The Roma as a whole get a load of bad press and treatment where ever they go as do what the Bulgarians call "Gypsy's". When we moved here we had no pre-formed ideas about anyone and decided that although we'd read various things about the so called gypsies that we'd make our own opinions based on the people themselves.
In any Bulgarian village there will be a population of gypsies, Roma whatever you want to call them. Personally I do think that many of them are not true Roma but just get bundled in with them as they don't fit into the Bulgarian bracket. Certainly here a part of our community is from Turkish decendants, whose family's have been in Bulgaria for more than one generation. Let's not forget that Bulgaria was ruled by Turkey years ago and there is still some bad feeling between the Turks and Bulgarians, at least there can be. Our village nightclub was closed due to fighting between the 2 races although majority of the people involved were born in Bulgaria!
If you listen to most Bulgarian people they say that gypsies are lower in the pecking order than a dog and have various other names for them including Mangalli, Siganni etc although I believe gypsy is the most derogatory. Madonna mentioned the plight of the Roma people on her recent world tour and was booed and jeered at in Bucharest, Romania. More details of this story can be found Here!
I must say that the Bulgarian people are lovely on the whole but I can understand some of the reasons why they don't like the so called gypsies/roma,siganni etc. There is a difference between the 2 peoples, not always evident from the outside although some of the gypsies do have darker skin. From experience I find many of the to be arrogant, ignorant and able to lie their way through anything! They seem to think that the world owes them something and if they want an item it's ok to take it whether it's theirs or not. Before anyone jumps on this - I'm not saying that they are all the same, but majority of the ones we have met are as I've already described, some to a greater extent than others.
We've employed and worked alongside some of these people in the past, even classed some as friends at one point but to be honest we learned the hard way, had our fingers burnt and realised that although these people acted friendly they were only truly interested in finding out how much money we had and how was the best way they could get some!
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
School Days
Schooling here is somewhat different than the UK. The subjects are mainly similar with an emphasis on teaching the 3 R's, reading, writing and arithmetic. The school books I've seen are colourful and informative without being overbearing or boring.
I love my mornings when the kids are at school, the house is peaceful and I can get on with things before they get home at lunchtime. Our kids go to the village school and are learning Bulgarian very quickly, also Russian which they don't care much for but it is part of the curriculum. School starts at 8am and the younger classes get breakfast at school (free), by 12.30 school is usually finished for the lower classes and 1.30pm for the older students so every day the kids have the afternoons to themselves. Most children here help their families and do some kind of work, whether that be helping prepare a meal or collecting firewood etc.
Our kids do help around the house and feed the animals twice a day as part of their chores, we feel it's important that kids are involved in things and do help out and learn life skills etc. Sometimes they complain about having jobs to do but there are days when I don't feel like doing much either!
Today I've gone about my usual routine of horses and donkey out, animals checked etc then decided to head off up the garden to one of our derelict properties and collect sticks for lighting the fire. That done I headed back to the house to grab a coffee to warm up. A strange smell seemed to be following me so I left my boots outside thinking that I'd probably stepped in something.....still the smell was around me and getting stronger by the minute! So after looking about and not seeing anything that would cause such a nasty smell I decided to drink my coffee and have a break. Now this is when the smell seemed to get worse! and it wasn't coming from me......At last I spotted the culprit - my lovely little Cocker Spaniel Molly, not known for being ladylike and affectionately called "The Ginger Minger" by all of us she;s lived up to her nickname today! Oh and boy does she stink, she's been rolling in something dark coloured and rancid smelling and looks ever so proud of herself. Time for a bath me thinks. She aint gonna like it but it has to be done!
I love my mornings when the kids are at school, the house is peaceful and I can get on with things before they get home at lunchtime. Our kids go to the village school and are learning Bulgarian very quickly, also Russian which they don't care much for but it is part of the curriculum. School starts at 8am and the younger classes get breakfast at school (free), by 12.30 school is usually finished for the lower classes and 1.30pm for the older students so every day the kids have the afternoons to themselves. Most children here help their families and do some kind of work, whether that be helping prepare a meal or collecting firewood etc.
Our kids do help around the house and feed the animals twice a day as part of their chores, we feel it's important that kids are involved in things and do help out and learn life skills etc. Sometimes they complain about having jobs to do but there are days when I don't feel like doing much either!
Today I've gone about my usual routine of horses and donkey out, animals checked etc then decided to head off up the garden to one of our derelict properties and collect sticks for lighting the fire. That done I headed back to the house to grab a coffee to warm up. A strange smell seemed to be following me so I left my boots outside thinking that I'd probably stepped in something.....still the smell was around me and getting stronger by the minute! So after looking about and not seeing anything that would cause such a nasty smell I decided to drink my coffee and have a break. Now this is when the smell seemed to get worse! and it wasn't coming from me......At last I spotted the culprit - my lovely little Cocker Spaniel Molly, not known for being ladylike and affectionately called "The Ginger Minger" by all of us she;s lived up to her nickname today! Oh and boy does she stink, she's been rolling in something dark coloured and rancid smelling and looks ever so proud of herself. Time for a bath me thinks. She aint gonna like it but it has to be done!
