“WOLVES COME TO MY DOORSTEP”: Blažo lives alone high in the mountain and refuses to leave his home for a reason! (PHOTO)

At an altitude of 1,500 meters, few people in Serbia have remained to live. Yet, the mountaineer Blažo Slović (58) from the village of Koprivne near Prijepolje doesn’t want to leave his birthplace and home, even though he’s been living alone since his mother’s death. He says his brother and sister, who live in Knić, invite him to move to the gentler Šumadija region, but he can’t bear to leave his hearth. He has been a livestock farmer for many years, but life in the mountains is difficult.

“When I was younger, I worked in Prijepolje, but later those companies went bankrupt, and I returned to the village. I’ve been living here constantly for the last 10 years. I have cows and calves; that’s what I do. My nearest neighbor is a half-hour walk away. As beautiful and free as life is here, I must say that loneliness is hard. The workday starts at dawn and ends at dusk. There’s always plenty of work on the farm, around the property, and with the livestock,” Blažo told RINA.

When he returned to the village permanently, he increased his livestock and managed to sell his products on the local market. An old Lada Niva is his only connection to the rest of the world, as he uses it to get to town. Winters here can be harsh, sometimes lasting from November to May, so Blažo buys food supplies, especially salt and flour, in the autumn, as he can’t go to town daily.

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“There are a lot of wild animals; wolves often come right up to the doorstep. But you get used to life in nature. For example, the moment I turn on the light, the wolves run away. I’ve heard there are bears, but I haven’t seen them yet. The cows have endless pastures here. I must say that I have used the subsidies provided by the state and the municipality many times, and that has really meant a lot to me when it comes to surviving in the village,” said the mountaineer.

A famous wood-burning stove from Smederevo arrived from the municipality, and the old house was adapted.

The fact that the municipality of Prijepolje takes care of all its inhabitants is shown by Blažo’s example. They visited him a few months ago and promised help because, although he is very hard-working and diligent, he can’t do everything alone. The house he lives in is old and worn, so thanks to numerous businessmen, their donations, and the agility of the local self-government, it has been renovated. The president of the municipality of Prijepolje, Drago Popadić, visited Blažo.

“It’s hard to get here, but it’s even harder to live here; the conditions are harsh. This is not my first time here because I like to know where every resident of the municipality lives, and every resident should also know that the municipality will, as much as possible, provide normal living conditions. At 1,500 meters above sea level where Blažo lives, it’s difficult, so we wanted to help him somehow. We must commend him for his hard work and perseverance in not leaving his home. His house has been adapted, a toilet has been installed, and we have brought a famous wood-burning stove from Smederevo to keep him warm and comfortable during the winter. We will try to enrich the new space with new furniture. We hope this will be a slightly nicer and warmer winter for our hard-working resident and mountaineer,” said Popadić.

The first man emphasizes that the municipality of Prijepolje is one of the most numerous in Serbia when it comes to rural settlements and that in the next period, they will invest a great deal of effort and resources in cooperation with the government and the president of the state, to improve the road infrastructure, as this is also one of the biggest problems.