A little more about Macedonian culture & some other websites...

Macedonian Culture

Promaya: a draft. There is a prevalent belief in this culture that sitting in a draft will get you sick.

Over indulgence of children, yet physical discipline, like slapping is tolerated.

Students are responsible for their education, not parents or the teachers. The teacher’s responsibility is to cover the curriculum (which has been mandated by the government).

Preferring never to be alone

Wearing or using each other’s clothes and possessions (between family members)

Always offering food or drink to everyone present

Freely commenting on each other’s personal appearance

Viewing older people as family leaders

Giving an odd number of flowers except for occasions of mourning

Wearing black clothes for one year after the death of a close family member

Asking pointed questions about how much money someone makes, how much personal property/possessions cost.

Hospitality:
Guests are treated like royalty here. My family treats me like a guest. They insist that I not lift a finger to help around the house (although I try at times), my host mom does my laundry. Food is a big deal here. My host family is constantly shoving food at me, even after I have said several times that I am full. If I am not paying attention, they will give me a larger portion of food than I can physically eat. They are confused by the fact that I don’t eat bread (because apparently everyone in Macedonia eats bread). If I don’t eat enough food to their liking, they think that I didn’t like it, that their must be something wrong with it.

Volunteering:
This concept hasn't really caught on in this culture. People often don't understand why someone would want to volunteer. Sometimes people are suspicious as to why we PC Volunteers come to their country, occasionally they suspect we are spies for the US government. Sometimes I am asked for the real reason why I am in Macedonia. I've written an essay about this and will post it here very soon.

WEBSITES:
Sometime soon I will create links for the following websites, however I don't have much time to figure out how to do so...until that time, here they are:

Other BLOGS from PCV's/PCT's in Macedonia:

http://sararish.blogspot.com
http://lizabbett.blogspot.com/
http://www.adamanddanielle.com/
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/darcieswein/macedonia-pst/1099750560/tpod.html

Info about Macedonia:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/europe
http://www.macedonia.org/
http://faq.macedonia.org/