The Grants' Bulgaria Blog.

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Did any of our current readers follow the old blog when we came to Bulgarian 2-and-a-half years ago?

We came with a group of 9 people – all from St. John’s – for a 4 week foray into David and Kathryn’s ministry in Bulgaria. At the time, D+K were living in a town 45mins south of here called Kardjali (Кърджали). Some of their team still live and work in Kardjali so we visit the town fairly often. We’ve been meaning to visit one place in particular ever since we arrived in Bulgaria but it took us nearly 9 months to make it there!

These stairs:

You see, building these stairs was one of the practical tasks we had on our Aug-Sept 2007 trip. It’s a nice story: the stairs are in a Romani mahalle (the Rom are another ethnic minority – pretty much the bottom of the social pecking order) where David and Kathryn knew an amazingly faithful believer named Shaziye. As a way of blessing Shaziye in a practical way, D+K organised for us to build these stairs up to the neighbourhood toilet – which is used by about 10 families in the immediate area. So we built them – without a great deal of confidence in ability to do so. We also had to contend with wood that hadn’t been cured properly, so it warped quite badly! But the stairs turned out okay.

When Elly and I checked them out last week (about 2-and-a-half years later), I was almost certain they’d have been broken… or torn down for firewood… or something. But they weren’t! They looked good as new:

You can see what is probably sewage water flowing underneath. Ok, so we built stairs, but neglected the sewage problems. Oh well! You do what you can.

So, Team-of-2007, well done! I certainly felt quite chuffed that the locals appreciated what we did enough to look after it. It was a very small gesture, but I’m glad it’s still helping people!

End of feel-good post.

Cheers,

Stu.

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6 comments so far

Today’s is an entirely visual blog entry!

Sometimes I get jealous of Aydin colouring-in, so here’s what I came up with. Elly calls it The Game of Life: mission in Bulgaria edition. It’s a decidedly tongue-in-cheek journey through our time in Bulgaria.

(Click to enlarge – I don’t want you all to sue me for damage to your retinas!)

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Here be Elly taking up where Stu left off on what we are most looking forward to at home.

8. Ninja! (That’s our cat, by the way.)

Ninja, Ninja, Ninja. Where to start?

We miss cuddling him, conversing with him, chasing him and his skinks out of the house, laughing at him as he sits forlornly outside in the rain he insisted going out in, watching friends’ expressions of bewilderment when he uses his door knocker to announce that he’d like to be let in, blowing his fur off our faces during moulting season, snuggling with him in bed in winter, teasing him, feeding him scraps as we prepare dinner, watching him stalk insects and puddles of water, laughing at him choking down a worming tablet…and more!

Mum took this photo of him at their front gate, calling it the ‘When will they be home?’ photo. Aww.

We hope he’ll greet us with his little ‘hello’ meow when he sees us again… (sounds something like ‘re! re!’ …or does writing that confirm my status as a crazy cat lady?)

9. EFTPOS.

Who wouldn’t miss this glorious piece of technology that allows you to drain your bank account without giving you a statement so you can keep an eye on your spending? Uhh… good point. But it’s convenient, yes? And we love convenience, don’t we? We’ll feel much safer as we walk the streets without pocketfuls of cash.

Relatives of EFTPOS: Direct Debit and Online Banking. Who wouldn’t like to pay phone and internet bills from the comfort of your home and have the leisure to think of more important things instead of wondering when the rent is due? Welcome to the 21st century, may Bulgaria catch up soon!

10. Our Bed.

We’ve heard reports that our huge Queen sized ensemble bed with a sprung base and pillow-top is already waiting for us in our new room at Sam and Dani’s house. We hope so, because we are looking forward to finally sleeping in comfort.

We gave up on our Communist-issue bed here months ago. I say bed; it’s better described as two hammocks side by side with a futon mattress flopped on top. Communist generosity at its finest! Not very good for the back or a full night’s sleep. We’re now on the floor on a foam mattress loaned to us by the Richards, which is slightly better!

This guy knows what we’re talking about. Great blog of his; you should check it out!

11. Quality control.

All the things I hated about working at Target I’ve grown to appreciate here. Smile at the customers! Always offer them assistance! If something has slightly damaged packaging, mark it down! If a customer returns something that’s proven to be faulty, give them their money back! No questions asked!

This doesn’t even include the rigmarole products go through before being allowed to leave the factories. Anyone who has caught themselves staring mesmerised at one of those boring in-store Rivers videos will know what I’m talking about.

I’m not saying that everything in Bulgaria is dodgy, but the following examples certainly were! Humf bought a ski jacket when he was here and it started to fall apart the first time he wore it in snow. We’ve bought more than 20 biros since being here and threw most of them out in disgust after a very short while. Even my big brown sleeping-bag style jacket from Romania has seen early retirement after the zip broke.

12. Cooking for a party.

We developed quite a reputation back home for cooking for large numbers of people. Birthday parties, quiz nights, Synod, Christmas Eve party, ‘just because a bunch of people have rocked up from Hobart’ nights… just say the words and we’ll create a feast and a lot of fun.

We are so looking forward to doing this again, that I’ve already volunteered our services to a friend for her 21st birthday party. When I broke this news to Stu, instead of giving me the withering look he usually awards me when I volunteer him without asking first, he instead expressed great disappointment that the birthday isn’t until late October and he’d have to wait.

If anyone has need of caterers for an earlier time slot (say anyone born on or around April 29th for example) then send us a message and we’ll see what we can do!

13. The Australian Accent.

This kind of sums up Sal’s comment from the last post.

It’s not quite enough that we miss being surrounded by English speakers, because when we talk with the Koreans or the Americans, it’s nice but not the same. It’s the way Aussies talk (ie: lazily). I read a very Australian book to Aydin today – Gala Koala of La Scala by someone named Cheryl. Gala the Koala is accused of telling, among other things, a ‘whopper’, ‘bluey’, ‘tall tale’ and something ‘hard to swallow.’ Australianisms at their finest! Reading this story out in any accent other than Australian would be a crime!

No more laughing at the pitiful Australian accents delivered by American actors on the tv. We want the real thing!

Oh, and ’skitties’ – we still derive great entertainment from that story! Thanks Sal!

14. Being with good friends.

Road trips, camping trips, post-work coffee, swimming at the Gorge, tennis, coffee after church, tv nights, movie nights, coffee before any organised activity, playing the Wii, competing on Singstar, morning or afternoon tea coffee, barbies, fish and chips, ‘most coffees made in a day’ tally, Monday Night Group, boardgames, ‘introducing someone to coffee’ coffee:  things we did with our friends.

Of course, when with a group of people there’s always that time when the conversation stops and everyone stares around the room awkwardly.

Some could argue that with our group of friends, we should never worry about awkward silences, but when they do happen we don’t care because we’re comfortable with our friends no matter the awkwardness.

And there’s a good lot of awkwardness to be had. We’re looking forward to being back with you guys!

Sorry loyal readers for being absent on the blogging front recently. My blog ideas drought is now over and I am back! I even have lots of ideas stored up in the drafts so I’ll be stealing the limelight from Stu for a little while, mwah haha.

Cheers

Elly xx

ps Read Imogen’s blog. We were racing and she won. I say ‘racing’, what I mean was ‘I was encouraging her using friendly competition.’ You all have something to read now so everyone’s a winner!

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