Easter (Великден) and the Production of Food in rural Bulgaria

Easter, or Velikden in Bulgarian (literally translates to 'Great Day') has some similarities to the American holiday but also some very interesting differences. People still dye and decorate eggs, eat a big meal with family and enjoy chocolate and sweets. On the other hand, what you're eating is probably from the family yard (meat and veg alike), they make waaaaay more eggs-40 or more per household and play a game where you try to crack your egg against someone elses in a sort of test of strength. It's a fun game and everyone plays it throughout the day-at each others houses or even running into friends while walking down the street. Oh yeah, and there is no Easter bunny or much commercialization at all for that matter-still focussed on Jesus' resurrection over here folks (although my family here isn't particularly religious). I've included some pictures of eggs and the lamb we ate in the early afternoon with family, friends and neighbors. I keep forgetting to take pictures of more food, but that is probably good since it would be looked at kind of strangely here.
I also attached some pictures of food production that many Bulgarians, or at least rural Bulgarians practice on a regular basis. A majority of the food they eat in this part of the country comes right out of the backyard, garden and farm. I hope you enjoy looking at what I see every day....чао чао! (Ciao Ciao!)

The eggs we decorated at the Velovi house...Hubavo! (best/beautiful)

Mariana's grandson holding an egg for the picture. We put many stickers on them, which was a common practice it seemed.

OK, so I took out a picture here that might be to much for some to stomach. For Easter, we slaughtered the second lamb since I arrived (the first was for Tsvetanitsa, a holiday and Tsvetan's name day-look it up if you don't know what a 'name day' is here). when Tsvetan and his son dispatched the first, I was in the shower and came out to find the aftermath. When the time came again for Easter, I made sure to let them know I wanted to watch the deed-an important thing to see I think to understand every aspect of what it is like to live with your food source. In any event, when the time came, they made sure to sharpen all of the blades extremely well, a humane precaution. Watching it was definently something I will never forget or regret. If it were possible, every American should try to see this act to understand what it requires to put meat on the table (and I dont mean mass-producing slaughterhouse machines because those are generally horrible I've heard). If you want a description or to see the picture, just let me know via email. It was powerful to say the least.
The next pictures are post slaughter-cleaning, preparing and the final product:

Mariana cleaning the intestines-very thouroughly! They clean all of the organs very well inside and out under water, then in heavy salt-water to purify followed by a very good boiling. Trust me, nothing icky remains. NEVER WASTE ANYTHING-head to tail people! Everything that is edible is cleaned, prepared and eaten. Also delicious!

The peeled onions that were later chopped and went with the rice and other spices/ingredients.

Mariana and Tsvetan dicing all of the cleaned, boiled and edible organs into very small pieces to add to the rice/onion/spices that were stuffed inside the empty lamb cavity for roasting. Just like a turkey in the states but with rice.

The finished product after hours of roasting and basting. The rice is still inside in this picture. After romoving the meat from the visible side, they open the rib cage and literally scoop out the amazingly flavorful rice with a big soup laddle. It was absolutely delicious and both times weve had it it was prepared a little differently. They are even slaughtering a third lamb this weekend for St. Georges Day (and Gergana's name day-Mariana's daughter who lives in town with her husband and sons). 

The next set of pictures are of them making Sirene, the every household cheese of Bulgaria(similar to a feta). The milk comes from their own sheep outside of town and it is treated with a coagulant and bacteria killing chemical before being sealed and stored overnight in the cold outside air.  In the morning it looks like this first picture and is poured into the cleaned and steralized mold:

Excess water falls down the shute and into the bucket for dumping later.

They put a lid on top and weigh it down with a bucket of water to press out as much water as possible while compacting the cheese. It sits like this for a few hours.

Afterward the lid is removed, the cheesecloth pulled back and they cut the cheese into large cubes. Tsvetan is there with the big pan, putting large grain salt on the removed cubes to pull out even more water while also keeping it bacteria free. We eat this cheese at every meal, not as a main course but it is always on the table.

Here, they are taking sheep or cow milk and making homemade Kiselo Milyako, or yogurt. It's funny, but to make yogurt you just take a steralized mason jar, put the milk in and add a spoonful of storebaught or previously stored homemade yogurt. The live cultures in the yogurt here will turn the new milk into yogurt itself within about 2 hours at room temperature in a dark place. Then, just refrigerate!  the taste is a lot more sour than the yogurt we are used to but you come to like it, especially with a good flaky sweet bread in the morning....Mmmmm!

