Stoyu Stoev – a philosopher, is a close friend of Stoil Bozhilov who was a former mayor of Petrich. In the 70-ties they often go and visit Baba Vanga.
I remember Baba Vanga loved to cook. She was always using a wooden spoon (a very old and amortized one) when stirring the meals. She was moving around her room very fast and freely, despite her blindness. She was accurately picking her spices from the kitchen cupboards, and then was putting them back where she took them from.
Our conversations sometimes would have a quarrelsome or rather humorous context – once I remember she said: “ So how many people you brought me today that were not booked for an appointment and had to go infront of others that did have one? If you have your close friends and lovers – you read on them, why you send them to me?”
Other times she would complain about her old age, her tiredness, her heavy burden that she has to carry, her destiny that left her without a husband at an early age, and so on.
In such personal moments of sharing, we were seeing the real human face of Baba Vanga – so down to Earth, and looking just like the rest of us.
Just like any human, Baba Vanga had her own weaknesses. She was fairly nervous, very short-tempered especially when somebody made her mad. I have seeing her how she gets out of her house, still hadn’t finished the quarrel with someone, and then she goes in the yard, and starts watering the flowers, or do some gardening. Time was passing by, and all those hundreds of people that were waiting outside her door were asking Baba Vanga’s guards when she will start accepting people again. They never had an answer to this question, because nobody could order Baba Vanga to start her readings, if she didn’t want it to. She was really unexpected both in terms of reaction and action.
Zheni Kostadinova graduated Philosophy at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She has worked as an editor at the student TV show “Ku-Ku”, and as a reporter at the National Radio “Horizon”. For over 15 years she is a columnist at “Weekly Trud” newspaper writing about esoteric and psychology. In the same newspaper she is maintaining a page on literature. Zheni Kostadinova is the author of some of the most popular books written on Baba Vanga including “Baba Vanga The Prophetess”, “Baba Vanga Predictions”, “The Secret of Baba Vanga”. Her first book was translated into Russian, Polish, Latvian, Serbian, and Albanian. Zheni is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers. She had published three books of poetry: “Fire Sticks (2002), “17 love colors” (2007), and “Fig Jam” (2008). In 2012 Zheni has founded the art-house “Kuklite”. It is a doll gallery and a mini-museum located in the old downtown of Sofia. The gallery exhibits different dolls placed in specific categories. Besides the exhibitions, the art-house “Kuklite” also have the priority to work with children from the local schools, so they learn more about the traditions and customs of the different nations. The main idea is to transform the art-house “Kuklite” into a centre for cultural exchange, creative collaboration between representatives of different fields of art, science and philosophy. The art-house will hold meetings with interesting personalities, and will be a place of exhibitions, seminars, workshops, premieres of books and documentary movies, puppetry, and many other great events. The art-house “Kuklite” will also be a place where collectors can display their favourite artefacts and can share the history associated with them.
