My Visitors and side trip to Greece!

Gold Death Mask from Thessaloniki Museum

March 24th I planned to take the evening train from Skopje to Thessoloniki (aka Solon) in Greece to meet up with my sister Heidi and friend Maki, who had flown in Athens a week before and were touring Greece before visiting me in Macedonia. It was a happy reunion at the train station when I saw Heidi and Maki, as we hadn’t seen each other in 6 months. March 25th was Greek Independence Day, so many shops and businesses were closed. My brief visit to Northern Greece was low key, although we did visit the Archeological Museum in Solon, as well as the beautiful waterfront and the White Tower. The next day we were planning to take the night train back to Macedonia, but were given the incorrect time (maybe due to the difference in military time and miscommunication between languages), so we missed that train and had to spend an extra night there. I wasn’t thrilled, as Greece is a lot more expensive, especially for one on the Peace Corps budget! (Greece I believe is more touristy and expensive than it was 9 years ago, largely, I believe, to converting to the Euro as well as having hosted the Olympics).

We took the train the next morning and benefited from seeing the beautiful views, including the Demir Kapija Canyon. First stop was visiting my host family in a village near Veles. We spent our entire time visiting with friends and family and it was a wonderful visit (although it got tiring after 8 straight hours of it!). People really aren’t used to seeing people from Asia (as Maki is from Japan), so they had lots of questions and at one house, Maki showed us how to make Origami Elephants!

From there, we went to Kochani. It was great to show Maki and Heidi my home town. They got to see where I live, meet my friends, fellow teachers and kitten and tour around town. I had a meeting to attend in Skopje on Friday, March 31st, so I brought Heidi and Maki along. While I was in my meeting they did some sightseeing and shopping. For the weekend, we went to Gostivar, a city in the West where I have PCV friends living. I wanted Heidi and Maki to see the west, as it is comparatively different to the East, where I live. We walked around town, visited a Turkish café, drank Turkish coffee, met some Albanian friends of my PCV’s and heard the call to prayer at the nearby mosques, which sounds like beautiful haunting chants.

Heidi and I said goodbye to Maki in Skopje on April 2nd and then headed down to Lake Ohrid in the south where we met up with a few other PCV friends of mine. I’d seen pictures, but was still very much impressed with the beauty of the Lake and now understand why many Macedonians flock there for their summer vacations! Heidi and I then returned to Kochani for a few more days, attended my school football tournament (we won!) and school concert. We returned to Skopje the next day and I said goodbye to my sister on the 9th. It was a wonderful visit and I was sorry to see her go.

Now I’m already getting excited about my parents who plan to visit me Spring 2007!


Maki, Me and Heidi in Solon

Heidi and Maki at the Waterfront in Solon, White Tower in distance

Demir Kapija Canyon from the train

Gostivar Mosque

Heidi and I in Kochani

Jesse, Baba Booba & Heidi

At Lake Ohrid; Jesse, Shauna and Heidi

Sveti Jovan's Church--Lake Ohrid

The Road Not Taken

I went to a performance recently of the highschool students, which consisted of music, drama and a poetry reading. One student recited this poem by heart (in English) and it has always struck a chord with me and how I try to live my life...

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

Congratulations Heidi and Rick Bagnall!

Woo-hoo! My sister Heidi and her boyfriend Rick have just gotten engaged! Yaaaaaaaaaay! Heidi called me the other night to give me the great news, which I’m absolutely thrilled about. They are planning their wedding to be in January 2007 and, of course, I’ll return home (Seattle) for the event and to be her maid of honor! So, Congratulations to them both! I'm pysched to have a brother-in-law!

I announced the news to my fellow teachers at school the next day and we had a little party to celebrate. After giving me their congratulations, of course, the most common response was for them to say to me "You're next!". Ha ha.

If that wasn't enough great news, Heidi and friend Maki are coming to visit me in Macedonia soon. They will first arrive in Greece and next week I'll meet them in Thessaloniki (about 6 hours by train). From there I'll bring them into Macedonia where we will visit my host family, my town of Kochani and perhaps go to a few other placs to sightsee and visit other volunteers.

As of today I've been at site for 3 weeks and the travel ban has been lifted. A PC policy, volunteers are not allowed to travel outside of country for the first 6 months. Reason being, they want you to be committed to your site, to get connected to your community and be focused on work. Peace Corps is definately NOT a two year vacation!

Happy Birthday Peace Corps and other exciting events

Happy Birthday Peace Corps!

March 1st, 1961 was the day of Peace Corps’s inception by John F. Kennedy. Now it is 45 years later, and we are celebrating the anniversary of Peace Corps all year. As the kick off event, volunteers in Macedonia all held “birthday parties” at their sites. I made oatmeal cookies and brought soda to my school, with signs in Macedonian saying “Happy Birthday Peace Corps” and a brief description of what PC is (a lot of Macedonians don’t know, it sounds a little militaristic doesn’t it?). We had a little party in the teachers lounge, and they loved it. All the cookies got eaten up and all the soda was drank. I took some pics too.





Strumica and Women’s Day

March 7th was Carnival, held in the city of Strumica, south of Kochani. A bunch of us PCV’s congregated there and took part in the festivities by being in the parade! Also, as a part of celebrating the 45th anniversary, we had a sign, flags of both Macedonia and the US, had our face painted and/or wore masks. It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was snowing, at night and cold. I met some jugglers from Belgrade (Serbia Montenegro) and they let me borrow their clubs, so I also juggled in the parade. During the parade they also had fireworks. Afterwards we all had dinner and then went out dancing at various clubs until 3am. Much merrymaking was to be had.

As if that wasn’t enough, March 8th is Women’s Day. I took a morning bus from Strumica to Kochani so I could get back in time for the celebration of Women’s Day. The teachers at my school went to a celebration at a nearby hotel. There was a nice dinner and lots of oro dancing, which was great. That night I returned home exhausted!

Tonight I went to a concert of “The Greatest Gypsy Singer” named ECMA who came to Kochani on her tour around the country. She was very cool! I loved her outfits, the music was mystical and a little mesmerizing. To my unskilled ears and knowledge, it sounds Turkish or Indian. She also had a band with a trumpet, bongo drums, accordion, bass guitar, and clarinet. The energy in the room was amazing. I am so glad that I went.

My New Roommate

Two weeks ago I was taking the garbage out to the dumpsters next to my apartment. It was after dark and I was on the way to my friend’s for coffee. I was surprised to discover next to the dumpster a dead cat and next to it was a little kitten that was crying. They had similar markings, so I believe the dead cat was the kitty’s mother. I shone my pocket light on the cats and debated what to do. I couldn’t help but pet the kitten, but then turned and walked away. The kitten followed me for about 20 yards before I turned around and she ran away. I went to my friend’s house for coffee. Four hours later, at about 11pm, I stopped by the dumpsters when I got home. Sure enough the kitten was still there. So I brought her home with me and resolved to try to find a home for her. The next day at school I asked the Macedonian teachers if anyone wanted a kitten. Their reply was “Good Luck”, nobody wanted a flea-infested virus-carrying animal in their house. The concept of pets and animal treatment tends to be very different in other countries, including Macedonia (most people don’t have animals in their homes, for example). Needless to say, it soon became apparent that the kitten was here to stay. I gave her a flea bath and took her to the vet, where she got her needed vaccinations. The vet says she’s four months old, but she must be small and undernourished for her age. I decided to call her “Miloyka”, which means ‘cute’.

I know that it is common for PCV’s to have pets and Miloyka has turned out to be a nice companion to have around.

The Winter Olympics

In the US we take it for granted that we will have Olympic winners. But for smaller countries, just being able to compete in the Olympics is an honor. For example, in 1996 one athlete from Ecuador, Jefferson Perez, won the first Gold medal for his country (in speed walking, of all sports). The entire country erupted in celebrations for many weeks to follow.

