I drive into a typically chaotic village scene at Negotino, but think I have fond the tiny alley/road that leads to Lomnice. I pull over to make sure, a man walks past.
"Where are you going?" he asks. I explain my destination and the whole back story. He is fascinated. "Come, come with me, we shall have a coffee, I must tell everyone." Fekri is a football coach and scout for German and Italian teams wanting to know about Macedonian talent. He also seems to know everyone in town. About 10 people with a Lomnice connection, including one man who still lives there. They all look at the picture, and fill me in on a few people. One (who I remember as having blue eyes) became mayor of Negotino and had since died, as had a number of other people in the shot; hardly surprising! Then a man who had left the village with his family in the 80s, to return after 30 years working in Switzerland, looked at the picture and found his son. The little boy right in the centre of the picture at the front. Not only that, but he called him up in Berne where he lives as a coach driver, and face timed him, whilst he drove his coach. Amazing.
I was about to move on and drive up to the village itself, when two enormous artic trucks drove up the Lomnice road, and came to a juddering halt. The sat nav had sent them the wrong way, and they now had to reverse, one by one, back down the tiny road. It took half an hour, involving most of the village, but they got it sorted. What struck me was how calm everyone was, people's response was "how can I help?" rather than "who is to blame?"
I drove up in a bit of a daze. The road was blocked with a flock of sheep, two shepherds and three dogs (looked like Layla's anatolian cousins) this was another throwback. I had forgotten how beautiful the setting was. The mosque minuet rises above the village, stacked on the side of the valley with the woods all around, and the mountains looming behind. Fekri had warned me that now there were only 12 houses occupied, down from about 50 when I was there before. But I was still shocked, there was not a person around (although the occupied houses were obvious) no greeting this time. In fact, apart from the refurbished mosque, it was hard to work out where I had taken the photograph. Many building seemed to have collapsed or been demolished, so that I could not work it out.
I got back in the car and felt a bit subdued. The trip had been at once one of the most amazing experiences of my life, but I also felt a deep sadness at the same time. It was everything I had hoped, but also some of things I had feared.
No comments:
Post a Comment