Gergini and Gabrovo

I had the opportunity to go to the monthly board meeting of the association I'm working with here, as well as their first annual meeting of their new Solidarity Fund. The Solidarity Fund is a great idea. Municipalities (which are like states in the U.S.) can chip in money to a fund that will be available to these paying members after a disaster occurs. The money is meant to cover immediate expenses, since even in Bulgaria it takes a while for the government money to come through. Now if only my presentation about my program in the states, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, inspires them to start something similar to help with disaster prevention projects...

The association has a training center in Gergini, which is a very small village outside Gabrovo.  The facility was initially funded with money from Norway, but was expanded and renovated with USAID funds a few years ago.  It's a pretty nice facility, with a hotel, cafeteria, and even a guard pup. Although she was too sweet to really be a guard dog.

Here's the entrance to the training facility.

The main entrance. The cafeteria was off to the right.

The rest of this building was the hotel.

 The other two buildings on the property. My meetings were in the one on the left.

Sign recognizing USAID's support.

The Solidarity Fund Annual Meeting. Several of these folks were mayors or council members of municipalities. I gave a short presentation about disaster prevention and my program, the DWSRF.

The Board Meeting. I think all of these folks were mayors. 

Of course have to show what the afternoon treats were.

And the vicious guard dog...

...who I of course made friends with during the break between meetings

I got to stay the night in Gabrovo since I had another meeting the next day a few hours south (in Dimitrovgrad). This is my first, and probably only, overnight in Bulgaria outside of Sofia.

Here's my hotel, which was very nice. It was 50 leva for the night and that included breakfast (so about $30).

Although my room was a bit turquoise! 

 My view:

Scenes from the walk to dinner...

 The famous clock tower of Gabrovo. Hard to see the tiny clock on the right just above the stone portion. The clock still measures time precisely ever since 1835.

Night falls on another day...