Winter Activities in Voditsa

Although we were not in the village for most of the winter it was fascinating to observe the preparations for this slow-down season when the weather very clearly dictates what can and can't be done.

The year-round sameness that we have grown accustomed to in our ordinary, other lives has alienated us from our connection to mother earth: we have become used to working in temperature-controlled conditions; to the constant availability of most food-stuffs quite unrelated to their natural seasonality; to always rushing around (and ironically feeling we have not achieved enough) instead of taking our cue from nature's patterns of light and dark, warmth and cold, to slow down...

The Bulgarian winter, for those who live in rural areas, dictates a rest from the intensive labor on the land; a diet of warm and comforting soups and stews; a time to spend indoors with friends and neighbors; a time to enjoy creativity. Amongst the many traditional crafts practised in the village during the winter months is the weaving of corn mats from the outer husks of the maize picked at the end of the summer. We were lucky enough to be invited to one of the villager's homes to see a demonstration of how this is done.

Getting Plastered!

As promised - here is a short video about our latest project... replastering the entrance, with mud. It has been great fun and a we learned such a lot from the hands-on experience. For Lielle it was also a nature lesson as together we followed how a wasp was coming along to collect the mud for building its nest.

(For some reason the video didn't want to upload so I split it into two parts - here is part one - part two to follow soon).

The family is reunited!

Dani arrived five days ago! He surprised us all when he showed up at the village about 6 hours earlier than we were expecting him having sussed out all the various transport options from Sofia. Since he arrived hungry one of the very first things we did was to show him the garden and he picked himself a salad. There is nothing quite like eating fresh food from your own garden that has been picked only minutes before! Check out the video above.

We have already got stuck in to a few of our projects: Together we have almost finished the mud-plastering in the entrance (more about that soon), and Dani has painted over the wallpaper in the guest bedroom to at least give it a nice fresh clean look. The time just whizzes by between working, preparing food and eating. We still have the bigger projects ahead of us: dismantling the old summer kitchen and making seating areas outside, organizing the compost toilets and shower room... the list goes on ... but we are doing it all bit by bit and by the end of each day there is always something to tick off the list, however small.

Now Dani is with us we have decided to establish more of a routine to our day and have started off this morning with a bit of homeschooling. Dani is teaching Lielle maths and after lunch I shall sit with her to learn about the upcoming Rosh HaShana holiday and make cards to send to the family back in Israel. The idea is that she will become more of an independent learner and will be able to get on with many of the subjects by herself. Watch this space!

Crazy ideas... Win-Win-Win

My mind is always ticking over.... The other day my thoughts wandered to the extent that I was wondering what I would do if I came unexpectedly into quite a bit of money (not that that's very likely to happen!). I surprised myself by thinking how bothersome this might be! I'm quite convinced that the whole beauty of our project is that it is without money changing hands. It has evolved like this because we never have had much money to start with so I just had to think of alternative ways of achieving what others may have thought only money could buy. This has been the whole beauty of the project so far, and that's how I envisage the whole thing running in the future.

But since the niggling question was already in my brain, I had to delve a bit deeper and come up with an answer, and I didn't have to delve too deep to find some inspiration. Whilst in Bulgaria recently serendipity granted me the opportunity to spend a few days with an amazing woman and watch how she puts some of her philosophies of life into action on a daily basis. She's not super-wealthy, but has a steady income which provides just a little more than she actually needs for her own modest lifestyle. I witnessed the smile of gratitude on the face of an elderly woman with whom we exchanged greetings as we passed her, sitting on a low stool outside the supermarket. That particular day was warm and pleasant, and she was there as usual with her various sized bottles of home-produced goat's milk, hoping to sell them all before going home. My new friend told me how a few months before, when the weather had been well below freezing for weeks on end, she would buy all the woman's milk enabling her to go home to somewhere warm. She didn't really need the milk so she gave it to the cats and dogs she found herself taking care of.

