Selska Rabota: Village Stuff

Spring is here and people are beginning to emerge from their winter hibernation. It's still too early to start planting most things, but the fields have to be fertilized, cleared, and tilled. Yesterday was sunny and beautiful so I went for a long walk--here are the things I saw:

This is what you do with your martinitsi when you see a budding tree

Terraced fields

This is the path I was on...I've lived here for 8 months now and still can't get over these views!






The second grader gets a turn with the shovel while her family takes a rest


Fields marked with boundary stones


Using horses to transport fertilizer to the fields




I thought sheep only looked this pastoral and perfect in story books


A couple other interesting things...
Ramadan and Rufie let me participate with them in a "Martli Kortli" ritual. It involves lighting little fires with hay and then dancing around/over them while ringing a large bell and singing a song to scare away snakes and other evil things for the year. We made fires all around their house and then went to the kindergarten too.

Derya, my landlords' granddaughter had her 2nd birthday recently. Her big surprise present was a real rabbit from her older cousin :)