What If You're Sick In Bulgaria?

What happens if you are sick or ill here? There is no getting away from it, you have to pay money for treatment and medicine, no one is exempt. How much you pay depend on where you are from and who you know. There is no uniform in terms of medical treatment in Bulgaria.

I have written before about having family in the medical profession here, it really is a major advantage if you are fortunate enough to have some brains in the family. The vast majority of people here haven't of course and the fear of being ill is quite apparent. The crying for someone being ill, especially in the villages is for the lack of money to pay for treatment more than the patient.

There is another twist, being an expatriate. Doctors, hospitals, dentists and opticians will know straight away that you are an expatriate and there is a completely revised rate for treatment and medicine. This is besides the fact that there is a reciprocal agreement in the EU that all EU citizens have to be charged as Nationals of that country are charged. I have this written on an official document stating that law is in operation. This is Bulgaria, this does not go on here and you can't blame them. The pay to the medical profession for their services and funds put into to the medical profession are diabolical. If there is a chance of robbing the rich to give to the poor then this is a prime example of it. What's more if they can get away with it it will happen.

The problem with this is that some expatriates are poorer than the Bulgarians and that makes it totally unfair. What's more, there is medical insurance that is available that you can take out as an expatriate to cover medical expenses and it advised, especially to those that were ill and had to pay out extortionate medical bills. This again is okay is you can afford medical insurance, if you can't, then you have to take the risk of not being ill. If you are poor everything is against you in this world, Bulgaria is no exception.

The question is, what do you do if you are ill? Well if it is life threatening emergency treatment is free for all, beyond that you have to pay. So for the poor, after the emergency is over they will go back home and tended by amateur doctors, namely their families and try and gather enough funds for basic medication to keep them going. The problem is compounded if the patient was working and relying of that income, which now has dried up with the incapacity. There is no escape from more poverty in these instances. You can now understand why Bulgarian weep if illness strikes.

A Miracle Cure - The Healing Stones of Skalitsa

Last month I was in great pain due to twisting my back. I was in bed for over a week not being able to walk. It was a long haul from first doing it to recovering and the remedies that were used to cure it were diverse to say the least. All the tried practices failed except one.

From the initial aspirins and other painkilling tablets, this went on to massage, then two courses of painkilling injection. It didn't stop there as the Rakia treatment was tried, both internally and externally. This still didn't work, I was still in gross agony so the burning lead ritual was performed to rid me of evil spirits and finally to hospital for x-rays, which didn't show anything wrong - but I was still unable to sit down and trouble standing and walking.

So how did I get from this state into now jogging? It was something that I should have done straight away, something that had been tried and tested not only by me but others with resounding success. It is the healing stones in Skalitsa that finally cured me!

There have been many occasions where illnesses had just suddenly disappeared by just laying on the stones, which are situated just a ten-minute walk from my farmhouse in the village. This is the place where two magnetic field cross each other with only one other place in the world where this phenomenon happens somewhere in Mexico. A top professor from Sofia had made conclusive tests that scientifically verified that there is a phenomenon there and healing does take place. Two previous articles have been written on this Healing Stones in Bulgaria and Skalitsa Healing Stones More Evidence. - Please feel free to get more of the background here.

This particular healing experience was the greatest yet of my own personal evidence that these healing stones really do work. I had just managed to drive to the village in great pain this particular weekend and the next day gingerly walked to the stones. It was a sunny day so the winter sun had already warmed up the healing stones. I chose a flat-topped stone and lay there for around 40 minutes. As before, I didn't notice anything happening whilst I was lying there, or when I painfully tried to stand up and walk again. But what happened next was yet another amazing experience!

As I walked back to the farmhouse, my walking became much more fluent and the pain gradually subsided. By the time I was home, this had improved even more. I had a good night's sleep for the firs time since the problem started. The next day, I just felt a bit stiff, no pain as I drove home without any pain at all. I was not on any medication other than an aspirin in the morning.

Back in Yambol Sunday evening it was as if a magic wand had been waved over me as seemingly I had been cured. The following morning I was sitting down at work without any problem at all and no need for any medication at all. A few days later I was jogging and haven't stopped since.

I am totally convinced that the healing stones were responsible for this. It is not a one off, they have healed and others on countless occasions. Everyone knows about them locally, but hardly outsiders other than those I have told. I was such a sceptic when I first heard about these stones, but now I am a firm believer that they have healing qualities that have now cured illnesses before and now cured my back, something that professional doctors and a hospital couldn't.

Galia and I now carry a little healing stone each in our respective handbags and slightly bigger ones lay in the farmhouse and in our Yambol home. It should keep illnesses away all the time judging from past experiences.

Water Returns - Then The Ice Strikes

Hurrah, we have our mains water back after seven days. It suddenly came back to life at 7:00 in the evening after settling down and resigning ourselves for another night of inconvenience. To be quite honest we were so used to the routine of economising with water we could have gone on indefinitely without mains water.

There was a big cheer from us all as the initial muddy water spurted from the tap in our one and only heated livingroom/diningroom/kitchen/bedroom combined space. There were little dances and jigs as the toilet was flushed in celebration. Another reason for a party this evening, well it would have been if Galia weren’t still being treated for her illness and hospital operation.

