such the ladies man... 

Iliya lands in Philadelphia... takes lots of pictures of horse carriages, limosines and sky scrapers! 

So this is how democracy begins...

Its been 15 years since the fall of communism here in Bulgaria and if you walk around the capital, Sofia, you can see new wealth being creating, building being erected, protests demanding higher wages and where would any young, fledging democracy be without a few packs of mafia strongnecks breaking traffic laws in their tinted bmws. (Just the other day "The Russian" got whacked by a professional sniper on the main street in Sofia)

Despite this "progress", in small, hidden pockets, between mountains and rivers, democracy is trying to gain its footing. I was fortunate to be a part of some baby steps last weekend in a small village of Rakitovo (pop. 11 K). In the Roma (Gypsy) neighborhood here operates one of our partners, "Budeshte (the future)" Foundation, part of CEGA's "web" of partners.

Yanko, the director of the organization, is a good, kind man with a droopy face and dark skin. His hair, despite losing a lot, would have been cool in the 70s. He is a man who has seen and been through a lot and it shows. When I learned he had two daughters who were only in 4th and 5th grade, I was stunned. Even more stunned, when I learned how well they spoke english. There goal is to go the Langauage school in Pazardjik! ... but I'm getting off topic.

So Yanko came to our organization (CEGA) and the other partners (14 of them) and needed help. Apparently, Every Child, a large international organization, had stopped its free breakfast program. The Roma community was blaming Yanko and angry about it. Yanko's organization is a small organization that provides support and informal education outside of the schools to children. The community felt that he was working against the "Roma" school (there are two schools in Rakitovo - one predominately bulgarian and the other predominately Roma). Truth was that he was just encouraging gypsy students to go to the other school to get a better education.

CEGA and our partners decided to send an all star team of different Roma leaders from all over the country to help Yanko out. The first order of business was to meet with the municipal parliment members, then on to the neighborhood and meet with some parents, sleep on it, then wake up and have a much larger meeting at the evangelical church.

In typical Bulgarian fashion... nothing worked like it was supposed. In fact, it looked like a disaster. Although the mayor came, only 4 or 5 other parliment members came, no pricipals and almost everyone left early. We were very poorly organized and our delivery was awful. The only interesting to come out of this meeting, is the bulgarian population of Rakitovo seemed to show a real care towards their Roma that I haven't seen before.

At our parents meeting later that night, gathering people was impossible. And some who did come, left when they saw there wasn't alcohol or food. Plus, our own reasons for being there seemed to shift from talking about losing breakfast to primarily talking about the importance of education. As an observer here, I couldn't speak up and say what I wanted, it was really frustrating.

The next day, the church was in repair and we couldn't organize anyone there... so we decided to just split up and start talking to the locals in the cafes. It was here, in one or two brief conversations that I saw a small spark...

and its when I began to realize some things...

In America, we have a particular mentality that we don't even realize we have. If something seems not right to us, for example some restaurant doesn't have ketchup... we do something about it either subconsciously or openly, like going to a different restaurant or filling out a feedback questionaire or bringing in the cavalry if the situation is serious enough.

Here, there is no such mentality because one, there is a feeling that nothing can change and two, they just don't have the skills to see it through. Whether from communism or from the void left after communism, this community understood only one thing, how to play the victim. "Things are so awful for us." "Bulgarians have all the money and don't want to give it to us."

But here were these leaders from all over the country, listening to what they had to say, then saying no, you can do something about it. You want a better education for your child? You want breakfast for your children? Let me tell you about what we did... that's right a Gypsy community... in our town. It just takes some effort, some help and a belief that things can change.... it was real grassroots democracy at work!

Baby steps. Time. And lots of good people reaching out helping hands.

NY Times article on Bulgarian Youth

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/15/international/europe/15sofia.html?oref=login&oref=login&oref=login

Dananne at 9 or 10 months...  

Oh, It's raining outside

This article is contributed by my friend, Steve Daly. Steve also works in Pazardjik and the foundation that he is talking about is that one I worked with everyday. His email made me laugh (sadly I guess) because it was a great observation about the everyday comings and goings in the "Mahala" that can be mind blowing at times...

How y'all do'in. It's been a while since I've written to you all. Ithink that since my last correspondence I have been to Austria,Slovakia and have begun the implementation of the first environmentalmanagement system for a municipality in all of Central and EasternEurope, but all of this pales in comparison to what I witnessed today.

As many of you know, I have been helping out at a Roma foundation here in Pazardjilk. The Roma, for those of you that don't know, are anethnic minority in Bulgaria and are found all over Europe. Theyoriginally migrated from India hundreds of years ago, and physicallystill look a great deal Indians.

They are among the most impoverished of all groups in Europe, and the situation is certainly no different here in Pazardjik. Only 10% are officially employed, and perhaps about 20% are employed in the"underground" economy (I'll talk about that later). They are largelyuneducated and most have not studied past 8th grade. About 80% of theRoma in Pazardjik do not know how to speak Bulgarian, and speak either Roma or Turkish.