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
A Rant a Day
Sometimes living here can be a pain! Oh for most of the time I love being in Bulgaria and most things that come along with being an ex-pat on foreign land. But today I need to have a rant!!!
The Bulgarian postal system is absolutely rubbish, the pits, unreliable, haphazard and many other things that would involve me using foul language lol. For instance - last march I posted qa card to my mother for mothers day, didn't cost loads, I'd posted it in plenty of time, in fact I'd posted it weeks before the event as she lives in Cyprus and the post there isn't wonderful too! I got the card back months later - it never left Bulgaria, why? Because the address was in the middle of the envelope and not the bottom right corner like some pen-pusher in Bulgaria has decreed is the correct way to address a letter!
Ok then, lesson learner and now all addresses go in the bottom right hand corner of the envelope. Some things sent to us here do find their way, although sending anything valuable or cash is not something I'd suggest or ask anyone to do as items like that invariably never arrive. Neither has my cash point card, hubby had trouble getting his cash point card sent here last year and when it finally arrived there were 2, from the same place and sent weeks apart, both arriving here on the same day!
I never thought to check the expiry date on my card so went to withdraw some money today for food shopping and was a bit miffed to say the least to find my card was out of date. Out of date card = no cash from machine. I've no doubt that my new card has been sent from the UK, but where it is, is a mystery. Possibly stuck in a forever loop of Bulgarian post that hasn't arrived, gathering dust down at the village post office or worse still in the hands of someone who has illegal uses for it in mind - fat chance of that with my card!
So I've e-mailed the bank and requested a new card, god knows how long it will take to get here if ever. Hopefully it won't take too long or I'll be off begging in the village centre lol But that's my rant over, now I can get back to more normal things and chill out with a lovely cup of coffee, since I haven't yet given up caffeine!
The Bulgarian postal system is absolutely rubbish, the pits, unreliable, haphazard and many other things that would involve me using foul language lol. For instance - last march I posted qa card to my mother for mothers day, didn't cost loads, I'd posted it in plenty of time, in fact I'd posted it weeks before the event as she lives in Cyprus and the post there isn't wonderful too! I got the card back months later - it never left Bulgaria, why? Because the address was in the middle of the envelope and not the bottom right corner like some pen-pusher in Bulgaria has decreed is the correct way to address a letter!
Ok then, lesson learner and now all addresses go in the bottom right hand corner of the envelope. Some things sent to us here do find their way, although sending anything valuable or cash is not something I'd suggest or ask anyone to do as items like that invariably never arrive. Neither has my cash point card, hubby had trouble getting his cash point card sent here last year and when it finally arrived there were 2, from the same place and sent weeks apart, both arriving here on the same day!
I never thought to check the expiry date on my card so went to withdraw some money today for food shopping and was a bit miffed to say the least to find my card was out of date. Out of date card = no cash from machine. I've no doubt that my new card has been sent from the UK, but where it is, is a mystery. Possibly stuck in a forever loop of Bulgarian post that hasn't arrived, gathering dust down at the village post office or worse still in the hands of someone who has illegal uses for it in mind - fat chance of that with my card!
So I've e-mailed the bank and requested a new card, god knows how long it will take to get here if ever. Hopefully it won't take too long or I'll be off begging in the village centre lol But that's my rant over, now I can get back to more normal things and chill out with a lovely cup of coffee, since I haven't yet given up caffeine!
Monday, 30 November 2009
Not long till Christmas
Only a few weeks now and it'll be Christmas, our 3rd here in Bulgaria. Time flies so fast here. This year we'll be having pork and turkey (home reared of course) loads of veggies and all of the trimmings too. The tree and decorations are ready to be put up around 10 days before the event and we'll be having a few days off hopefully over the festive period.
Last year we had the neighbours over for lunch, which they enjoyed although they were a bit confused over certain things and not used to being served a full meal at once instead of many small courses. Some things they liked better than others but in all we had a great time.
Christmas shopping here is a bit of trial and error, there's not a lot of good quality items for children to be found unless you're willing to part with large amounts of money. A lot of the stuff here is cheap tat imported from turkey or china and likely to fall to bits 20 minutes after opening the present. Our kids are too old now for games so they tell us and are mainly interested in clothes these days although they have developed a knack of thrift shopping and are quite happy to wear things bought from the second hand stall as long as they're good quality and not marked/patched or worn out, something which I also do. There's no harm in wearing used clothing as long as it's washed and not things like underwear/socks etc.