It is really quite a turn around as I am more than used to being without water and electric on many extended occasions in the village so this wasn’t such a hardship for me at all. But in Yambol City, to be without water for so long was unprecedented to Bulgarian townies in recent times. This was looked on as a big problem by all the Bulgarian household except me, but then like I said, I am hardened to this from village life and secondly I am entirely grateful for being part of this family now and certainly won’t complain, even if I had reason to from the lack of water.

So, water now in the town house and today I went to Skalitsa village to check up on the farmhouse there. I had not been there for two weeks and the severity of the sub-zero temperatures left me thinking there would be a problem there.

I arrived and as I suspected everything was frozen. The water in the toilet cistern was jammed with ice and accompanied with a solid block of ice in the basin. There was no water coming in or out it was rock solid. Looks like back to the outside toilet again, that never fails, it was like visiting a long lost friend.

The electric immersion boiler in the bathroom was also frozen; it couldn’t be heated up until it had thawed out. There was no water coming in or out it was rock solid. Switched on the little electric convector heater I had from a previous village life here and left it full on in the bathroom for a couple of hours.

Switching attention to the kitchen, I have a 30-litre barrel full of water this is kept by the side of the sink to use when we get cut off with mains water. The whole 30 litres was a block of ice, (pictured) solid right the way through and no water in the kitchen of course. It was out of the frying pan and into the fire, no water at all here. The well had water in it but the standing water in the plastic piping had effectively iced up blocking the route for the well water. No chance of that defrosting for at least another day or so as it was still bitterly cold here today at least another 3-4 C lower than Yambol.

No panic, I was in the village now, no rush to do anything this weekend as I gathered wood for the wood burner. At least the wood burner never fails I thought. I was right. Five hours later after roasting a few rooms from the travelling heat from the wood burner backed up by the heater in the bathroom there was now movement. By 7 o’clock this evening everything is running very smoothly on the water front, I can even have a shower before I go to bed.

I was in my element today, I just love the whole day solving problems, dealing with nature that had taken hold of the farmhouse, using the outside toilet, gathering and chopping up wood, even having time to go for a jog on this very bright, sunny, but very cold day. This was the main reason I came to Bulgaria to get back to basics and experience what real down to earth life is all about. The stresses of modern living just doesn’t exist here in Skalitsa on the farm. The second picture is of the scene from Skalitsa I took today, it's there because I liked it.

I am due back to Yambol tomorrow to tend to Galia who is certainly under the weather in more ways than one. Hopefully we can return here to give here a bit of convalescence next weekend.

Where is Maria?

During the journey of life things happen, experiences unfold and in the light of these experiences many thing just seems so cruel and unfair. Today was one of those instances.

From the first time I came to live in Skalitsa, one family have always been there to just a degree it feels that I have become part of their family. Sasho, the man of the house has been adopted celebratory ‘brother’ for two years now and quite often we are in each others’ houses to the early hours I the morning. All the things I have learnt about village life and country living, has been given to me by Sasho and Rosa his school-teaching wife. I have lost count how many times we have been helped out by this family.

Two years ago Rosa father passed away and this was a very sad occasion but acceptable as he had a good life and was of the age were many Bulgarian males do pass over to the other side. I saw him the day before he died and this sight has stuck with me ever since. The sight of someone who you know will not be in this world for much longer just brings to the front what is important in this life and how humble it makes you thinking that the problems you have matter.

Part of the family live in Ovchi Kladinets the nearest neighbouring village from Skalitsa. Maria, Sasho’s sister and her husband Mitko live there. From the very first day I met Maria (and I have written an account of this) there was a deep affection and total joy in her being around. Everyone has the same opinion of her – she is the kindest, generous and more sincere person that you could ever meet.

Many times we have visited her in Ovchi Kladinets and treated like close family. There has never been a time that we have left without a boot full of garden produce and a big slobby kiss goodbye.

Maria is as big as her personality, loud, brash, unassuming, speaking her mind at all times. She has a very open based sense of humour, which crosses many subject boundaries and she has no scruples about anything. Without Maria this world would be a much poorer place and never at any point did anyone ever conceive that she wouldn’t be here. This is where the totally inconsideration of fairness in this world strikes.

On our return to Skalitsa, Rosa brought the shocking news that Maria was very ill and didn’t have any chance of recovery. We couldn’t believe that this woman, the life and soul of Bulgaria and the same age as me could ever have got this way.

We offered to take Sasho and Rosa to the village as they didn’t have any transport although we did dither as Maria would get out of her death bed to cater for us and we didn’t want to stress here further. But we decided to go as we may not see her ever again.

On arrival we went in and I just didn’t know that that was Maria sitting on the bed. It looked nothing like her. She had lost so much weight that she was unrecognisable. Her bubbly forceful talking tone had diminished into a whimper as we greeted her. Everyone was in tears as the full impact of her illness became a reality before our very eyes.

The next hour or so was painful for everyone, as we knew that this is probably the last time we see her. I won’t go into detail about her illness, as it is complex and not something that should be broadcast.

We left with this picture in our heads of a woman who had been in our hearts and head for so long transformed into a woman just clinging on to life. How cruel can life be?

This again makes us feel so guilty about anything and everything we complain about, how insignificant these problems are compared to what we see before us. Why is it that the good people of this earth are destine to leave it early and the evil remain? If there is a God why does he play cruel games all the time?