Small Towns have Advantages, Disadvantages

   ZAVET, Bulgaria – My two-year assignment is finally underway.
   After two and half months of language class, tedious cultural assignments and traveling to meetings every two weeks, I moved to my permanent site and officially became a Peace Corps volunteer. Although you fill out paperwork, quit your job and make other various commitments, Peace Corps doesn’t recognize you as a volunteer until your training is done. If you survive that (four from our group did not) then you become a volunteer.
   I was officially sworn in on July 2 in the courtyard of the Peace Corps headquarters in Sofia. So much is made of the swearing in ceremony. It was nice, but very quick. The director, Carl Hammerdorfer, a giant man who I like to call “The Hammer”, spoke for a few minutes. Then he read our names and where we were from, although many of us were introduced as being from the wrong state. After that the U.S. Ambassador, James Pardew, spoke and then swore us in. One volunteer, Katherine Clark from New York, gave a short speech in Bulgarian. Then we had drinks and food.
   Within forty-five minutes I was dashing to the bus station with two other volunteers to catch a bus to Zavet. I made the bus easily and began the five-hour ride to the rolling hills of northeast Bulgaria. Two movies were available on the bus – “L.A. Confidential” and “The Skulls”. The sound was turned down low, so I couldn’t hear much, but it kept my attention.
   We drove through mountains and past rolling fields of sunflowers. Every hour or so we passed a good-sized town – the ugly, white communist apartment towers dotted the landscape in each of them. Around 8 p.m. we turned onto the road leading to Zavet when Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” came on the radio. It was quite a contrast to the constant Bulgarian techno that had been playing for the past hour. But it was a friendly reminder of home despite the daunting thoughts of living in a remote town in a remote area of Eastern Europe.
   I am replacing a volunteer from the B12 group, so my apartment was already furnished. It had all the things I needed, but other volunteers who are the first PCV in their towns are not so lucky. The only problem I had was that there was no fridge. The next day I received it, but we broke it while moving it. Finally, four days later it was fixed.
   Your decision to become a PCV finally sets in during the first few days at your new site. There are no other Americans around and the people don’t know you. The second night I was here I decided to play soccer with the locals. I had fun, although my legs got cut up because the grass was so long. I bought a basketball in Razgrad and I've played a few times with some locals. They like basketball but haven't played much. In fact, I'm not sure anyone else in town has a ball.
   Other realities set in: I will have to cook for myself. This is an easy one to say, but to do it is another thing. In Zavet there are plenty of stores, but none of these stores have ready-made food. There are no Hot Pockets, frozen pizzas, even macaroni and cheese. There is one restaurant in town, which is always an option, but volunteers really don’t make enough money to eat out every day.
   There is a lot of down time, especially for teachers during the summer. Bring books if you can because you will have a lot of quiet afternoons and evenings. I have cable television which has about 23 channels. Most are in Bulgarian but often there is an American movie on. I also have the EuroNews channel which is in English (although occasionally it switches to French).
   The next few weeks I will be learning how to cook, wash my clothes by hand, meeting people and working on a summer camp that I will be running and organizing in August. I now understand when volunteers explain that your life slows down. Everything that we do quickly in America (eat, wash, errands, etc.) takes almost twice the time here. It is an appealing lifestyle, but it does take work and it is something I will have to get used to here.