Superstitions, Words Games and Projects 

ZAVET – I am always interested and amused when I come across a strange belief or superstition here in Bulgaria. I’m careful not to dismiss it and simply nod my head and say, “Wow, that is different than in America.” Whether it’s wearing a paper hat during the summer so you don't get a cold from the draft, keeping your bag off the floor because it’s bad luck or never eating ice cream because it will give you a sore throat, I take all this in stride.

But I had to stop and laugh at the one I heard last week. It was just too much.

While teaching my young adult class about food, I began asking what my students had eaten that day. “What did you eat for breakfast today? What did you eat for lunch? What do you usually eat every day?” The class was a bit reluctant to speak even though they knew the words. I repeated the questions again. After a bit, my assistant and friend, Zhivko, told me to stop.

“Matt, sometimes it’s not polite to ask what people eat.”

Why is that, I asked.

“Because, well, it can make you someone sick.”

Come again?

Zhivko explained that if someone boasts about what they have eaten the other person will remember how long it’s been since they have eaten that type of food, and consequently, will be sick with envy and heartache. If you have an acute reaction (say you’re friend tells you he ate some cake and you haven’t eaten cake in over a year) your most private of private areas will swell and ache.

Of course, the majority of people don’t believe this, but many of the older generations do. Zhivko, a geography major, said he didn’t really believe it, but he had heard of such things happening.

Other famous remedies for sickness include drinking, rubbing or putting rakiya (whiskey) on yourself. A common way of preventing the flu is drinking hot rakiya with pickled vegetables. This cleans out your chest and makes everything clean so you won’t get the grip – as they call it here. Other volunteers I know have had Bulgarians put hot rakiya in their ears, applied a rakiya compress to their forehead or simply drank a glass of rakiya to cure whatever illness they had. The one good thing is that you do feel better after a glass or two of it. I can attest to that.

Word Games

Never in my life have I examined my own language with such scrutiny. When you learn a new language from scratch, like I have done here, you realize how much knowledge you take for granted. When and why do you use prepositions of, in, on, by and from? That comes completely natural for us, but in another language with different rules I’m always making mistakes.

Why do we say in English, “Come on over”? You’re not actually going “over” anything and you’re not actually “on” anything either. The one my students hate is adding an “s” to verbs such as “like” or “play” when it’s in the he, she or it form. The letter “s” usually indicates more than one thing, like toys or balls. But it’s opposite with present tense verbs. He “likes” ice cream and they “like” ice cream.

Why, they ask. All I can say is, “Because English is not a perfect language. Sorry, I didn’t make the rules.”

Bulgarian is full of exceptions and confusing grammar rules too. Plus every word is classified into a masculine, feminine or neuter form. The bad thing about that is that almost every word as three different variations. For example, the number one – which is edno – isn’t always this way. It could be edna if the word proceeding it is feminine or edin if the word is masculine. Edno is for neuter words. This rule applies for adverbs, adjectives and numbers. And yes, I know, it’s like Spanish! For me, it’s annoying to always have my words in gender agreement (Turkish is much easier in that sense because it has no gender) but you slowly adapt.

The most fun I have is learning Bulgarian words that sound like English words but have totally different meanings. For example, I was terribly confused during my first month because my host mom kept saying, “I’m going to the magazine.” I kept wondering why she read so much and why does she say she’s going to it? Maybe I’m confused. Then I learned that magazine in Bulgarian means store or shop. There are many examples of this:

Бой, which sounds like “boy” but means fight.

Бич, sounds like “beach” but means a whip.

Син, which sounds like “sin” but means blue.

Към, which sounds like “come” but means toward.

Три, which sounds like “tree” but means three.

Как, which sounds like “cock” (as in a rooster... for those of you with dirty minds) but means how.

The list goes on and on and I discover new words every day. Turkish also has many words that sound the same. For example, shadup, which is the Turkish word for wine, sounds a lot like “shut up”.

 Projects

Right now I’m working on two projects for my school. One is remodeling an old classroom in the basement of the school. It will be used for language classes. One of the problems with our school is that classrooms are in horrendous condition. Lights and heat don’t work, the chalkboards are warped and can’t be used and desks break almost daily. Plus, teachers do not have their own rooms, so it’s very hard to prepare for lessons. As a way to counter this, I have proposed to refurbish a room that isn’t used and make it into a language resource center. There will be new tables, a teacher’s desk, a cabinet for a small library and a television.

The second project is helping very young Turkish and Roma children learn Bulgarian through a theatre project. Many Roma and Turkish kids suffer in their education because they can’t understand Bulgarian well. This would be a way to integrate the three communities and help the children. If you don’t know about the racial and ethnic problems here, especially between Bulgarians and Roma, e-mail me or do some research. It is one of the most startling things I’ve experienced here and every effort to combat this problem should be made. If you are interested in providing any financial support the donations are 100 percent tax-deductible and all of the money goes directly to the project. And I am here to make sure that happens. I want to make sure that everyone understands that this is not a solicitation, but many people have asked how they can help. Soon these two projects will be on the Internet at www.peacecorps.gov. Look under donations with Peace Corps Partnership Program. Or if you have any questions you can always contact me.