Macedonia sent three athletes to this years Olympics: Darko Damjanovski in Men's cross country, Ivana Ivcevska (Women's Alpine Skiing) and Gjorgi Markovski in Men's Alpine Skiing.
There were no hopes for medals, (maybe some day)...

By comparison, our neighbors Albania had one athlete, Bulgaria had 22 (with a Silver Medal in Women's 500 Meter), Bosnia and Herzegovina had 7, Serbia and Montenegro had 6, Slovenia had 43, Romania had 33.

The US had 216 athletes.

Superbowl, Sprains and Websites

I finally got cable TV last Thursday, just in time for the Superbowl! I was happily surprised that the Superbowl (Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers) was televised over here! I'm not a fan of American football, but since this is the first time my hometeam has ever gone to the SB and I'd never actually watched the event before I decided to watch the game. It was televised live from midnight to 4AM. It was disappointing the Hawks didn't win...

Last weekend I went to Tetovo, a city about 45 minutes west of Skopje. I met up with a bunch of other PCV's for a joint birthday/skiing party. Not only were their about half of the current PCV's in Macedonia(35 of 65), there was also 7 volunteers from Albania. And guess what? One of them is from Olympia, WA! What a trip! It was fun to meet them, hang out and make comparisons. It's obvious that life in Albania is more rugged than here. I'd like to visit them this summer.

There's a ski resort outside of Tetovo and a bunch of us went there Saturday morning. My plan was to snowboard, but the conditions and equipment were horrible and I had no luck, so I swapped my board for a sled, went on a couple runs and then managed to hit an embankment zipping down a steep slope and sprained my ankle! And here I was nervous about injuring myself with snowboarding (the last time I went was 3 years ago and badly sprained my wrist).

I've included a photo from the birthday party after hitting the slopes with me, my sprained ankle and fellow friends/PCV's of Macedonia. Don't we look cute?

A former PCV of Macedonia has posted pictures of last summers IST (In-Service Training), which also includes photos of his trip to Albania. Here's the website:
http://web.mac.com/s009009009/iWeb/PC/IST.html

Training Accomplishments

I finished training almost 6 weeks ago, and I wrote the following document soon after swearing in. I came across this yesterday and realized I forgot to put it in my blog. So, here it is...

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Training Accomplishments for MAC 10 and Me. :)

Training lasted 12 weeks (keep in mind I was also sick one week)

125 Hours of Language Learning (approx)
35 Hours of Student Teaching/Practicum
12 Hours of TEFL technical training
Cultural Discussions and journal assignments
Safety and Security Meetings
Panel discussions (workplace issues, racial discussions, homestay issues, etc)
3 Hub Days (meeting days at hub city of Veles where things like safety & security, medical sessions, cultural and workplace issues were discussed)
Got vaccinations
5 Medical sessions (discussions on food, water, alcohol, illnesses, health concerns)
Training Assessments
Administration meetings
A Resource Day in Skopje
NGO (Non-Government Organization) fair in Skopje
Community visits- 2 Saturdays
Halloween party and Thanksgiving Dinner
Organized and arranged for MAC 10 T-shirt order
Site placement Interview
Site visit of 3.5 days (Kochani)
Counterpart Conference in Veles
Project Management Workshop
Attended the First Annual Ultimate MAK Field Competition, PC volunteers and trainees
11 weeks living with a host family in the community of Bashino Selo near Veles
Passing the LPI language test: Language Proficiency Interview
Becoming an official Peace Corps Volunteer!

Freezing

It has been a biting bitter cold lately, so cold that when I walk to school in the morning tears come to my eyes in the wind. Yesterday I guessed it was about 0 degrees Celsius outside (32 F). Today I took my pocket thermometer and put it outside the kitchen’s window ledge. I was surprised to discover I misjudged…it’s more like -5 C, or 23 F. And that’s without the wind chill factor. I’m no expert on detecting how many mph wind travels, but if it’s at least 10mph that makes it 9 F! and that’s during the middle of the day. At night it gets down to -10 C or 15 F! I ‘d been reminded of Alaska’s winters here and now I know why! It really is as cold as Anchorage was in March! It’s colder outside than in the fridge. Not only that but my apartment has very little insulation, the windows in the kitchen and bedroom both have cold drafts. I’m pretty much dragging my portable PC heater around the apartment with me now, and it’s making me more sedimentary too. I can’t wait for Spring!

My Mailing Address and other triumphs

Success at last! Preservation has won out! I finally got a PO Box! So, if y'all want to mail me something (hint, hint), either post here or e-mail me and I'll send it to you!

Funny thing, I got the key to my box, but it is the master key. I have to go make a copy of it and then return the master back to the post office. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh about these little annoyances. We take so many conveniences back home for granted. I know that in the states I could get a PO box immediately at any post office. I'm just glad to finally have it! It's been like a month that I've been trying (it took longer partly due to the fact that it was during the holidays).

AND my landlord finally came over and hooked up my washing machine last week, it needed a new hose to connect to my sink. Now whenever I want to do laundry, I can. I just have to make sure that it doesn't rattle around too much and that the second hose properly expells the water back into the sink. That and I can't use more than one appliance at a time. However, there's no complaining from me! Tthere are many of my fellow PCV's that have the joy of handwashing their clothes for their entire two years of service. For more details about this particular challenge, check out my friend Dennis' blog: http://mac10dennis.blogspot.com/ and read his humerous post, "Doing landry in 13 easy steps." (Dec 29th,05)

As another triumph, I am actually cooking. Yes, you read it right. Cooking! Me! Although I still don't exactly enjoy it, it is going well so far and I'm really appreciating having an oven (something I didn't have in Ecuador) and the PCV cookbook we got at the end of training. The first meal I made was meatballs. Yum.

Today was the first day of school after the holidays and it went well. One of my co-workers gave me two jars of homemade aijvar. With the aijvar my host family gave me, I'm set for at least a couple months! :)

Vodici, the Last January Holiday

Thursday, January 19th, was another holiday here in Macedonia called “Vodici”. But my PC friends call it "The Cross Toss”. On this day in every village and town everyone goes to the river or lake where a priest will bless the water. Then he blesses a cross (usually wooden) that can easily be held in your hand. He then throws the cross in the water and a few local men jump in to retrieve it. Whoever gets it first is then blessed for the following year. He also usually wins a prize (like a new TV set) and everyone in town gives him money. I went to see this event at a nearby village (see photo above) where a married PC couple, Sean and Jennifer live. They are the closest PCV’s to me, I call them my neighbors. It was fun to watch the Cross Toss event. The water was so cold there was some ice floating in it. Before the priest throws the cross in the water he sings and chants. The men were really anxious to get going (there were eleven of them) and at one point the priest stopped singing and said, “Get out of the water, it’s too early” and everybody laughed. You could tell it was freezing, some of the men were shivering as they waited for the priest to finish his blessing. This is the last major holiday in Macedonia, for a holiday period of about 5 weeks. This village is incredibly beautiful with nearby snow-topped mountains. I’ve seen photos of it in spring and it is as prettier than a Hallmark greeting card.

(Note: in one of the above photos, you can see a red flag with the yellow 16-pointed star of Alexander, this was the first flag of Macedonia ('92-95), but created so much controversy with Greece that they modified it to the current flag. I'll post a photo of the current flag in another post soon).

Also, classes start up again on Monday the 23rd, wish me luck!

Holiday Photos

Here are some pics of the recent holidays!















New Years Eve with fellow PCV's in Skopje















Goofing around with kids in Shauna's host family.















Eating sausages cooked in the fire with a local friend.















Oro dancing in the neighborhood on Baneek (Jan 5th).

May the "Seelah" be with you!

