I learn more about my town.

So, I've taken to going on long walks to look for my still-missing retard cat. This is the only upside to his disappearance. I've learned some stuff about Pavel Banya in the process.

First of all, two things that are common in Bulgaria, but I thought were absent from Pavel Banya due to its small size, are blocks and a mahala. But I was wrong; I just didn't know where they were. Blocks are these hideous cement apartment buildings. At some point, someone somewhere thought this would be an excellently socialist way to live. Is it really awful of me to hope that that person eventually ran afoul of Stalin and spent his life in a gulag? (Yes, I suppose it is. But they're really ugly.) So, that was kind of disappointing, but at first I was surprised that I am not living in the blocks, as most Peace Corps Volunteers are. Until I walked around them a little and realized that the blocks are in a mahala.

I think "mahala" just means neighborhood, but in reality, it always means "Roma neighborhood" (or, to translate more accurately what Bulgarians would actually say, "Gypsy neighborhood"). The PB mahala isn't as bad as some I have seen - the houses appeared to be solid enough for electricity and running water, there weren't any naked children running around in goatshit - but it's definitely the ghetto of Pavel Banya. Or, it would be, if I hadn't walked around a bunch more and found some other rather ghetto-tastic areas.

When I got to PB, I was struck by what a neat and clean town it was. There is an immaculate center area, with cafes and restaurants and shops for the tourists from Sofia. There's a nice big park with carefully tended grass and flowers and benches. You never see goats being herded through the center, and there are paved sidewalks. But the farther you stray from the center, I have realized, the more you remember "Oh right, Bulgaria. Developing country. Many, many problems."

I've spent some amount of time thinking "why on earth does a pleasant little town like PB need a Peace Corps Volunteer?" Now I think "I'm just one person. What can I do?"