August 4, 2000

This is about Amelio. Amelio is a cousin of our host family. Amelio is about 12 years old. He likes to paint pictures on the terrace. He also likes to smile. He smiles very often. We like Amelio. Amelio wears glasses. He has a problem with his eyes, but he sees better through his glasses. When Kate and I come home from a long day of training, he peeks his head out of wherever he is and smiles at us and giggles a little bit. His mother lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father and brother live here in Dupnitsa. He has been living here with us for about two weeks now. We don’t know why. We do know that he, his brother, and father are trying very hard to get a visa to America to be with their mother/wife. Thus far they have been unsuccessful. Most Bulgarians who attempt to get visas to the US fail and if they do, they end up living in Chicago or Indianapolis. During the second week that we were here Amelio’s father called the US embassy and asked Kate to listen to the message on the phone. Kate really didn’t know what to make of the message but it was clear that it was a message that made things complicated. Amelio wears a T-shirt of Jalen Rose, a basketball player for the Indianapolis Pacers. His brother, whom we see every so often, wears a T-shirt with Reggie Miller who is also a player for the Pacers. Did I say that we like Amelio? Last night we were invited to go to a “na gosti”, which is the Bulgarian way of saying that we are going to visit some friends. When we said that we would go Amelio was very happy and he said “yesss!” (in English) like he just sank a three pointer.