MIA

I have been quite MIA, apologies. The fourth of July celebration in the village went really well. We played games with the kids in the morning; the guys played football with the boys and us girls played a mixture of American and Bulgarian playground games with the girls and little kids.
the children of Pavolche, its hard to see but they wrote "happy holiday america" in chalk on the ground

In the afternoon we had a potluck. A novel thing for Bulgaria but it turned out well. We made a bunch of American fourth of July type food and the Babas (grandmas) made Bulgarian dishes. We had a good turn out, and we had this reporter there too to take pictures and interview all of us about what we were doing. It was kinda cool, but in my opinion a little awkward... (funny story, the article came out in the paper today and the journalist lady messed up my and Katie's names.. hahaha)
Table of food, American food is closest and the Bulgarian on the far side

We've been really busy the last couple of weeks so in a short recap, because its late and I'm tired, we went to the famous caves nearby. Ledenika is its name and that roughly translates to ice cavern. Its pretty cold but since its summer it wasnt too bad.
Caves are difficult to photograph b/c flashes arent that good....

We installed the benches for our community project. In total there were four benches, all donated by furniture factories in town. We've already seen some of the kids playing on them so hopefully they will be put to good use.
The "Benches on a Hill", us the mayor and the kids that helped

We went hiking with some volunteers that were visiting from Krivodol and Mezdra.
Hikers takin a break

The Balkans

It was an awesome hike, but very unfortunately through flea infested areas and we have been battling them ever since. I am happy to say that "Biokill" has proven quite useful in this endeavor and I am now only massive itchy from the camping trip we took this weekend.
We went camping this weekend. It was amazingly fun. It was group Pavolche (Me, Katie, Matt, Nichole, Joe and Tom), Jef from Mezdra, and Tom's host family. We camped on a river outside Dubrusha (where Lydia, Tom's host mom is from) and swam, bbq, made a fire, played cards, walked in a sunflower field and danced all night.
Field o Sunflowers

Tom jumping into river after that orange frisbee you can see, he didnt get it

Jef w/ a bunch of Bulgarians at dinner, we got some good language practice in

Dancing with Desi, she also is in the group that I dance the Hora with

We only have 2 days of language class left before our language proficiency test next Monday. We go to Sofia, the capital, on Wednesday to see the Peace Corps Office and meet with the "senior staff" whatever that means. A current volunteer said there is a Moroccan Restaurant there so hopefully we will eat there... if we can find it...
Thats all I can thin of right now, I will attempt to write more often.