A similar encounter awaited us in the outdoor market. I stood by and watched her exchange a lively banter with a stall-holder there, letting herself be easily persuaded into buying much more fruit and vegetables than she could possibly use herself (the extras to be later shared modestly amongst her neighbors). As we left the stall-holder gave her a broad smile. "Did you notice her teeth?", my friend asked me as we walked away together from the market place. "I'm sure she would want to have the dental work she needs done if she could. But she has several children at home and works so hard just to feed them and give them a good education. I bet she happily puts their needs before her own." Regularly buying from this same woman each week, exchanging a few words and a smile, was her way of validating this woman and showing her how her selflessness, hard work and determination were appreciated.

So how did these random musings inspire me? If one day I should have a little spare cash, how would I like to see it used? You'll have to bear with me here if this sounds a bit rambling, but there are a few different thoughts here that all meld into one idea at the end...

I really like Win-Win situations. Even better are Win-Win-Win situations. As I've mentioned on previous posts, since we will be homeschooling our daughter while in the village we are interested in attracting other traveling/homeschooling families to spend time with us and to share their skills. We are also hoping to involve the local children in various activities, broadening their horizons and giving everyone a good opportunity for some cultural exchange. Over time we hope to build up a resource centre providing educational materials and workshops for ourselves, the local children and those who come to visit. One of the things that I feel really brings people together is music and I think that music workshops could be a really excellent way of bringing kids together.

Here in Israel I happen to know someone whose work I really admire. He also brings children together through music: Arab and Jewish children. Separately he teaches them through their respective schools to play the ukulele, and then they get together for rehearsals and performances where they play together, laugh together, have fun together and get to understand each other a little better.

How would it be, I thought to myself, if we could arrange some kind of funding to bring someone like this guy and say 4 of his most promising students to Voditsa to present a summer workshop? This could be an excellent way of rewarding and encouraging outstanding students. They could come to Voditsa for say a week, where maybe a dozen or so willing and eager local children could take part in an intensive introductory workshop. We are hoping to build up a collection of musical instruments. The ukuleles purchased or donated especially for an event like this could be loaned out to the local children to practice on... maybe it could become an annual event to be looked forward to year after year?

But the idea doesn't stop here... why not do something similar with sports activities? dance? yoga? arts and crafts? cookery? drama?

Do YOU know someone who is passionate about what they teach? Maybe they have students who could be rewarded by a trip like this for their achievements? How can we raise the funding? Would YOU like to be part of something like this?

Building Projects

To further our plan for turning our homestead in Bulgaria into a comfortable and cosy place for traveling families to stay we have several projects in mind that we shall be working on in the near future. Just how far we get with them and the order in which they are tackled will depend to some extent upon the various material, financial and human resources available to us.

Summer Kitchen: Faulty guttering and a few loose roof tiles combined to create some serious damage over the last year to one of the small outbuildings. We intend to completely dismantle the building and recreate it as a covered, partially enclosed summer kitchen. We are hoping to reuse most of the old materials (mud, bricks and roof tiles) and incorporate some decorative elements which will turn it into something functional and creative.

Compost Toilets: Definitely room for improvement here! We don't intend to get rid of the old outside toilet just yet, but we do hope to add some more aesthetic compost toilets, both inside and outside the house.

Hayloft-to-Den Conversion: We would like to clear out one of the haylofts and turn it into a cool space for older kids as a den or story-telling corner. For younger children we want to finish sorting out the ground-level playhouse in the garden.

Cowshed-to-Craft-Workshop Conversion: This is a bigger job and to do it the way we are thinking of will mean we shall need to acquire a few new skills first, such as working with natural mud and lime plaster. If we manage to make the place really cosy it could also double up to provide additional sleeping space when we have a lot of guests.

We shall be documenting our progress with these various projects and hope to be able to post some impressive 'before' and 'after' photos over the coming months!

Family Friendly Travellers' Rest

... that was the title of a message that I posted on the Family Welcome Group forum of Couchsurfing almost 14 months ago!

The post was quite long but here is a short extract from it:

"....So what is this dream? - I would like to create a space, in rural Bulgaria, where people traveling with children can stay and share their experiences and skills. It would be a cross between couchsurfing and volunteering. No money would change hands, but there would be an exchange of skills and resources. Children could feel at home enjoying the simple life in the village. Parents with skills such as arts and crafts, story-telling, music, dance, languages, drama, cooking, photography ... (the list is almost endless), could share them, enriching us at the same time. I envisage that local children from the village would also become involved, making for a lively and interactive cultural exchange. Maybe we could provide computer / internet services that would allow long-term family travelers to take some time out for making a digital scrapbook, or editting video clips along the way?

