Zdravo! Hello!
I arrived in Macedonia with my group on Monday after almost 20 hours of traveling. We left WA DC, drove to Dulles airport in Virginia, flew out at 5:45pm on Sunday, Sept. 25th. The flight to Vienna was 9hours. Then we had a 6 hour layover in Vienna (which only had metal chairs and tile floor, which we slept on). Our hour and a half flight to Skopje Macedonia left Vienna at 3:30pm local time and we arrived at 5pm. Next took a bus to Veles (which broke down, had to wait for a new one). We got to the hotel, got our rooms, then a traditional Macedonian greeting of 2 women dressed in traditional clothes with bread that we dipped in salt and ate.
We also got a little tour of the town today. Macedonia is reminding me of a cross between Greece and Ecuador. It's beautiful, the people are friendly, the sidewalks are crooked, and the food is often fried.
We're staying at a hotel for 5 days, then this Friday we go to our host families and will stay there during our 11 weeks of training.
Things are cheap here. I guess the average Macedonian earns about $200/month. That's about what we'll make too. Internet is $1 an hour. My dinner cost me about $3 tonight.
Veles is a beautiful city, despite the pollution. It has a pop of about 40,000. I was surprised to learn that the capital city Skopje has 600,000! That is huge, a third of the country! Macedonia is about the size of Vermont, but has a pop of 2 million.
I learned that most likely I will be in a town with another PC Volunteer. That is great. I am also going to get a cell phone, as pretty much everyone else is too.
Today we had some technical training. I learned that I will be like student teaching during training. That eases my nerves too.
I am learning the language quickly. I really like it a lot. Today I learned how to say "Good Morning, Good Day, Good Night, How are you? Where is...", and count to 10.
By the way, Steve, the guy stuck in Houston, due to Hurricane Rita, arrived yesterday. Thanks for all the prayers. One cool thing, he studied at a University in Buenos Aires, so we had something in common.
Oooooooo! My favorite song in the whole world just came on here at the internet cafe.
"Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2
Love ya lots!
Prijatno! Chao!
4 comments:
Wow, you're really there. How exciting!
I have some questions, maybe different than you usually get, but I am curious - what's it smell like there? What kind of animals do you see around? Have you seen any birds and what are they like?
Does anyone on the street where traditional clothing, or is it all western dress? Are the men as tall as American men?
Looking forward to hearing more of what you're experiencing!
Hello Jesse.....Greetings from the Great Pacific Northwest! Do let us know what the weather is like. I've never been to Macedonia. Lived many places around the globe and can hardly wait to see pics (I hope) of the traditional garb, and am interested in the architecture too.
Keep the 'GIFT' alive!
Peace, love and miracles,
Wendy
Dear Jillybeans, thought you might like a post from the fam! I love you and am missing you like crazy! So excited for you too. Macedonia sounds like a beautiful place and I can hardly wait to VISIT!! Keep loving, keep living and keep dreaming!!
Yr sis, Dee
what are you supposed to do in Veles?
Are you there to help them with the Pollution?
I grew up there and swam all summer long sometimes traveling swiming down river 5 kilometars and then in the evening we would walk back. We picked our food on the way down from gardens and fruit trees.there were a lot of fig and even almonds in the later part of the summer. I have walked and explored all the hills around with my advanturous friend and have done thing that would make even the advantures of Indiana Jones seem like mild stuff. I read the river is totally destroyed and that they need sewage treatment plants since all the sewage goes raw in the river. This was no problem before the introduction of detergents. Women would go in the river to wash their cloths by hitting them against the rocks and use minimum of soap. The sewer outlets were feeding ground for the fish, and one can always catch fat fish around them.
In my opinion that fregile ecology cannot support a consumer's life style. All of Macedonia has to strain and destroy it living environment its social structure and people' sanity to keep up with an American consumer's life style. It should be permitted to do its own discoveries and developement. Solutions workable in the US will just make a mess over there.
And the worst part is not just the chemical Pollution, but the cultural pollution you guys bring, as well as the Pollution in their language that has been degrading it for years
by introduction of undecoded foreign words that the natives do not understand or know their meaning, which makes their life and existence more of a mystery and confusing for them, than it really is.
The most needed and wanted thing now in the area is a good Macedonian-Macedonian Dictionary, like your Webster,
so they can communicate clearly and with understanding with one another.
For now they cannot communicate effectively with one another and cannot organize. An organization is composed of terminals and communicaton lines, but if the messages are not understood going through the communication lines, you have disorganization not organization.
There has always been more damage done to a culture by do-gooders than by Invaders. Since these do-gooders come as cancer cells, mimicking that they are one with the host, while an invader makes no such pretences and the culture goes in a danger mode and mobilizes defenses and developes its ant-bodies.
So all you PC (Peace Core) volunteers, can be seen as a fatal disease to a culture, a Cancer. And often after PC do their work for a while civil wars break out.
So just know who you really are, and what you will really accomplish in that place. But if you do not kill them they will get stronger.
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