Increasingly, over the 7 years I’ve lived in a small Bulgarian village, I’ve felt compelled to ‘put something back’ into a community that tolerates such an eccentric foreigner in its midst. The village has two ends and two ‘types’ of residents – Bulgarians, and those living in the ghetto, or maxla, who are of Turkish and Roma origin. There is both a single community and two separate ones. I am lucky enough to get on, for the most part, with both, separately, and with both together.
When fire hit my home in 2009, people from the two groups helped to try to put it out and later, Bulgarian neighbours – mostly elderly women – left blankets and jars of freshly cooked food at my gate when they realised I was camping in the ruin. The chief official of the village also provided used slabs for me to make paths through the winter mud when I brought a caravan on site.
But it was those from the maxla who were the most persistent in helping me. I use the word persistent deliberately as, unsurprisingly, any altruism on their part was mixed with a desire to earn. Scrap iron from my ruined roof and damaged stoves were particularly desired in exchange for help searching rubble for any signs of my computer’s black box. Horses and carts occupied my yard, leaving with broken tiles, blackened pots and smoking clothes and returning with ‘new’ clothes to sell me, loads of stone to use as foundation for the caravan, buckets for water and for use as toilets, and smoked bones for soup.
Unable to access cash for a while, I paid for the help I received in kind – a barter system which came easily to me after my years among Torres Strait and Outer Solomon Islanders. And when I was set up in my caravan abd writing again, I maintained close contact with the maxla folk and learned much about their way of life, interests, joys, problems and intrigues. Any idea that I’d had about ‘poor people’ or ‘gypsies’ being lazy and not trying to improve their lot soon faded. Men, women and children as young as 4 were looking for work all the time.
Roma women started asking me for medical help early on. They learned I had basics such as Elastoplast, antiseptic cream and headache tablets unavailable elsewhere in the village, and that I’d gladly look at, and clean, minor wounds and recommend treatment – either with natural meds made from local leaves – some of which they already knew about – or with items from the nearest chemist. Soon they were bringing their children and grandchildren for free healthy snacks too and soon the children were flocking to my gate on their own. There were days when there was a not a loaf of bread in their homes.
I could not help trying to reach out to animals in needs I saw every day, too. And at first, helping people and helping animals was done separately. If I found kittens thrown in a stream to die, I took them in myself. If a starving puppy entered my yard asking for help, I gave him food and shelter. And I’ve organised 23 neutering ops for animals in my care.
It was only when I started visiting the maxla that I realised just how bad conditions were – are – for dogs, cats and horses there. Kapkis – see The Little Operation I Run – took on helping two horses and several dogs with owners, and we handed out wormers and anti-parasite meds for cats, too. Yet how to help the ‘strays’ running up and down the potholed streets – or lying dying by bins and under bushes – remains a big problem. These are the fruit of countless matings of pups grown up semi-wild after being ‘thrown away’ by the owners of their mothers – litter after litter, some born in barns but a lot in the woods beyond the village or on a local rubbish tip.
I have sought support in a neutering program from the village authorities with no success. Rural Bulgaria is behind other European countries in this way. There are programs in larger towns, but if something is going to happen in my village to change attitudes it will need to be through a private project…
Change has to start somewhere and it could be right in my local maxla – if people from outside could help to kickstart such a plan. My idea is not only to help the dogs but people, too. I can think of at least 6 unemployed youths who’d hugely welcome some construction work. Could they not build a shelter for some of those uncared for ‘strays’, where puppies could be cared for and raised until they reach the age for neutering? Care of the pups would be another job for the right sort of young person. And I could pay regular visits to supervise worming, anti-parasite treatment etc. Later, I could organise trips to the vet for speys and castrations, funds permitting.
Initially at least, I’m thinking very small – going with what I see as quickly realisable and viable. There is a recently born litter under an old caravan. The mother, until recently, was being fed by no one, defensive of her brood and clearly stressed. Now, I am paying a little to a kind young man who lives nearby to feed her, so that, over time, we can reach her pups before small children get hold of them and treat them like toys. I would like to put the pups in an enclosure and there is a good spot for one nearby. That enclosure needs building right now – before the puppies totter out into a world full of danger. I have some fencing materials I can donate, but to do a good job we need more. And those building the shelter would need remuneration.
I’m hoping so much that a few of you out there might like to come on board to make change for the better happen in a small way, now. In a single stroke we could give several people-in-need work, and simultaneously prevent the suffering of helpless pups.
If we can get this project going, I’ll post regular updates and photos on my facebook page, Castaway Lucy https://www.facebook.com/castaway.lucy?ref=tn_tnmn Please join me there.
Donations via Paypal to lucyirvine282@hotmail.com
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