Church/The Giraffe living in VT/ Peace

Ohh Sunday Morning! I always loved going to church on Sunday Morning. There is something about a Sunday that has always been an important day of worship for me. I feel rejuvenated alive! Awakened in my faith! Today I went to church for the first time in Bulgaria. Well actually not the first time but it was the first time I went to a church that wasn’t a Bulgaria Orthodox church. The church was something I found through a Peace Corps Bulgarian staff person who attends a Pentecostal Church in Sofia. Most Bulgarians claim to be Orthodox but they really don’t practice the religion or recognize God at all with the exception of holidays like “Poct” (fasting 40 days before Christmas), Christmas, Easter, and various other name days. People in Bulgaria are not very religious and in many cases they are almost atheist. It all has to do will Communism and religious practices being banned yada, yada, yada.

I truly felt the presence of God in that Church this morning. I could not understand the meaning of every word we sang but I knew that the words were powerful! I closed my eyes and sang my heart out. I had a huge sense of relief and peace. I felt at home! We sang another song in Bulgarian that I actually know in English called “Here I am to worship”. It was interesting singing this song in Bulgarian. I really needed to go to church this morning considering all the things I had been through in the last few days.

The past few days have been really difficult. This Friday I went to hang out with my director’s daughter for Student’s day at a café. On the way home we were followed by three or four teenagers that kept calling me “niggarka” (if you look at the word you will understand what it means). I am not sure if this is a derogatory term or not but I was offended. Bulgarians keep assuring me that its not derogatory but it sounds too much like the American word. After we left that situation not five minutes later another group of young people said “Tam e niggarka” (There is a niggarka).

I felt really exposed especially after the woman that touched me last week on my way to work (I talked about this in an earlier post. I decided to chalk it up to another day in life of a Peace Corps volunteer. However, yesterday on my way to the market the guys working construction yelled comments about me being black as well. Than on the way home from the Market (I decided to take a different route) some random man stopped me on the streets and asked me random questions. Needless to say, the conversation ended with a proposal of marriage.

I began to feel like a giraffe walking down the street that everyone stared at because I am so different. I didn’t think I would stand out so much in Veliko Turnovo because there are many tourist but apparently not African ones.

While I was in church one of the ladies that was sitting next to me asked me how I was doing in Bulgaria. I told her sometimes good other times bad. She gave me some words of encouragement After her comments I knew that everything was going to be OK.


Sitting in Church and trying not to be the giraffe in VT (or at least adjust to people staring),

Crystal