Recently a girl at LSU who is a Peace Corps Nominee (meaning that if she clears medical she’ll probably be invited to serve) got in touch with me through a mutual professor. One of the things she asked me was this:
“I was also wondering about cultural differences: What are some cultural differences that you are faced with? How do you deal with them? Are there any ethical desicions that you have to make based on ethical conflicts(Meaning, something that you believe is ‘right’ and they believe is ‘wrong’ and visa versa)? What are they and how do you deal with them? How do you maintain your own identity and your own beliefs while, at the same time, complying to their culture (being in their domain and all, I’m sure that’s important)?”
My response is what follows. It’s probably the most I’ve put into actually explaining these issues to anyone back home (i.e. not a fellow volunteer who knows where I’m coming from already). I felt it would be good food for thought.
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Let me premise this by saying one VERY important thing. This is a very general outline. I say things here about “Bulgarians” and “Bulgaria” by painting them all with one brush stroke. There are of course numbers of exceptions to everything I say. Bulgarians, like any people, are a diverse bunch. I have some really good Bulgarian friends who are not like this at all. Also, all of these issues tend to be subtle. While things like a nationalist party hating on the minorities certainly have a high profile, in your every day life you generally only encounter these issues in muted ways. Most of these issues are ones I only occasionally encounter, and usually try to simply skirt around when I do.
Certainly there are many things that one must “adjust” to here. I suppose the biggest thing everyone in Peace Corps Bulgaria seems to have the most trouble with is the fatalism that exists in post-communist nations. That is to say, in Bulgaria people don’t understand that they can make change in their environment by doing. This is merely an example, but if one was to try to do a project to beautify a town park: pick up trash, repaint benches, repair play sets, etc., the average Bulgarian response would be, “why? It will just get dirty and ugly again.” This is paired with the general attitude that if it is not their job, they won’t do it. This is both because under communism, it WAS ALWAYS someone else’s job to do it anyway. Now it’s no one’s job, but no one feels responsible. Thus it’s difficult to get locals to invest in projects. PCVs here often function as much as motivators as they do as facilitators. This is the largest problem I deal with every day. Between the apathy and the lack of thinking outside the box when it comes to problem solving, a PCV can often feel like a bird with its wings clipped.
The biggest conflicts that could be described as ethical generally have to do with the big three: racism, sexism, and discrimination against homosexuals. The biggest is racism, prejudice, and discrimination again the Roma population in Bulgaria. For instance, the Ataka political party is a nationalist organization that formed in the last parliamentary election and also ran a presidential candidate this year. Their platform is basically get rid of the Jews and Roma and Turks and make Bulgaria for the Bulgarians again. Supposedly this will magically make all of Bulgaria’s problems with crime, poverty, education, healthcare, and everything else imaginable disappear, because Bulgarians themselves are all obviously model citizens with great morals and a high level of education. *sigh*
The Roma have it pretty bad here, and a millennium of exploitation and hatred towards them hasn’t made them exactly want to assimilate either. Roma families pull children out of school early, marry off young girls to other families, etc. They live in segregated neighborhoods, and usually don’t speak Bulgarian as a first language, preferring Turkish or a distinct dialect of their own, depending on which community you’re talking about. Any conversation about the Roma you have with the average Bulgarian will usually go south pretty fast. They just think they’re all “dirty tzigane,” which is about a close to calling someone a “dirty nigger” as you can get in Eastern Europe, though it is not as considered as taboo here. They are considered filthy, theives, lazy, etc. Of course the actual lifestyle that Roma people live doesn’t help. Many of them ARE thieves. Most of them ARE unemployed. Most of them ARE stinky. But Bulgarian’s just don’t have the attitude that this is due to their environments and just write them all off as a group. The worst is when they say that their problems with the Roma are like our problems with black people back home (not that we’d ever phrase it that way!). They see things like American music videos and television shows and think that all blacks are gangsters and things like that. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but the only experience Bulgarians have of black American culture is the latest 50 Cent video.
Married couples and women serving here also experience the brunt of the sexism here. There’s not a single husband who has had colleagues over that hasn’t been told when helping in the kitchen that that’s woman’s work, or a wife who has been told that it’s shameful that she doesn’t take better care of her husband or apartment. Often times single female volunteers will complain about the fact that they are often talked down to by male colleagues, especially when the topic has to do with traditionally masculine things, such as mechanics, business, or politics.
Most gay volunteers generally choose to stay closeted to Bulgarians, even if they come out to fellow volunteers. Homosexuality is still something very volatile here, despite the presence of certain gay celebrities. Much like back home, calling someone the Bulgarian equivalent of “faggot” is a common insult (I’ve been called it a few times when finally resorting to profanity myself when politely telling a prostitute I’m not interested failed to stop her from physically molesting me). There are a few places in larger cities that give LGBT people an outlet, such as gay night clubs, but these are still places one wouldn’t want to have to tell the taxi driver you’re going to. One recent experience that comes to mind is at Thanksgiving I hosted many volunteers from around Bulgaria at my apartment for the weekend. On Saturday night, when we had out Thanksgiving meal (we don’t get American holidays off, so we make it up on the weekends usually), I invited the director of the institution that I work at to join us. A fellow volunteer was talking to her about the kids at my institution, and how she felt we did things a little differently back home. One of the reasons some of the kids at my institution are there is because, on top of other problems, they’re “gay.” How anyone can know this about a 9 year old is beyond me, but regardless that’s the excuse. This volunteer expressed the view that it’s not seen as something that is either wrong or right and that we don’t judge people about it. This of course opened up a can of worms that made me decide it was simply time to go get seconds on the turkey and stuffing.
Generally speaking, just like at home, talking to someone about these types of beliefs isn’t going to change their mind. It takes life experience to do that. Most volunteers recognize this and choose simply to avoid the topic, even ignoring it if you can pull off simply not being able to understand the speaker’s Bulgarian (even if you do!). However, it is something that comes up every now and then. We often have discussions on the best response to give when asked about how we deal with our society’s pariahs. One response punted by our Country Director (the head of PC in Bulgaria) over our list serve was
“Many Americans used to think that way about black people, Asians, Hispanics and other people. It’s taken us a long time and a lot of work, but we’ve reached a point where most people realize that thinking like this just made us weaker as a country. Now, many of our best leaders, business people and teachers are people who used to be considered inferior because of where they came from. By learning to appreciate everyone’s humanity and potential, America has become much stronger and harmonious…”
He also said, “another approach might be to point out that in Western Europe many Bulgarians are feeling the sting of racial/ethnic stereotyping, being lumped together as thieves and stupid people just because of where they come from and how they look.”
No one has found a definite answer to this issue, but I find that generally the best way to to avoid direct conflict and simply lead by example. Show them that you can be friends with a Roma person by being so. Talk about friends back home of a different background when delivering an anecdote to show that race isn’t an issue for you. They may think you’re naive and don’t know better, but on occasion someone realizes that in America it works because we let it (at least, sort of!).
In the meanwhile, we all do a LOT of venting. Many of my weekends are spent with other volunteers complaining about Bulgarians, Bulgaria, work, missing home, the backwardness of it all, the uncomfortable buses, the boredom of a small town, and everything else. With other Americans, especially once you’ve found your niche of friends, you can deflate and be yourself and, as you put it, “maintain your own identity and beliefs.” Also, being an LSU graduate, beer helps.
Anyway, I hope this has answered your questions fairly clearly. I know it’s a lot to digest.
