We have a very unusual phenomena here right now – lots and lots of rain. Its not the professional rain that we sometimes get in the summer with great thunder and lightening – this is more like Manchester rain – grey, wet and boring. However it does come straight down which is something but trying to explain to a Bulgarian that rain in England comes horizontally gets a few strange looks. So its been raining for about 4 days now and we really do have Glastonbury style mud but in between showers, the birds come out and chirp away loudly and at nights we have nightingales singing away which is lovely.
I’m a bit full with people right now –Julie from Israel and her daughter Lielle are here for another few days and I have 3 volunteers who are staying for 3 months – 2 of them are from South Africa and one from Estonia – Voditsa is such an international place! The three new people are staying in the big tent on the field and of course its never stopped raining since they got here.
The animals are suffering from the undivided attention of a 5 yearold girl! Poor jess has been led around with her lead, up and down the field and she keeps looking at me like ‘why am I doing this?’ The cats took one look at this strange new being and disappeared although little Jackie has been captured a couple of times and then nursed (held tightly) for 2 hours – its character building for them.
The 6th of May is St.George’s day – he’s also the patron saint of Bulgaria. There will be a celebration in the square and we’ll all get slapped around the face with a bunch of wet flowers as we get blessed by the priest. Then we get out jars filled with lamb stew – they don’t need much excuse or reason to kill the animals here and then have a feast.
I had my first involvement with death here last week – 2 guys in the street died. I went to pay my respects and sat for a while beside the body. I saw a few dead bodies in Ireland but here they obviously have a different process for doing whatever they do to the body because they were both very yellow and waxy looking. One guy had his eyes open a little bit which was a bit disconcerting. Anyway, I now know what to do at a Bulgarian burial and I think I’ve learned the right words to say.
It made me think about coffins and the ridiculousness of expensive oak caskets or whatever. They are heavy duty cardboard here – sprayed black with a black cross on the lid. It makes you think how silly it is to pay loads of money for a box that’s going underground where its going to take ages to decompose or its going to be burnt. I cant imagine telling people here how much a coffin costs in the UK.
I’ve kind of given up on my book until the next time I have 3 months to spare with nothing to do. Its about two thirds finished but its become a bit of a hassle now so I’ve just put it away. Sorry but you’ll all have to wait for the great literary outpouring for another year.
Another first – we had an earthquake the other day – scary but exciting. I must remember the next time not to stand there thinking ‘oh its an earthquake’ and just to run out instead! My legs felt very wobbly afterwards and I had a wierd headache. Nothing seemed to fall down but everything shook a lot. I guess people who are reading this who live on the San Andreas Fault (hi Simon) wouldn’t be getting excited about a little wobble – but things did shake.
My friend Elaine up the road, now reckons that she is qualified as a slave! She’s just had 2 weeks of the guest from hell! A woman who couldn’t handle any aspect of basic in her life – like not having a flush toilet, a shower, a washing machine- stuff like that – she demanded so much that Elaine ended up crying and to top it all, after 2 weeks when this woman never put her hand in her pocket once, she had the cheek to leave 50leva. You might be wondering why I’m telling you this but I’m hoping that ‘guest’ in question will read this and apologise to Elaine.
Its now a few days after I started this blog and summer has returned. The skies are blue, the sun is shining, everything is growing, there are other things besides cabbage in the market, people have begun to take off their thick woollen stockings and everything feels lighter and happier. The little yellow plums are nearly out – Rakia making time!
My first real activity is going to happen here in July – I’m running a yoga camp with a yoga teacher I met in Turkey last year. Actually we’re doing 2 – one in July and one in September. go to the Yoga Camp page for more details.