The Following Week

The week that followed began with an extraordinary experience. One of our neighbors invited us to his weekly Buddhist fire ceremony. We were asked to wear nice clothing (preferably dresses) and to bring a dish for the shared lunch.

Of course, I was immediately curious about what it was all about, and set off together with Annika, Sarah, Nikita, and Louis. About 45 minutes later, we arrived at our neighbor’s place dressed nicely but quite dusty from walking through the meadows and forests along the footpath.

It turned out that he was a man in his early 70s who had emigrated in his twenties, spent time in the Himalayas, and had been living in Bulgaria for several years. What was particularly impressive was the fact that he spoke all our languages fluently and constantly switched between German, Bulgarian, and English, especially when he wasn’t reciting Indian prayer texts.

There was singing, music-making, and offering sacrifices into the fire before we moved on to a shared lunch. A fascinating experience!

In fact, this wasn’t the only opportunity I had to get to know our neighbors and their properties. Given that we live on a mountain, we have surprisingly many. So I not only got to know Nash and Stefan, a couple who had previously volunteered at Vegetarium and now lived 10 minutes away from us with their dog, goat, and two small children, but also Kirill, an elderly gentleman. Since he was away for a few days with his dog Lizzy, I was entrusted with taking care of his plants and cats.

Another cool task we got to work on that week was the renewal of the trail markers for Cerovo, the nearest town to Vegetarium. For the first time in almost two weeks, I descended from the mountain and got to appreciate that it really wasn’t just a small hill but an actual mountain.

There was also a lot to do and much to discover around the project grounds. In particular, the water system was especially interesting. A   pump powered by the solar panels pumped water up into the elevated cistern. After a few days, I knew a bit more about how our water system worked, which plants to water and how often, and how we should deal with the long dry period.

Very interesting!