The Stuff of Which Dreams are Made
Where to start with Hristina? She and I first met my second summer in Bulgaria. I had been helping Matt run the summer day-camp he and I had put on and which I took over the next year. Hristina was dating another American volunteer at the time. He was in the same group as Matt was, so he and Matt were both about to leave the country. Hristina was driving him through Bulgaria to say goodbye to his friends, and they came through Zavet to meet up with Matt. That night she crashed on the floor with her boyfriend in my spare room after helping cook dinner. Ends up she was an archaeologist (how sexy is that!?) and cut hair in Sofia. The barber in my town had just left to go back to the Netherlands, and I could no longer get my hair cut in town since the ladies at the beauty shop didn’t cut men’s hair. So, I got Hrisi’s number, and told her I would call for an appointment when I got back in to Sofia, which I did at least every three months. It became a strong friendship.
I saw Hristina almost every time I went to Sofia. I’d call her, make sure she had an opening, and would go get my haircut. A couple of time we’d go out to a party together. Eventually she came back to Zavet a year after we’d met to participate in the camp. She volunteered to come and paid 40 leva to travel 12 hours round trip to get there (keep in mind most Bulgarians only earn about 300 Leva a month!). She spent two days volunteering and even chipped in for food and beer (meanwhile some Peace Corps volunteers – whose job it was to be there – were grumbling about 5 leva a day for food and beer and lodging at Chez Koubi). What a beautiful soul!
At the end of my time in Bulgaria she came out to my going away dinner, as seen in this post. It was a sad affair saying goodbye to her, but I had faith I would see her again. Continuing my friendship with her (we still email and chat online), is one of the big reasons I am hoping to get stationed in the Balkans with the Foreign Service.
Anyway, I’m surprised it took this long for me to do a post about her. Хриси- Лиспваш мен!
Looking Oh So Beautiful
December 26, 2008 at 12:16 am |
Weird!