Right now these are ideas whizzing around in my head and giving me a great feeling of excitement. I would love to hear other families' feedback.... "

I got some great feedback which was all the incentive I needed to push the idea forward - and this blog is the result.

For a more detailed description of just what we can offer and what we hope to get in return you can check out our 'participate' page.

Cement Seating Sculptures

One of the projects we hope to get started on as soon as possible after arriving in the village is to arrange an outdoor cooking and general chilling area. We already have a rough plan for a seating sculpture which is to incorporate the recycling of various unwanted items. Here in Israel there is no shortage of available materials to use, from old broken chairs to tires, building rubble, plastic containers, and more which pile up day by day in unofficial dumps around the country. In Voditsa this might be more of a problem - but a good problem in a way. There is very little wasted in the traditional rural villages. While eco-warriors around the world are challenging us all to 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle', Bulgarian villagers have been living this way for centuries.

The idea for the seating sculptures came a couple of years ago when a friend invited me to join her on a trip to Kibbutz Lotan in the south of Israel. The kibbutz runs internationally renown permaculture courses and they do a lot of building and sculpting using a combination of natural and recycled materials. One of the advantages of their location is the weather - the barely 6 days a year of rainfall means that outdoor structures can be covered with mud without undue worry about weather damage. I came away from there there totally inspired and raring to go! My only problem was that where I live in the centre of the country rain would be a problem. I decided on a compromise: the basic structure would be made of recycled materials, but the covering would be cement.

I shall write more about the various stages in contructing the seating sculpture in my next post. In the meantime check out these amazing camel sculptures in Kibbutz Lotan. They are made with old car tires and mud!

Summer 2009 in Voditsa

Heading back to Voditsa in less than two months has brought a flood of memories back from last summer. Here are some of the highlights:

There were many 'unknowns' before we left Israel last summer. As it turned out the electricity was fine and just waiting to be switched on. The leaky tap we had been told about was the only real plumbing problem, and our wonderful neighbours Dancho and Stefan were a great help in getting that sorted within hours of our arrival. The weather was hot, but pleasantly so with occasional thunderstorms every couple of weeks.

Despite our intention to set up a compost toilet we managed the whole summer with just the original outside loo (with supplementary chamber pot in the bedroom)! Bathing was no problem either with a makeshift shower area outside using water warmed up by the sun during the day in plastic beer bottles.

Another project we thought we would manage but didn't even get started on was the outdoor living/cooking area. Hopefully that will get done this summer. What we did manage to do was to give most of the rooms a good clean and painted two of the bedrooms.

We did a lot of work in the garden and even managed to get some tomatoes and peppers going (though we had to leave just before they were ready for picking). The barn area and playhouse got tidied, and a couple of windows and doors got painted as well as the main entrance gate. Most of these jobs were achieved with the help of friends and family who came out to visit us: Bartek and Gosia (Poland), Ahava and Ravit (Israel), Nasta (Greece), Carole, Tina and Nikki (UK), Yair (Israel) and Yak (Czech Republic). In addition to the physical help they contributed they also kept us well-fed, in good spirits and provided some wonderful musical interludes. Thank you all.

Bartek managed to get up into the loft. It looked very sound and dry - fortunately no unpleasant surprises there! On the other hand, a trip up to the roof above the kitchen showed fairly extensive rodent (?) damage. That's something we shall have to take care of next time as it's causing the kitchen ceiling to bow.

We learnt how to bottle preserves for the winter, and how sing a few Bulgarian folk songs. We enjoyed being around each other as a family and having time for each other, never hurrying anywhere or being under pressure to get things done to a deadline. We were also treated to a road trip which enabled us to visit Varna and Nessebur and other interesting places along the way, and we became good friends with the local children after organizing some art and craft activities. These were all precious experiences.

We didn't get a donkey (though I haven't yet given up on that one!), but we did buy two chickens and were given a small rabbit (which we should have named 'Houdini' as he managed to escape from every place we put him - and eventually ran away).