Culture Thursday

The Peace Corps always encourages us to integrate into our communities. Integrate. Integrate. Integrate. Until we wish 'integrate' had a face so we could punch it. I'm exaggerating, because each one of us knows the importance of integrating into what has basically become our home. Why wouldn't we want to get to know people and understand the in's and out's of our community? We would do the same things if we moved to a new place in America: explore, meet new people, attend events and join clubs. The only reason it's emphasized so much is because the language and cultural barriers make it difficult and sometimes it even seems impossible. The trick is to realize you don't have to know everyone, you don't have to visit every shop, and you don't have to pretend to like people who are jerk-faces.

Anyway, the point of that was to explain an interesting barrier I have to integration. I live in a house/apartment. It's basically one big house with 4 small apartments - 2 on the bottom floor and 2 on the top. I live in one of the apartments on the top floor but have things that most volunteers living in a блок, or apartment building, don't have, such as a big terrace (bigger than my bedroom actually), a backyard with a garden, and big, family homes surrounding me. What also makes my home unique is that the apartment directly below me, with whom I share an entrance, is rented out on a weekly basis. My landlord does this for people who are on vacation or visiting our hospital for it's mineral baths.

This means that I'm constantly meeting new people, making new friends, sharing new experiences, and then saying good-bye shortly after. Which doesn't really help me integrate into my village as these people don't actually live in my village. Also, I meet them when they are on vacation and in great moods with no work to do which isn't very culturally realistic. Not that I mind it, most of the people I've met have been wonderful and even inspiring. I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

I recently met a mother and daughter from Sofia who were here to visit the mountains for a week. The mother was 86-years-old and went on hikes with her daughter and myself on an almost daily basis. They were patient and kind and up for anything - it was a lot of fun.

Then, last week, another mother and daughter pair came through from Razgrad (a city I'm fully aware is really far away) to visit the mineral baths. The daughter, who is about my age, spoke English really well as she'd lived in Alabama for 3 years. After she came back to Bulgaria, she was ready to travel again, this time to Norway. Not too long after that, she volunteered to teach English in a small village in Mozambique. She had a lot of stories to tell and wasn't even close to being done with her travels - she already had plans to go back to the same village in Mozambique a month from now.

Meeting people like this and experiencing Bulgarians from all over for a short period of time is like a special treat that makes my life here exciting when it can sometimes feel mundane.

Culturally, this shows the diversity of Bulgarians - their experiences, their passions, their attitudes. As many of the people living in my village tend to live similar lives, I find it a breath of fresh air to meet a girl who is volunteering (like me!) and giving what she can to those less fortunate than herself. She spoke of their poverty, of the things they lack, but she also spoke of their positive attitude, interesting culture, and delicious foods. I've never met a Bulgarian who volunteers before, it seemed a concept that was too foreign for most to comprehend (which is probably why they all looked at me so strangely when I first got here) but now I see that things are changing and younger generations are opening themselves up to new, better things.

It's been a fun adventure, walking downstairs not knowing who I'm going to meet that day or what they're going to show me - and I'll call it integration and anyone who disagrees can bite me.

-Age