The site placement and counterpart conference was this past weekend. Site assignment was a nerve wracking and exciting experience. None of the 80 volunteers had any idea where they would be placed. Our sites will be our homes and jobs for the next two years. HUGE DEAL!
After a few hours of talks on logistics and planning, we headed out to the school yard where a giant chalk map of Bulgaria had been drawn. We waited with our satellite groups as our names were drawn out of a bowl and our villages announced. Then, we walked to where our villages were marked on the map and were handed a file with information on our assignments. We stood there until all placements were announced. It was an intense experience.
The two girls from my satellite group are about as far away from me as possible in Bulgaria; they are in the far southeast of the country near the Turkish border and Black Sea, about 12 hours by bus. The two boys are directly south, in the Pirin Mountains near Bansko, also about 8 hours by bus. I’m sad I won’t be near them, but love the village to which I’ve been assigned. There are also several other volunteers from different groups nearby.
After receiving our assignments, the COD volunteers were taken by bus our hotel located near Vratsa in the Vrachanski Balkan. The Vrachanski Balkan, which includes the Ledenika caves I went to last week, is the highland region to the west of Vratsa.
Once settled, we were introduced to our Bulgarian counterparts, with whom we’ll be working for the next two years. The rest of the weekend conference focused on drafting our plan for the first few months and working on team building exercises. Dinners were fantastic Bulgarian food followed by Horo dancing. The area around the hotel was great for morning hikes with well maintained trails and some old Thracian ruins.
After the conference, we travelled with our counterparts to our permanent sites for three days. Mine new home for the will be Chiprovtsi. Chiprovtsi is the seat of the local municipality, which includes several other villages and has a population of around 4000. Chiprovtsi itself has around 2000, but the actual number is said to be much smaller, because many people list Chiprovtsi as their home, but live and work in the nearby city of Montana.
Chiprovtsi is located in valley in the northwest Balkan Mountains. It takes around six hours to hike to Serbia. In the 13th century it was populated by Saxon Catholic immigrants and became one of the most important centers of gold- and silver- mining in the Balkans. The Catholic Church still stands in the town next to a newer Orthodox one. Though few Catholics remain, the inhabitants are proud of their multi-religious history. Their town crest even includes a lion with a split tail to symbolize their dual religious history. Chiprovtsi continued to be a wealthy town during Ottoman rule, but was destroyed after the Chiprovtsi uprising of 1688. The town was re-settled in 1737 and carpet weaving became the town’s main industry.
Chiprovtsi used to be a wealthier town benefitting from large mining operations in the surrounding mountains. Now that the mines have shut town, the town struggles to maintain its population and economic opportunities are more limited. It is, however, considered to be the most famous place in Bulgaria for rug weaving. Chiprovtsi rugs are bright and colorful with a lot of geometric shapes and bird motifs. One famous style is the Karakachki, or black-eyed woman. Because designs with depicting people were forbidden under Ottoman rule, they used geometric patterns such as this one below. Styles as well as looms are passed down through families so that many of the stylized patterns are the same as they have been for centuries.
My assignment is to work with the municipal office and its partners: the school, the cultural center, the museum, etc. My priorities are the development of small community projects, tourism, youth, and environmental awareness.
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