Photo: Photo: Christina, Bill & new employee at CDC office
The 2 Americans at CDC were Susan Berger and Bill Lett. Susan, a competent young woman, had been head of CDC Bulgaria for just a few months. Bill was a temporaray staff person working on a special assignment. I was told that the CDC in Bulgaria was to be shut down a few months before, but Plamen from BG Plan told the bureaucrats that the volunteers were a tremendous help. His testimonial convinced them to keep the Bulgarian office going. Later, in late 1998 the CDC office was closed down.
The Bulgarian staff included Nikolai, Josefina, and Christina. Christina was new, but I remembered the other two from 1993. Josefina was assigned to my work with BG Plan.
Photo: Nikolai & Josefina
An outgoing redhead Josey was not afraid to speak her mind. One day I had purchased two books of economic data from the Bulgarian statistical office, where Josey used to work. She told me they were worthless because "they were all lies". I felt embarrassed. Josey later married a British engineer for Shell working in Sofia and left Bulgaria. In 1995 Josey s brother was an apparent victim of an organized crime killing.
I spent more time with the CDC staff than I did in 1994. I felt they were more supportive and had the benefit of additional experience over the 1993 staff.
Photo: Ilene Berger (volunteer) and Susan Berger, CDC Country Director
During my 1st assignment in 1993 the CDC car was stolen. Earlier in 1994 the car was found, and so Susan had a vehicle to use. One night Susan, Alper (her Turkish friend), Bill, Cass DuRant from the Washington DC office, and I had gone out for dinner. After leaving Alper at his house, we drove to downtown Sofia to let me off at the apartment.
Near one of the government buildings police on the street had us pull over. None of us spoke Bulgarian or had our passports. The police indicated to us to drive the car to the end of the block and leave it overnight. We would have to get taxis and Susan would have to come back in the morning. We drove to the designated spot and looked around. The policemen s attention was elsewhere, so we drove on and never heard anything else.
However, not too long after that, the car was stolen outside of Susan's apartment during the night. It was never seen again.
Photo: Bulgarian Statistics booklet
