We have spent many days scrubbing and cleaing this hall floor, as well as covering the chairs and making tables. What started out to be a quick make over is turning out to be much more.  Here are some photos of what has been done so far

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Didn't have you down as a scrubber No seriously just from what I can see its going to make a great difference and I'm sure that whatever task you 2 set yourselves it will always benefit others

Well done to you and all that are helping I'm sure the locals will appreciate all you do.

Thanks guys it's all coming on nicely.  This project is nothing to do with the orphanages just a community project. We need this hall ready for the Christmas party we will give this year for all the underprivledge children in the surrounding villages, last year was an eye opener for us when we realised the children have very little. We had some stuff left over from the orphanages stockings and another friends send a large box of lucky bag items over to us for the community so we were in a position to help 40 children which was just wonderful   This year we will do lots more and I have already enrolled the help of our villagers for Santa's workshop.  Will also get the Silistra Theatre to do a Christmas pantamine. So really looking forward to it all now.

Got any pictures of the finished floor

Dougie and I scrubbed the floor than washed it with white vinager and oil but still it soaked up 3 coats of wood stain this is it now.  Not much more we can do with it now apart from varnish it to keep it this way.  If we don't varnish it the stain will come off again.
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Well what a difference that has made how long did it take you to clean it all and the apply the varnish? and how many coats of varnish has it had?

Andy wrote:

Well what a difference that has made how long did it take you to clean it all and the apply the varnish? and how many coats of varnish has it had?

Hi Andy, it took Dougie and I nearly 4 hours to clean it, then we gave it a good hoovering then 3 coats of wood stain, not got the varnish yet, but I will get a good heavy duty one. It will look much better..

Wow what a day we had today.  It was Prosnic in our village and we had 15 groups here singing. The community hall was buzzing, Government officials came and they also thanks us for all the work we all did in the community hall. Our Mayor presented us with another certificate of thanks, which is lovely.  

We have all been busy for the past two weeks getting the hall ready for the festival today, everything had to be presentable for the govenrment officials and the guests so we all worked very hard. You should have seen the way the caretaker took pride in taking everyone around and told them everything that was done. He clearly explained that this and that came from England. Dougie and Berni did this and that.  They were so very proud of the hall - We felt great knowing that we brought these pensioners a lot of joy and comfort in their lives.  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] report in the local paper sorry in Bulgarian

Here are some photos

The Mayor making the presentation
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Our journlist frined Jordan
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Our singing group
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Our hall
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Us now hanging in the hall for probably 100 years hahha
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The certicate only in BG
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Looks like a fantastic result for everybody's efforts. Just shows what can be done with vision, commitment, faith and community spirit.
Who knows the full extent of the good that this involvement and generosity will continue to bring.

Floor looks great and I agree with hoseman this will help the community in the long term and perhaps even make a difference to how us brits are often seen.

Agreed a well done achievement, but can I just ask how many local people also chipped in to help with all the work?

Phil-H wrote:

Agreed a well done achievement, but can I just ask how many local people also chipped in to help with all the work?

The hall has a caretaker and he is the leader of the folklore group, so Ginka, Yvanka, Vilichka, Tinka, Plaman, Dotcho, Petu, Marin, Geko and the Mayor plus Dougie and I all helped us over the two weeks as I allocated specific jobs. The grounds had to be cleared as well so the mayor stepped up and we needed extra chairs to be donated so he helped there too.

Thanks, only sometimes it really annoys me hearing of people doing all the charitable work and the locals just stand to one side watching and letting others do all the work, just to step in at the end to reap the benefits.

Which I'm glad to hear was not the case here.

Phil-H wrote:

Thanks, only sometimes it really annoys me hearing of people doing all the charitable work and the locals just stand to one side watching and letting others do all the work, just to step in at the end to reap the benefits.

Which I'm glad to hear was not the case here.

Understand what you mean Phil, now as I say this is only a project we took on ourselves then the group decided they too wanted to get stuck in with us.  All hands on deck so to speak.