mom was still on skype, she tells me Rebeccas water broke and tey were going to Boise! I tried to go to work, walking through town crying, which I am sure everyone was looking at the crazy American thinking what in the...?!? 2 minutes later, I couldnt make it to work, so I turned around and went back home, got comfortable and cried all day! I am so happy to be an aunt, but it is very bittersweet as I see her change only through pictures and skype.

#2: Went to Istanbul twice. Mark and I went for our first trip in March. We spent 4 days there and it was amazing. It is about 15 million people and the biggest place Ive ever traveled. We took a night bus, and arrived early on a thursday morning, so tired that Mark fell asleep drinking a coffee at Starbucks! I cant describe what a trip like that was like. You know you are in another country. Hearing the call to prayer throughout the day, eating incredible food, and seeing things that I had only dreamt of, it was incredible! The downside...I had started breaking out in hives and rashes that continued getting worse as the trip went on! It was a mess, and very miserable, but despite that I fell in love and took my parents back this summer.

The trip with my parents was much different though. Little did we know that it was Rhamadan and half the tourist sites were closed, the rest were incredibly busy and packed. It was a different trip but we had a good time, despite me almost getting us lost. As much as I enjoy Istanbul and want to go back, I wat to see the rest of the world too. Istanbul will alway be that first great pleace to me though, and the first place I had Starbucks in almost a year!

#3: Meeting Marks parents. This summer was a great time. The weather was great, a lot more free time and I was a lot busier and less lonely. First Mark's best friend and his wife from the states came to visit! It was a great break from bulgarian life and also a big sep in Mark and my relationship, to meet such important people to him. After that was Marks birthday and a Metallica concert! It was a little weird being someplace where the people knew the words better then you, but had no idea what they were saying! It was a lot of fun though!

In August Marks parents came to Bulgaria for a week. They rented a van and a coworker from Marks work drove us around. Little did we know how much stress that would end up being. We traveled o Marks host family, and to most of the bigger cities, it was a great way meeting his parents. The driver ended up not being like what we thought he woudl be. There were days he wouldnt talk to us, if he didnt get his way and times when he would just ignore Mark and I on where we were going. It was very stressful with him. To top it off, Mark got food poisoning half way through the week! It was overall a great trip meeting his family and seeing more of Bulgaria. I think we can all agree though that we are excitd to travel to places in the future where Mark and I dont translate and we can all relax!

#4: About a month after Marks parents came, my parents came to visit. I had planned quite a bit in advance for where we were staying and when we would travel, as we were traveling with public transportation. We traveled around Bulgaria in bus, train, and cars, it was an adventure! They were here for about 18 days and Mark was able to spend about half that with us off and on. We went to my host families and stayed, which I think was one of the highlights of my parents trip. We went to a few smaller towns that I had never been to before, and some I had just been to with Marks parents. It was a great trip filled with goodies (my mom brought me a suitcase full of stuff!) and just relaxing, being able to show my parents what my life has been for the past year.

I think for us when we go back to the states, its going to help in adjusting that our parents at least saw a little glimpse of what our life was here. It was great seeing our parents, but it was almost harder saying goodbye this time ause we were the ones staying behind and we still had a year left ahead of us! We have decided to come home for 2 weeks in April though, so that will help this last year go by even faster.

#5: I'm engaged! As you all, or most of you know, Mark and I met in Philly for the start of Peace Corps. We sat next to each other on the plane ride over,and we were in the same training site for the first 3 months. This past year has not been easy in having a relationship as we live about 7 hours apart and can see each other only every couple of weeks. This summer with us meeting each others parents, I knew he would ask my parents for their permission, but I had no idea he would ask me to marry him while we were still in Peace Corps. While on the trip with my parents, in a town on the Black sea called Sozopol, he asked me. I had no idea except that he was acting really weird! It had ben raining, which he was stressing about. As a guy from Seattle I thought that was kinda odd. He bought the ring in the Cezch Republic. It was to big so I sent it home for right now to be safe. We are now planning the wedding for February 6th 2010!

So, my life has changed quite a bit since Ive last written. As Thanksgiving and the holidays approach, Im glad that these will be my last holidays here. Work continues to be mostly like last yer, a ot of English and just spending time with the kids. I now work at the kindergarten twice a week teaching English, and Im hoping in January that we will start a program on aggression. Aside from that I'm still just trying to adjust and live here. There have been no otehr problems with my apartment, like last year, aside from having my refridgerator taken at the beginning of the summer for 2 months. Other then that, I am looking forward to getting home, meeting my niece, getting married and starting a new phase of my life!

Again, I am sorry for no writting in so long, and that it was a little bit longer then I intended, even with just 5 updates! I promise to try to write more often in the future! Again though, thank you everyone for the support this last year! If it wasnt for you I wouldnt have been able to get through it all! As of now there are about 10 months left to go! Hope to talk to you all soon!

