Boats, Brawlers and Babies in BULGARIA

So, while I was in Egypt yesterday I realized I hadn’t written my blog for Bulgaria so I apologize for the delay on this post. Bulgaria was interesting, to say the least. I was kind of hesitant to go to Bulgaria because of the whole post-Soviet satellite state thing as well as the fact that Bulgaria is the human trafficking hot spot of the world but I knew we would be protected by Jesus and it’d be fine. We dock in Varna and a group of us decided to explore a little bit before our field trip Human Trafficking FDP we had at the municipality of Varna with the mayor and the local governmental representatives. We walk for about 5 minutes and we realize that Varna is NOTHING like Istanbul. There was nothing to do, nothing to see and it was dirty, desolate and depressing. We ate at this Italian restaurant because it was the only restaurant we could find within a 10 mile radius and we had a horrible experience. My friend, Rachel ordered a chicken salad and they gave her a salad with eggs, questionable sandwich meat that looked like ham, mayonnaise and tapioca pudding and it was terrrrible. My other friend, Shannell (who happens to be black) ordered pasta but it came a half an hour after our food, because apparently Bulgaria is extremely racist and they decided to discriminate against her. This is our first impression off the boat. Great. Then when we went to our FDP and it ended up being very disheartening because we found out that even though Bulgaria is the hotspot for Human Trafficking, the Bulgarian government hasn’t done anything about it. The entire field trip was basically saying that they were excited to START doing something about fighting Human Trafficking but there were no programs or laws passed yet. Basically I walked out of it extremely disappointed. The next day Heather and I had a trip to Nessebar, a tiny little Bulgarian fishing town that housed numerous medieval churches made of stone and filled with beautiful frescoes. It was beautiful and so much fun. Nessebar definitely made up for the previous day in Varna. The third day in Bulgaria we went to a resort town about a half hour away from Varna called Golden Sands. Caroline, Rachel and I decided to try out some water sports in the Black Sea and we hopped on a giant inflatable couch-looking thing called the “Big Brawler” that was being pulled by a Bulgarian guy on a speedboat. One of the water sports guys approached us and said, “I hope you know the captain will try and throw you in the water. He is going to do it.” I was like….mildly terrified. We get out on this “Big Brawler” and the Bulgarian guy is haulin’ it through the Black Sea at a speed that I am unable to determine at this point (but it was verrrry fast) and he’s swerving back and forth and we’re barely hanging onto the “Brawler” and nearly flying off. Well, Rachel flies off first, and then I followed her shortly and finally Caroline. We were all floating in the Black Sea with our life vests on and we had to have him drive over in the boat and have us climb on the “Brawler” in the middle of the sea. It was kind of the craziest, dumbest thing I’ve ever done. I am not sure why I thought going tubing in a post-Soviet satellite country was a smart but I’m glad I made it out alive. That night I was sore and didn’t want to go out so my friend Cheyenne and I walked to a coffee house with free WiFi and I was able to get on Facebook and upload pictures for the first time this entire trip!! Hooray! The last day we were in Bulgaria I went to a local orphanage that had 50 children between the ages of 3-7 years old. We were able to ask the social workers there any information we had on the orphanage and then we got to play with the kids for an hour and a half. It was a blast! We played with bubbles and we went outside on their two playgrounds they had and we made mud pies in the dirt and scooped sand and ran around. This one little girl was obsessed with my big sunglasses and she kept putting them on but upside down and it was adorable. The orphanage visit definitely made my time in Bulgaria amazing and it was my favorite portion of the Varna port.

My next blog…EGYPT!! Love you and I miss you all!!! Sorry again this took so long to send out. Only three more weeks until I’ll be home!! HOOORAY!!! I hope you’re all having a happy August and staying out of the heat!!