Village Life in Dobrina
There
is no need for an alarm clock in Dobrina. You get woken
up early by village sounds:
cockerels, donkeys, the bells of sheep being herded to pasture on the
mountain, donkey carts with hard wheels trundling by, and a
great variety of wild birds. These soothing country noises go on all
day long, only occasionally interrupted by motor vehicles.
At night there is the loud stagewhisper-like chorus of the crickets. Night is also the time when one might hear the shriek of a hungry jackal, creeping into the village from the forests covering the mountain sides.
There is just one tractor in the whole village, but lots of working animals. Even the dogs chained up in people's yards are doing the job of doorbells, so do not attempt to pet one barking at you - part of its job description is to bite you!
The village has its own smell; a mixture of the scents of various flowering plants, and good, honest dung! The goats and sheep are needed to make yogurt and sirene cheese. The gardens and fields are ploughed with a donkey plough, and horses and donkeys are needed to pull the carts to visit the maize fields and vineyards outside the village. A flock of geese practically lives in the road, and sometimes piglets run about too, and a cow or two. This means you need to watch where you step because of the variety of animal poop in the lanes!
At night there is the loud stagewhisper-like chorus of the crickets. Night is also the time when one might hear the shriek of a hungry jackal, creeping into the village from the forests covering the mountain sides.
There is just one tractor in the whole village, but lots of working animals. Even the dogs chained up in people's yards are doing the job of doorbells, so do not attempt to pet one barking at you - part of its job description is to bite you!
The village has its own smell; a mixture of the scents of various flowering plants, and good, honest dung! The goats and sheep are needed to make yogurt and sirene cheese. The gardens and fields are ploughed with a donkey plough, and horses and donkeys are needed to pull the carts to visit the maize fields and vineyards outside the village. A flock of geese practically lives in the road, and sometimes piglets run about too, and a cow or two. This means you need to watch where you step because of the variety of animal poop in the lanes!
Every woman in Dobrina still knows how to preserve
everything and anything for the winter, from wild berries to things cultivated in gardens: walnuts, almonds, plums, peaches, apricots, cherries, mulberries, tomatoes, pumpkins... Our neighbour's
home-made, syrupy walnut preserve is out of this world! Many people even
produce their own honey, and everyone makes rakia out of any surplus or over-ripe fruit. There is a great culture of not wasting anything; even
apricot and peach stones are cracked, and the kernel dried and eaten
with salt, just like almonds. In fact apricot kernels are also included in apricot jam.
We have found the village people extremely warm-hearted and welcoming, without exception. Brief visits to neighbours every day seem to be the norm, and we are continuously overwhelmed by gifts of surplus tomatoes, soft fruits, grapes - anything that needed picking that day.
We have found the village people extremely warm-hearted and welcoming, without exception. Brief visits to neighbours every day seem to be the norm, and we are continuously overwhelmed by gifts of surplus tomatoes, soft fruits, grapes - anything that needed picking that day.