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Andromahi Bardi - the girl who turned her Bulgarian otherness into strength

Photo: личен архив

"My name is Andromahi Bardi (Andromaxh Mpardh). I am 22 years old, a former student of the Bulgarian Sunday School "Sts. Cyril and Methodius" in Athens and now also a teacher there. I live in Athens, I was born here, but my mother is from Bulgaria and it is from her that I know Bulgarian".

So begins our conversation with her - a young, educated, charming and lovely piece of the puzzle of the other Bulgaria in Greece. Andromahi is a child of two countries, two cultures and two languages. A child of the opportunities and the shortcomings of the 21st century. But when she talks about Bulgaria, you can see the true bond this girl has with the country. An essential thread in this bond is her mother tongue. "At home, my mother spoke Bulgarian, but my father didn't because he's Greek. And I've spoken Bulgarian since I was little, but very badly," she recalls. So, at the age of 13, she started attending the oldest Bulgarian Sunday school in Athens, "Sts. Cyril and Methodius". There she had to "catch up" with her classmates in learning the language. 

"Then I was admitted to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens to study Russian philology. I took Bulgarian as a second language, which helped me fill in the gaps in my vocabulary," Bardi says proudly. She became so good that she now teaches in the same school that helped her start her journey and come to terms with who she is - Bulgarian and Greek. 


Bardi teaches Bulgarian language and history to first and second graders in the Bulgarian Sunday school and to students. Some of them are of Bulgarian origin who do not know their mother tongue very well and have to learn it as a foreign language. "But there are also foreign students who find it extremely difficult to master our reading and writing," Andromahi admits. She is sympathetic because she herself knows that Cyrillic is not easy to "tame". She has been there herself.

Like many young people, Andromahi wondered why she needed to learn her mother's language when she was already fluent in both Greek and English


"I think the Bulgarian language is a part of me. For example, when someone asks me - "What's special about you? Why are you like that?" I always think the answer is in the way that I grew up. Even though I'm half-Greek and I know the Greek culture, the language, the history, I feel that I'm different from everyone else. And I just decided to accept that difference as my strength, not my weakness. That's why today I am so attached to the Bulgarian language and traditions," she admits. 

Bulgaria is indeed a part of her - her upbringing, her childhood memories, her mother's stories and advice, the home-cooked Bulgarian food on the table. 

"All this is the Bulgarian in me. I'm very serious and I'm used to making do with what I have, and I think that's a Bulgarian trait in me. Because most kids in Greece are not like that. They're spoiled, I don't want to be rude and I don't mean it in a bad way. It's just that we Bulgarians here are taught to be considerate of how we speak to others, to know that we don't get something for nothing and that we have to fight for it. I've heard - "you're different, not in a bad way, but that's why you have to prove that you're as good as the others and even that you know more than them". My personality is different and it comes from the Bulgarian in me.

The young woman often visits her mother's homeland and even spent a semester at the University of Veliko Tarnovo, where she studied under the Erasmus+ programme. She is interested in what is happening in Bulgaria and enjoys the thought of living there one day. The world is big and there are lessons around every corner. But Andromahi is a good student.

"For me, Bulgaria is serenity. And one day, when I'm tired of everything, I'll go there to rest, to relax and to live the way I want to".


We are surprised to learn that this young woman will not be exercising her right as a Bulgarian citizen to vote in the country's early parliamentary elections this Sunday. 

"Not because I don't care," she replies immediately, "but because I have the feeling that since I don't live there and have no first-hand experience of all the problems of life there, who am I to vote or have an opinion on something that directly affects someone other than me?  I feel that my opinion won't make any difference. That's the way it is here in Greece. The important decisions, frankly, don't come from the "common people", they come from a higher level that I can't reach and can't change.

I think that life depends mainly on our everyday life, on how we talk to people, on how we perceive the things that happen around us, on whether we are honest, on whether we are kind to everyone. We have to understand that we are all the same. We are only strong when we are all together. And believe me - it makes no difference if you vote in an election. But when something bad happens, it is the united reaction of the people that changes decisions and policies. 


Photos: Personal archive
Translated and posted by Elizabeth Radkova


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