We're all looking forward to Christmas and don't mind missing the Queen's speech, we'll have a couple of quiet days where the only work to do is cooking, caring for animals and making sure there are logs for the fire and I'm sure we'll have some friends round and maybe even have a few drinks! And if we're really lucky it'll be a white Christmas here, something that rarely happens in the UK and the kids love.
Last year we had the neighbours over for lunch, which they enjoyed although they were a bit confused over certain things and not used to being served a full meal at once instead of many small courses. Some things they liked better than others but in all we had a great time.
Christmas shopping here is a bit of trial and error, there's not a lot of good quality items for children to be found unless you're willing to part with large amounts of money. A lot of the stuff here is cheap tat imported from turkey or china and likely to fall to bits 20 minutes after opening the present. Our kids are too old now for games so they tell us and are mainly interested in clothes these days although they have developed a knack of thrift shopping and are quite happy to wear things bought from the second hand stall as long as they're good quality and not marked/patched or worn out, something which I also do. There's no harm in wearing used clothing as long as it's washed and not things like underwear/socks etc.
We're all looking forward to Christmas and don't mind missing the Queen's speech, we'll have a couple of quiet days where the only work to do is cooking, caring for animals and making sure there are logs for the fire and I'm sure we'll have some friends round and maybe even have a few drinks! And if we're really lucky it'll be a white Christmas here, something that rarely happens in the UK and the kids love.
Saturday, 28 November 2009
A productive day
Today we've all worked together and managed to get most of the roof finished off, well the tiles are on anyway. We formed a chain and passed tiles to each other with me on the ground as I'm scared of heights! It's great to see the kids helping and not whining about having to do some work, I think they've enjoyed it really lol. And it's wonderful to see the roof almost done.
Any work that needs done on our house has to take a back seat when there is work for other people on, the need to make a living here is strong as we haven't a pot of money to rely on or any other income coming in from another source.We did toy with the idea of buying my sister out of the house in the UK and then renting it out to give us an income but there's no guarantee that we'd have had a tenant or that any tenant would actually pay the rent!
Of all the houses I've lived in during my life I don't think I've ever felt a bond or longing to stay there, apart from here. I love this house whether it's finished or not, our neighbours are mostly good and not too close, the garden is just waiting for something wonderful done with it and we also have plenty of opportunity to alter/build/extend or whatever should we feel the need to or even have the money to do so!
Update on the smoking thing - Hubby is smoking again but only a couple a day, he was so miserable without the fags and is happier now but realises that cutting down is a step towards another attempt at cutting them out completely. I gave in and tried a couple of cigarettes to see how it made me feel and to be brutally honest it was awful, I didn't enjoy them at all and have no urge to go back to smoking, I feel happier knowing that I've given up and hopefully beaten it. The best part is that by not smoking we have saved enough money to pay the monthly electric, water and phone/internet bills for the month!!!
Any work that needs done on our house has to take a back seat when there is work for other people on, the need to make a living here is strong as we haven't a pot of money to rely on or any other income coming in from another source.We did toy with the idea of buying my sister out of the house in the UK and then renting it out to give us an income but there's no guarantee that we'd have had a tenant or that any tenant would actually pay the rent!
Of all the houses I've lived in during my life I don't think I've ever felt a bond or longing to stay there, apart from here. I love this house whether it's finished or not, our neighbours are mostly good and not too close, the garden is just waiting for something wonderful done with it and we also have plenty of opportunity to alter/build/extend or whatever should we feel the need to or even have the money to do so!
Update on the smoking thing - Hubby is smoking again but only a couple a day, he was so miserable without the fags and is happier now but realises that cutting down is a step towards another attempt at cutting them out completely. I gave in and tried a couple of cigarettes to see how it made me feel and to be brutally honest it was awful, I didn't enjoy them at all and have no urge to go back to smoking, I feel happier knowing that I've given up and hopefully beaten it. The best part is that by not smoking we have saved enough money to pay the monthly electric, water and phone/internet bills for the month!!!
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Willpower
So far my willpower and determination to succeed at quitting smoking has been enough to get me through, today though feels a bit different. I find I really want a cigarette and I think it's a comfort thing to be honest. I sold our young horse this morning and found it quite upsetting - so I think that's the reason behind today's craving.
David is also still off the cigarettes but mainly because I am, I think if I'd had a cigarette he'd have been back on them like a shot. I often wonder if I just had one cigarette would it put me off more or encourage me to start smoking again? The latter probably and then it would be harder to stop again.
