/ world today news/ In their beautiful home in Momchilovtsi, the Dutch family entertains their guests with songs and playing the bagpipes
If anyone can explain in detail the difference between the two types of Bulgarian bagpipes – the Jura and the Rhodope kaba, it is certainly… the Dutchman Mace Müller. He has a collection of bagpipes and knows how to play hundreds of Bulgarian songs. For years, he has participated in the traditional playing in the Rhodope village of Gela in August and often takes the top three places. His wife Celine will sing to you with a beaming face “Izlel e Delho haidutin” in a perfect Rhodope idiom.
The two cute guys from Holada have already put down permanent roots in the Rhodopes. They have a 3-story house in the Smolyan village of Momchilovtsi, and since they are about to retire, they have seriously decided to keep their antiques there. This summer they were there for almost two months, they are coming back in September. “The house in Momchilovtsi is the best for us,” laughs Mays, who has already acquired the typical Bulgarian self-confidence of a chorbadji on a property.
In addition to Celine, two loves have fought all his life in the heart of the 64-year-old man: biophysics and music. Mace is a respected scientist, associate professor at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He teaches biology and biophysics, publishes in scientific publications, supervises doctoral students. But in the paradisiacal nature of the Rhodopes, Mace’s heart is as free as a bird. In Momchilovtsi, he continues to take out his bagpipes every time the neighbors ask him to. And the wonderful nature around is a paradise for a biologist, and Professor Müller seriously intends to continue his activities.
From a very young age, Meis has been passionate about Balkan folklore, and at a concert in Amsterdam he heard a bagpipe for the first time and was hooked on it. In Prilep, Macedonia, he buys two bagpipes and literally immerses himself in the life and culture of the Balkans. He goes around and records songs, melodies, lyrics with a tape recorder, like a real folklorist.
From the age of 10, Mays played the piano and delighted his guests with magnificent pianos by Chopin. However, his great love remains the Rhodope kaba bagpipe. When he returned to Amsterdam from Prilep, he collected records of Bulgarian music. He created the “Priatno” orchestra, which toured in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany and performed interesting folk compositions. “The Dutch don’t understand the bagpipe and don’t particularly like it, I rarely play there,” says Mays. So he hung his wonderful instrument on the wall for 15 years.
But at a folklore festival in Brussels, he met Stefan Zahmanov – a bagpipe virtuoso from the Smolyan village of Sokolovtsi. “We immediately became friends and he became my teacher,” Mays says. It was bai Stefan who prompted him to pick up the instrument again after 15 years. In 2003, he signed him up to participate in the Gela Overture, and Mace and Celine have been regular performers since then.
A happy coincidence meets the professor of biophysics with Celine van Dulken. They are united by a common interest – the love for everything Bulgarian. And then comes the great love between the two, which has kept them glued to each other for years. This is a late love, a fateful one. Mace already has a first failed marriage behind him and two children. Celine has mixed roots. Her maternal grandmother was of old refined French stock, born in Brussels and raised in Paris. The paternal grandmother is Czech. Celine is a philologist, translator from French, teacher and tour guide. He enrolled in a choir and dances, and there he came across Bulgarian folklore. Today, he proudly declares that he has been studying Rhodope songs for 30 years.
In 1979, Celine traveled to Bulgaria for the first time for a week, on a folk dance course in Plovdiv with the choreographer Dimitar Doichinov. “Then I fell in love with the Rhodopes – immediately, absolutely and forever. Not only in music, but also in nature”, says Celine with sparkling eyes. One can only guess with what delight the lady, a descendant of refined French and lived among the cold arrangement of Amsterdam, marveled at the lush splendor of the Rhodopes… “It was October, the trees were dotted with colorful leaves. From the Bachkovo monastery we walked around… Heavenly, unearthly beauty… I felt attached to this place. And when I came back to Amsterdam, I kept thinking about the mountain and the people. For a month, I listened only to Rhodope music and was sad about there”, recalls Selin. At that time she began to sing folk songs and at a concert she met Mace.
Five years ago, the two decided to look for a home in the Rhodopes. Thus they find a hundred-year-old house on 3 floors, with 8 rooms. They are doing a major overhaul and at the end of 2008 they are moving in. In September, Mace expects a tyre to arrive in Momchilovtsi with his entire laboratory from Wageningen University. Next autumn, upon his retirement, the professor plans to realize his long-standing dream – to create a legalized institute of biophysics there, in Momchilovtsi. “In the Rhodopes, there are over 200 endemic plants that are not found anywhere else in the world,” Mace explains passionately. He wants to give lectures at Plovdiv University or Smolyan. This is how he imagines the future.
Celine, on the other hand, whispers under her breath that in the Netherlands, as here, there is hidden age discrimination and that she cannot find a job. The two show their green Bulgarian passports for 5 years. “We are already official residents of Bulgaria and almost Bulgarians, but we do not have an EGN. We remain Dutch because of the pensions, and our country no longer grants dual citizenship,” a smiling Mace winks.
The two will take driving courses here so that they can travel around Bulgaria next year. Are the roads in the mountains difficult? “Ah, no, it’s nice, nice,” Mace says. “Nothing gets in his way, he likes everything here,” laughs Celine, and it’s clear that she too feels at home.
When they talk about life in Momchilovtsi, the two cannot boast of their neighbors and friends. From morning to night, the neighborhood is full of life – people are constantly either visiting or welcoming someone. And if they sit down at a heavy table, someone will say timidly: “Blow it up, Mace, the bagpipe.” And Mace doesn’t wait to be asked, he whistles, and Celine sings. “Very often we have chats with neighbors, with friends,” says Celine. Mohabet means for them to sit down with someone for a sweet talk. They really like this about Bulgarians – that they are so warm, cordial and hospitable. Celine brags about the Rhodope manji she has mastered. He is happy to make patatnik and pie. She likes the constant visits, the meetings with Rodopians. “They are very spiritual and cultural people. There are some who failed to graduate, but are naturally intelligent,” she says, and her face once again lights up with that smile of a woman who has found harmony within herself.
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