pop! of the week: Shantel

I'm not quite sure what's going on here, but it seems like the rest of the world is waking up to the fact that we here in the jello mold of the Balkans know how to kkkkiiiccckkkk it. So here is Western Europe catching on to our Balkan beats, Roma horns, and the curious way of pronouncing disko.

Shantel: Disko Partizani
This video takes place in Turkey (Istanbul I think)


Seriously, if you can get ahold of this album, it is well worth the trouble.

you want more?



and please, check out the website: Disko Partizani

Thanks John!!!!!

Integro!

I just uploaded this video about my organization to google so we can share it easier. Thought you might be interested.....

blogstarzzzz

There is something new to hit the Internet! Here is your treat for this week: Blogstars (but i say it like blogstarzzz). This is a new blog that I will contribute to every Monday. Us Blogstarz will be guiding readers through a exploration in the wacky and wonderful of Bulgaria. I hope you enjoy!

Inaugural pop! of the week post:

"It's hard to say exactly what's going on here, but from what I can tell, the sky is just a little bluer and maybe the birds have starting singing a little louder. Yes, that's right my friends, the nauseating and disappointing smell of perhaps the last seven months is quickly dispersing in the quick and fresh spring air. Daily awkward moments thrive in the sunlight, and I’m once again free to walk the streets without fear of snowballs launched at me. Oh there are many things about spring in Bulgaria that we wait throughout winter with anxiety for. Most obvious of course are the cute little sweethearts that eventually turn into street roving maniacs. Well, sure, it is open season for cat sex; but cut and dry, straight to the point, I'm talking about Bulgarian Music Idol.

To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing more serious here (save maybe Hristo Botev's beard) than our annual competition showcasing the best-voiced beauty in all the Balkans.

Look what at what we came up with last year:


and of course, the Balkan Whitney Houston:


This year gets off to an even better start: Ken Lee!


In this weekly Monday post, we will explore all the complexities of Bulgarian pop music. Stay tuned, the fun is just starting."

youth development #two

The first weekend of March we organized a meeting for the more active members of our youth network to establish concrete plans for our April campaigns. April 8th is International Roma day and our youth of decided to organize three activities: 1) An essay and painting contest for primary and high school students 2) April 8th concerts showcasing Roma dance and song and 3) Earth day clean-ups in both southwest and northeast Bulgaria. We have so much work to do, and so much of my job seems to be about putting out fires between dramatic (and dedicated) youth as well as pushing adults to do what is necessary to help them. Along the way, I have a bunch to learn myself about how to actually do this job. Oh my!

This week I will travel to Sofia to attend a workshop on applying for grants through the new Bulgarian fund created by USAID. then I'm off to Bugras for a celebration of Saint Patrick's day. I'll be sure to bring the camera. Oh, and I just have to tell you about my new kitten. But that will be for later.

4ao.

random

Before peace corps I had the amazing opportunity to work with many incredible people who lived with Autism. This is a fascinating article (and be sure to watch the video) that explains the relatively new approach of respecting communicative attempts and nontraditional ways of thinking. The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What They Think They Know

This weekend I am going to Veliko Turnavo with a big group of youth from around the country. We will be planning campaigns for April (Roma day turned into month), developing website ideas, and brainstorming for exchange visits (that I just, minutes ago, got approved!) between other youth networks in Macedonia and Albania. Thankfully another volunteer will be coming with the youth who are from southwest Bulgaria. I am kinda freaking out, because this will be a big test of my 1) responsibility and 2) my Bulgarian.

Also this weekend is a national holdiay celebrating spring, followed by a national holiday celbrating the overthrow of Turkish oppression! Fun!

Next Week promises for you:
1) a full report, with pictures! of Turnavo
2) The return of Chalga Star of the week
3) a surprise.

4ao

Döner

The Döner kebab, for vegetarians also known as the french fry sandwich

bread

On cold Bulgarian nights, when the Internet is not stealing my soul, I return to my source and I do the one thing that I know without a doubt I am super at: baking. I am absolutely ecstatic, and maybe a bit silly from drinking leftover beer, because I have come across the most fabulous recipe for beer bread from my : new favorite blog. I have experimented with several different flavors so far but first lets cover the basics. (Disclaimer: I don't measure in any proper or scientific way. And I never have. oops!)

First, establish your measuring base unit. For me, I use this nice 290 gram yogurt container.

What ever you use, try to make sure its bigger than a cup, and just stay consistent through out the recipe. :)

Basic recipe:

*3 Yogurt cups of flour. Use white, or combinations of white, wheat, rye, corn..... whatever. Be sure to use enough wheat (or spelt) to ensure gluten (stickiness) or use a gluten replacer (not available in Bulgaria!) Try to theme the flour to your overall flavor goal.
*Big spoon of baking powder (not soda!)
*Big spoon of honey or white sugar or brown sugar or molasses or maple syrup
*Little spoon of salt
*2 cups of beer. Be creative, and think about the type of bread you want. Use local beer if you can. Because local beer is special. Think about the flavor of the beer, it's sweetness and depth and think about how you want your bread to taste with it.

addons!

1) cirene, goat or sheep or cow 1/2 yogurt cup (or fetta if you are not lucky enough to live in Bulgaria) and rosemary and savory (big spoons)
2) Kashkaval 1/2 yogurt cup (again, Bulgarian cheese. substitute with a basic white cheese) walnuts, roasted cumin
3) Tomatoes and basil and cirene and garlic


whatever!

