Monday, September 1, 2008

Bulgarian family

One major reason to return to Bulgaria is family. My dad is from Bulgaria--born and raised there. He left when he was 13 and finally made it to America by age 18. He was the youngest of 3 brothers, but one brother died about 11 years ago. Here's a picture of Dad and his brother, Christo. I'm named after this uncle.


Although, my dad loves his family....they drive him batty. Well, let me clarify. This brother and his family drives Dad nuts. They argue incessantly. My brother, who does not speak Bulgarian, noticed immediately how annoying this family can be. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that I didn't take any other pictures of this part of the family. I think I was too busy running away from the arguing to notice I didn't take pics.

Here's a picture of my cousin, Bogdon, dad, and brother. Bogdon is my dad's deceased brother's son. By the way, my brother's name is William Boyd named after my dad's other brother, Bogdon. Yep, you guessed it, my brother's name in Bulgarian is Bogdon. Whenever my cousin and brother were near each other, I called them Bogdon Squared.


Here's a picture of Bogdon which clues you in to what type of personality he has.


This last picture is a picture of my dad, brother, cousin's husband, Nasco, my Chinka (aunt), my cousin, Mata (she is the sister of Bogdon and daughter of Chinka), and me. Notice the background. The large building to the left is a "bloc" or apartment building. It is more common for people to live in an apartment than it is to live in a home. Especially for people living in the larger cities. The town of Ivailovgrad has about 3,000 people.


This is my cousin--he works in the Bulgarian Navy much like our Seals. Much of his work is secret--not even his wife knows exactly where he is at any moment. There was a magazine that did an article on his troop and he was on the cover of this magazine. Cool, huh? And isn't he handsome?

I laughed when I look at this next picture. When Dad and I went back 10 years ago, there were 4 little girls who adored me. Seriously. They were about 6-10 years old at the time and I couldn't do anything without having them hold my hand, lean against me, or sit in my lap. I couldn't eat lunch because they would not get off me. These girls are now young women and were so excited to see me again. Although they didn't sit in my lap this time, they did hang out with me the whole time we were at their house. They monopolized my attention. So cute. Anyway, the man in the back with the white hair is my Dad's cousin that he grew up with. He is also the cousin that had planned to go with Dad when he was going to run away to America. Dad showed up at the appointed place/time, and Georgi didn't. The rest is history.....

I'll end on a slightly sad note. This is the gravestone of my cousin, Ivan (popular name, right?). He was very wealthy, even by American standards. Remember the story of the spit? He's that cousin. When he passed away, this is the gravestone his family chose. The stones in Bulgaria are not this elaborate. Even by American standards, this is pretty impressive. Ivan was larger in life when he was alive; it seems appropriate that his gravestone be loud as well.

By the way, the gravestone gives his name, birth date, death date, and the bottom says, "His life was stormy, but honest and peaceful." I think this is a Bulgarian cliche that essentially means that he lived hard, but full of honesty and good will.

1 comment:

~pollyanna said...

I am slowly making my way from the start to the current time...

It's a lot of fun!