A Street in the Orpheus Neighbourhood, Maria Staykova, Haskovo

Posted by maria dimitrova 21-04-2006

I am a citizen of the town of Haskovo. I live in the Orpheus residential complex. My street runs between the neighbourhood's blocks of flats. The streets in this neighbourhood are all like each other. The first thing you will notice [near my block] are a couple of giant 'beaver'-type rubbish bins sitting next to each other. They are big so that they can contain the rubbish of the people boxed up in the numerous panel flats around. The rubish is not collected separately, like it is in the 'white' countries of the EU. Despite the giant containers, there are several improvised rubbish dumps near my block -- piles of junk that people have thrown in the street.

There is a park nearby which was designed to be used by children. There is only one unbroken swing in it and it is as dirty as you can imagine. In the green areas between the blocks people have built up garages. You can still see the odd tree here and there, or the remains of a tree, between the garages. There is a high concentration of Roma people in my neighbourhood, the highest in Haskovo after the Republica neighbourhood. In the supermarket, Roma language can be heard more often than Bulgarian. This is why I can't even dream about relationships of the European-type in my neighbourhood.