A Street Where What is Left Temporarily Stays Indefinitely, Marusya Usheva, Satovcha

Posted by maria dimitrova 21-04-2006

My street is a true village street. There are piles of firewood in front of every house, pallets of bricks which await the day when they will be used for construction; there are tobacco dry houses, self-made car sheds, and a few parked vehicles. Often what people leave out on the street temporarily stays there indefinitely.

During the summer my street is livelier. It is the only asphalt street around which doesn’t have big traffic and neighbourhood kids come here to bike and meet with friends. In the evening there is a special sense of harmony. The girls and the boys come to sit on the bench in front of our house -- they eat sunflower seeds, talk, laugh and ring their friends on their mobile phones. At night the street turns into a speedway.

The soils in the Rhodopi Mountain only allow us to grow potatoes and tobacco. Growing tobacco is hard work, we work from dusk till dawn. If you come here during the summer, you will see groups of two or three people sitting by large bagfuls of green tobacco leaves, picking the leaves from the bags and threading them deftly together, talking to each other. You will hear music of different rhythms coming from all sides, interspersed with the barking of a dog guarding its territory.

My neighbours on both sides are older people. In both families one child is abroad and the rest work in the cities. “It’s where their luck is”, their parents sigh.

To see Marusia's pictures click here