Clarifications

I shared my blog with some Bulgarian friends, and after reading it, one of them corrected me about some comments I made in a previous post. So I wanted to make sure that I clarified some things based on her comments. Going na gosti (or on a visit to someone's house) is an important Bulgarian tradition that I particularly enjoy. And when going na gosti, it is important to bring something as a gift. It can be a plant, or a watermelon, a picture, sweets from the store, or something that you baked, or just about anything. My friends and I in Kraynitsi always brought wine and rakia because it was easily available and that's what we liked to drink. So it's not like people expect you to bring rakia every time and get drunk on it or anything. Far from that, it's just a time to enjoy the company of good friends. So in case any of you were misled by the way I described things earlier, hopefully this clarifies things. It's good to have Bulgarians read what I write to make sure that I understand things correctly. And I think it's interesting and humorous for them to see an outsiders take on things. One of my Bulgarian friends said that she thought my blog was really funny, and I'm glad she thought so. It's also interesting to have Bulgarians read my blog because I don't generally write correct English, I write like I talk. When I talk with Bulgarians in English I usually have to think pretty hard about what would be the correct way of saying something without using any strange idioims or anything. It's been interesting learning a new language as well as talking with people who are at different levels of learning English. And soon I'll be teaching English to my coworkers. This is going to be interesting. I'll keep you posted on how that progresses. Anyway, the pictures I posted here are all from a visit to the zoo I went on with some kids from an orphanage. I work with Ecomission, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that basically does all kinds of philanthropic work. They generally focus on doing environmental things and working with youth. They write a ton of grant proprosals to get funding for all kinds of projects that they come up with. They have a whole lot of really great project ideas, and they've already done a lot of really great projects. Right now we're in the middle of a project working with an orphanage to provide opportunities to youth there to learn more about the environment. There's like five different topics; water, animals, fire, and two others, I don't remember what. The kids watch a film on each one and have a discussion about it. Then they go on a trip somewhere representing each topic. The pictures here are at the zoo and go with the animal topic. Ecomission also has a bunch of youth volunteers from ages 15 to 24 or so. They help out a lot with implementing the projects that Ecomission gets funds for, and they're a bunch of really great people. They went to the zoo with us too, and we had a good time. It was a really beautiful fall day that day. I'm always amazed at how beautiful Bulgaria is. I know some of this information about my work may be a repeat, but after talking with my family, I'm not sure I described it well, so here's another way of describing it, perhaps another clarification. Anyway, that's all for now. Until next post!