Nodding in Bulgaria

For the last two days, we have been in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is not a country with very many dramatic sights to see or too many unusual historical events that took place. Being there, however, was a little disconcerting at times because it was like getting our first taste of Eastern culture as Bulgaria has a lot of Turkish influence.

I was not in Bulgaria very long until I felt like I had missed something very important way back in kindergarten. Had I really learned the alphabet? Everywhere I looked were signs I couldn't read, and I got a small taste of what life must be like to be illiterate. Even when we are in other countries, I could still often read the words and can often get an idea of what they say just by looking at similar words or root words. However, in Bulgaria, they use the cyrillic alphabet so I felt like I was operating on the level of a three year old. It is very humbling to not know the letters of the alphabet or how to even write the simplest letters or words.

Another thing that was very disconcerting is an unusual custom that Bulgaria has kept for hundreds of years. The story that we heard was that a long time ago under the occupation of the Turks, the Bulgarians decided to resist this occupation by confusing the Turks so they changed the way they nod their heads when saying yes or no. They began nodding their heads "yes" for "no" and vice versa. This piece of resistance stuck with them, and now Bulgaria is one of the few countries if not the only country that nods their heads the opposite of the rest of the world.
Now this may not seem so difficult to you, and I honestly thought it was a cute little anomaly, but the way it works in ordinary life makes one realize how often we Americans nod our heads without ever realizing it. For example, last night we were in a church there in the capital city of Bulgaria. The church leader was in front doing the preliminares and leading the songs, and I noticed all of the sudden that I had been slightly nodding "yes" and smiling while the leader was speaking as I often do as a guest in churches. It struck me that I was communicating "no" to everything the speaker was saying. Try smiling at the preacher and nodding "no"--it's very hard to do!

A short time later, Rick experienced the same thing. He got up and began speaking as usual on the topic of "Redeeming the Time." Before long, he noticed that the congregation was nodding, "no" at him. Fortunately, he remembered that they were not ready to throw eggs at him, but were actually agreeing with him. Nevertheless, there is just something psychologically difficult about preaching to a congregation that is nodding, "No"!

Another thing we learned about Bulgaria is that they are very well known for their roses and rose oil. I discovered this after I had gone into several shops and noticed they all had shelves full of rose products--rose oil, rose water, soap, lotion, you name it. I thought, "wait a minute...either all the shops in Sophia got a really good deal on rose based products or there is something to this. I asked the missionary we were with and he told me that Bulgaria grows huge fields of roses and sell the oil to the companies that make the most expensive perfumes in the world. Needless to say, the shops smell wonderful...