That's all for now everyone, but as you can see, I'm learning not only Bulgarian, but how Bulgarians have survived for centuries off their land and passed down knowledge.

Around Bulgaria, my home away from home in Iskar and even a driveway project!

Much has happenned over the past week or two and I havent had time to post pictures until now. There is internet at school, but some days it doesn't work, while other days I need to rush home after Bulgarian class for dinner. In any event, here are some pictures from the past few weeks-some generally of bulgaria, a wedding of my host family's friend's daughter and even where I am living and a driveway project we did last weekend. Enjoy!

The bride and groom feeding each other cake-the same in the states!

The bride and I.

My table at the wedding-all hunters who were friends of the father of the bride. Mariana and Tsvetan are with me on the left. Good Times!

A view over a town in Bulgaria. Sorry, i can't remember which one.

A shephard soaking up some rays.

Still common transportation in bulgaria but now they have to compete with cars.

Many people own plots of land outside of their towns (as well as having small gardens with their houses).

A view from the hill coming down into my town-ISKAR!

The Iskar town square

Another perspective of the town square. My fellow volunteers Chris and Anna are sitting in the left side of the picture.

Remnants of the old communist system are still prevalant.

The flags in the town square: Bulgaria, Iskar and the E.U. flag (the newest addition).

My street from the square to the house-a long straight walk home but beautiful!

My block-that's Mariana and Tsvetan's house there in the back.

Every house has a wall around it with a gate for a vehicle and one for pedestrians. This is just inside our gate looking inside on the property. It's amazing what they can do with so little space. 

The barn in the back of the last picture with the dog pens in front. They keep goats, a horse, a rooster and two pigs back there!

Tsvetan tending to the horse and cart in the yard (they also have an old soviet era car and jeep for hunting).

Mariana's beautiful flower garden.

A part of the vegetable garden between the vehicle and pedestrian entrance paths inside the gate.

The three hunting dogs and their pens. They are very good guard dogs and love to bark at everyone coming in the gate. Mariana and Tsvetan tell me to not get to close because they will bite. They are hunting dogs after all.

Aww.... a nice dog nap.

Two weekends ago we built a driveway out front for most of the day. It was a full days work but I was happy to help throughout the duration. Im not in any pictures, but I swear I helped out all day, ha.

Mixing the concrete by hand/shovel. There are no automatic mixers or hand-crank mixers readily available so we did it with pure man power.

Nearly done, it turned out great. Tsvetan's son on the left is an engineer of sorts and did a great job smoothing it out perfectly. A week later and it looks great. Some cats walked through it that night leaving their little paw prints behind but no one seems to mind. It was grea to learn how to do it without modern machines and such.

So what can I say folks, this is how we live over here. In some ways, it's no different than in the U.S. In other ways, it's a different world. Yet each day, for centuries, people survive and get by as best they can. A strong work ethic and a mentality of 'the whole' rather than the individual makes this possible. For example, the driveway project was completed with the help of friends spending 6+ hours in the sun, digging, bending, mixing and lifting. Seriously back breaking, sore for two days work...and I'm saying that as an adequately fit 29 year old. Was there payment involved? No. No money exchanged, only the comfort of a warm, plentiful meal and the unspoken promise that you would do the same for them in turn. Yes, this kind of giving happens in the States as well, but not as an everyday life occurance. Here, this is how people survive on a daily or weekly basis...I am my brother's keeper.
To end on another note, we finished this week before the Easter weekend with a Education program(Programa Obrosovanie) cluster gathering in Biala Slatina to discuss discipline in the Bulgarian classroom as well as have a Q and A with current education volunteers. It was great and very informational from those who have been here a while. Until next time!

From Training week to our Temporary Site-ISKAR!!

