Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Bulgarian Name Days

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving two weeks ago. As you all know, Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here in Bulgaria but a few volunteers and myself were able to celebrate together over a long weekend in Northern Bulgaria and in Bucharest, Romania. This year, instead of opting for the traditional turkey dinner, we decided to make a Mexican feast of enchiladas, pork tacos, refried beans, jalapeño salsa, and guacamole. Although it wasn't quite the same as I would have experienced in America, it was a great time nonetheless.

Bulgaria celebrates many of the same holidays as we do in America such as Christmas and Easter, but also has many others which are native to the country and region. One of the most popular holidays is "Name Day." Name days are certain days of the year which are meant to celebrate the life of a Bulgarian Orthodox saint. Traditionally, most Bulgarians are named after one of the many saints and therefore celebrate their Name Day on that day. A Name Day is treated very similar to a birthday in that the person generally invites his friends and family to either his house or a restaurant and treats them all to dinner. The guests bring small gifts such as religion icons, trinkets, food, or alcohol which they give to the host at the beginning of the night. Oddly enough, to many Bulgarians their name day is more important than their birthday. You can find a list of all the Name Days here. Look and see if you have a name day. (Although many names in Bulgarian are quite different than in English, there are some similarities such as George (May 6th,) David (June 26th,) Alex (November 24th,) and Stephen (December 27th.) Also, I added a few more pictures of Bratsigovo to the photo album if you guys are interested.

-Bulgarian Phrase of the Week: "Chestit Imen Den!" (Честит Имен Ден!) = Happy Name Day!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

A Day in the Life...

A typical day in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer differs greatly depending on where one is located and what type of organization the volunteer works for. Although I work as a community development volunteer here in Bratsigovo, there are other volunteers like myself who work all around the world. I have friends who are working as English teachers in elementary schools in Asia, teaching HIV and AIDS awareness to villagers in Africa, and teaching villagers how to best farm their land in Peru. That being said, here is the rundown of a "typical" day living and working here in Bratsigovo:

My work day begins at 8:30 AM although I generally go to the local cafe to have a cup of coffee with my colleagues a bit earlier. Cafes are a very important part of every day life in Bulgaria. It is here that friends and colleagues meet to talk about their families, share stories, and even to discuss work. Unlike America, where people simply run into the nearest Starbucks, order their drink, and leave, going to a cafe with friends or colleagues can last as long as two or three hours. I spend my mornings in my office which is a large room on the upper floor of the town's youth center. I work with together here with three women in the office of European integration. It is our job to write and manage various projects to help the wellbeing of the citizens of Bratsigovo and to help promote Bulgaria's integration into the European Union. In the past I have written and won projects involving the renovation of a pensioner's club and youth center, the creation of a youth scout group and "green patrol," the creation on an environmental information center, and a campaign to boost eco-tourism in the region.

After having lunch with my colleagues I generally leave the office and work with various groups in the community. In town there are two orphanages with a total of 200 kids. A few days a week I go to these orphanages to play soccer with the kids, do various crafts with them, or just hang out and talk. I have also recently started an English class which meets two days a week with the older kids from one of the orphanages. It has been great to see how interested and eager they are to learn! On the days which I don't visit the orphanages, I often head to the upper part of town to the Roma neighborhood. The Roma people, often known as gypsies in America, are an ethnically diverse minority group in Bulgaria who are greatly discriminated against. As a whole, the Roma community is much poorer and less educated than the Bulgarian community. There is very little work for them and the work that is available is underpaid labor. I am currently in the process of starting a new project to work with Roma teens in order to help them make healthier decisions in their lives.

When my work day ends I spend my free time in a wide range of ways. I enjoy hiking and jogging throughout the surrounding environment, playing basketball at the local school, reading on my balcony, cooking, and going out to a cafe with friends. On the weekends I often attend the local soccer matches in Bratsigovo and Plovdiv or travel around the country with friends. When the winter arrives I hope to be able to go snowboarding a few times in the Rhodope Mountains. I have snowboarded for most of my life and although I am not able to go up as much as I would like here, it is great to have the opportunity a few times a year.

It has been an interesting change for me moving from a large town such as Boulder to a small Bulgarian town with only 4,000 people. As you can imagine, the pace of life here is much slower than that in America but I have come to love it. It's hard to complain when most evenings I am able to sit on my balcony overlooking the town and watch the sunset over the Rhodope Mountains.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Bulgarian Food

Although there are some similarities between American and Bulgarian cuisine, overall the food is quite different and unique. One of the best aspects of Bulgarian food is that it is always fresh. Every family has their own personal garden and grow everything from tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to grapes, carrots, and pumpkins. Due to this, most meals are based heavily around vegetables and usually served with either chicken or pork. Here are a few typical Bulgarian meals and how to make them:

Tarator: Cold Cucumber Soup


Ingredients:
2 cucumbers
500 grams of plain yogurt
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of crushed walnuts
2 tablespoon of fresh dill
Salt, oil and water (optional)

1) Grate the cucumbers and place them in a bowl
2) Mash the yogurt with a fork into a liquid like consistency and pour over the cucumbers
3) Add the crushed garlic, dill, walnuts, and salt
4) For a more watery consistency, add 1/4-1/2 cup of cold water
5) Refrigerate and serve

Shopska Salad: My favorite Bulgarian meal


Ingredients
4 medium tomatoes, washed and diced
4 cucumbers, washed, peeled and diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 cup grated Bulgarian white cheese (cirene) or feta cheese
oil, vinegar, salt and pepper (to taste)

1) Put the already cut tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onion and parsley into a large bowl and mix.
2) Pour the white cheese or feta over the top of the vegetables
3) Pour olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper over the cheese and enjoy!