Mix dry ingredients together. Add addons. Add beer. You want a thick, goopy dough. If you don't think it is goopy enough, add more beer. I don't imagine this will hurt it any. Be careful when adding the beer to the dry, it will fizzzzzz. Line a banista pan (if you don't know what that is, you are not in Bulgaria. In case you could not tell. Use bread pans or metal bowls) with sunflower or olive oil and add batter leaving 1 1/2 inch to the top for rising! I have found that if you drizzel a wee tid bit of beer on the top, it crusts in the nicest way.

oh yeah: bake at 375f for 45 mins. If the top of the bread gets toooo brown, pull it out. You could try to splash a bit of cold water in the oven to play with the consistency of crustiness. Let the bread cool for at least 10 mins because the bread will continue to bake on the inside from steam.


taka!

two places

I have been amazed at the contrasts that I have seen. I am a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria, but also in the European Union, which is to say that I see two very different places existing in almost the same place. Bulgaria in a country of roughly 9 million people, give or take for immigration to richer western European countries. Out of 9 million, roughly 800,000 of these people are “Roma,” which means that they belong to one of several different sub-groups of European “gypsies.” As a general rule, these two populations, Roma and Bulgarian, live in two worlds. One is for Bulgarians, and it is an incredibly dynamic place that tries its best to integrate into the new Europe. It is not without its own problems: unemployment is high, inflation is up, corruption and organized crime are real, and most able young people prefer to move than to stay. Bulgarian Bulgaria knows that it exists in this in-between place, between two continents, between a thousand cultures, and between a recent past and a future that seems to move faster than they can hold on. Roma Bulgaria is decidedly different. Many Roma live in their own neighborhoods called Mahalas. Some Mahalas are incredibly nice and look exactly like Bulgarian Bulgaria. However, most do not. In the worst Mahalas, roads serve as sewers, children are married at 12, and people live in houses made of trash. When the roads become complete sewers, the only vehicle that can maneuver them is a donkey cart, effectively ensuring that the police and their police cars hold no jurisdiction. When you walk the imaginary line between the two places, you walk between worlds. This past weekend I visited both places. I went to the city of Stara Zagora to visit my friend at her work. She works in the Mahala, in which over 27,000 people live. Here are some pictures:







The last picture is of a school outside of the Mahala, just for contrast. The are pictures of the school yard for the Roma kids. Please note the river of muck that flows through the playground.

After we left the Mahala, we traveled by train to the fabulous city of Plovdiv to celebrate the birthdays of two of my friends. We rented a room in a hostel and went out on the town for two nights, staying up well past 5 am each night. This contrast was really hard for me to take. The issue of equity, for me, now moves beyond fault and into responsibility. One little boy in the Mahala ran up to me and in his impeccable Bulgarian accent yelled “xhello!” When he turned back towards his friends I saw that his ear was covered in gummed up blood that had yet to scab over. The issue here is responsibility, because I have the option to take responsibility. And the realization: my life is different than this little boy not because of any choice I made, or that my parents made, or that his parents made. My life is different because I was born in San Diego County and he was born here….in the mud and excrement of a world that we are really good at forgetting. I don’t know what to do.

My direct bus home from Plovdiv left at 7:30 in the morning, which was exactly 30 minutes after I went to bed. Instead, I woke at 10, and hoped a bus to Sofia, the capital where there were many direct busses to Razgrad. I had a bit of a layover, so I found my way to the fabled vegetarian restaurant, the Dream House, and had the most amazing buffet ever. I say had, because I prolly ate the whole thing….I don’t quite remember, I was tired.





Peace and Blessings.

holy wars

-“Let’s have the American tell us about what’s going on in America!”
-“Ok, What do you want to know?”
-“Maybe we can start with the war in Iraq? Your president started it, and then you reelected him. Now, according to the TV, most of you don’t like the war. Why?”
-“Well, America is a big place, with a lot of different opinions. I worked on that last election, and in my opinion American’s are easily scared by things that they have had little exposure to, or don’t know much about. That is part of the reason I am here, so Americans can learn about people who are different than them. By playing to that fear, our politicians seem to get away with a lot of unpopular things.”
-“Ok, well what do you think about the build up of NATO forces in Afghanistan?”
-“What do you think about it?”
-“I’m against war. And I am afraid. I am afraid that America will come and bomb our Mahala (Roma neighborhood). I don’t want Americans to kill me and my family because I am a Muslim.”

This was a recent conversation that I had with a young man that lives in my colleague’s village. I traveled to village last month to observe the end to a very special Muslim Holiday. I was welcomed with open arms to pray in their Mosque with all the village men, and everyone wanted to stress to me that their God is practically the same as the God that my country worships. We just worship differently. How do I tell this man that his Mahala is under no threat from our government, when to him, the people that we bomb are exactly the same as him? This young man that I spoke with had some sort of developmental disability that led him to be taken out of school at grade 2. He only spoke Turkish and Romany, so I spoke with him through a translator. I must admit that when he first said “Let’s have the American tell us about what’s going on in America!” I assumed that he was going to ask maybe about if I was friends with 50 cent or Justin Timberlake…which I have been asked about in the past. His depth of understanding in international politics was incredible. And scary. He displayed a perception that many people have. And I think that you should know about it.

youth development