Ossikovo is a village high up in the Rhodope Mountain, at an altitude of 1,250 meters, surrounded by pristine forests and inhabited by sturdy and hard working men and women. Years ago, while she was doing a field study on the history and traditions of Bulgarian Muslims, Svetlana from Ukraine fell in love with Ossikovo. She made many friends here and started coming more and more often to get away from the city. Later, Ossikovo came to be a favourite getaway for her entire family – her husband Kenneth Noritant from Cameroon and their three children.

“The village is stunningly beautiful, Bulgarian through and through and very old,” Svetlana says. “I love it even though life here is not easy. The local people are accustomed to that. There used to be a dirt road leading to the village, now it has been renovated and it is much better. When I started going to Ossikovo, there was no Internet, no mobile phone coverage. We found some old computers and I started teaching children computers and English.”

“When I first came to the village I was overwhelmed with the surrounding beauty as we were traveling up the mountain. My wife is popular in Ossikovo, so people here quickly befriended me. I like the people there. Ordinary people, with a genuine fondness and attentive of others,” Svetlana’s husband adds.

Kenneth came to Bulgaria in 2006, after graduating university in Ukraine. Though Svetlana is from Ukraine, her roots are here, in Bulgaria. She came here in 2001 to study linguistics and now works at a library in Plovdiv.

“The picture that has been stamped in my mind is from my first time in Bulgaria. I traveled by train and when we were crossing the Danube I took a look out of the window. What I saw was breathtakingly beautiful and brought tears to my eyes. And I said to myself - if my grandfather, who was Bulgarian, was still alive, he would have been so proud of me for coming back to the land of my forefathers.”

The family can hardly wait for summer to come to Ossikovo.

“People are very fond of Kenneth, Svetlana and the children,” says the village Mayor Velin Paligorov. “Kenneth is always ready to help the locals with their computers or to translate something from and into English – letters or anything connected with work.”

In exchange, the local people give the Noritants invaluable advice on how to grow strawberries. There is a Muslim proverb that goes: “A poor man will give of his soul, a rich man – of his wealth.” This is a formula that works very well here – when each person gives of himself whatever he can. The family decided to grow strawberries – the principal means of livelihood here in Ossikovo – in 2012 and planted a quarter of a hectare. This summer they received a certificate for “the best beginner-strawberry growers from abroad”, even though they still have a long way to go before they start making any profits.

“Until 20 years ago the locals were growing potatoes and raising livestock, mostly sheep – 5-6,000 in number,” Mayor Paligorov says. “But we had trail-blazers who started growing strawberries and raspberries – I was one. The first years were very difficult until we had found a market for them. But people did not give up because there are no jobs to be had – we have children we have to raise and provide an education for. As the years went by strawberries grew to be more lucrative, especially once we had the road to Ossikovo renovated. The market opened up, tradesmen started coming here from the Black Sea coast, from Sofia. We have 30 hectares of strawberry fields, but the picking season is from mid-June until the end of July. So, the money we make isn’t enough for the whole year. Most people are running tabs at the stores and unemployment is still a big problem. We do not have an ageing population here but the birth rate is not high either. We have 17 children at the school. The state must have a special policy with regard to the young to keep them from moving away from their birth places. They are here in summer but in winter they leave in search of work. Some families do not return but move away,” Velin Paligorov says.

The Mayor of Ossikovo adds, that the surrounding beauty – mountain peaks, caves and waterfalls, combined with the hospitality of the local people are a tourist potential that is yet to be developed.

English version: Milena Daynova