Visiting the factory in Bulgaria
I grew up in former East Germany, after leaving school i did an apprenticeship as a tailor making fitted clothes for all kind of clients. The fact that i remember the most is that i got up every morning at 5am, took the bus to work at 5:50am and sat at my sewing machine at 6:45am.
When i now visit the company in the south of Bulgaria i remember very well those times more then 20 years ago and in a strange kind of way i feel home. Life here has also changed a lot since the wall came down and similar to East Germany the economy has completely changed. While in the old days people here produced 15000 pairs of shoes per week, now there are only a few women and men working and many of the large facilities are unused. This is a result of many companies moving their production to China or other cheap production countries.
It feels good to be here, at the most outer border of Europe meeting people who are willing to make bags from used bicycle inner tubes.
