A Bulgarian Present - An Apartment

It is traditional in Bulgaria for the parents to provide their children with a home of their own this is normal. This is the main reason why mortgages are rare in Bulgaria the homes are passed down to the siblings without any need for them.

Today was such a day where this happened and the thoughts and emotions of the day were quite profound from everyone who was party to it.

Galia has two sons and two homes in Yambol, one home is the family home in Yambol where here mother and son who will end up with this home. The other is an apartment on the other side of Yambol which where many years ago she worked hard to pay for this over most of her working life, solely to provide for her other son. This is even more of an achievement being a single mother in Bulgaria.

How sensible that this tradition takes place and how unfortunate that the tradition is on the point of collapse, as the housing market prices have rocketed due to tourism, EU admission and greed, not necessarily in that order. The purchase of a new home in Bulgaria for Bulgarian children is beyond the reach of most people here without now the aid of the Banks who are laughing in the face of tradition here with their incessant need to control people and breed credit just for profit. No wonder there are so many banks in Yambol now, many Bulgarian need them to achieve their goal of finding homes of their children and can’t without them.

The tragedy is that the land and credit they can get from banks isn’t enough for property now as the price of an apartment is now longer commensurate to securing a loan based on wages here. Modern Bulgarian families now face the prospect of children who will become homeless when adults with their own families, will this lead to families sharing homes or finding work elsewhere and extended families fragmenting the very foundation of traditional family values in Bulgaria?

The other fact about Bulgarian families is that sensibly only have one or two children, this is purely practical in view of the responsibility that comes with parents. If you can’t afford to have the children and provide and set them up into adulthood with a home then don’t. How many other people in other countries look at this value when considering a family?

Back to the apartment that is now going to be handed over to Galia’s elder son, he has his girlfriend with him this evening. They called at the house at 8:30 it was dark and we all went see the apartment, which is now empty from the previous rent paying residents being ousted for this moment.

We arrived to be greeted by all the neighbours who were sitting out in the street talking. The smell of barbecued peppers and Rakia was strong but I couldn’t quite see where it was coming from, perhaps on of the many balconies that hung out of the small apartment blocks. It made my mouth water, even though we had had barbecued peppers to eat earlier that evening. It was a full 20 minutes before the talking stopped and we went inside the block.

Everyone is excited, Anton and Koyna for this was the first time they were to see the apartment. Galia as she was proud that all her lifetime efforts were now seeing a result in her son having his own home. Not least me as this was a totally new concept for me to see, a parent providing security for here son with the knowledge that she will be giving everything she has away. No need for wills to be made promising inheritance; this is all based on family trust and custom here. She will be looked after in the family house with her other son and future partner until she dies, he has the bigger share and therefore the responsibility of looking after his mother, just like Galia is looking after her mother in the family home presently. The idea of living in a home that you don’t own is something I find very hard to accept. The degree of family trust and a total materialistic stand off are the reasons that this happens here.

In the ground floor entrance was a series of brown painted metal post boxes as Anton checked his with number 8 written on it. He joked when he saw nothing in there saying that it will be full of bill for the apartment soon.

The basement of the block was explored, each apartment has a basement room for storage and we saw there were stacked metal shelves with lots of glass jars full of preserved tomatoes and peppers and old Russian Christmas decorations and a big wooden barrel that had some ancient wine in. On the top shelf was a new plastic covered single bed, something the previous resident had either forgot to take or will come back for as it is far too good to leave.

We finally got up to the first floor where the apartment was, before we entered Galia gave Anton the key and that was the formal acceptance of the apartment as a gift. He gingerly opened the secure front door amidst three other very individual doors in the hallway with hand made mats and slipper placed on them.

On entering the place was swarming with insects and a stale smell greeted us, but we were all beyond that as we explored the kitchen living room, bedroom and wet room (bathroom). There was a box room next to the kitchen and a sealed balcony with interconnections with the living room and bedroom overlooking the street.

For us all the place was a home but needed a lot of work all the tile were falling apart in the kitchen area and the rest was just in need of a total stripping and redecoration, the place has never been modernised since it was built some 30 years ago. We of course will all work together as a family to get it into shape. Money was offered to help with this as the gifting goes on. But I feel that Anton was overjoyed as for the first time he has now a place he can call his own home, but of course this will be passed down to his children in around 25 years time. No need to die to give.

We locked up and reflected on the moment of handing over and what work was still to be done and ended up in a local bar where the owner is a Bulgarian television celebrity. Ivo Anton brother had just finished work and was invited there as well as we all finally sat drinking a beer or two in celebration of the day in which Anton was given an apartment as his home. A lovely end to a day of giving.

ADD: I just noticed the Christmas tree on the post in the middle of the lower picture, this is there all year round, not early for this coming Christmas!

Bulgarian Schools - First Day Back

Today is 15th September, it's the first day back at school in Bulgaria as the weekend saw many children back in the town of Yambol after many spending the whole summer with their respective Baba and Diado (Grandma and Grandpa) on the farms in the villages. And by all accounts having got feedback from many, loved every minute of it.

