Hello, this is Gaspard Nivesse, a volunteer between March 2026 and March 2027.
Let’s start from the very beginning. I arrived in Bulgaria and was told to find a personal project. I would have two hours a week to use for it. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I thought it was a shame to have all this space in the garden that wasn’t being used. So we thought it would be cool if we could have some chickens. Unfortunately, the place was full of rubbish: bits of wood, metal sheets, nails, small stones, basically all sorts of stuff, and part of the roof was weak. The central post was half eaten away by mold, so Leo climbed onto the roof and started to take it apart tile by tile. We ended up removing the entire roof to rebuild it. I remember how scared I was at first, working at heights, but little by little your body gets used to it and it becomes super easy to move around. We were rebuilding the entire roof structure, so the more boards we added, the stronger and safer it was. After that, Sam and I nailed on some salvaged metal sheets. It took us a whole day, but when we finished, we realized we didn’t have enough sheets, so we were left with a half-finished roof for a good month, I think. I’m going to reveal a secret to you, it was one of my favorite places to watch the stars and drink a beer, it was a perfect slope, you don’t slip but you have a good incline, and I had some great discussions with Sam on this roof, unfortunately all good times come to an end, and the end for this salvage roof was when Tisho decided that we had to finish this project and went to buy all the necessary materials to make a brand new roof, for me it was hard, I had put so much effort into this salvage roof with the tools I had and the materials available. In short, Tisho took apart our entire roof to replace it with new stuff. So now that we have a safe roof, we have to clean the area again to be sure it’s safe. Then we changed the barrier and created a gate. The final touch is that we made little signs with Vic to name the coop, so it’s called KFC. Now all that’s left is to get the chickens. It took us a while to get some chickens with all the camps, holidays, etc., but in the end, we have chickens. They’re not laying eggs yet, but that should change soon.
I don’t really know what to think about this project. It’s been a mess from beginning to end. The more I think about it, the more I realize how stupid it was, but the more it makes me laugh. So that’s all that matters. I have good memories and not-so-good ones. Now we just have to move forward.
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This program is co-funded by the Erasmus+ / European Solidarity Corps program of the European Union.
Финансирано от Европейския съюз. Изразените възгледи и мнения обаче принадлежат изцяло на техния(ите) автор(и) и не отразяват непременно възгледите и мненията на Европейския съюз или на Европейската изпълнителна агенция за образование и култура (EACEA). За тях не носи отговорност нито Европейският съюз, нито EACEA.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