Ok, so that's the background. So I'm making my daily trip through the "Makala", the Roma neighborhood, to get to the Foundation. It is conveniently located past the vegetable market and sheep slaughtering pavilion, between the police station and welfare office. Periodically the Foundation is flooded with women that need help for something. Usually it is because they need help filling out their monthly welfareforms (which are in Bulgarian), but sometimes it is for something more interesting, like a chain letter: "Send this letter to 13 of your friends or when you die you wont go to paradise and meet Allah". There is nothing like a well written chain-letter to get the truebelievers out and photocopying.

Today was different. I walked up to the foundation and found that itwas once again flooded with women. I asked a couple of my colleagueswho were sitting among them what it was this time (welfare day waslast Thursday). They just said that they would leave soon. I askedagain just to make sure that they didn't misunderstand my Bulgarian. Again, they just ignored my question and said that they will probablyleave soon.

Fine. I went inside and asked my girlfriend who is the accountant forthe Foundation. She calmly, in a disinterested manner, and in perfectEnglish told me that: "They are all hookers, their pimps have ameeting inside the station with the Police", and then went back towork."Hookers"--"Pimps", how she knows these words is beyond me. And why is this not a big deal? No one in the Foundation found this strange at all. She may as well have just said, "Oh, its raining outside".

Nobody knows exactly why the Police rounded up the prostitutes off ofthe highway and are meeting with their pimps. Although prostitutionis "illegal" in Bulgaria, its one of those laws that is not enforced like littering. My bet is that the Police want a cut of the profits, and that it why they are talking to the pimps. You have to love economics in a developing country.

This is the country that I live in. You can have a gaggle of 60 prostitutes chillin' outside of your place of work while their pimpshave a meeting with the Police and no one bats an eye.

The election

Ok. This probably violates some copyright laws but I have admittedly been a little upset after the end of the election and searching for some way to express that. Bulgarians have been asking me all day, what happened? Another 4 years? What else is he going to do? --And I can't help but feel that we are reaffirming their belief that they can't relate with American anymore--

Below is a good column from NY Times that nailed one aspect of my hangover. It is a column from Thomas Friedman, who is a man I really respect. He has an amazing perspective and realism to his books and columns.... (Beirut to Jerusalem) (The Lexus and the Olive Tree)... read on...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04friedman.html?hp

Two Nations Under GodBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Well, as Grandma used to say, at least I still have my health. ...

I often begin writing columns by interviewing myself. I did that yesterday, asking myself this: Why didn't I feel totally depressed after George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis, or even when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore? Why did I wake up feeling deeply troubled yesterday?
Answer: whatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. And when George W. Bush was elected four years ago on a platform of compassionate conservatism, after running from the middle, I assumed the same would be true with him. (Wrong.) But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.

Is it a country that does not intrude into people's sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn't trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us - instead of dividing us from one another and from the world?

At one level this election was about nothing. None of the real problems facing the nation were really discussed. But at another level, without warning, it actually became about everything. Partly that happened because so many Supreme Court seats are at stake, and partly because Mr. Bush's base is pushing so hard to legislate social issues and extend the boundaries of religion that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution, not electing a president. I felt as if I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional Convention broke out.
The election results reaffirmed that. Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago - as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.
This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?" the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way.

My problem with the Christian fundamentalists supporting Mr. Bush is not their spiritual energy or the fact that I am of a different faith. It is the way in which he and they have used that religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad. I respect that moral energy, but wish that Democrats could find a way to tap it for different ends.
"The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics," noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. "They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings - but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs."

I've always had a simple motto when it comes to politics: Never put yourself in a position where your party wins only if your country fails. This column will absolutely not be rooting for George Bush to fail so Democrats can make a comeback. If the Democrats make a comeback, it must not be by default, because the country has lapsed into a total mess, but because they have nominated a candidate who can win with a positive message that connects with America's heartland.

Meanwhile, there is a lot of talk that Mr. Bush has a mandate for his far right policies. Yes, he does have a mandate, but he also has a date - a date with history. If Mr. Bush can salvage the war in Iraq, forge a solution for dealing with our entitlements crisis - which can be done only with a bipartisan approach and a more sane fiscal policy - upgrade America's competitiveness, prevent Iran from going nuclear and produce a solution for our energy crunch, history will say that he used his mandate to lead to great effect. If he pushes for still more tax cuts and fails to solve our real problems, his date with history will be a very unpleasant one - no matter what mandate he has.

What my organization does...

It has been brought to my attention from a friend of mine that it is not exactly clear what my organization does. The web site uses a lot of terminology babble so I will do my best to answer in lamen terms... what the hell do they do.

They are a lobby organization for social disadvantaged people. For example, if there is a law in Bulgaria that says people with wheelchairs and bald heads can't go into strip bars (theoretical of course), then my organization trys to get that law changed. Most of these efforts deal with the Roma (gypsies) (which is like the segregated south was 60 years ago) but not only.

The other goal of my organization is to improve participation at a local level of government. What does this mean? It means finding and training young leaders to understand how to stand up for their rights, work with the government and the community to make changes, to write a grant to improve something in the community (literacy program for example), among many other things. The point is to help organizations and people understand what democracy is and how they can improve their lives and the community they live in... Make sense?

The Halloween hiking crew plus... our friend and guide Nasa.  

Part of the "Bridges of Wonders(?)" (ok... it just doesn't translate that well.) 

The "Wonder Bridge" naturally formed over thousands of years.