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!

Bulgarian Cities and Towns and Much Needed Villages

This is Bulgaria and in this place where I have chosen to live we find 249 towns and cities over 5,000 villages scattered around the country. Almost every Bulgarian has a village connection either because they once lived in a village or their ancestors lived or still live there. Bulgaria remain a rural country in so many ways. Many Bulgarians have moved to the towns and cities for work but often they return the villages as it is only there that they can resurrect their Bulgarian soul.

Life today in Bulgaria as many Bulgarians will tell you, takes a village to survive. If there were no villages, life for many would be unbearable for many that live and work here. This is more true for the older generation, but in time the younger generation will become that older generation and have the same feelings.

It has been difficult for many Bulgarians over the last two decades. Before this, the population had time to relax with friends, enjoy the beautiful nature and have a stress free existence. This is not the case in Bulgaria today for many people who working harder, work longer with relaxation becoming a thing of the past. It is even more difficult with this for them to stay in communication to people. Money earned has to be spent on food and other things rather than other luxuries rather than having a good time with friends and family.

Village life is totally different from town and city life. It is cheaper, friends are always there working. People grow almost everything they eat. There is bread, sugar and a few other things bought at the store but most are homemade. Rakia, of course, the national drink, is made from the grapes or other fruits grown in the gardens in the villages. It is not uncommon for a village household to make in excess of 100 litres a year of Rakia for their own use. Buying Rakia from a store or offering anything other than home made Rakia to visitors is unheard of.

It is as important to people to spend time in a village as it is in the cities, but in a different way. Town and City folk work eight hours a day and go home or go out to play. Village folk work from dawn to dusk and never go anywhere. When all the work has been done, you will see people sitting on the street in front of their houses or in the yard around a run down old table. Town and City folk have time to waste, but this is never ever the case in the village as there are always chores to be done. They are deep in though of the arrival of winter and they must be
prepared.

To many Bulgarians feel that village life is not an appealing life style on a permanent basis. It offers very few of the nice things in life that the western world have come to enjoy. However, it offers something for the town and city folk for a few days or weeks. A deserved break from the rat race of the city and their stressful working environment. It is in the village that they can reconnect to their roots and the real Bulgaria. This is something they can't find anywhere else.

Their culture and tradition, while not as popular as they once were in the past, can still be found in villages. Grandparents and friends still live in the old ways, doing things how they had always been done and life itself is simple and good. the village is a refuge and relief over a glass of homemade Rakia and Shopska salad. These are moments in time to forget modern Bulgaria where the hectic life will wait again for them.

Alternative Medicine in Bulgaria

Alternative medicine is practiced all round the world, not least in Bulgaria where traditional remedies mixed with a little superstition are believed to work effectively as they have done through many generations.

Bad luck and stress that comes with it is a part of life no matter where you are and dealing with it is done in different ways. In Bulgaria there is treatment that is made in from alternative medicine sources, bordering on the edge of witch doctor theology.

In Bulgaria this is widely believed and practiced and for the second time since since living here I have found the need for the practice to be administered from the local practitioner in my Skalitsa village.

It came to pass that my English guests have come to stay and we all caught a virus and were ill for three days. Added to this my car had broke down and we had to use taxis. Then to add to a trilogy of disasters the car was smashed up on the way to the garage to be fixed after our guests had just left to go back to England. So the week of vacation left us totally drained from illness, the cost of taxi fares and now the cost of car repairs. The stress of the whole week had got on top of us. It was decided that we travel to Skalitsa and get treatment for this the Bulgarian way.

Having gone through this procedure before it was familiar territory for me, but this time I knew what it was all about before the process, this wasn't the case first time round! Before, I was taken there by my neighbour after crashing another car, not really knowing why until some months afterwards when my Bulgarian language picked up a bit and then understood.

As the appointment was made, we decided that as well as my partner and I our neighbour was to go as she had found a snake in her kitchen that very morning. She had a phobia against them resulting in a very stressed Bulgaria woman in need of therapeutic help right now.

We need to take 2 leva each for the services and a piece of lead. The lead was found for my neighbour as she had a Bulgarian fishing ledger weight that was still made from pure lead. From my own fishing tackle, the weights although looking like lead were in fact another compound of metal. Lead weights of course have been banned in the UK for a number of years now so we had to travel empty handed in the hope the Maria the healing doctor had a spare supply at hand.

We arrived twenty minute late, but this is what happens here and Maria was ready for us with the bottle gas and cooking plate supporting a big table spoon in the middle of here living room floor. Beside the now flaming gas cooker there was placed a small white bowl of water and a screw topped plastic container which held a supply of lead. We were in luck, the lead supply was in stock and the process could start.

I was first in line and placed on the chair finding myself watching some lead being place into the spoon and held over the intense heat. It wasn't long unit the lead had turned into a molten state and this now in the spoon and the bowl of water was picked up and placed over my head. A chant was whispered and the spoon touched three sides of the bowl before the lead screeched out a cry as it hit the water. It was then back to the heat for a remelting of the lead and the same process was done another twice above my head.

The same treatment was then moved onto the the chest as the melting of the lead, the chanting while tapping the edge of the bowl and the return of solid metal from the water treatment was actioned but only done twice in this area.

The final process was done by my legs where at one point a sizzling piece of lead jumped out of the water missing my bare foot by a couple of centimeters and scorching the rug laid on the floor. This rather shook me up thinking what could have happened! This was repeated four times by my as the lower part of my body apparently had high stress levels.

Each time the lead was picked out of the water it was examined and repeated it the shape of the lead warranted another session in that particular area. It was clear that from the shape that formed that there were problems at the lower end for me hence the process being repeated again and again.

Afterwards the now very warm water from the bowl that the lead was poured was transfered into a glass and I was asked to take three small sips. This I duly did knowing that it was probably contaminated with lead, but this is Bulgaria and Bulgarian ways and traditions were respected.

Whilst Maria turned away to pour the water into the glass to drink a payment of two leva was placed on the floor by the stove and was picked up whilst the sipping was going on. I remember before that the exchange of payment was made whilst each respective party wasn't looking.

My partner was next and no less that five repeated processes were done above her head, there were obvious problem there. My neighbour followed on as I observed trying to discover the types of shapes the lead resulted in to cause the process to be repeated or move on. It seems there the was definitely a jagged and sharp characteristic to the lead to cause a repeated administration in the same areas of the body and a smoother finish when moving on further down. All were asked for the three sips of the water whilst the payments were being exchanged and presented the lead in wrapped newspaper afterwards.

Because my partner still had problems with the lead over her head another follow up form of practice was taken up. Maria took a handful of salt crystals in hand and sprinkled some over her head whilst another chant was whispered. Again this was done at least three times before Maria was satisfied that the treatment affected.

The wrapped up lead were now to be placed under the pillow for three nights and then thrown into a river for the lead now full of the owners' stress should now run downstream never to return.

It is with interest that the Bulgarians truly believe this practice to work and part of this the unwavering belief of the process. This of course is another major contributing factor of process actually working through physiological channels of alternative medicine.

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