6 months

Well, it is official, on February 2nd I will have been away from home for 6 months, and on the 5th, will have been in Bulgaria for 6 months. As I look back on the time, it seems like so much longer and I cant believe all the good and the bad that I have experienced. I want to apologize to those who try to read my blog to keep up to date on what I am doing, I know it has been a long time. For those of you who know me well, know that I may start something with the best of intentions but end up getting lazy or bored and not following through. But I am hoping to change that, and keep up with the blog again.

Well, when I last wrote, I was still living in Radomir, and although life at the time was very stressful and we were all looking forward to the next step, looking back, life was so much easier then. The last few weeks of living with a host family continued to be busy with language training, assignments, projects and various meetings with Peace Corps. On October 18th, we had what is called a swearing in ceremony. The swearing in ceremony is when we took an oath (the same one the President takes) and became official volunteers. It was much more emotional and difficult than I thought because the day before you said goodbye to your host families. You knew that by the end of that day you would be saying goodbye to your friends, site mates, teachers and any other support you had during the first 3 month, and that by the end of the day, you would be at what was to be your new home.

Saying goodbye to my friends and support was so much more difficult than I thought it would be. I arrived in Dolna Banya that night, was shown my apartment for the first time and was left with no food, and a pretty empty apartment. Reality hit, and I have never felt so alone or lost in my whole life! One of the difficulties of coming to site at that time was before a weekend, and you would be on your own without work or seeing anyone really. Somehow, I dont know how, I was able to get through that first weekend and as time went on...the adventure began!

Everyday I went to work, which initially I woud just sit with kids and a coworker and watch them do homework, various other things. The first week I was there, my boiler didnt work in my bathroom, so I didnt have hot water for more than a week. During this time, my light also stopped working in my bathroom and for about the first month I had light in there for maybe 4 days total.

The next adventure was one day I started having difficulty getting my key to unlock my door. Somehow with the language barrier, I was able to contact my coworker who had an extra key and she came and was able to let me in my apartment. After she left, I wanted to test from the inside to see if it worked...well it didnt and I managed to lock myself in, and break the key in my lock! So again, with the language barrier, got her to come back, with 3 "diyados" (grandpas), this time to try and break down the door. So for about an hour, I was trapped in my apartment, listening to 3 old men arguing with each other on the best way to get me out! After this was done successfully and they were repairing my door, I told them about the scratching I had been hearing behind my toilet. One man went to investigate and discovered a dead bird that he proceeded to throw at me! I swear I caught bird flu! Needless to say, it was a slightly traumatic experience, but one I just tried to laugh through.

My next adventure happened when I was in the middle of taking a shower and was interupted by loud banging on my door. Turns out, my shower was flooding into the apartment below me...so again with the language barrier, realized I couldnt shower, and had to try and relay this problem to coworkers so it could get fixed! After about a week of not being able to shower again, 2 men came, pounded a hole in the cement floor and replaced my drain. During this time, they discovered a second dead bird behind my toilet! At this point, everything was continuing to build up and I was seriously questioning my being able to make it through 2 years of this!

Well, 3 months and no more huge problems like that. In a place where everything is foreign and difficult, when you only have your apartment that you can escape to, when that starts to fall apart, it makes you a little crazy! Life in no way is easy here, and it tests you daily at how much you can handle. Even though you see people every day, there is still a huge isolation that you feel, which is intensifyed by winter, when people in town spend most their time in their homes.
The culture as great as it is, is difficult as well to get used to, and that carries over into work. My work has mainly consisted of working with a small group of kids daily on helping with homework. This has been very difficult because it is not what I expected on doing when I came here.

My NGO is also very new, so together we are learning about this process and how to make it work. Right now, work is where I am struggling the most. Because its not what I expected, and because of the language, there is a large part of the time where I feel useless. As I continue to struggle with this part of being here, I am slowly realizing that I have to lowerd or eliminate expectations and just do the best I can. On the days when I walk down the street and the kids yell at me from across the way, or I meet one of their parents it makes it all seem possible. I have come to realize that even though I came here to help others and make an impact where I can, that I believe I will be the one most changed and impacted by this experience by the time I leave.

It still does not feel like home, and I struggle with quite a bit daily. This is an experience that you can get through physically, but trying to get through mentally and emotionally is a different story. It continues to test me and show me how much I can handle, when I think I am at the end of my rope, but somehow I get through to the next day. We have policies on traveling, but I am lucky that there are 2 volunteers that live within an hour, hour and a half that on weekends if I need a break or support I can go see. Also, as most of you know, I am dating another volunteer, Mark actually who I had lived in Radomir with. Even though he lives about 6 and a half hours away, we have made it a priority to see each other at least twice a month, which makes a huge difference!

But, as it has been so long since I have written, I will end it now as I dont plan on writting a novel. There is still much more to update you on, but now that I have internet in my apartment I am hoping that I will get back into writing more! I want to thank you all for the support you have given and continue to give me. On those days when I dont want to do it anymore, your support pushes me and helps me get through the day! It makes a world of difference. So thank you. Also, I have a skype account and would love if any of you are connected to skype to be able to chat. My account is michala.golden so contact me if you would like!

