Most of the answers to everything that you think you want to ask me, are either already on this website somewhere or maybe they’re really questions that you would enjoy finding out the answer to, when you’re actually here. But, meanwhile, here are some the very frequently asked questions:
• How can I/we join your project? – I don’t have a ‘project’. I live in Voditsa, I think it’s a brilliant place to live and I really want to encourage people to come in the village but its not about joining an intentional community. People who come here because they want a different and better quality of life, often find that working together is a good way forward – that’s the community bit, plus working with your neighbours.
• How can I earn a living if I come to live in Voditsa? – how can I answer this?? It depends on your skills, experience, language skills, etc etc. There aren’t many actual jobs unless you speak great Bulgarian but there are endless business opportunities, as there are anywhere, which again depend on your skills and experience and of course, your level of ingenuity. There are all sorts of markets for all sorts of businesses but you really need to be here to be able to see and recognise that market. If you’re an EU citizen, you have the right to live and work and set up a business here – the rest is up to you.
• Are there shops in the village? – yes – there are 4 shops selling all the basics that you need, for building stuff, clothes etc, you’ll need to go to Popovo or further afield.
• Is there a school in the village? – yes, primary and secondary schools for education up to 16.
• Are there bears? – no, not in this area.
• Can I drink the water? – yes – Voditsa means ‘water town’ – we have a number of mineral springs plus the water out of the tap is fine.
• Is there internet? – yes – it is the aim of the EU to bring broadband to every village in every country. This is happening slowly. At the moment, there are various ways to get internet, some of them are a bit slow but this is a developing country so expect the internet provision too develop accordingly.
• What made you come here? check out our background info
• Is there anywhere to stay in the village so that we can find things out for ourselves and look at property? – I might be able to help you with a short term rent and depending on the time of year, you may wish to camp at St.James Park All of this will be very basic accommodation, if you want a bit more luxury, there are hotels in Popovo.
• Can you send me some photos of Bulgaria? – there lots of photos on this website and you could also search google images.
• Can I bring my dog/cat/car/caravan etc ? – yes – if you want lots of information about other people’s experiences, try joining one of the ex-pat forums eg. www.mybulgaria.info – whatever you’re thinking about, someone has probably done it before and will be happy to share their experience.
• Can I come and volunteer with you? –maybe…check out the information at ….. and also look at www.helpx.net. I take volunteers most of the year – the only criteria to be a volunteer is a willingness to work and loads and loads of common sense! But it also depends on when you are available – read the info first.
• I eat mostly ‘British food’ – will i be able to buy it there? – First thing is …..this is Bulgaria! No chip shops, Chinese takeaways or pizza delivery and thankfully not much processed food. We have the best of natural ingredients so assuming that you mean ‘cook’ British food, you can do anything you like with the meat and vegetables on the market here. Tea bags are a different story altogether – its on the list of things that I ask people to bring for me – Yorkshire tea works best as the water is very hard.
• I want a big farm outside of a village. That’s not the way land and farming works here. People live in villages - there are no houses between villages and no ‘farms’. Each house in the village has land - usually around 200sq meters, which is quite enough for small scale subsistence/self sufficient growing. However, if you choose to keep animals, then you might want to consider renting/buying a field out of the town, as the villagers do. You can grow corn and wheat here to feed the animals. Please note that animals do not generally stand around grazing in a field of lush green grass here. They go out with a shepherd every day and eat in the common pastures. You can’t leave sheep etc out in a field overnight because they’ll get eaten by wolves, jackals or whatever. If you want to do serious farming, come here and find out what happens - people here know how to grow food and animals in this climate - watch, learn and add to it…but this is not the UK - the climate, weather, land and yearly growing cycle are not in any way, similar.
• I want to use/build alternative technology Great. Loads of opportunities to do all sorts of things like that but here is one very important fact - there is no wind here. Strange as that may seem to people from north western Europe, believe me….there is no wind. So dont waste your time thinking about wind technology! But we have sunshine all year round - even when its -30, the skies are blue and the sun is shining.
• What’s the climate/weather like? Wonderfully, gloriously, challengingly extreme - from -35 to + 45. Scorching sunshine in August to a meter and half of snow in January. Blue skies, sunshine, no wind, rain that falls straight down, fantastic thunderstorms - it’s a fast, short growing season - you need to be on the ball to keep up. But everybody who lives here has been surviving very well for generations -winter means hibernation - you just stay and enjoy it. And….we have millions and millions of glorious trees - living with the land here is living with their cycle and learning the order that they all move through the year- wonderful blossom, masses of fruit, glorious autumn colours, mountains of leaves, evocative silhouettes on the hill tops..and then we start again.
Anything that I haven’t answered, maybe its best if you come and see for yourself. It seems to me that the feeling and the energy that you have about a place are the only important things – the rest is just stuff to deal with when you move into your new place and begin your life in this lovely village.