Dimitrina Dancheva Ilieva

Dear lenders –

On behalf of Dimitrina and her family, thanks for making this loan possible. As the loan is now fully funded, your capital will be wired here in early October. Swiftly thereafter, we’ll complete the final paperwork and lend Dimitrina the funds.

Thanks for the trust you’ve placed in Kiva and us here on the ground in Bulgaria. We’ll be working hard with Dimitrina to make sure that your money is well invested.

Dimitrina’s business is going well. When I stop by, she is usually operating at full capacity, with both chairs operating simultaneously. More than anything, at this point she wants to expand so that she can add another chair. Although the demand seems to be there, at this point she is going to focus on day-to-day execution so that she can pay down current debt and position herself to expand without overleveraging the business.

In front of her store yesterday, there was a Roma wedding procession. This link will take you to a short video of the procession, to the extent you’re interested in getting a feel for the neighborhood and culture in which Dimitrina lives. Bride and groom are behind the dancers on horse-drawn cart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR2dsOd1gXs

Dimitrina expanded her product line last week with press-on nails. She used a fair about of capital - $300 - to purchase a full display and inventory of exotic looking fake nails. Each set costs her approx $3 and she can sell them (including application) for nearly double. So far, she says they're selling well.

Greg Kelly has finished his service with the Peace Corps and is now back in the States. As the new Peace Corps volunteer at the REDC, I will be taking over his job and following up with the REDC's clients on KIVA. I have been in Sliven now for only a short while, but I have been working to get up to date on everything.

Dimitrina has been doing a great job repaying her loan. Unfortunately, when we first sent the information about the loan to Kiva we made a mistake regarding the loan term. In our contract with Dimitrina she has an 18 month loan and not the 12 month loan that we originally indicated to Kiva. So according to our records with an 18 month term, she currently has a $0 due balance on her loan as of Nov 30th with another payment of $55 due by December 31st. The loan end date will be March 31st. We feel that the best course of action is to simply go ahead as scheduled in the contract. Please accept my apologies for this error. Thank you again for your support of the Roma minority here in Sliven!