Mousaka. Kebapche. Kashka-val. 'Scrabble words?' people who have never lived in Bulgaria might ask.

In fact, these are some of the things a former Peace Corps volunteer misses most about this country.

"Mousaka doesn't taste the same way here," said Dean Smith, an American who spent two years in Blagoevgrad during the late 90s, and now lives in Washington DC. "Maybe it's the kajma (ground meat), that mysterious thing we don't know what's in it."

Like most of those who have visited the country, Smith has a favourite story to tell about Bulgaria. His is a kebapche one.

At the beginning of his stay he would often wait at the bus station behind the Sofia Novotel and wonder how people could eat the kebapches sold there. Beside the dust and stray dogs wandering around, it was the meat he found the most revolting. "Nobody really knows what type of meat is in a kebapche," Smith said.

Gradually, his stomach got used to the mysterious food and eventually he and his Peace Corps friends began to crave kebapche.

"We went from 'that's weird, that's strange, we don't know what it is' to 'I should go out of the way to get one,'" he said.

Smith has other stories to tell, to the surprise of other Peace Corps volunteers who were sent to Africa and Central America.

He was lucky to get to Bulgaria, he says. He did not have to live in a hut without electricity, like those in Africa, and he did not have to row to work. Instead he had hot water, telephone and cable television. As a result, many other volunteers said, 'Oh, that isn't the Peace Corps.'

Smith got the Bulgaria assignment by chance. After completing a Masters degree in international relations at Yale University, he wanted to go to a Russian-speaking country to practice the language that he learned at school. His dream destination was either the Urals or Central Asia.

But fate and the Peace Corps often play tricks on people, and Smith was sent to not-so-Russian-speaking Bulgaria.

The language came in useful, however, especially in the first three months in Kyustendil. "My host family didn't speak English and I didn't speak a word of Bulgarian," Smith said. "But they spoke Russian and were actually bragging to the other host families, saying 'We can talk to our American'."

Smith did not arrive in Bulgaria totally unprepared. He had gone through an introductory course to the country, and once spent a day in Sofia when travelling from Germany to Turkey.

He also had two Bulgarian friends at school in the US, who often had him 'na gosti' (visit their home). One of these wrote down things he should try in Bulgaria, and things he should avoid, as well as some phrases and useful expressions he kept with him for the entire two years.

In Blagoevgrad, Smith worked as a small business development volunteer. At first he helped the local municipality but later got involved with the United Nations Development Program, helping them run development projects in Blagoevgrad and Gotse Delchev.

Looking back, Smith says the most difficult thing to deal with in Bulgaria was the different way of thinking. "It's the change of mindset that you have to deal with regardless of whether you are in a community out in the middle of nowhere in Kenya, or in Blagoevgrad that had 80,000 people and the American University and lots of Americans walking around spending their money."

The negative attitude of people was his biggest challenge. "A lot of times it was difficulty working with people who seemed so depressed all the time," he said. "It was very hard to go to work every day and everybody was frowning.

"As Peace Corps volunteers we were living on an average Bulgarian salary. So we understood when the prices of tomatoes and cheese went up. We also had to buy fewer of them," Smith said. "And we didn't have a village to go to and make burkani, so in the winter time it was hard for us too. So, we understood the troubles."

Returning to the United States, Smith was set back by the overload of things. "When you live here you take for granted the constant barrage of commercialism and consumerism, just tons of crap," he said. "It was weird coming back and having my senses bombarded."

When his family asked him to make something Bulgarian for them, he decided on his favourite dish - mousaka. "We went to the store to get the ingredients, we entered the huge supermarket and the first thing we went to get were tomatoes. And they had this whole section of tomatoes. There must have been 50 different varieties of tomatoes. I stood there and I looked and I was just perplexed."

When his sister-in-law urged him to pick tomatoes faster, said, 'I'm confused, I don't know what tomatoes to pick.'

Later, his nieces took him to a video game arcade where he was overwhelmed by the constant noise and had to leave. After working for the Peace Corps, he said, everyone needs some time for readjustment.

A week after returning to the US, he moved to Washington and found a job at Development Alternatives Incorporated, a consulting firm that implements international development projects. He started working as a proposal coordinator and is now a marketing manager for the agricultural and economics group.

Smith still keeps in touch with many of his Bulgarian connections. He is also a member of the Friends of Bulgaria, a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers who keep in contact. "If a job comes up at my firm for example," said Smith, "and I think that it would be of interest to people, I'll just send it on the list."

Although he likes being back in the United States, Smith will always keep fond memories of Bulgaria.

"I miss the simplicity of life, the pace was a lot slower," he said after a hectic day at work. "I loved to go with my colleagues for coffee at mid morning."