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 Bazaar Garden

The pavements of Yambol are, in a pretty bad condition, there are a couple of reasons for this. The first is caused by the vast amount of trees that are planted on pavements, whose roots spread like wildfire thriving in a perfect climate and nutritious Bulgarian earth. The second is the extremes of temperature from winter to summer added to which the heavy rain, which turns into street rapids, washing the already fragmented sandy elements of the pavement away. So it is no surprise to see paving stones and raised pavements throughout Yambol. In fact it is part of the town’s character and the town’s lower end bazaar by the bus station is no exception.

One of the most interesting shops in the bazaar is the hardware store. Its many goods displayed outside and even more variety of tricks of the trade in gardening and farming utensils inside, most of which has a deep fascination and some a curiosity. Today the fascination was distracted somewhat with what I saw outside the shop.

The fragmented paving stones outside the shop had been removed and there now was a cultivated garden with flowers now growing there. The shop owner approached me after seeing that I had interest in this ornamental patch. She asked me what I was doing. I explained that this little patch was of great interest to me but I didn’t understand why she didn’t grow tomatoes or other vegetables there, why flowers? She said that they would be taken and eaten by gypsies who hang around looking for work in the early mornings. Point taken.

So now outside the hardware store is a little garden with flowers, it remains to be seen if the local authorities get to repair the pavements whether this little Eden will stay. My own guess is it will remain as these little practical answers to problems tend to be built into the Bulgarian system at all levels.