Name: Hanna Ruszczyk
Age: 33
From: Connecticut, U.S.

Hanna's been in Bulgaria since October 1997, running the JOBS program of the UNDP. The program, financed by the Bulgarian government, helps small businesses grow and meet their full potential. Her work has allowed her to satisfy her desire to travel, both in, and out, of Bulgaria.

When Hanna left the U.S. 10 years ago to work abroad, she had no idea what was in store for her.

In that time, she has visited 23 countries, worked in Poland and now Bulgaria, met her husband, and started a family. "I wanted to travel and see the world," she said. "But I had no desire to be an expat and away from the states for so long.

"But I'm really happy, I like my life."

Hanna was involved in banking in the U.S. before she decided to become a peace corps volunteer and make her way to Poland. "I never expected to be in Poland for five years, but every project led to another project, and I wanted to stay," she explained.

From there she moved on to work for the United Nations, with both the ILO and the USAID project, and is now working with the United Nations Development Program in Bulgaria. She is presently the director of a business development program, which helps small business grow, and, in turn, create more jobs.

The program, called JOBS (Job Opportunities through Business Support), helps businesses by doing things such as buying them the equipment they need to grow and giving it to them on a lease, which they pay back over a couple of years. "The best thing is that I get to travel around the country," said Hanna. "Villages really like us, our work is really visible."

JOBS is a $7 million project coordinated through the UNDP, however, the money doesn't come from the UN, but, rather, from the Bulgarian government. "The government asked the UNDP to come up with projects to create jobs. They decided to finance this," she said, adding that this decision was made by the previous government, but she is hopeful the new government will continue the financing.

The program establishes business centres across the country, which are registered as NGOs, and provide useful training to small and microbusinesses, and also helps facilitate access to credit. "There are no grants, or interest free loans," Hanna stressed. "We give them access to financing so they can learn how to function in a real market economy."

They've also helped craftspeople in the country's villages learn how to adjust their product to suit the tastes of their customers. These products will be a part of a business and crafts Christmas bizarre, scheduled to be held from December 8-9 at the Radisson Hotel. "It helps artists sell their crafts to foreigners," she said.

Although Hanna's only been in the country for a little over four years, she's noticed quite a few changes since her first days here. "There were very few lights, at night it was dark," she said. "And there were three or four dogs on each street corner."

In this time, her travels around the country have both impressed Hanna, and allowed her to see a side of Bulgaria that many people don't even know about. "As a country, it's beautiful. But I prefer outside Sofia to inside.

"In Isperih, there are Thracian tombs which were there 4,000 years before Christ. No one goes there, no one knows about them," she said, explaining they intend to set up a tourist centre there to remedy this problem.

She also really enjoyed the time she spent in Zheravna - a museum town, and another locale unknown to tourists. "It's genuine and really beautiful, with winding alleys, like Bansko."

It's in these small towns where Hanna's tasted some of the best food the country has to offer. She particularly enjoys the cheese and the shopska salad, but another favourite is lutinitsa, a dish composed of tomatoes and peppers.

Looking ahead, Hanna and her husband, who moved here from Poland with her, can't decide where they would like to live long term, but the arrival of their newborn son this year has given them a bit of a deadline. "I'd like to settle somewhere before my son is five years old," she said. "It would probably be in the UK or the states, but Bulgaria has been great.

"We're quite settled here. We have a good group of friends, and we both like our work."

Coming from a Polish background, Hanna's been making out all right with the language of the land, but she still has her problems. "I'm one of those people who hate grammar. I'm forever in the present tense or the future," she explained, adding the importance of making an effort.

"You have to speak a certain amount if you want to be accepted."

Now that she's been living outside of the U.S. for 10 years, Hanna does find herself missing things from home. Specifically, she points to her daily copy of the New York Times, and the American food she's grown accustomed to. "But everywhere you travel, you can find something unique and good," she said.

That aside, Hanna's in no rush to move on, and finds constant satisfaction in her work. "My team is really great," she said. "They take care of each other, and me - I've been really fortunate."

Drawing on her experience in this country, the only advice she would offer other expats is to see all that Bulgaria has to offer. "You need to travel in the country," she said. "There's no way you can understand Bulgaria if you don't travel."