I had a pleasant surprise the other day when I purchased two of the original "Star Wars" movies on DVD. I discovered they have Macedonian subtitles! What a great way to learn the language than by watching some great classic films!

The Holidays

Have I mentioned that there are so many holidays this month that January is almost it's own holiday?

Well, not that I'm complaining. This season I'm getting two Christmases and two New Years. Because the majority of Macedonians are Orthodox, they go by a different calandar, so Christmas is on Jan 7th. And also according to a different calandar (not sure if it's Orthodox or not), New Years was originally on Jan 14th, so they call it "Old New Years".

But backing up...for New Years (Dec 31st), despite having a cold, I went to a fellow PC volunteer's party in the capital city of Skopje. There was a small group of us who got together and then went to the city center where there was music and dancing going on, as well as plenty of crazy teenage kids goofing around and lighting firecrackers, which made me nervous. At midnight there was an excellent fireworks display and our group celebrated with sparklers and dancing. It was loads fun, except that being out in the cold for several hours made my cold worse. I got pretty sick for a few days after that, even met with the PC doctor who gave me some meds.

On Jan 5th, it was the eve of Christmas eve, also called "Badneek", and people in Macedonia celebrate it by having a big party and lighting a tree on fire. My counterpart, Ljubica, invited me to the party in her neighborhood and it was a blast. There was a bonfire of tree branches, constant loud music, food, drink and fun. After the fire burned down they cooked sausages and when it was a pile of ashes the little kids jumped over it for good luck.

Jan 6th was Christmas eve and again Ljubica had me over for dinner with her family. It was very nice. Part of the tradition here is for a loaf of bread to be cooked with a small metal coin inside. At dinner the bread is broken and the pieces divided out. Whoever gets the piece with the coin has good luck for the next year, which was Ljubica this time.

Jan 7th I went to Bashino Selo to visit my host family (despite still having a cough). It was a nice visit, and another one of my PCV friends, Shauna, was visiting there as well, so we hung out for a bit which was fun. She's now near Ohrid, on the other side of the country, a few hours away, so I hadn't seen her since we all moved to site almost 3 weeks prior. I also got to meet my other host brother, Ljubche, for the first time. He is studying at a university in Holland, speaks English and was home visiting his family for the holidays too.

Friday Jan 13th is the Old New Years Eve. This is a big festival in Vevchani, a village near Ohrid, where another one of my PCV friends is. I was planning to go. But unfortunately this week I've been sick again. This time it hit me hard, so all this week I've not gone to work (fortunately there are no classes) and just stayed at home and rested and I'm getting better now.

Tonight there was a celebration in the parking lot of my apartment building, so I went to check it out for just a short time. It was a little like the tree lighting, there was a small bon fire, a few people playing instruments (accordion, drum, tuba), people drinking and eating and a few people dancing oro. It was nice. And I saw my landlord too and spoke with him briefly. So I may finally get my washing machine hooked up this weekend! Yippee!

Introducing Stanley

So I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of my new apartment...aptly named "Stanley" because the word for 'Apartment' in Macedonian is "Stan"...

Peace Corps was right...it is small, but it's cute and given some time I'll soon make it mine once I get some posters/shelves up on the wall and add to some of the 80's decor...

The bathroom is so small I can't really get a decent picture of it, but rest assured there's a shower and a western toilet.

Stanley is on the 4th floor (3rd in Europe) and there's no elevator. No matter, I'll get some exercise...

Oh, and since taking these shots I now have a TV (that'll work once I get cable) and a washing machine (that'll work once it gets installed...)

Mail and the Holidays

I'm still working on sorting out my mailing address for those of you who would like to send me something (It's been about 2 months now that my folks have been patiently waiting to send me a package!)

After the director of my school opened my mail (yes, I'm sure it was an accident, as it has happened to other PCV's too), I decided to have personal mail sent to my apartment. So I gave some folks my address and the next day asked my landlord where the mailboxes were. He pointed to a small metal box with several doors, one of which was opened with a broken door. All the mail to the apartment building goes to the one with the broken door.

So, plan B sent me to the post office to find out about renting a PO Box. The good news is that it's only $13 a year. The bad news is that I have to try to track down the person who will register one to me. I went two days in a row and got the run around, finally they told me to come back after New Years. This may take awhile as almost the entire month of January is a holiday...

So I'll keep you informed about the mailing address...

Also, a reminder that if you are sending me a package, make sure that the contents are not valued above $60 US (or at least that you don't claim that it is worthmore than such). Otherwise customs intervenes and charges ridiculous fines. Besides, the shipping costs to Macedonia alone are crazy. In addition to your shipping costs I have to pay postal fees for every package I get (regardless of it's value). Yes, it's bureacracy and red tape at its worst, I know. Thanks for your cooperation, patience and above all else, your generosity!

And, as a further update, Christmas (Dec 25th) was very low key, but still I had a nice time visiting my host family and friends. (Christmas here is on Jan 7th) This weekend I plan to again visit my host family, and then attend a party by a fellow volunteer in the capital of Skopje, a couple hours away by bus. I'm looking forward to it! (And the 3 weeks of vacation after that!)

Thanks for all your love, support, prayers and best wishes. I'm thinking of you all and hope your holiday season is wonderful and warm!

Why Macedonia?

I've been published! The following is an article that I wrote a few months ago and submitted to the Peace Corps Macedonia magazine, "Pauza". It was published this month...enjoy!

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"Why Macedonia" by Jesse Warner (MAC 10)

“Why did you come to Macedonia?” My host cousin asked me (in English). I hesitated. “That’s a big question.” I said, preparing my standard reply to why I joined the Peace Corps (e.g.; to help people, to teach English and have an adventure abroad). “No, it’s not,” she replied. “Why didn’t you go somewhere like France?” I then explained a bit about the process from applying to getting sent to a PC country.

This question “Why Macedonia?” is one that I believe I’ll be asked many times during my service. In fact, given the time and opportunity, I suspect that many more locals would ask me this question. I feel it burning behind their stares as I walk down the street, as if silently asking me, “Why are you here?”

People are often surprised to learn that I didn’t decide where the Peace Corps would send me. Not only that, I had requested and was nominated for Asia.

Why Asia? I’ve always enjoyed going to new places and it’s a part of the world I haven’t really explored (yet). When given the choice, I’ve always preferred to go to a new place, rather than return to a previous location, despite having friends and fantastic experiences there. I thought I already knew Europe, I’d already “been there”, including Greece. Close enough, I erroneously thought. I’d quickly dismissed the region, as if three days each in Paris, Rome, Athens and Brussels was a sufficient illustration of Europe.

My first impression is that Macedonia is like a weird and wonderful combination of South America and Greece, especially in terms of physical characteristics. The red tile roofs, pockmarked asymmetrical sidewalks, street vendors and ubiquitous taxi cabs zipping around remind me of the place I called home for a year in Ecuador. Some of the food, the village babas, donkey-pulling carts and some traditional dances and music remind me of Greece. But this is not Greece, or Ecuador, or Paris, or some time-warped town in the US either. Three minutes in language class is one potent reminder of this. Or biting into a tasty ajvar sandwich. Or the fact that, at times, I am reminded that this is an “adolescent” nation. I think it’s pretty exciting that this may well be the only time in our lives we’ll be living in a country this young and personally witness its “growing pains” as it matures.

There’s more unique art, music, history, language and culture of Macedonia that I could mention, but much of it I still have yet to discover, having just been here for a month now. I know that during my service I’ll discover even more wonderful, interesting and surprising uniquenesses that Macedonia has to offer. And this will be even more fuel to the fire of how I will answer the inevitable question…

Why Macedonia? Why not?

For Further Reading

If you're interested in reading about another adventure of mine, check out my blog about my adventures teaching English in Ecuador and traveling around South America...(2002-2003)

http://azureus.diaryland.com

Once there, you can click on "Older Entries" and Dive In!

