Sorry that we haven't blogged in a while! We have had a busy week, moving in and becoming acquainted with our new towns.
We drove to Pravets last Friday and met our leader, Zhana, then drove on to Vidrare, where we attended a program put on by the school children. It was pretty interesting, even though we couldn't understand most of what was going on. Afterwards, Zhana showed us around Pravets, which is about twenty minutes from Vidrare, and let us get settled into our apartments. Davina and I have a huge apartment, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and bathroom. The guys' apartment is about ten minutes walk down the street, on the top floor, so it has a great view. Everything is in walking distance, which is different, but we've enjoyed it. The entire country has been on a holiday since last Friday, celebrating the Bulgarian culture, so we haven't begun our routine that Zhana has prepared for us. We visited a small Roma town called Manaselska Reka on Sunday. It's high in the mountains, which meant an interesting bus ride for us. Zhana has church services with a small group of people every Sunday. Usually, after church, she plays with the children so their mothers can visit with each other. With us here, Zhana is able to sit with the women and build better relationships with them while we entertain the kids. So we played tag and Frisbee with the kids and taught them a few new games. We have been working on our Bulgarian vocabulary, and being around the kids has helped us learn even more. The kids and families we have come in contact with have be so welcoming and open to us!
Another adventure we have experienced is cooking for ourselves. I was so excited about doing this; we have vegetable markets and a small grocery store down the street from us. I thought it wouldn't take us long to figure out how to make dinner for ourselves, but it has been an interesting experience. Saturday, we had the basic chicken and mixed vegetables. It was tasty, but not very exciting. Sunday, we were able to eat some wonderful soup and bread in Manaselska Reka. Monday, we ate huge bake potatoes the we bought from the market. They were definitely the biggest potatoes I have ever seen. They turned out pretty well. Probably our best night. Then we had spaghetti on Tuesday. It was alright, except that we didn't know the guys don't like Italian food that much, so that wasn't a favorite for us. Wednesday was probably the worst, though. We decided to have rice, corn, and baked chicken. We cooked the rice and corn while the oven heated up, then had to wait for at least thirty minutes for the chicken to cook. So we had some very strange chicken and cold rice and corn. Tonight was better in the fact that we found frozen chicken patties and made french fries; the chicken tasted like fish and the fries were so greasy that they were sliding out of our fingers. So, best night so far: baked potato, worst: take your pick.
We have had a wonderful time here so far. God has definitely blessed us with a beautiful location and amazing leader. We know He will continue to take care of us, even if we aren't so good at taking care of ourselves yet. We have fallen in love many times over with the land and the people. We have only been here a week, and it feels like we are completely enmeshed.
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