No Surgery Needed!!!

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from Tryavna, my permanent site, and Sofia for my knee re-evaluation. The good news is that I do not need surgery, and I don't have to wear a hard cast. The bad or not so good news is that I still have to wear a soft cast for the next 6-8 weeks. The fracture in my patella is not dislocated, so therefore surgery is not required. Although I can already tell it's going to be a long road back to normal walking once the soft cast is removed, because I tried flexing my knee to put my socks on this morning and it did not want to move. It looks like muscle atrophy has already started in my left leg and it's only been a week. Yikes!!!

On the other hand my visit to Tryavna went great! The organization I will be working for is called SOS Kinderdorf and it is based out of Austria. My future colleagues are very friendly and open to new ideas, so I think it's going to be a nice match. The town is also nicely preserved, and has a lot of historical artifacts and monuments. I actually asked if I could stay there and not go back to my host site, but Peace Corps wouldn't allow it!

That's all for now. Check out the websites for Tryavna and SOS Kinderdorf for more info.

Tryavna:
http://www.tryavna.bg/en/

SOS Kinderdorf:
http://sosbg.org/ENG/index.html

Peace, Love, and Understanding...

The Good, Bad and Ugly!

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to give a quick update on what's happening in Bulgaria. On Thursday, I found out that I'll be placed in Tryavna for the next 2 years. I'll be working mainly in an orphanage of approximately 70 children, where I'll be organizing after-school programs, sporting activities, teaching English, and other activities. I will also be working in the municipality and secondary school to organize activities for youth and adults living in the community. I'm pretty excited about Tryavna because it's a tourist town nestled below the mountains in south central Bulgaria. My counterpart is really nice, so I think there will be a lot of opportunities to do projects that I'm envisioning.

On the flip side of things I have bad news. On Wednesday I fractured my left patella playing basketball with children in my host site, so now I'm on crutches. Right now, I'm expected to be in a cast for the next 6 weeks, and hopefully surgery will not have to be performed. In 2 weeks I have to travel to Sofia for a re-evaluation to see if surgery is needed, and if not hopefully I will be put in a soft cast.

Other than that things are going well. Training is still intense, but that's expected. In a couple of weeks my group will be having our day camp for the community youth which should be really fun, at least for them. I am still a little interest to know what my modified role is going to be since I now am using an assistive device! Hopefully next time I'll have some good pictures to post from my permanent site and the day camp.

Until next time,

Peace, Love, and Understanding...