(I must warn you that parts of it are incomplete and unfortunately there are no photos...it's still a work in progress, but then again, many things in life are...)

Moving In

The day after swearing in it was time to leave. Since my bus left in the afternoon I had time to see my fellow trainees off that morning; Todd, Lindsay and Marita. Then I visited my friend Shauna and her family since she was leaving after me. Back at my house many friends and relatives were invited over to see me off. Before you knew it there were about 20 people there and all of us were in tears. It’s really amazing when I think about it; I lived with these people for 3 months and really became a part of their family. You don’t realize how much of an impact you have on others lives most of the time. I didn’t know until the time came to say goodbye not only how much of an impact I had on them, but the impact that they had on me. I was given several last minute gifts including a jar of ajvar, sweets, and homemade baklava. There were many hugs and kisses goodbye before the taxi shuttled me off to the bus station.
When I arrived in Kochani my counterpart and landlord were there to greet me and help me with my stuff. I had 10 items with me including my PC heater, water distiller, and first aid kit. Not bad for 2 years huh? My apartment is on the 4th floor and is very small. It has the basics (fridge, oven, stove, bed, chairs, table, toilet & shower, etc) but there is no washing machine, closets or place to hang my clothes. My landlord says he’ll get me a TV set and kitchen utensils. I didn’t have any eating or cooking utensils or cleaning supplies. (I noticed later that it needs to be cleaned). Fortunately I am only 10 minutes walk to my school and to the center of town.
Peace Corps gives us a settling in allowance, so I will use that to purchase the things I need for my apartment. Yesterday I bought some cleaning supplies, power strips with extension cords, and a jezbah (a small pot for making Turkish coffee). Needless to say, the first thing I made at my new home was coffee!

Swearing In

The Swearing In ceremony is a rites of passage of the Peace Corps experience. It signifies the end of the 3 months of training and the marks the beginning of Peace Corps service as an official volunteer. The ceremony was held at a restaurant next to a lake outside of Veles. Two members of each host family were invited as well as current PC Volunteers, all of PC Staff and some dignitaries, such as the Mayor of Veles, US Ambassador, director of NGO US Aid and the Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski (he wasn’t able to make it, so a minister came in his place). About 300 people attended and everyone was dressed to the nines. We sang the national anthems of both Macedonia and the US. There were speeches by the Mayor, the PC Country Director, and two of our colleages, Sara and Keith. At one point they asked our host family members to stand. I noticed that more than a couple had tears in their eyes. Then they had the 32 of us stand up one by one as they read our names, home states and Macedonian cities where we are going. Next the US Ambassador gave her address and then had us collectively raise our right hand and give our oath of service, and “swear in” as PC Volunteers. I don’t remember much of what we had to say except to uphold the US constitution. I’m going to try to get my hands on a copy. It was also noted in the speeches about the fact that we are the 10th group of PC Volunteers in Macedonia. That’s pretty cool.
Afterwards there was a little reception of food and music (unfortunately no oro dancing), as well as lots of photo taking. It was then that I discovered that there were more people that I knew who had attended, including the Macedonian grade school teacher that I’d worked with in Veles for my practicum. There were also several Mac 9’s in attendance, including a married couple, Sean and Jennifer, who are in a village about 9 km away from me.
That night my family held a little party for me, since they know how much I enjoy dancing the oro and the traditional Macedonian music. They called up a few of their friends/relatives and soon we were all dancing and singing in my grandma’s living room. One of my host cousins plays the accordion, which is one of the most common musical instruments to play traditional music. One popular song that I like is called “Makadonka Dayvoika”, which means “Young Macedonian Girl”.

Good News

Great News! I passed my language exam! Woo-hoo! And now our training is over. No more language classes. No more practicum student teaching, no more medical or technical sessions...etc. Now I just have to go home and PACK!

Tomorrow's the big day, the Swearing In Ceremony. At 11AM tomorrow (that's 2AM Thurs Seattle time) we have our swearing in ceremony and we'll all become official Peace Corps Volunteers!

Friday is when we all move to sites. We have to put all of our stuff on public buses and go to site. Thank God I don't have to transfer buses! My counterpart will meet me at the bus station and take me to my new home, my own apartment and I will be "settling in" this weekend.

Wish me luck!

Harry Potter, Skopje & the Macedonian Language

This last weekend I got permission from PC to go to the capital city of Skopje to meet up with some other PC Volunteers and to go see the new Harry Potter movie at a real movie theater (the pirated versions are already out). Then I spent the night at an apartment of a married couple that are also PC volunteers living in Skopje. There were about 8 of us PC volunteers that went to the movie (okay, so technically I'm not a volunteer yet, but I will be in 3 days). It was a lot of fun. Oh my gosh, the movie was so good. The special effects are awesome and it was just so cool to see on the big screen. Of course, there were a few things that I didn't like about the movie, being a staunch HP fan, they left out a lot. Well, they had to or else it would've been a 4 hour movie. For someone who hasn't read the books, I don't think they would enjoy it as much cuz it moves so fast...But even so, it's worth seeing. I want to go again and next time invite my fellow trainees who are HP fans as well!

Another reason for going to Skopje was an NGO fair (Non-governmental Organization) that a bunch of us trainees went to, so I met up with the gang on Saturday morning at the event. It was really interesting and I got a lot of information and talked to a lot of different people. For example, Habitat for Humanity has just started here. I also talked to an amatur astronomy group, found the local United Methodist Church as well as numerous organizations that work with youth and education. In addition, there were several groups working with the Roma, one of the poorer disadvantaged ethnic groups in Macedonia (and I'll be working with them in Kochani too). We had the whole day in Skopje so we broke up into groups to different restaurants, stores and a craft fair as well. Other than the rain, it was a good day.

Today I had the dreaded LPI test (Language Proficiency Interview)...yes, we actually are tested on our language skills at the end of training. Fortunately if we don't pass it, we're not kicked out of PC, but we will be required to get a tutor at site and re-take the test in 3 months. Aaack! Everyone says not to worry, but I was nervous anyway. It is required to get an Intermediate Low score. For the practice test I got a Novice Mid. We'll learn our scores in two days. On the third day we have swearing in. (I plan to get a tutor at my site anyway, but it'll still be nice if it's not required).

The end of training is swiftly near and I feel like I've still got so much to learn. At the same time, I am feeling very ready to move into my new apartment and have a little more independence. Yesterday when chatting with my host grandma she got a little teary-eyed talking about my moving to Kochani. She has already offered to move with me and be my personal cook! I have reassured my family many times that I plan to come visit them often. Ending training is bittersweet. I will miss having my fellow trainees/ friends around to hang out with on a regular basis. At the same time, I'm ready to spread my wings and start this new chapter of my service!

December already!

I can't believe that it is already December. Time has flown by so quickly! There are now only two more weeks left before our group finishes training and becomes official Peace Corps volunteers! There is a big celebration, called "Swearing In" and it will be a big ceremony, including the American ambassador and the Macedonian president. There will be speeches and we will sing both the US National Anthem and the Macedonian one (which we are learning in our language classes, I like the song a lot). Our host families and counterparts are invited as well as current volunteers, so it'll be like Thanksgiving, maybe even bigger. The next day, on the 16th we will move to our sites. I just found out that Peace Corps has secured an apartment for me in Kochani. They said that it's "small, but cute". I'm very close to the city center and about a 10 minute walk from my school.

Winter is cold here. It snowed the week of Thanksgiving and it was beautiful to see it covering the mountains. There is no central heating in the houses here, in fact, the buildings are really like big ice boxes, they retain the cold very well. Often times our rooms are colder than the outside temperature. I have a little pocket thermometer which stays at a steady 40 degrees F (or I think 5 degrees C). We got our Peace Corps issued heaters a couple weeks ago, which is nice, but mine doesn't have a blower, so it takes awhile to heat up my bedroom. They are also going to be a pain to lug to our sites because they are heavy and bulky. People here normally keep the main living room warm by keeping a wood burning stove going, which also lends itself to all congregating in the same room for hours on end. It is nice for company and if you want to watch TV, but it is harder sometimes when I just want a little time to myself.