Selling the horse today was something I've been putting off for ages but something that needed to be done. Trying to look after all of the animals here, plus kids and hubby and also sort out the garden etc is quite time consuming and in reality I just didn't have enough time to keep 3 horses and spend quality time with them individually. The young horse has gone off with the benefit of having an extra year to grow and mature compared to other bulgarian horses - they are usually broken in at a year old and I personally don't think they're mature enough or strong enough at that age.
Having one less horse to look after also means one less mouth to feed over winter, which is not cheap. Although the saving we make not feeding a horse will probably be swallowed up by the fact that our pig is hopefully due to give birth mid january, so we'll have to feed piglets and a lactating sow.
I'll feel better over the next day or so about selling the horse. It's one thing I've never been any good at and I cried for days after parting with our horses in the UK even though I knew I was doing the right thing. Hopefully the want for a cigarette will drop off again too and I'll get back to feeling more positive about now being an ex-smoker.
David is also still off the cigarettes but mainly because I am, I think if I'd had a cigarette he'd have been back on them like a shot. I often wonder if I just had one cigarette would it put me off more or encourage me to start smoking again? The latter probably and then it would be harder to stop again.
Selling the horse today was something I've been putting off for ages but something that needed to be done. Trying to look after all of the animals here, plus kids and hubby and also sort out the garden etc is quite time consuming and in reality I just didn't have enough time to keep 3 horses and spend quality time with them individually. The young horse has gone off with the benefit of having an extra year to grow and mature compared to other bulgarian horses - they are usually broken in at a year old and I personally don't think they're mature enough or strong enough at that age.
Having one less horse to look after also means one less mouth to feed over winter, which is not cheap. Although the saving we make not feeding a horse will probably be swallowed up by the fact that our pig is hopefully due to give birth mid january, so we'll have to feed piglets and a lactating sow.
I'll feel better over the next day or so about selling the horse. It's one thing I've never been any good at and I cried for days after parting with our horses in the UK even though I knew I was doing the right thing. Hopefully the want for a cigarette will drop off again too and I'll get back to feeling more positive about now being an ex-smoker.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Ahh Country Life
One of our lovely neighbours has been around today with his 50 year old Russian tractor and plowed our garden. The same happened last year and we're ever so grateful. Because none of our land had been worked for at least 5 years it's mainly gone to weed and needed a lot of work and will continue to do so.
There are some fantastic gardens here, everything has a place and they look so well tended - barely a weed in sight, ours on the other hand is a bit more of a handful! Our garden is actually 10 gardens - we have 9 separate deeds, originally there were more buildings on the land and they are still shown on the "Skitza's", Still standing are the main house (that we live in) and a small bungalow that is almost renovated, plus barns beside both of them. At the top of the gardens we have another 2 bungalows but they're in a derelict state and cannot be repaired so we've removed any materials we could re-use (roof tiles and timbers for the fire) and hopefully nature will take it's course and the old mud brick walls will collapse in.
I'd love our garden to look like some I've seen in the village and to produce most of our vegetables and fruit, hopefully one day it will. The soil here is a fantastic dark brown colour and the garden looks amazing after being plowed. We're so lucky to have neighbours who are willing to help and try to teach us things, even if some of the things I don't agree with, like using chemical pesticides etc. Maybe one day my bulgarian will be good enough so that I can explain why I don't want to use any chemicals etc and how companion planting works!
So far we've only managed to work the main house garden but do hope to plant some lucerne on a double plot and also some maize or sweetcorn on half of another. We also have a lovely mature orchard with lots of apple, quince and plum trees. One thing we're never short on here is fruit as it's in such abundance.
There are some fantastic gardens here, everything has a place and they look so well tended - barely a weed in sight, ours on the other hand is a bit more of a handful! Our garden is actually 10 gardens - we have 9 separate deeds, originally there were more buildings on the land and they are still shown on the "Skitza's", Still standing are the main house (that we live in) and a small bungalow that is almost renovated, plus barns beside both of them. At the top of the gardens we have another 2 bungalows but they're in a derelict state and cannot be repaired so we've removed any materials we could re-use (roof tiles and timbers for the fire) and hopefully nature will take it's course and the old mud brick walls will collapse in.
I'd love our garden to look like some I've seen in the village and to produce most of our vegetables and fruit, hopefully one day it will. The soil here is a fantastic dark brown colour and the garden looks amazing after being plowed. We're so lucky to have neighbours who are willing to help and try to teach us things, even if some of the things I don't agree with, like using chemical pesticides etc. Maybe one day my bulgarian will be good enough so that I can explain why I don't want to use any chemicals etc and how companion planting works!
So far we've only managed to work the main house garden but do hope to plant some lucerne on a double plot and also some maize or sweetcorn on half of another. We also have a lovely mature orchard with lots of apple, quince and plum trees. One thing we're never short on here is fruit as it's in such abundance.
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