Note: This is an extremely easy dish to make and is absolutely delicious.

Rhodopean Moussaka



Ingredients
.5 kilogram minced meat (pork and beef although just beef is alright)
1 kilogram potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1/3 cup parsley
3 medium sized eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
3 tablespoons of flour
salt and pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
2) Cook the minced meat and onions in a pan over the stove until the meat is brown
3) Mix together the meat, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper together in a large baking dish
4) Bake uncovered for 45 minutes - 1 hour until the potatoes are fully cooked (you should quite easily be able to mash them with a fork)
5) Combine the eggs, yogurt and flour together in a bowl and pour the mixture over the top of the dish
6) Bake for 15 more minutes and serve warm!

Hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I do. Be sure to have your parents help you when making them as they can get quite messy.

-Bulgarian Phrase of the Week: "Vkoosno" (Вкусно) = Delicious

Thursday, October 18, 2007

A Little Background Information About Myself

Before starting to post information and stories about Bulgaria and my work here I've decided to tell you a little about myself and why I choose to become a Peace Corps volunteer.

I was born and raised in Littleton, Colorado along with my twin brother, Andrew, and younger sister, Staci. Andrew is currently living in Washington D.C. and attending graduate school at Georgetown University. Much like me, Andrew loves to travel and lived in Cairo, Egypt for six months before attending Georgetown. My sister Staci was adopted from South Korea when she was six months old and has been with us ever since. Last fall she started her first year of college at Colorado Christian University.

When I was in my first year of high school my Dad invited me to go with him to Guatemala on a trip to help provide clean water to a small village near the capital city. The trip was one of the hardest but most rewarding times of me life. We worked all day under the hot sun carrying pipes, digging wells, and building a shed for the equipment. By the time we ate dinner and went to bed we were all exhausted but thrilled that we were able to make such a great difference in the lives of others. It is because of this trip that I became interested in doing humanitarian work and spending my life helping those who are less fortunate than myself.


Throughout high school and college I went on many more trips such as this to villages in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico. I was also active in Colorado volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission and helping to found a non-profit organization called With Love Inc. in Boulder. It was through these experiences that I realized I wanted to work to help people as a profession after I graduated from college.

I applied for the Peace Corps midway through my junior year of college and in July of 2006, was told that I would be spending the next two and a half years of my life in Bulgaria. A month and a half later I stepped onto a plane headed for Sofia and here I am today...

Bulgarian Phrase of the Week: "Kazvam se..." (Казвам се...) = My name is...

-See if you can introduce yourselves to each other in Bulgarian. For example, I would say "Kazvam se Eric."

Monday, October 8, 2007

Greetings from Bulgaria

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Eric Helms and I am currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bratsigovo, Bulgaria. I was born in Denver, Colorado and graduated from the University of Colorado in 2006. I have been living here in Bulgaria for just over a year now and will be here until September of 2008.

Bulgaria is a small country (about the size of Tennessee) located in Eastern Europe on the Black Sea. Although it is a poor country, it has a rich history, fascinating culture and some of the nicest people I have ever known.

The town which I am living and working in, Bratsigovo, is located at the base of the Rhodope Mountains in southwest Bulgaria. The town is quite small by American standards (only 4,000 people) and is surrounded by hills, mountains, and lakes. The town has two elementary schools, one high school, a large church and two orphanages.

What do I do here? Well, I help out whenever and wherever I can. This includes writing and managing projects, working with youth, cleaning up the environment, tutoring children at the orphanages, working with minority groups, teaching English to my colleagues and much more. In my free time I enjoy going hiking, jogging, playing soccer, reading on my balcony and going to the café with friends.

As you can probably imagine, things in Bulgaria at times are much different than in America. The most obvious difference is the language. In Bulgaria they speak Bulgarian, which actually uses a different alphabet than in English. Here are a few words spelled in the Cyrillic alphabet:

Eric Helms = Ерик Хелмс
Colorado = Колорадо
Bulgaria = България

As you can see, there are some letters which are similar in both languages but others that are completely different. This alphabet was created by two Bulgarians, Kiril and Metodi, in 940 AD and is used in many other countries including Russia, Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine. In my little town there is nobody who speaks English so I have had to learn the how to speak, read, and write Bulgarian in order to communicate with the people here. Although it was difficult at first, it became easier as time went on and now I am able to have conversations with people, teach business classes to students, write projects, and give speeches, all in Bulgarian!

Well, it is almost lunch time so I must go but I hope you enjoy the first of many posts here on my blog. I will try to post new stories, pictures, and information every Monday. Although this is just an introductory post, I would love to hear from and get to know you all as well. I am also more than willing to answer any questions you have about me, Bulgaria, the Peace Corps, or any other things you are interested in. You can do this by either clicking the “comment” button at the bottom of each post, or by e-mailing me at ericphelms@gmail.com.

Bulgarian Phrase of the Week: “Dobur Den!” (Добър Ден) = Good Day!