Last night one of the trainee's (Todd) host brother in our village apparently got engaged to a young woman from Veles. This was announced by a spontaneous celebration at 1 in the morning. Apparently the host brother and his buddies went around to their friend’s houses (including mine), rang the doorbell in the middle of the night and invited them over to his house to celebrate. I had heard people at the door, but ignored the noise and fell back asleep. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option for Todd. Suddenly the house was filled with music, dancing and a lot of strange people drinking alcohol and making merry, including shooting a shotgun off the front porch, just next to Todd’s bedroom. The party lasted until 5am! Todd stayed in his bedroom, trying to ignore the knocks on his door and invitations to join in the celebration. He got about an hour of sleep. I found out about it the next day, including that my host dad was present and was one of the individuals who shot the gun from the front porch! Apparently it is tradition at a wedding or at the reception to shoot a gun three times to signify a man marrying a woman. I find it amusing that in this culture and living in a village, that this kind of custom exists, having a spontaneous celebration in the middle of the night. This would never fly in the states. I can just imagine a friend showing up at the door, being gregarious and slightly tipsy, announcing their engagement at 1am. We would probably grumble a congratulations, remind them what time it was and tell them to come back tomorrow!

One of The Best Thanksgivings Ever

Celebrating Thanksgiving has been a beloved tradition for PC in Macedonia, with a big Thanksgiving dinner for all the staff, current volunteers, trainees and their host families. It was a real festive occasion; there were probably about 200 people in attendance (with about 70 volunteers & trainees currently serving in Macedonia). It was held at a nice restaurant in Veles, all the families and volunteers brought food. Peace Corps provided the turkeys (15 total, shipped over from the US). My host mom made mashed potatoes (purée kompiree), baked tikva (pumpkins) and a kind of cornbread. She wouldn’t allow me to help with the cooking. However, I did help with the decorating and setting up at the restaurant. We took pumpkins from my family’s garden for decoration, as well as dry leaves and flowers.
First our country director got up and said a few words. Then my friend Erika and I gave brief speeches about what Thanksgiving is and the history behind it. Erika gave hers in Albanian and mine was in Macedonian. We both read our speeches that were written with the help from our language teachers. It was the first time that I had heard Albanian spoken, Erika did an amazing job, the language is very melodic, it reminded me a little of French! When I gave my speech, I was nervous, but it went well and I was glad I did it. Then Sara W. (another trainee) gave a short, touching and humorous speech about things we are grateful for, including the hospitality of our host families, the assistance from the PC staff, as well as the support and love from our families and friends back in the US…oh yeah, and letters & packages from them too!
Then the dinner began, which was buffet style. One of the restaurant staff carved the turkeys. There was an incredible amount of food there; the table was packed and the dishes were almost overlapping each other, so there was plenty of food for everyone. Both Macedonian and American food were present (some people got creative with making things like stuffing and apple pie with the ingredients that were available). The only common staple missing were cranberries (not available here). There was also raijka (“rock-eeah”), liquor made from grapes, and plenty of “sok” (sodas).
The program continued after dinner with a group of us trainees leading a rendition of “America, the Beautiful”, and trainees from Negotino giving a short skit of a typical Thanksgiving day in the states (including pie-making and football watching). Then the group from Chaska led the traditional Macedonian dance “The Oro” (which is A LOT like Greek dancing; a little like line dancing, but slower, holding hands, stepping and leg swinging in unison). This was one of my favorite moments of the evening. There were perhaps 150 people, Macedonians and Albanians, Volunteers and Staff, young and old, people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, skin color, languages and gender smiling and laughing over a universal custom: dancing and making merry.
After returning home, I shared the photos and stories with my host grandmother (There was a limited number of people allowed to attend). Then my host brother and two of his friends/cousins arrived. One of them brought out an accordion and the party continued in the small living room with dancing and music! I laughed, danced and, of course, took photographs. Overall, it was a fantastic evening.
This has had to be one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve ever had. The only thing I would’ve changed is to have had my family back home in the US to share it with!

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/

Visiting Kochani

On Tuesday Nov. 15th we met our counterparts in Veles. My counterpart’s name is Ljubica (“Loobeetsa”); she is a teacher with 15 years experience and does not hesitate to speak her mind. The good thing is that she has some previous experience with the “Pees Korpz” and Ljubica seems to be very receptive to working and team teaching with me, for which I’m grateful for. I quickly got on her good side; she was especially pleased to learn that I like coffee with sugar.

I must mention here that smoking cigarettes is extremely prevalent. The entire school staff smoke, including the headmaster and the teachers lounge is like a chimney. Second-hand smoke is an inevitable health hazard in this country (with upper respiratory infections being the most common health issue).

On Wednesday I met Ljubica at the hotel and then we caught a bus to Kochani (for about $4 one-way). Everyone has told me that Kochani is a very pretty city, and they were right. In a little less than 2 hours we arrived. First we went to the school where I’ll be working, and I met most of the staff. It was a whirlwind of names and faces. My three days visiting Kochani were full of meeting people, being stuffed full of more tasty, fattening Macedonian meals, visiting numerous classrooms, introducing myself to students and touring the small city. It was also nice to meet the currently serving volunteers in and near Kochani. Unfortunately one of them is COS'ing (Close of Service) and will have left by the time I move there. However she was a wealth of great info and advice. I now know where to buy tofu and dried fruit, eat great pizza, get cheap CD’s and DVD’s as well as visit the local mosque and buy a guitar!

I am ready for my training to be over, but I still have one more month to go. I will be glad to finally move to my city and have my own apartment. Training is hard for many reasons, but one of them is living with a host family and not having that much privacy or independence. I love my family, I know they mean well, but they treat me like a little kid, they even put (too much) sugar in my coffee for me, as if I was incapable of doing it myself! I know it is just a cultural thing. Learning the language is tough too. I think I'll do better when I work with a private tutor. Talking with the other volunteers after returning to site visit makes me realize we are all kind of burned out from training and language lessons. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one.

Oh, and I just bought a copy of the first Harry Potter book in Macedonian! I’m going to try to read it too, but it’ll be slow going for now. Hopefully it will be a good motivator to keep at my language learning!

P.S. Some people have asked about Thanksgiving...obviously it is not celebrated here, but the Peace Corps is going to have a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner for us (15 turkeys have been shipped over from the states) and we will also have entertainment. All of the PC staff and volunteers will be there, including our host families. They project 200 people will attend.

Before the Rain

I just watched the movie “Before the Rain” directed by Milcho Manchevski, a Macedonian film, 1994, which won tons of awards including a Academy Award nomination in ‘95 for Best Foreign Language Film.

I was really impressed. This is a movie more Americans need to see. Keeping in mind that it has an "R" rating, and is pretty graphic at times, it is thought provoking and very well done. It may be hard to find, but I encourage you to see it if you can. “Scarecrow video” in Seattle specializes in movies like this.

Of course I am feeling pretty naïve at this point about all of the politics and history involved in this region of former Yugoslavia. Pretty naïve indeed. We are encouraged not to talk about politics, at least until we have been here longer, have a better grasp of the language and are more familiar with the situation.

The tension between Albanians and Macedonians is omnipresent. There is a monument in the middle of my village to a single Macedonian soldier that was killed by an Albanian in the recent (2001) conflict. When I learned that, I got a little more insight into why there is a lot of anger and tension against Albanians.

