Dobre Den! (Good Afternoon!)
I’ve been in Bulgaria for a little over a week and I’ve already experienced culture shock twice. The bus from Albania dropped us off on a city street in the middle of bustling, downtown Sofia. We began learning the basics of Bulgarian culture and enjoying ourselves. After splitting up into new teams (see Pamela’s blog on our new team – Steadfast Pursuit), we met our contact Mladen Petrov and followed him to a couple villages about three hours from Sofia – Volkovo, Malkovo, Sandanski, and think another one (I honestly don’t know where I’m living). We were taken to a church/mission school smack in the center of a gypsy community. We quickly learned that the gypsy culture is entirely different from traditional Bulgarian culture. Our first introduction to our little town was a gypsy festival that fell on the same weekend as Eastern Orthodox Easter. (So yes, I have celebrated Easter twice this year! I love it!)
After dropping off our bags and showing us around the house, Mladen bid us adieu and went back to Sofia to connect with his family. He intended to be back before dinner. However, car accidents and such prevent this. As a result, we got a phone call from him telling us that dinner was ready downstairs although he wasn’t there. Obligingly we trouped out the door and down the stairs. I was the first one down. Feeling highly conspicuous in the middle of the town, I was relieved to see a friendly face beckoning me into the church. I slipped inside and was shocked to find the pews filled with people in the middle of a church service. I was ushered into a pew and the rest of my team followed suit. We happily joined in the clapping and singing (mostly we just caught on to a few words).
At the conclusion of worship, another friendly face intimated to us to follow him through another door behind the pulpit. We found ourselves in a small kitchen with a table already laden with sausages, cheese, and bread. Two lovely ladies communicated to us (without English) that their names were Nicolina and Nora. We met their daughters – Philippina and Ragustina. We laughed and talked as the service continued on the other side of the wall. When the music finally stopped, half of the church drifted into the kitchen to greet us. We continued our conversations and meetings through charades and the bits and pieces of Bulgarian we had learned. Oggie, Nicola’s husband and one of the leaders of the church, invited us to their home for coffee. Enjoying ourselves immensely and having nothing better to do than awkwardly wait upstairs for a phone call from Mladen, we joined a parade of people leading us through the town.
All of our travels through the town resemble a parade to a certain extent. We are invariably accompanied by Jvevko (another guy who works with the church) and a group of random children. In this instance, however, we had quite a group – six American girls, Ivan and his family, Oggie and his family, Jvevko, Svetla and her parents, Calin and his family, and the usual troupe of random children. Upon arrival at the house, we were given a tour and tried to understand why we were just standing around in the courtyard. Finally, I discovered that Oggie and Jvevko wanted to know whether we wanted to sit inside or outside. A flurry of activity greeted the decision that we sit outside – couches were carried outside, coffee flowed into cups, bags of sunflower seeds flew open, and chocolate bars were scattered across the table. Our hostess directed us to seats on the couch and the surrounding chairs. The circle was completed with the adults in the chairs around the table, Pippi and Ragustina on Elissa’s lap, the rest of the kids on the arms of the chairs and the couch. We laughed and sang for several hours.
Julia and I joined in a conversation with Calin and Jvevko that consisted primarily of noises and charades, from trains to elephants. We learned bits and pieces of gypsy songs and we sang a few English songs. It was late in the night before we begged leave and prepared to return home. Our parade of people wound back through the streets to the town center and our church home. Pastor Ivan, Oggie, and Jvevko walked us up to our rooms and we gathered together to pray. We spoke barely a word of the same language, but the nine of us came before the same Father in Heaven. We lifted our praise and thanks to Him.
Our first night with our new friends set the tone for the next week. Every meal and every church service was filled with joy, laughter, songs, and prayers. So much more has happened in the last week, but this is just a taste of what my month has included so far. Pictures and more stories to come: teaching a children’s program without a translator, playing soccer at the most beautiful soccer field in the world, and teaching kids to play basketball (Don’t laugh, even my deplorable form is better than theirs!).
Gospot datay blagoslovy! (God bless you!)
