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."