There are no easy answers, there are no winners. Healing and closure feel like a long ways away.
Like right now, the fact that Macedonia is struggling with the current situation in Kosovo, which I don’t even really know much about other than the fact that Americans are strongly encouraged not to go there right now, and this country is also still bickering with Greece over their official name…Greece has issues with them using the name of Macedonia so, to placate their NATO neighbor, the country name is currently “Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia”.

Of course I am forming my own opinions…however, I will not try to sway you, the reader, at this time. With the Peace Corps encouragement…I am still very much an observer, quietly listening and learning more about the history and politics before I tiptoe into politically heated debates and discussion.

In the meantime, go check out the movie “Before the Rain”…

P.S. There is a sequel as well, “Dust” (2001)

My future home in Macedonia...

Thursday I got out of the house for the first time so that I could go to the meeting to learn about site announcements. They took us trainees in one at a time. Todd got Negotino, Marita and Shauna are both near Lake Ohrid, probably the most beautiful region of the country, Lindsay is in the large city of Kumanovo and I am in the city of Kochani.

Overall, I am happy with my site, although I think I would’ve liked a larger city. Kochani is approx 33,000 and the school I’ll be working at also has some Roma kids, so I’m glad about that. There is also another current PCV in this town, Marilyn, who is working with an NGO to help the Roma population, which I’m excited about. I’m also not that far from Stip, which is where Rachel, a Mac 8 who’s extended for a third year, lives and teaches at a high school.

My guide book says there’s not much about the town of Kochani, but a couple things of interest to me is that there are some hot springs nearby, as well as some ancient roman ruins and is near to the ancient Roman Road “Diagonal way” which connected Stobi to Bulgaria.

Also I've been told that this is a beautiful part of the country and that there are some nice hikes in the area. It is roughly 2 hours away from the capital of Skopje.

Next week we will all be meet our counterparts and visit our future sites for 3 days.

“There is not much in the town itself as, until communist industrialization, it had mostly been a farming settlement since the time of Aleksander III of Macedon. Around 330 BC, Aleksandar brought back rice from India, which was planted in these fertile fields. The ancient paddy fields are still worked today, many by hand, and they provide most of Macedonia’s rice.”

--The Bradt Guide to Macedonia by Thammy Evans.

Sick and Smothered

Let me first preface this by saying that I love my host family and they are sweet people with good intentions.

So I’ve been sick for almost a week. I started feeling crummy last weekend when our group visited the trainees staying in the nearby community of Sveti Nickole (Saint Nickolas). That morning I had woken up to a sore throat. By that evening it turned into a headache as well. I ended up spending the entire day on Sunday in bed.

Superstitions are common in some cultures. In Macedonia, there is a common opinion that sitting in a draft, called “promaya”, will cause you to get sick. My family has a couple of ideas about what caused my illness. Mostly they blame the fact that I’ve been washing my hair in the AM and going out without drying it (an advantage to having short hair). They also blame Sveti Nickole and the fact that I drank cold soda when I was there. (I, of course, believe I got a virus because my immune system was down due to stress and not enough sleep).

By Monday I knew that I had a bad cold. I stayed in bed all day. My family became very concerned and tried to persuade me to call the doctor. I tried to explain (in my broken Macedonian) that I didn’t think it was necessary. I knew that the doctor would tell me to do all the things that I was doing already; resting, drinking liquids, taking aspirin, cough suppressants, etc (which fortunately are supplied in my medical kit). By Monday evening I gave into their insistence and called the Peace Corps medical doctor. I explained my symptoms and what I was doing to get better. She agreed with me and then spoke to my family to calm their nerves. Monday after lunch my family wanted me to stay downstairs with my baba (grandma) because it is warmer down in her room (thanks to a wood-burning stove) and it’s next to the outdoor bathroom. Of course, it’s also where everyone eats their meals, watches TV is and where all the guests “negosti” (visit). I ended up in the bed of my baba’s living room for the next two days. Although I could lie down and rest and I was being pampered like a small child, my family also kept waking me up every couple of hours to see how I was doing. They were frequently offering me coffee, tea, bread, vegetables, meat, and chocolates. I soon developed a runny noise and a bad cough.

Monday night I vomited so on Tuesday I stopped eating all foods and only drank water and tea. At this point my family acted as though I had something life-threatening. I tried to rest while my host dad watched football on TV. I declined all offers of food from them. I told them I just wanted to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep very well with my nose all stopped up and coughing all night. My baba was sick as well, and my host mom had three teeth pulled! (I suspect that once you have a bad tooth in this country, they just yank it out, which would explain why most of the old people don’t have many teeth left!). So here we were all feeling ill.

It was very interesting to me how there seemed to be no concept of what foods are best to feed a person who is sick. I was offered all kinds of foods that I know are not easy to digest. I did request eggs a couple of times, but that was about the only kind of “easily digestable” food I got. My sore throat longed for something cold to help the swelling; a cold drink, an ice cube or ice cream. But I knew I would get none of it. After three days one of my fellow trainees smuggled me a soda when she came to visit me, from my request, it was awesome.

At one point this week I vaguely remember six women entering the room, all sitting down to “negosti” and have tea. I could hear them clucking their tongues as they talked about me, how I was sick and not eating. They again offered me food and tea. I mumbled in Macedonian that I was tired and wanted to sleep. Then I remember one of the women standing over me, saying my name, practically wagging her finger at me, lecturing me in jumbled bunch of words about my being sick, that I should eat. I barely opened my eyes to look at her, I was so tired. Next thing you know my language teacher was above me calling my name. The women were gone. I learned later that she had driven them out. She stayed for a short while, talking with family and with me and I was so happy when she suggested I move back upstairs to my room. On Wednesday I had a house call from a Peace Corps doctor and nurse, which was nice. They were able to confirm that I didn’t have anything more serious than a viral infection, so no antibiotics were necessary. It was then that I learned that there were single-use strip thermometers in the medical kit, as well as some nasal decongestants. I was given some more cough drops and ibuprofen. They also gave my host family some peace of mind as well. I started to feel better mid-week, but it’s been a slow recovery.

