Halftime

Last week the B24s had our Mid-Service Conference, marking the halfway point of our service as volunteers in country. We’ve been in country for a bit longer than that (actually 3 months longer), but we’ve been at site for a whole year now. We celebrated the milestone in true Peace Corps fashion… going to a conference filled with service-related games, discussions about sustainability, and countless post-it notes. It was actually helpful to refocus my goals and to get some new ideas for the coming second year, and especially nice to hang out with the rest of my group, some of whom I haven’t seen in a while.

Before that, I survived my first ever experience with Bulgarian dentistry, having had a cleaning in Sofia. We as volunteers get to go to one of the best people around (as evidenced by the cards and pictures of ambassadors and other politicians lining the walls). After a thorough polishing with what seemed to be a sandblaster (the dentist made me wear protective goggles and close my eyes), my teeth have never felt cleaner. On top of that, no cavities! And on that note, I don’t have TB either! Woohoo! On the other end of MSC (after all the sessions), I got to go to Plovdiv (one of my favorite places in Bulgaria) to hang out with some good friends, see a movie, and just have a good time.

Now that I’ve been here a year, that means renewing all the documents required to stay here for another year. Last year’s process to obtain a lichna karta (Bulgarian ID card) was a huge, bureaucratic process that involved multiple trips over the police station in Shumen and the filling out of several forms. One would think that renewing it would be a much easier process, since all the paperwork is all on file. Instead, in true Bulgarian fashion, this time around it’s actually proving to be harder, with a whole mess of new paperwork to be filled out and signed by people all around town. I’m already up to two trips to Shumen and getting turned back around for various reasons… We’ll see if I can finally decipher this whole process.

The halfway point also means that fall is in full swing, just as it was when I got to site last year. I have to say, this time of year is my favorite of all – being not too hot or too cold. Good sweater weather. All the grapes are ripening and being plucked from over the sidewalks in town. Everyone’s getting in their last bit of work before the cold hits, creating a sense of liveliness around town that is a great thing to see around here. The kids are all getting in their last kicks outside, which has meant hiking or taking walks together and setting up speakers outside the orphanage and dancing. It seems everyone wants to enjoy the fall before holing up inside for a few months.

All in all it’s a strange feeling sitting here at the halfway point, looking forward at another year here in town and looking back at all the things that have happened this past year… How much has changed for me personally, and the successes achieved at the orphanage. Things here don’t seem so strange or scary to me anymore, and things that I considered major challenges to me last year I now embrace and invite. I feel that even if I left here tomorrow I’ll never be the same person I was before I stepped onto that plane to DC over a year ago, and this town will never be the same place it was before I stepped off the late bus for the first time almost exactly a year ago. And I have to say, that’s a great feeling to have.

Until next time…