Take care,
Michala

Perspectives

Well...where to even start for this entry! Life is crazy. We have been running around everywhere for the last couple of weeks...and its only going to get busier. When I first signed up for the Peace Corps, I knew that I would have to learn a language and deal with cultural adjustments. I had no idea how many assignments the Peace Corps makes you do. We have technical assignments for Youth Development, we have cultural assignments, we have safety assignments, and sometimes we just have random assignments! I feel like its more homework than any time in school! But if what the other volunteers say is true, after PST things will get a little easier, we won't be "babysat" as much by Peace Corps, and you start to feel somewhat like an adult again. I'm looking forward to it!

This last weekend, the 22-23 we went to a place in Bulgaria called Rila 7 Lakes. For those that want to see pictures (cause I am still unable to send while at the internet clubs) or read more, there is info online. Anyways, this hike, when you get done, is the highest mountain on the Balkan Peninsula.

For those of you who know me well know that I may like doing such things, but I'm not exactly the most in shape motivated of people. Well, needless to say, I whined A LOT! To start with, Mark and I had to catch a 6:30 train to meet up with the rest of the group for shuttles up the mountain. We were then dropped off at a place that was located just a little ways above where we stayed when we first came to Bulgaria. We then proceeded to hike, with 50 volunteers, all of us carrying backpacks (mine only had food for Mark and I, my sleeping bag, water and a few layering things since it would be cold....but I think it weighed about 50 lbs!!!), up the mountain for about 3 hours. So we were told that the hike was a mild-moderate hike that would not be that hard. I was in the back of the pack with a 66 year old volunteer, who at times was kicking my butt! When I can send pictures you all will see more, but not just due to the fact that I'm out of shape, the hike was really hard. The inclines were really intense, and on a lot of it the terrain was huge rocks and boulders. Needless to say, I arrived at where we were sleeping with a group of about 5 of us, long after the others had already had lunch. Mark was not happy though because I had all the food and he had to wait for me to get it! :)

Anyways, after this hike, we had a short break and then hiked to the 7 lakes. Even though there was no backpack this time, the hike was still really hard. As I said earlier, it is the highest mountain on the Balkan Peninsula, so you are going up hill the whole time! Anyways, despite my whining and complaining, I succeeded in making it to the top. Wow, was all that difficulty worth it. There are some things that happen here that you cannot even explain. As I said earlier, we are all really busy right now with so many things, that when you reached the top of this mountain, look down to what we climbed up, it puts things into perspective! To be able to have a break from all the language and assignments, to see something in a country that many people don't have the opportunity to see is such a great thing to experience at this time. It really reaffirms again, why we are here doing what we are doing. When I can, I promise I will send pictures.

Sadly though, that weekend also was a trigger for us losing another volunteer. Our 4th now in our group. We started as 40, and are now 36. The guy that left was from Portland and was a pretty good guy. He had moments when he had a tendency to piss people off, but when it came down to it, he would have done a really good job with the kids. The night after the hike, we stayed in the mountains and everyone was having a really good time and relaxing. No administrative staff was there from Peace Corps, so it was the first time we have felt like we had a little freedom. This guy got really drunk and ended up being a loud obnoxious drunk, which is a shame because everyone else was having a really good time. At some point in the night, he fell out of bed and split his head open above his eye. At that point Peace Corps Medical Office was called, he was taken to Sofia, and through a couple day turn of events, he was sent home. Its really hard because at this point when people go home we know them a lot better, so you lose people you care about and like. It just hits home and is reality that anything can happen while we are here that they feel you need to go home for. So...we are all adjusting to one less group member.

Anyways. I know I have written a lot here, and I just want to end on a couple last things. Right now in Bulgaria the teachers are striking. They get paid about 200-300 leva a month. Which to put in perspective is less than we get paid as volunteers, and the dollar is about 1.40 more than the lev, so they don't get paid much. Its really interesting but also hard to be here during this, especially since my host mom is a teacher...its not fair, but for us, there is nothing we can do. So, just some info from Bulgaria's news.

Lastly. As I've been here for 2 months, life is definatly different than what I imagined and what I have experienced before in the states. There are times when it would be so easy to leave and go back to all the comforts, but to make it through this will be an experience of a lifetime. The thing I wish most for you all when reading about my time here, is to just take a minute and really appriciate what you have there and what you are doing. It is so easy to get tied up in the day to day activities that you forget what you have. Some things that I took for granted in the states that I would like to have now is just a nice, long hot shower, toilet paper (yes I said toilet paper, when at cafes, we have gotten in the habit of carrying our own, because most places do not have it), ordering food, or just holding conversations. I feel so many times that there is so much more that I want to say to people and I don't want them to think I have the mental capacity of a 5 year old because all I can say is "yes, okay, good" and other basic things. So, just please all take some time and appriciate the things you can!

So....thats it for now. Things are getting a lot busier, so I don't know if I will write for a little while. I head to Dolna Banya on October 18th and the next adventure will start! I will write soon! Hope you all are well!

Michala