A lot happens during PST

A lot happens during PST (Pre-Service Training) that it is difficult to write about a “typical day”. However, during the week there is almost always language class for 3 to 4 hours a day and twice a week I have my student teaching in Veles (now always at 8am). At the end of training we will be tested on our Macedonian and are supposed to achieve an intermediate level. If we don’t pass the test then we will have a tutor once we go to our sites and have to re-take the test again later. They say that PST is the most stressful time of the PC experience, which I agree with, but I am also a little concerned about when we get plopped down at our sites and we won’t other trainees around to talk to, hang out or get support from. PST is for preparing us for that time. Fortunately we all will have a counterpart, which is a HCN (Host-country National) that will help us and work with us during our assignments at site. "Swearing in" is a big deal. For us, it is on December 16th. There will be a big ceremony and all the important people of Macedonia will be there, including the country president, the US ambassador (who will swear us in) and the mayor of Veles. All of our host families and counterparts will be there, as well as all of the PC staff. At that point we are official Peace Corps Volunteers. Immediately after Swearing in we will go to our sites. I forgot to mention that unfortunately one in our group has left us. Mike, from San Francisco, had to ET (Early Terminate) a couple weeks ago. He had to go back due to family obligations at home. While we are sad that Mike had to go (and most of us didn’t get a chance to say goodbye) it is a general consensus that it is better that he left now than later, after getting to site and being more invested in the community and work. Now our MAC 10 group has 32 trainees. Also, I must say that Macedonian kitchens are ‘magical’ places. The food here is very greasy and starchy, almost always cooked in vegetable oil. A big part of the diet is meat and vegetables. There is some fish, a lot of peppers, salt and sugar. I love the mountain tea here as well as the Mousaka, which I’ve had back home at the Greek restaurant I used to work at, although it is a bit different (cooked vegetables and meat). Also, something unique to this country is ajvar, which is like pureed peppers with tasty spices and then often laden on the plain bread and cheese that is like feta sprinkled on top. It is not too difficult to find a village baba (grandma) or mom stirring up a big vat of ajvar, or carefully peeling each individual pepper, a mound of discarded peels next to them. The other thing that makes them magical is that they frequently do not refridgerate their cooked food. They will store the dishes inside the oven (that is turned off) or in the cupboard and the food will not spoil. My personal theory is that there is too much sugar/oil/fat for it to go bad within a couple of days (because it usually gets eaten up within 2 or 3 days at most). The other volunteers prior to us told us this would happen and no one has gotten sick from the food yet due to this strange habit (it’s not that they don’t HAVE refridgerators, although they are considerably smaller than what we have in the states. Things like yogurt, wine, and milk are usually stored there). Also I should add that a lot of the women here, at least in the villages, make a lot of their own juices, jam and can a lot of fruit. Paulina, my host mom makes a mean apricot juice that is very sweet. Last weekend I went with my fellow village volunteers to another town, Sveti Nikole (Saint Nickolas). We saw a beautiful orthodox church and for the first time, I got to go inside a Macedonian church. It was fantastic, between 500-700 years old. It reminded me a lot of churches in South America, as well as in Greece; lots of frescos, paintings and icons of the saints. This town of approx 10 to 15,000 wasn’t even mentioned in my guide book. Our group from our village hung out with the five other volunteers in Sveti Nikole, they showed us around. There was a little park and plaza, a hill with a large cross on top and a nice view of the town. The previous Saturday the Sveti Nickole group had visited us in our village. We took them on a little hike up the side of the mountain where there’s a great view of Veles, then we went to each of our homes and “negosti’d”, getting stuffed on coffee, “sok” (juice or soda) chocolate sticks, slices of cheese and meat, as well as “slatko” or sickly sweet homemade deserts.
We had just had our site assessment interviews where we met with the program managers and gave some input into what we wanted in terms of our future site and program for the next 2 years. I inquired about the position working with Roma kids near Skopje, but they disappointed me by really talking it down. I let it be known that I was most interested in being in a city the size of Veles (30,000) or bigger and that I wanted to work with Roma kids, either as a primary or secondary assignment. Having previously only been to Veles and my little nearby village I worried about what kind of town I was going to end up in. Rumor had it that our group (Mac 10) was going to be primarily placed in small villages. Once seeing Sveti Nickole, a community smaller than what I would prefer, I realized that even if I got a town this small, I could probably handle it. It didn’t even feel that small. There were the standard things, a post office, market, plaza, coffee shops and restaurants as well as a movie theater (that functions once a week). So it gave me peace of mind about my placement.

More photos!

Photos of my host family (mom, dad & grandma), my language class (fellow Peace Corps Trainees in my village and Language Teacher) and a bunch of us in front of the local church.

Traditional Macedonian Costume

Image from the web: http://www.ethnicdance.net/ethnicmusic.html

This is only ONE KIND of traditional Macedonian costume, but it is indicative of what they look like. Each village and community (and other smaller ethnic groups, such as the Albanians) have there own costume, with different kinds and colors. Cool huh?

Happy Halloween!

Mac 10 had a Halloween Party that I organized. No one had made any definite plans, so I decided that someone had to just do it. I tried to get some input from the others and then announced that we would meet at a local bar in Veles at 7:30pm on Saturday night. I encouraged people to bring something scary, as well as chocolate and candy and that there would be a prize for the scariest thing. I also shared some of my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Dennis brought himself, as a Republican, which was pretty funny. Several of the PCT’s in Veles made carved gourds jack-o-lanterns, since they don’t exactly have pumpkins here. They were really well made. But what took the cake was Luke’s video on his digital camera. That day, several groups had visited other communities of fellow PCT’s. Our group in our village hosted the group from another nearby town. Two other groups had visited each other that day and it just so happened that a family picked that day to slaughter their large pig. So several in the group watched it and Luke videoed it on his digital camera. When I watched the video I felt nauseous. I don’t think I could’ve watched it if I could’ve heard the sound over the loud music at the bar. The video was pretty disturbing and he got the popular vote for first place (but was nice enough to share the prize of chocolate candies with everyone).

Other than us crazy ex-pat Americans, Halloween is not celebrated in Macedonia.

One down, twenty-six to go!

It's hard to believe that I've now been in Macedonia one month exactly. So much has happened in such a short time. It's also incredible to think of how much of the language I've aquired in this time, although I still struggle to have anything other than really basic conversations and I still am the slowest in my advanced class!

Today was one of my practicum days, when I go into Veles to go to the elementary school and work with a Macedonian English teacher. I've finally realized why I do not exactly get excited about or look forward to my practicum teaching days. I have no idea what is going to happen before I go to these classes. Being unprepared, especially for teaching, goes against every teaching experience I've ever had and is something that I detest. The reason for this is that my practicum teacher (who I like on a personal level) gives me little to no direction on what I am supposed to do in these lessons. Today turned out to be "ask Jesse whatever you want to" for the students, which was very amusing and funny, and I didn't mind, for the most part.

I will say that kids are kids are kids everywhere.

But the same is definately NOT true for schools and teachers.

Today my teacher whacked one of the kids on the head (I missed what he was doing, I'm sure he was misbehaving). And yesterday I witnessed a physical fight in the hallways. Despite several teachers and lots of kids witnessing it, and the teachers yelling at them to stop and making a half hearted attempt to split them up, there were no consequences for the two who were fighting, which blows me away!

The kids today were curious about what America and Seattle are like and what kinds of things I am interested in, like music, food, hobbies, etc. They wanted to know what the nightlife in America is like and what my impressions of Macedonia are, as well as if I have a car and a boyfriend. They asked what the curfew for young people in America is. They asked me what sports I like, if I like french fries, who my favorite actor is, what kinds of clothes I like to wear and not wear and how old I am. They asked how many US states I've been to and what the prices are in America.

I have a site placement interview on October 31st. This is in regard to where I'll be placed for my 2 years of service. They'll be asking me questions about what kind of location I'd like to be in and the kind of work I want to do. I'll ask them lots of questions regarding this particular assignment of teaching homeless Roma youth near Skopje. The more I think about it, the more I am interested, even if it is not everything I want. It may be a very difficult, frustrating experience, but then I didn't join the Peace Corps so that everything would be nice and easy and simple.

A possible prospect assignment

This afternoon I met with some Peace Corps staff and learned of an interesting possible assignment. It is rare to learn of specific assignments before placement interviews (which don't take place until October 31st), it is like classified information about where and what specific assignments are available. However, from word of mouth and talking with PC staff I had heard a few things. For example, that there are no TEFL placements this year in Skopje or Veles (which disappointed me because I'd been thinking that I'd like to be in one of those sites).

When I mentioned that I'm interested in working with street youth as a secondary project (TEFL being my primary one), I learned about a placement that really piqued my interest. There is a placement for teaching at a school for street kids. I know that this would be a very difficult assignment. It is working with the Roma population, who are an ethnic group where the people are, generally speaking, poor and disadvantaged. I also know that the location would be a suburb of Skopje, the capital (pop approx 600,000), which would also have it's advantages. I don't have any other specifics, I'll have to wait until our site placement interviews. This really sounds like something up my alley, something that I would really like to do.

So, I'm very jazzed right now about this prospect, it is going to be difficult not to get my hopes up too high. Besides, the Peace Corps has already been teaching me all about expectations...so far, with my track record, most of my expectations have been challenged. For example, I was originally nominated for Asia. So I had 9 months of expectations that I'd go to Asia, and hopes of going to China or Thailand. I was also nominated to leave in June. Instead I was sent to Eastern Europe (Macedonia), and left in September. I had also had hopes of being in Veles for training, instead I got a little village, but fortunately it is nearby to the town. Fortunately, it has all worked out for the best and I have no resentments about all of it now. But it really is a reminder to me not to future trip, which I'm so good at doing! :p

Oh, and by the way, it appears as though I may have been able to adjust my schedule so that I don't have to teach at 7:30am anymore (I hope). Regardless of the time, fortunately I only have student teaching twice a week, and the schedule switches week to week whether it is morning or afternoon. Kind of strange huh?