So training week ended over a week ago but I've been so busy studying Bulgarian, writing lesson plans for classes and completing Peace Corps required projects that I haven't had time to post. Hopefully many of you are getting my emails with a lot of stories, feelings and background information. As a volunteer for Peace Corps, there are many things i can not share on a public blog so I hope you understand the lack of such details. In any event, I wanted to share some pictures of this beutiful country and what I have experienced since my last post, through arriving in Iskar. Although I've been here a week, pictures from here will have to wait until a later post in a few days because I have to rush home for dinner soon. We work 10-12 hour days so i'm very busy but I love every minute of it. Here are some visuals:

Abtin, my old roomate(center-back) with a group of serving volunteers from the two groups before us.

Traditional Horo dancers they hired for our final night's formal dinner at training week. Totally amazing and impresive. I'll try to get a video up soon.

Then we all tried doing the Horo with them. They were very kind and understanding of our lack of skill. P.S.-I've got it down now since there are many oppurtunities to practice during Bulgarian celebrations, etc.



Minus the two gents in back(Abtin and Rob), the five of us in front are my language training/location group in Iskar until June. Seriously, we have the best group and get along great. Let's just say it's not the same everywhere else.



ISKAR! This is the church of the city. Very quaint but beautiful.

One of the two hills of Iskar.

A common house in Iskar. Most have a main house and a gated yard with animals and a small garden.

A common street of the town. Yes, there are horses and cows that walk throught the streets. People will take them out in the morning to graze on any grass area available, then bring them in at night. I saw a cow find its own house the other night, knock on the gate with it's head, and get let in. Awesome.

An abandoned house in Iskar. There are many empty from times when more people lived here. See my emails for further info.

Ok all, I've got to run home for dinner.  We are having some sort of soup involving a pheasant and chicken Tsvetan(host dad) shot last weekend. it should be great, everything they have served me has been. Davijdune!

Ok all, well I'm finally in Bulgaria! Philadelphia was very cold but I was lucky enough to arrive a night early and decompress before the majority of the volunteers arrived the next day. My roomater also arrived the night before, but not until about 1am when I was getting ready for bed. His name is Abtin, and I couldn't have been luckier in my roomate placement. He was born in Iran and lived there through high school before moving to San Fransisco for college. He is now a U.S. citizen of course(you have to be to be in the Corps) and he is proudly, very Americanized. As he said, "his life started 10 years ago when he came to America". He remembers being a young kid during the Iran-Iraq war and having to take shelter from bombs and missiles. I find his risilience amazing, as he is a very funny, sarcastic and total West Coast kid at heart. We get along great. Here he is taking some pictures in our Philly hotel room doing some packing reorganization:

The next day at noon, we met our entire group of 40 volunteers in the conference area. We have a great group of volunteers mainly in two age groups from 22-32 and then 55-65. I am the second or third oldest in the younger group. After an orientation day of information and team building activities, we were given some cash for dinner and then to bed. The next day was the start of 17+ hours of traveling(2hr bus to JFK, 2hr wait, 7hr flight to Munich, 2hr wait, 1 and 1/2hr to Sofia, Bulgaria and then a 2hr bus ride to our mountain retreat in the Rila Mountains for a 4 day training retreat). Here are some pics of our travels, etc:

About to leave Philly. My awesome roomate!

Our arrival in Bulgaria...As soon as we landed we were greeted by current volunteers from last years tour and the press, which was a very warm welcome.

Views of some Bulgarian towns on the bus ride(above and below).

 

We arrived at our retreat location at the ski area of Panichyaste where we were to spend five days/four nights with preliminary training before leaving for our 2.5 months Pre-service training/homestays(official service doesn't actually start until after that in June). In any case, it is beautiful here:

The Lodge

Greeted the traditional way as you enter, with bread you dip in either salt or honey(reminding one that life is savory and sweet). 

Stray dogs are common in Bulgaria, but these ones that live outside the lodge were well fed.

We've been here for only three(три) days, but nonetheless I'm having a blast. The training is difficult but tons of fun. We work all day long on beginning language training, learning rules/regulations, teambuilding activities and yes, eating! The food is really great:

Anyway, We leave tomorrow for Vraca(our HUB site) to meet our families for home stay. We will each be with different families in language training groups of 5 volunteers in a town or village surrounding Vraca. Every so often we'll come together to work on larger projects together, but it seems we'll be spending most of the next two months with 4 other volunteers and our host families.
Thats it for now, I know I promised the rest of the history but I think I'll have to finish that in a few weeks when I've read the information they gave us for study.  In the meantime,  довиждане и лека нощ (goodbye and good night)!