On Second Thought Maybe Not...

The other day for eco-club Wil and I thought we would do a little presentation on reduce, reuse, recycle and then make some Holiday cards with old Newsweeks that we've been collecting since we've been here. So we went through the magazines and cut out some letters and shapes to make snowmen and trees for an example for our classes. We thought it would be a good use for these magazines we aren't sure what to do with. Bulgaria doesn't do recycling yet in most cities and we didn't just want to throw them in the trash. So we explained the purpose and how to go about it and set the kids loose. Now, Bulgaria isn't what you would call a puritanical country. Most days I am on the bus I could look over at just about anyone reading a newspaper and see literally half naked ladies baring their "goodies" for all the world to see, so we didn't bother to go through the Newsweeks before handing them out- assuming they would all be appropriate. However, less than 30 seconds after handing them out I began to hear things like "Goli Hora" (naked people) and lots of laughing. From time to time Newsweek does articles on African tribes, but they also have done the bulk of their reporting on war recently and later in the day, as I flipped absentmindedly through some magazines to help Wil finish his card, I was a little surprised to see holes where executioners and other "not so cheery" men had once been. Needless to say I'm just a tad worried that I have a bunch of kids who will be giving their parents a "You Better Have a Merry Freakin' Gitmo Christmas" Card this year.