“Why read stories about Bulgaria? I don’t know anyone there.”

Yes! That’s it! Exactly! When my wife and I decided to join the Peace Corps… “We thought South America would be a good place to go. A benefit of that would be learning Spanish, a useful advantage in any number of situations. The first thing we were told was that they had plenty of volunteers who could already speak Spanish, so that was out. So, where then? We had spent plenty of time in the Far East already, when I was in the Air Force. The South Pacific and Africa seemed less attractive at our age – leave the places with the more difficult living conditions to the kids. I had heard interesting stories about working in Eastern Europe from the son of a co-worker. It wouldn’t be mud huts, yet the challenges would be worthy ones, dealing with big changes after the fall of communism in that part of the world. It sounded like an opportunity to be a part of something significant.” (A Breeze in Bulgaria, p. 5)

And significant it was! We didn’t change the course of history or alter the economic fate of a nation, but the people we met and the things we learned would change our lives forever. Friendships deeper than we could imagine, deepened while sharing meals of “long, casually prepared courses featuring sausages, cheese, sturdy bread and homegrown vegetables. Toasting was always done with eyes locked together, ‘To health!’ Nazdrave!” (p. 3)

The customs and cultural background of the people were strange to us, eye-opening. All toward greater understanding of the world we live in.

That’s why Bulgaria.

A Breeze in Bulgaria is available as an eBook.