A group of 18 young people spent a bit over a month in four villages above the Rhodope town of Laki – Djurkovo, Dryanovo, Yugovo and Manastir. The latter is the highest inhabited spot not only in Bulgaria, but in the Balkans. The whole initiative was called Grandma Residence (Rezidentsia Baba) and its goal was the promoting of ideas, which could help those villages solve their problems in the long term. These ideas will be shared mid-November at the Empatheast forum for social change within Eastern Europe via empathy. Before that however the young people will work with mentors and will be supported by the Ideas Factory network and also by people, experienced in different spheres and depending on the concrete idea, in order for the latter to be implemented by the next spring at the latest.

Head of the project Yanina Taneva says that the participants have left the villages full of energy and with many things to think over:

“One of the girls said she had realized the preciousness of life and the attitude towards life of those elderly people, who were so close to death. That attitude is often brighter and more vital than the one of young people. I think that is really the most valuable thing a person can find – the purpose of life, when facing old age. The other thing that the kids told me was that they had learnt to pay more attention to their own grandparents, trying to learn a bit more from them. We realized that the link between generations was really possible, if both parties wanted and needed that. The elderly people at one of the villages did try to learn words of the youngsters, exchanging those of their own, Rhodope region speech. Everyone benefited from that exchange.”

Different events took place at each of the four villages:

“The participants helped with the repair of the old bakery in Djurkovo and kneaded over 600 loaves of bread, which were given to the people at the Assumption Day fest. Even the old yeast in the village was woken up, as it hadn’t been used for decades. At Manastir the young people recreated the migration from Davidkovo back when the border divided the liberated Bulgarian lands – and the horses’ hooves were wrapped in cloth, in order for the border to be crossed in silence. A bell was gifted to the chapel as well, since the old one had been stolen three years ago. A path was marked over the village of Dryanovo with an incredible view over the place. Besides that the people there organized along with the local singing band a fest of the village, where the young people learnt to cook typical Rhodope specialties. We were told what oshmar was – a mash, similar to the kachamak, but rarer and made from wheat flour and lots of yellow cheese… That communication between the generations remained in the hearts of the people.”

The young people also learnt weaving, they created traditional for the area jewelry, they learnt how to mow, then chased lost sheep and made raspberry jam and pine honey. The old Roman bridge to Yugovo was restored.

What does the Grandma Residence project need?

“We want to record a CD of the Dryanovo music band with the local community which preserves unique Rhodope folklore. We would like to call on for support, in order for the women to be able to tour around the country. They had been invited to the Koprivshtitsa Folklore Festival, but they didn’t have the finances to make the trip. At the same time we will be looking for volunteers – for the taking out of potatoes, for the making of lyutenitsa etc. within a weekend. The winter will also require lots of support, as those villages were left without electricity for 5 whole days over the last heavy winter. We would like to donate and to collect money for a battery for each village, as the inhabitants are elderly people and a second situation of that kind could be fatal. The range of the project will be expanded over its next edition.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev