MY VILLAGE IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN PARIS: Anđelo Could Have Lived in Paris, but Chose to Stay in Krčimir!

While young people increasingly choose cities over villages, young Anđelo Petković (28) decided to remain in his native village. Although he had the opportunity to live in Paris, he chose to stay on his ancestral land, in the small village of Krčimir on the slopes of Suva Planina.

“My village is more beautiful than Paris” certainly applies in the case of this twenty-eight-year-old. He lives here, works, engages in livestock breeding and agriculture, takes care of animals, produces food, and says that it gives him satisfaction and that he feels free in the countryside.

“This is the city of light for me. I’m not used to the city and I couldn’t live in one. I was born here, I grew up here, I stayed here — I don’t know anything better. My day is full, from morning until dark. I do everything: farming, we sow wheat, corn, mow clover, tend to greenhouses a bit, sheep…,” says Anđelo, whose day starts at five in the morning and ends around 7:30 in the evening.

Anđelo lives with his grandmother Dragica, who has taken care of him since childhood.

“I have a son, I have a daughter, but Anđelo has also been my greatest support, and to this day I think that as long as I’m alive he won’t leave here. And we must clarify that his mother has been living and working in Paris for more than 20 years; he was with her, lived there and tried to stay, but something still pulls him back to his roots. It’s nicer for him here than in Paris, and what can I do — if I were left alone, I don’t know how I would manage, but he is my greatest support,” says grandmother Dragica.

Anđelo works at the Health Center in Gadžin Han, and after finishing his shift, he immediately comes home, changes clothes, and goes to take care of the livestock, tending and feeding them.

“For those who aren’t used to work, everything is hard. For those who are used to it — I’ve been, as they say, worn down and accustomed to work since childhood — nothing is hard for me. My friends are surprised that I stayed in the village,” says Anđelo, adding that girls are not enthusiastic about village life either.

“It’s difficult; they don’t really support village life — men don’t support it either, let alone girls. There’s nothing to be done about that,” he says.

Anđelo says that today the village has all the conditions for life: Leskovac is half an hour away by car, and Niš is about an hour away.

“Those who keep more livestock also receive subsidies — the state provides good ones. The roads are well done, the internet is good, television — we have everything, just like in the city,” says this hardworking young man.

MY VILLAGE IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN PARIS: Anđelo Could Have Lived in Paris, but Chose to Stay in Krčimir!

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