Working Abroad Away From Bulgaria? No, Just Talk Really

Would I rather be living in France, Spain, Greece, Cyprus (I’m half Cypriot) or more exotic lands such as Thailand, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, which I absolutely adore? The answer a few years ago was yes. Any one of these countries could have easily been my choice of becoming an expatriate, but the bottom line was they were all too expensive. Now of course I have found my niche, a new family life and work in Bulgaria.

Who is to say that Galia and I won’t still move on to new countries to work? We are both free and still relatively young enough to work for another ten or so years. The chances are that this won’t happen though as we are in the poverty trap. Just the cost of an aeroplane trip form Bulgaria to Cyprus, only two hours away, would cost a month’s wages.

We have often talked about whether we would like to work in another country and Spain was the country that was talked about the most. May Bulgarian work there for a few years and come back for a year or so to recover before going over again when the money runs out. We did exactly this in the UK two years ago, working for a few months then coming back with some funds to live off, but the whole experience was too stressful for us both. The UK is out of bounds due to health reasons.

Right now whether we like it or not we are in Bulgaria for life, it is lucky that we do like it although like most people we would like to have a bit more income to cover all the increased fuel bills during the winter months and perhaps enough to afford a week away on the Black Sea Coast (and be able to afford to eat in a restaurant there) in the summer. We are luckier than most as we both have a vocation here and we can afford food, many don’t and have to do with much less.

Part of living a Bulgarian life is to experience the poverty, which many Bulgarians have to endure. It remains that for many outsiders looking in that they will never be able to understand what it is like not to be able to afford basics. We have been in exactly the same position many times over the years and rely on support form other members of the family to help us out. We of course help others family members out if they are in need whenever we can. You cannot know what this is like unless you go through it at first hand.

The question is that if we did travel abroad to work we would probably miss our family and friends so much that it would be short lived anyway and of course not have jobs to come back to when we return. It may sound like we have itchy feet, but like most things here we just talk about it because that what everyone does here.

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Recession Hits Bulgarian Family Business

The recession continues to hit the world hard and here in Bulgaria we are all feeling the pressure of an economy that was frail to start with.

Up until her operation, Galia worked for her brother who owns a boiler factory. He started his business repairing boilers in his garage and then got his own premises a few years ago. He designed his own boiler systems which are wood burning/electric combination shower units and started manufacturing them with a small workforce.

It is very much a family business with his son, daughter, and sister Galia working there as well as having taken on Galia's son for a short spell last year and has even offered me work there before now.

Over the last few years the business had flourished, the workforce grew to employing over 30 people and they are the sole supplier of these units to every major town and city in Bulgaria as well as export to Greece. Romania and Russia. Over the last 18 months the business had build a new factory premises, a brand new warehouse with the aid of a 6 figure bank loan to cope with the increase in demand, this was completed just before Christmas

Today, there are worrying times for this business, the orders have diminished and the workforce is down to around 5 people. Galia, who was due to return to work this month, now has no job to go back to. Even though she is family there is no order for here to process and administer. The loans to the bank still have to be paid for the new factory and although there is still a trickle of business things are on a knife-edge.

We just all hope that things turn around and that the orders pick up again later in the year. the factory needs business to pay for the loans and of course employ a local workforce who now find themselves struggling with no work.

I have seen this develop on a day to day basis as I used drop Galia off to the factory in the morning and pick here up in the evening and even now as I work on the factory farm on a daily basis.

For someone who has worked all his life building up a small business from scratch, then to find that the carpet has been pulled from under his feet is hard to accept. We all hope and pray that the business pulls through - people do need boilers, boilers repaired and replacements. The products they manufacture are fantastic contraptions although mainly used by Balkan countries. There will always be a demand so hopefully the smaller sales won't drop further and may be enough to see them through.

It is not good news at all and just highlights what is happening not only on our doorstep here in Bulgaria, but worldwide, that fact is no comfort to anyone though.

Welcome Home to Bulgaria Sylvia

Monday morning and Galia and I can hardly move, as the muscles in our bodies seemed to have been through ten rounds in a boxing ring and we were the losers. Why?

It all started with Galia’s niece turning up in Bulgaria, she had been working as a nurse in Greece for the last four years. She had decided to come back to Bulgaria and a home welcoming evening was organised at a Yambol restaurant last Saturday evening. In attendance were Galia, her niece (the nurse) another niece of Galia’s, plus another friend of the family. The scenario is set for four beautiful women and myself out for the evening and the best part of the morning., We partied on until we dropped, how fortunate am I and Sylvia insisted she paid for the whole evening! She had been earning ‘real money’ in Greece, not the pittance given out in wages to employees in Bulgaria - After all, that’s exactly why here and millions of other work abroad.

We all met at 7:30 in a well-known Bulgarian restaurant and the eating and drinking began. Four years away and Sylvia had lots to talk about with her experiences working in Greece. My goodness can she talk, Bulgarian are renown for their non-stop talking and conversation, but this to date was the most incessant example I had experienced since coming here. Four Bulgarian women talking all night, not much food was eaten, too much talking for that, but quite a bit of rakia was downed throughout the night, Sylvia loves rakia, she couldn’t get it in Greece and was making up for time.

We were due to attend a retro music discothèque after the restaurant, as Galia and myself took off to make a reservation at around 9:30. But to our disappointment it was fully booked and we had to think of alternative plans after we had got back to the talking, salads and Rakia.

During the course of out restaurant stay, I was fortunate to meet the Head coach of the Bulgarian National Basketball team, I had met Ivan once before on the 'St. George' Name Day party in Yambol's big Diana Park in the summer. Lovely chap, but he was letting his hair down tonight with friends, he still smokes with his left hand and rakia held in the right as I remember from before.

Sylvia was a stressed Bulgarian woman this evening, it showed as she couldn’t get her words out fast enough – she wanted to get it all off her chest. She told tales of how badly she had been treated in Greece by the men who have no respect fro their own women let alone Bulgarian women. She spent most of her time indoors tending the sick. Never had hardly any time off and what time was off was spent sleeping recovering from the workload. She never wants to go back there again and realises that money is important but there is no quality of life doing what she was doing away from family. She intends to work in Bulgaria but won’t even think about work until the New Year – she needs time to recover mentally from the experience. Galia and I know exactly what she is going through on that scale.

We had some musical visitors; a local village called Kabile has a Gypsy band. They came in to perform well-known Bulgarian songs but in Gypsy style arrangements that involved a lot of unified singing (shouted in the main) with a rhythm that never stops. The band consists of an accordion, two clarinets, a violin and two drummers. They were loud, brash and full of energy and they were still playing gone midnight as we left.

We went to another restaurant with more live music, this time Bulgarian/Greek/Gypsy style with the Gypsy element on keyboard the Greek on the bouzouki and Bulgarian sung by the very big male vocalist. We spent the rest of the evening now on beer and dance with a little meze on the table.

The dancing just went from strength to strength with music just calling and wanting to be danced to. This of course was expected from everyone who dined there as the lines of Bulgarians with traditional dance steps were made throughout the evening.

We finally finished at gone 3:00 in the morning and in bed just before 4:00 after walking a few kilometres in the crisp clear Yambol air. We never get drunk of course, there is far too much dancing to ever get that close, besides it isn’t the Bulgarian way to do this.

A night out with my Bulgarian family was an absolute pleasure, we are all glad to see Sylvia back in Bulgaria, but as we all know here, she will need time to recover from being away, this is important for tonight we knew she wasn’t at all right from the experience of being away from her homeland.

As for us, well we all know now why it is painful to move today, the dancing we did would merits a marathon! We probably lost weight that evening!