The Grants' Bulgaria Blog.

This page answers some of the interesting questions we’ve fielded on our trip to Bulgaria!

Where on earth is Bulgaria?

Eastern Europe; above Greece, below Romania, west of the Black Sea and east of Serbia and Macedonia!

Is Bulgaria poor? Will you have flushing toilets and all the mod-cons?

Being part of Europe (and the European Union since 2007), Bulgaria is relatively wealthy as a country. Compared to Australia or some Western European countries, Bulgarians have a lower level of income/luxury/affluence – but our first taste of life in Bulgaria was by no means “slumming it”!

On the other hand, we will we living in the Turkish community of Haskovo (our destination – a town of ~100,000 people in Southern Bulgaria). Turks are an ethnic minority who suffer/choose separation from the Bulgarian majority and as a result many Turks are quite poor.

What are Bulgarians like? What do “Bulgarians” look like? Who’s a famous Bulgarian I might know?

Last things first: I don’t know any famous Bulgarians and chances are that you won’t either!

Compared to the average Anglo-European, Bulgarians tend to have darker skin and a prevalence for dark hair. There are a number of ethnic groups in BG, however. Turks tend to have darker skin, as do the Rom. The best way to answer this question is with photos, not cliches, but looking through our snaps I discovered that we didn’t take many shots of people other than ourselves! More photos will follow throughout the year, of course!

What are some of the quirks about living in Bulgaria?

1. They grate fetta cheese on top of hot chips. Try it; it’s awesome!
2. Elly’s favourite beverage is a Bulgarian/Turkish favourite called Vishna (Вишнa) which is cherry juice.
3. Cobblestone streets are quite common. They look great, are very functional and they make roadworks very simple!
4. Bulgarian plumbing is not great. You can’t put toilet paper down the loo but must instead place it in the bin next to the toilet. Bit weird, but surprisingly not smelly.
5. Milk is hard to come by! At least it was where we visited last time… unless you bought it off the lady who kept a cow in her suburban backyard. We were told that the milk probably wasn’t safe…
6. Everyone drives a Lada! These are the old Soviet-era car that all Communist countries seemed to love. Our soon-to-be host David describes them as “wonderfully unreliable”!

What’s the Bulgarian currency and what is it worth?

They use the Bulgarian Leva here (aka BGN), as well as the cutely-named stotinka (plural=stotinki) which is one-hundredth of a Leva. At the time of writing, 1 AUD buys about 1.1 BGN, which means that we have to take about 10% off the marked prices to get an AUD equivalent.

BG joined the European Union a few years ago but Bulgarians don’t really use Euros as a currency yet – most shopkeepers hate the Euro even more than they hate credit cards!

How do living expenses compare to Australia?

On average, living here is about 3 times cheaper than living in Australia, though not everything is cheaper by that factor. In summer (ie. now), fruit and vegies are incredibly cheap and plentiful. Cherries/strawberries for $1-2/kg, tomatoes/cucumbers are about the same. Our rent is 300 Lv/month, and our rough estimate of what a similar place in Launceston would cost is $200/wk so that’s just over 3 times cheaper. Alcohol can be incredibly cheap here (we’ve seen beer cheaper than water in some restaurants) but it causes a lot of problems in some communities. Interestingly, McDonalds is only slightly cheaper here – which means relative to most food here it’s awfully expensive! [I suspect that dining at McDonalds is a socially aspired-to practice for some Bulgarians who want to associate themselves with affluent Western Europe.]

Is one of the walls in your lift really moving?

We love our lift. It’s rated to 4 people and it fits about 3.5 people. As it has no inner doors, the fourth wall is indeed the outer door, which moves past you as the lift operates! I’m a bit scared to touch it in case I get snagged and lose a finger (or limb) as the wall keeps moving… [If you don't know what I'm talking about here, watch the video in the "Haskovo Chapter 1" post!]

Are you going to learn to speak Bulgarian?

I know we’re in Bulgaria, but the Turkish and Millet groups that we’ll be meeting both speak Turkish so that’s the language we’ll be attempting to learn. We’re both very keen to learn it!

We will also learn some rudimentary Bulgarian for shopping etc. It’s fairly uncommon to find someone who speaks good English here (though of course their English is better than my Bulgarian!).

So you’re “missionaries”, does that mean you’ll be standing on the street corner trying to “convert” people?

Er, no. David and Kathryn’s work here would be best described as “church planting”, which is a strange phrase meaning that they are keen to assist people who are interested in Jesus to establish meetings. I say “meetings” rather than “churches” because it better conveys their size and structure (ie. they’re smallish and they meet in houses not church buildings). D+K are determined to keep their role to that of a helper/enabler rather than pastor/leader – their interest is in aiding the locals to establish an indigenous church.

There is also no standing on street corners . To give and example of what “work” here involves, it might be walking through the Millet mahalle (neighbourhood/slum) and talking to people. These might be people who attend “Jesus meetings” already, they may be people who have previously asked for more information about this Jesus bloke, or they may be people who D+K haven’t met before. No one is pestered or coerced (need I even say that!). D+K spend their time with people who are willing to chat, share problems, investigate issues etc. Following Jesus is about real life, and David and Kathryn’s ministry reflects this.

So what work will Stu and Elly be doing?

Elly and I will occasionally spend time in the mahalle or somewhere else with David and Kathryn, but our main task is actually to home-school their nearly-6-year-old son Aydin, which has its own challenges! Aydin is a bright, energetic and almost-always happy young lad who prefers to do his school work with the highest possible level of creativity! Keeping Aydin’s focus for 2-3 hours a day will be our “work”!

Any other questions?

Please feel free to send up any other questions you might have! Easiest way to do that is to add a comment to this (or any other) page.

Cheers,

Stu and Elly.