Making a difference in children's lives

You can tell that summer has ended when the more serious side of life returns to Bulgaria, and when thoughts turn not to which hotel or beach to visit, but to which orphanage or hospital has the greatest need for new beds or vitamins. In two unrelated initiatives, the Bulgarian charity foundations One Life Bulgaria, Lora Foundation and Cedar Foundation are making September

FAMILY MATTERS: When the poor are at your window

On Family Matters, and matters that extend beyond the household

We're walking one day. "What did she say Mummy?" Caleb, my four-year-old, said. "Nothing darling," I said dismissively. But my little man wouldn't let go of this bone. "Mummmmy," he pleaded, "What did she saayyy?" All the parenting books that I have ever started to read, but have never quite finished, have said how important it is to answer your kids' questions in a straight-forward and non-condescending manner.

READING ROOM: BLESSED with the scent of roses

Pink, fresh, rose-scented and with a glint in the eye that says "I knows something you don't!" That's Kazanluk. Found in the middle of Bulgaria between Sofia and Bourgas, a half an hour's drive from Stara Zagora, it waits with open arms to the many tourists that trickle in to it during the winter months and flood to it in the warmer ones. I left Kazanluk two years ago, having lived there for three years. On one of my recent visits earlier this year, I was struck by how much it had changed, new buildings springing up here, a row of shops and boutiques there. It is a bustling little town, and pretty, with flower beds along the roadside and a vibrant and colourful main square with a fountain, and flags waving in the breeze as if to a welcoming anthem. And the flags are raised high in welcome especially to the tourists visiting Kazanluk's rose festival, which will begin on the sixth of June this year.

FAMILY MATTERS: The corner friendly

A Family Matters adventure in which shop employees' politeness is questioned

"It's because I'm black," I said to my hubby despondently one day. He looked at me rather doubtfully and pointed out reassuringly that they did it to him, too. And the cause for such distress…? Our local corner shop. I replayed the conversation that I had just had with the shop assistant as I walked the short distance home and I wondered what I could have said differently. Surely my question in Bulgarian was properly phrased.

The Sofia Echo on the paperless ticket chase

There is a question mark over Bulgaria's readiness to implement European requirements for a new paperless air ticket system. The issue of The Sofia Echo appearing on June 6 explores the issue. In the paper's regular regional coverage, Spasena Baramova examines the aftermath of Macedonia's troubled June 1 snap elections.

Winners

The One Life Charity pub quiz at JJ Murphy's Irish Pub on April 20 raised more than 2400 leva for sick children in Bulgarian hospitals. The most `intelligent' team at the event consisted of Mark and Penny O'Sullivan and Simon Harris, who answered 31 out of the 36 questions correctly. The Sofia Echo was among the fundraiser's sponsors.

Bookstores in Sofia

Where Family Matters and reading work to go hand-in-hand

What book are you reading at the moment? I'm reading one that I received at Christmastime, Homer's The Odyssey. I feared that I'd be lost in all the ins and outs of the Greek gods and their impulsive interferences in humans' lives and especially in that of poor Odysseus, but the book is a really great read, and I find myself often feeling like I'm being transported into an utterly alien and yet enchanting poetic

FAMILY MATTERS: When family is far away

Thoughts on sharing life's experiences

I see snapshots of time passing by everyday... For example, his little shoes strewn near the shoe cupboard next to those of his father's. How did his shoes get so big? Wasn't it only yesterday that I placed those first baby socks upon his newborn feet? And the way his drawings depict elaborate tales of dragons and power rangers fighting, how did he get so creative and so imaginative? And how he hugs his

Coffee-flavoured taxi times

A Family Matters experience with taxi and three children

I find driving in Sofia an absolute nightmare. Inching my way along Bulgaria Boulevard every morning is enough to give me kittens! And imagine doing that with three noisy little lovable monsters in the back seat. My nerves are often just under the surface and if little sparks don't fly off in muffled expletives during the journey's duration, then it has been a very successful drive indeed. But I kind of knew that

READING ROOM: Necessary action, necessary love

The Cedar Foundation was created with the aim of facilitating and enabling the people of Bulgaria to meet the needs of their own communities, Mark O'Sullivan, the director and founder of the foundation along with his wife Penny, said. Based in Kazanluk, it deals with a variety of projects, like renovating orphanages and schools, a club for disabled youth, visiting children at the Saint Maria Louiza

When Frank (Sinatra) met Sofia (Bulgaria)

I got it in to my head that I was Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin all rolled into one. My fingers started clicking to the pounding rhythms of the piano and soon I was winding my broad hips like a trouper! Oh my goodness, what would the folks back home think? I personally blame it on the lights. For the duration of those two songs, I forgot about the kids at home and the basketful of laundry that still needed to be ironed,

Belonging truly

Expat Profile

There's a good story under, or more so, because of, the strata of Penny O'Sullivan's life. The South African world she entered in 1973 varied greatly from the London one that became hers nine-and-a-half years later, which again had no real similarities to Bulgaria, where she moved with her husband Mark in September 2002. The South African village in which she lived with her grandmother and cousins until age

READING ROOM: Persistent love

"And they lived happily ever after." These well-known words end many a fairy tale, and if such stories were to continue, we would expect Snow White and Cinderella to be soon surrounded by a brood of perfect children, with beautiful round eyes, voices that could melt any heart and flowing blonde hair, well, flowing black hair in the case of Snow White! But life is not a fairy tale, as one family can attest.