Greg in the News

SO recently the local newspaper did a feature on none other than yours truly. The following is a translation of the article in its entirety (and no I didn't just make up the translation). The article is pretty positive I think, if not a bit random. But hey, I'm glad that they think I'm newsworthy haha...


Gregory Herb: Now Veliki Preslav is like my home

Greg Herb is the volunteer from the Peace Corps in Veliki Preslav since last October. Greg is from the State of Florida. He has been in Bulgaria since July of 2008 and now can speak Bulgarian very well.

In school he studied Psychology and Child Develoment at a university in the States. His mother is a teacher, and his grandfather is a college professor. Maybe from there he got his interest in education and working with children. He says that his interest is working with at-risk children - orphans, minorities, the Roma people ("gypsies"). In Bulgaria there is an opportunity to work with these children he says. Because of this, a part of his work in Preslav is at the local Home for Children. He helps with math, English, and reading. There is competition in sports, and participation in art. They learn life skills which are very important for them in his opinion. He works in small groups of about 5-10 children. He tries to get every child to participate in at least one group every week. In his opinion, the children are not very aware of of the dangers of the use of narcotics, of human trafficking, of prevention of HIV/AIDS, of alcohol and nicotine addictions.

"The orphanages in America are different from the local kinds," describes Greg. "The children are placed in smaller houses and more volunteers work with them. The children are placed with foster parents more, and they are more comparable to these SOS Villages in Bulgaria. In America, only children who do not have parents or who have parents but that absolutely cannot care for them can stay in orphanages. There are many organizations that work with these children and make many things possible for them, such as finding a new home, because this is very important for them" says Greg.

Other than the orphanage, he works also with the children at the preschool. He teaches them how to begin to speak words, to know the different colors, and different skills such as washing hands for example.

"Now Preslav is like my home. I have many friends here," says Gregory. He says that sometimes it is hard to be far from home but that his loved ones know that his work is here, and that they support him.

One of the many skills of Greg is cooking. He cooks alone in his apartment, and cooks soups, moussaka, and other Bulgarian cuisine. "Here there are great fresh vegetables. In America, there are more preservatives and less fresh food," says the volunteer. On the topic of Bulgarian television, Greg says he follows "Survivor" and "Dancing Stars" but does not like the soap operas.

For Christmas, the American plans to meet in the mountains with his other colleagues. He hopes there will be snow, so that there will be a good holiday feeling...

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I'm not sure why they put in the part about me cooking and watching Bulgarian TV. I think it's because Bulgarians are not accustomed to seeing people my age living by themselves, much less supporting themselves alone. Anyway, that's the impression people have of me here apparently...

In the same newspaper, a project that I am helping with is described, and I will get to that in the next blog post...