The UK - Still the Same Reasons Stand for Leaving

Well, having now been in the UK for a few years with a few brief trips back to our home in Yambol, each day that goes by makes it clearer and clearer why we shouldn't be here.

There are things that have happened here that would scare the living daylights out of people I know both friends and family if they knew about it. But, right now it is being kept locked up in a box which will be opened and revealed in due course when the time it right. There are things that need to be said to expose the evil that has been done by people who think they are Gods. This I might add doesn't just encompass a certain part of people, but a variety of parties not related! I have a great desire to write all about it and all the parties involved should be scared and not sleep at night from worry. This is how we felt over the last few years and continue to suffer.

Enough said for now on this and to looking ahead to the future, and the future is bright! Mainly for the reason of knowing our home is going to be in Bulgaria with no return the the UK for whatever reason, unless my children happen to want me invite me to their wedding. 

The plans are laid it is just a question of when. Galia is just as desperate as I am to get back and live the life we had before, but not in poverty as we found ourselves before. I love my work and that's the only reason that keeps me sane and the thought that the work I do is the key to life in Bulgaria eventually. All else about our life here is essentially a rat race. We have no friends other than old friends who we knew before I went to Bulgaria for the first time. There are acquantainces from work but socially; we are isolated.

I will go into how we arrived to living in a box in the centre of Edgware eventually, but we are happy in our own company without any strangers to have consideration for. The 'room' we live in is 16m2 with a bathroom 2m2 (which is the size of a cupboard). The kitchen is a sink with a microwave underneath and a fridge wedged under the draining board. There is a couple of portable camping hotplates besides the sink drainer. That's it. We have had cockroaches and mice, (the mice have just returned this week again as we live directly above a fish and chip shop which is where they come from.) There are parties in neighbouring rooms every weekend and our post get stolen froma community post box in caged letterbox in main entrance door. With no washing machine, the launderette however is only 100 metres away so that is a bonus. People stamp past our door at all hours which is something we have had to get used alongside the stifling heat in most of the spring summer and autumn with no air-conditioning, remember we live above a fish and chip shop. It has taken a long time to get used to and bare up to things, but there are people far worse than us, people who have nothing to look forward to!

More, much more to come...

Bulgarian Squirrels of Poverty

In Bulgaria most of the population are not unlike squirrels. They stock pile all the food during harvest to see through the winter. Right now we have everything in storage and set for the Bulgarian short, sharp, cold winter hibernation.

It has been quite an effort to get to this stage; much preparation has been made by us all to ensure we will not go short in food and resources this winter. The garage is full of barrels bottle and jars of preserved produce that was harvested during the summer and autumn. It looks like a warehouse. This year hasn’t been the greatest harvest for us as we arrive back in Bulgaria in May, a bit too late to get the farm full of produce, however we still have more than enough to see us though comfortably.

Whatever we grew it is now preserved either as meat in the freezer, fruit in conserves or compote, leeks in buckets of soil, other vegetables in barrels or big jars of salt water and wine and rakia bottled up securely. There is something about this system that feels just right; something that is a stick in the spokes of cycle of relying on commercial based goods pre-packed and ready to poison. My soul and spirit is in fine form right now knowing that even in a town centre we can survive on our own back from he produce we have grown and harvested. Next year is something we all eagerly look forward to as we can start at the beginning of the growing season at the end of February by pruning the vines.

How fortunate we feel to be feeding ourselves with food that is basically free of cost and free of chemicals, testimony to that is the fact that I have had no illnesses here for over three years for the food we have produced. Yes a little weight has been put on but I put that down to writing too many blogs!

To Bulgarians this is something that is not special but normal, part of he routine of living here and surviving here. It is a case of having to rather than wanting to from purely a financial stance. To me, the poverty has brought something special, a system that is better than anything that I have experienced before. How ironic that the discovery of good life and living here is a direct result of their poverty and something you can’t buy. Being rich here would completely ruin the infrastructure and the way of living that is part of their long tradition and culture.

Poverty Trap in Bulgaria

Having been living in Bulgaria for quite a few years now it has become more and more apparent that lack of money and high inflation are big problems for most people in Bulgaria. My family here are no exception. Even with our increasing poverty, the bandwagon of western influence hits hard on the weakness of materialism and greed. Everyday Bulgaria is being bombarded with adverts for new cars, fast food and numerous credit options to take to pay for these. It is a vicious spiral of temptation and a constant fight for many Bulgarians to feel that they have to have many things that aren’t commensurate to their income. It is a sick feeling I get when watching and experiencing this as my family here are glued to all the influence of advertising with a wish list of most things that are thrown at them.

Just to put this in perspective, our income as a family here is just enough to put our heads above water. Galia earns £140 a month and Baba’s pension comes to just over £60 a month. That’s £50 a week to live on,before I became part of the family and Galia didn’t have any work. They just lived on just that measly pension. Without my contribution from my small savings brought here (and that won’t last long as things are) the family would suffer intolerable poverty and stress. How many other families are in this poverty trap with inflation running as around 25% in real terms? Wages and pensions never keep up with inflation here so it just gets worse month after month.

A quick word about inflation here: We all know how much things have gone up in price here. We see the 30% increase in gas and electric over the last six months, we see the cost of homes rising at over 20% + per annum and we see the cost of food shoot up, even in the height of the growing season! No matter what Bulgarian politicians and manipulative economists conjure up as the rate of inflation, the people of Bulgaria living on a day-to-day basis here, know the what the real inflation rate is

Now it’s not just being lured into paying for luxury goods by credit as it now becomes a ‘normal’ way of funding, but having to pay for essentials by credit is becoming more common. Credit is now here to stay in Bulgaria, this wasn’t the case a few years ago.

It really is so difficult to forecast where this will end. There is no sign of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow here but just a case of trying to avoid the hell of running up credit. I can see many in the future here, many mortgaging their homes to fund day-to-day living. Looking even further ahead, many more will lose their properties to the banks and the next generation will not inherit their rightful homes causing more credit and mortgage runs.

The only advantage Bulgarians have over this wave of western materialistic virus is their in-built system of surviving through poverty using effective practicalities to combat this. This time however Bulgarians are not just against simple poverty of basic needs, but a danger of succumbing American culture and ways. In case you didn’t know, this is where it all the advertising comes from. There just isn’t the infrastructure in Bulgaria to live this way and they are taking advantage of a country whose population are easily led through the media looking glass.