It was a word of warning from our own Baba who was crushing grapes by hand in the big barrel this morning as I set out to drive. “Be careful,” she said. “There are lots of children walking to school this morning,” as another vine stalk was taken out and discarded from the barrel.

True to her words the town was swarming with children, most carrying bunches of flowers. It is tradition that the first day back, the children present flowers to their new teacher. It is quite strange watching the elder boys walking the streets with flowers in their hands, in the UK they would be called ‘Pansies’, but here nothing of the kind, this is normal.

The first day is a day where the children get a talk from their teacher and head teacher. This particular school day only lasts a few hours as they are walking their way back home flowerless at around 10:00 this morning. Many parents of the younger children are in on the talk.

My work place is opposite a school, which has been inactive for months. It suddenly came back to life this morning on this unusually cold September day. It is really nice to have the area and the building full of activity again with children talking and playing sensibly during their break time. It is especially heart warming to see such respectful well-behaved children in this part of the world.

Yambol's Future - I Blame America

Yambol is changing day by day and not for the good. Most of the change is coming about from the younger generations and now from young parents who have young kids. The reason for this is quite clear. Young parents now have been exposed to western ideals and ways since the 1990's. Television and media, mainly from America has now had a big impact on this generation and it shows.

Everyday another incident examples the way of the west infiltrating into Yambol life. A trait of America is the graffiti that only a few years ago was no existent. It has slowly taken off with little signatures on walls that didn't infringe on personal or business properties, there was still the respect as to where graffiti was sprayed. Right now it is everywhere, on shop doors, apartment blocks, everywhere without any care to the privately owned drawing boards. This is disturbing news and the images graffiti clad towns create is remnant of a run down environment. With all these new building developments and investment in Yambol, the 'New Town' image is more than tainted with the graffiti defeating the object of uplifting the town.

Young children, the offspring of the younger parents are another major concern from what I see. I shops they pine for everything they see, and get it. If they don't get what they want the bawling and screaming starts until they finally get it. This is not a one off occasion but time and time again this happens. The attitude of the parents, mainly the women, remind me of what I left back in the UK. A spoilt race of children who already have lost respect for adults and real values. I have lost count of how many times these children just run around in shops, bumping into customers without any apology and the parents at this point are just focused on the shop shelves. Looking from this angle their commitment to being responsible for their own children in shops seems to be put into the shop assistant's hands as they try and limited the damage to goods they knock down with their bull in a china shop actions.

Teenagers now are learning how to use alcohol to get drunk rather than just a social aid. Only the other week Galia's son got the rough end of this with a lad who just drunk get drunk, and a fight broke out, with injuries sustained, from insults that were made through drink. This would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago but is now less of a shock in many Yambol teenage circles.

Obesity has been written about before but now seen in this true light with Bulgarian 'Billy Bunters' a common sight in Yambol, all the fast food given to them by their young mothers, which can be described as either pencil thin, full of make up and cheap copied western fashion or fat and full of fast food, either way most just don't bother cooking anymore and the pizza takeaway meal washed down with coca cola is tops.

There are other give aways to Yambol becoming a slave to American TV media and a classic example is the music scene. Rap with its the foul language and awful message is probably the most noticeable influence. The language is copied and used in everyday conversation and the black culture and fashion. Young Bulgarians in Yambol are losing their own identity as you see hooded, tat toed, chunky chain fashion all around. Even their walking is done in the same copied style with a slight lean into every other step.

All this leads me into thinking what will the future hold for Yambol as quite clearly this is here to stay. Well, for many living here they will carry on with things and move along with the change, I may have to re think is this what I came to Yambol for. This is just a fleecing thought right now and of course I can always go back to village life which will not change as quickly as it does in towns.

Bulgarian Schools - Fashion Houses?

Those of you in Bulgaria today and up early you will have noticed something very different to the normal quiet Bulgarian streets of the summer months.

From 7:00 onwards this morning there were swarms of children making their way to school! They actually started the new school year on the previous Saturday which was a hangover from the working day in lieu form the previous long weekend public holiday.

Looking around this morning the childrens destination felt more like fashion houses than schools. With no mandatory school uniform in force, the trends of dress were spectacular to say the least. From where I'm looking the Bulgarian fashion is in good hands with the youth of today.

Colourful and interesting as it is watching the children catwalk to school, this is a big financial strain on parents who are subjected to the cry of wants from very fashion conscious children.

This all comes from various sources of direct and indirect advertising solely geared up for these impressionable ages groups. Because Bulgaria is still very slow to pick up laws on high moral grounds this may the be reason why the country haven't considered the introduction of school uniform based on discrimination of the poorer families who wouldn't be able afford to keep up with the latest fashion. This creates an unacceptable instance where there are those who have and those who don't a situation intolerable in the eyes of the modern western world.

Somehow though I don't think school uniforms will come into play in school at any time in Bulgaria. After all they had 50 years of uniform clad children pre-1990 and there's no going but with the taste of fashion freedom now firmly in place. And certainly the moral thinking behind the 'have' and 'have not' society in Bulgaria is fully accepted as what goes on here not without prejudice I might add - but that's how it is in real life.