A few Bulgarian tales

Today was a day where I was going to start afresh and really do something, get something done. Ah, Bulgaria. It was a funny little thought and dream. Instead I waited to apply for my litchna karta (ID). The woman at the local immigration office said it had to be seven days before the old one expired. Seven. That's today. I went in expecting to complete the process.

"We're waiting," my co-workers said.
"For..?"
"A copy of the contract that we need to give immigration"
"OK"

Sounded simple enough. After an hour or so I inquired again. Still waiting. Finally a co-worker explains to me "The contracts woman just got a divorce and she misses her man" (his words, not mine). I've been here a year and I am still unsure what this has to do with getting a photocopy. Hours pass. Eventually the whole day. I am not sure about missing the "deadline" for immigration renewal - something that I know isn't universal, since other friends in other areas were given no such rules. I'm sure the deadline is made-up, but those bureaucrats behind the tainted windows have such power to make your life hell. I guess I'll get to be a legal alien whenever the contracts woman gets over her divorce...and if the lady in the window lets me.
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I like my town here - it's my local home and I can be rather defensive about it for that reason. However, there is something kind of screwy here. We are the home to the oldest mosque in the Balkans. A few years ago the city built and paid for the world's largest Virgin Mary statue to be erected. Personally, I think this is a "our god is bigger than yours" move. I could be wrong.

There's new evidence to back up my theory though. The oldest mosque in the Balkans has had a construction project surrounding around it since I arrived. New buildings that way caught my eye today and I wandered over. They were doing construction alright. The mosque is now basically enclosed by....shops. Islam is being attacked by capitalism ...ummm... Anyone know why there's instability in the world?
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I was helping a co-worker translate a document today so the head of our department could give a lecture on development. She needed the document translated from English to Bulgarian so she'd know what she was supposed to lecture on...though she supposedly already went through the process. We have a framed certificate that says so.

Anyway, at some point my co-worker comes to me and points to the phrase "developing world." He looks at me and says "what's this mean? Does it mean places like Africa?"
Yes.
He reads the rest of the sentence aloud "Here, like in other places in the developing world..."
He stops. "So are we in the developing world?"
Yes.
Pause.
"Americans see us like Africans?"
Ummm...