An Unusual Americanka

My weekend was good but it went by too fast. Some of the other volunteers and myself went on a little hike on Saturday, we walked up the nearby "mountain" (large hill) that our village huddles next to. It was soooo nice to get out of the village, get a little break, some fresh air and sun and everything. One of my favorite moments was when I discovered a praying mantis and was able to pick it up and get some photos of it. I've explained to my host family and other locals that it is unusual for American girls to like insects and frogs like I do. I wanted to explain that because it seems that a lot of what we volunteers do and how we are is interpreted to represent all of the US. My host grandmother thought that since I do not eat much bread that all Americans do not like to eat bread.

I just finished my second day at the local elementary school. Other than having to be there at the awful hour of 7:30am, it is all good. I am hoping that I will not have to go to the school that early on a regular basis, but it doesn't look promising. I have to get up at 6:30am in order to get a taxi there on time. And as many of you know, I am not a morning person!

The other thing that my family thinks is strange is that I do not like to drink whole milk with a dallop of honey in it, yet I'll add sugar to my yogurt (since it is plain and soupy). They don't understand why us volunteers don't like the cheese, why we want to spend time alone or why we don't feel the need to spend the entire day having "nagosti"; hanging out having tea and goodies at each others houses.

I've also had to tell my family and locals that I am unusual in the amount of traveling I've done. Even amongst the other PC volunteers, I've been surprised to find out that I really am a kind of freak about traveling. I know it's not that common for Americans to travel as much as I have. And I'm not trying to boast here, I feel a little self conscious about it.

I also am probably driving my host mom crazy because I don't give myself a full half-hour to eat breakfast and she thinks I'm going to get sick because I don't dry my hair after a shower (one of the advantages to having short hair).

Well, this can all be politely chuckled about and that is fine. My family is really sweet. The other day I also was able to watch a football (soccer) match on TV with my host brother. Oh, that's another thing, an americanka interested in sports? I think my host brother and dad can adjust to that just fine.

An Afterthought about the PC

Another thought about the Peace Corps.

I've talked to a few fellow trainees about the Peace Corps and they reminded me of a few things that I'd forgotten to mention in a former post...

The PC program only goes to countries where it is *invited* to work in. The countries themselves request that PC volunteers come assist them in certain areas, usually education, business, health, environment and agriculture. At that point, before volunteers are sent over, the PC Staff will meet with the government officials to find out the best way for PCV human resources to be best utilized and helpful to that country.

Peace Corps works with local people in the communities, so it is starting from a grass roots level. Each PC volunteer has a counterpart, a Host Country National, that they collaborate with, so it is a team effort for things to be worked on and improved together.

Peace Corps provides cross cultural training, so that we, as volunteers can collaborate with the locals with a sensitivity to the cultural differences that occur, often on a subtle or invisible level.

It can be argued, at times, that local people can be trained to do the same job that a PC volunteer does. If I felt that were true in my case, then I would see if there is another way that I can be useful because I don't want to put a local person out of a job, especially since unemployment is very high in Macedonia. However, being a native English speaker is not something a local person can provide. In fact, when I met with my teacher today, she asked a few questions about saying some phrases in English and receptive to working with me, which I am really grateful for.

Adjusting to the adjustments

Milomeay!
I met my Macedonian teacher today, the one that I will be working with. She is the same age as I am and she is a good teacher. I like her and her classes a lot and I feel so much more at ease about my student teaching. It turns out that she teaches middle school, which at first I wasn't crazy about (6th, 7th & 8th), however, the good thing is that they have a couple of years of English under their belt. And since I'm really limited in my Macedonian, that will make it easier for me to communicate with and to teach. The kids are fascinated with us, we are probably the first Americans they have ever seen in real life.

Now it is the weekend (yay!) I am ready for a break. Even though I've been here for 2 weeks I feel like I've been here for about 2 months. I think it is because my days are jammed pack.

Every day I have 4 hours of Macedonian language lessons with the 4 other volunteers in my village. Then twice a week we'll go to Veles for our student teaching practicm. Then at least once a week, sometimes twice we'll have Peace Corps meetings (either TEFL training or medical meetings, cross cultural meetings or something like that). And then perhaps I'll have some private tutorage for Macedonian so I can keep up with my advanced classmates! That doesn't leave me much spare time! When I do have spare time I like to go on walks with my fellow trainees in my village (which we're really limited with since the village is pretty small and often have an entourage of little kids following us everywhere), or go into Veles for internet and/or socializing.

I feel tired a lot. I'd been wondering why. Then recently I was reminded...it takes a lot of energy to adjust to everything that we've been having to adjust to! A new country, a new language, a loss of language (English), pre-service training, settling in, living with a new family, a new culture, a new job, the food, the weather, doing without the familiar comforts of home, culture shock, a loss of routine, spending time alone, not having as much privacy or independence, etc etc.

Also, yesterday, I bought my first CD of a Macedonian pop singer. It turned out to be slightly cheesy and overall, pretty good. Today I got my second, one of the most popular Macedonian singers "Toshe", who is incredibly cheesy and pretty good. The best thing about it is that both CD's have lyrics, so it will help me to learn Macedonian. As some of you know, I really got into Latino music when I was in Ecuador, and I fully expect that I'll do the same here. The music in other countries can be cheesy, but I enjoy it. The cheesier, the better! Music is one of my favorite components of other cultures.

Feeling like the Christmas Goose

Well, time is trodding along and overall things are going well. Everyday I have 4 hours of language lessons. Then sometimes we have Peace Corps meetings in Veles in the afternoon. Like today, we came into town for medical meeting where we got the rest of our vaccinations. I thought I wouldn't have to get any, but as a precaution the PC gave me a tetnus booster and Polio (which I got once as a little kid, now I should be good for life). Two shots, one in each arm. Now both my arms are sore. Oh well.

The language lessons are with the other PC volunteers in my village (there are 5 of us). My school is just next to my house, since I live off of the village square. I like my teacher a lot. The problem with my class is that as a class we are really advanced. But I'm not advanced. I'm just normal. So compared to my classmates I'm the slowest one. Well, I'm tired of being in an advanced class, I want to be in a normal class now. But that's not an option. I will probably opt to have some private tutorage with my teacher once or twice a week. At least it's free.

As for my host family, they are very sweet, but they overfeed me. I've been joking with the other PC volunteers that I think my family is trying to fatten me up for Christmas. I feel like the Christmas Goose! And then yesterday they actually weighed me! They brought me back to a storeroom where there was an old scale and they had me stand on one side while they added metal gram boxes. I know it is true that they want to fatten me up. They think that I'm just being polite when I tell them I'm full. I know that this is a common issue and it is one of the cultural differences between the US and Eastern Europe.

But I'm not having as many issues with my host families as some of the others. Some of the other host families don't give the volunteers any privacy or free time. Some of the volunteers in the Albanian community aren't getting fed very much. One gal in our village had her host grandfather pass away yesterday! The family is now all in mourning, it is really tough.

Tomorrow we start our student teaching, we are all at schools in Veles. We'll all be paired up with a local elementary teacher. I'm a little nervous, but with the way things have been going, it will probably be fine.

Last weekend one of the relatives visited and she is about my age and speaks very good English. Her name is Vane (prounounced "Van-aye"). We spent some time hanging out, she did a lot of translating. We went to the family's garden and then to their summer house on the lake. We got along really well. She is a student in Skopje. She has invited me to visit her. I am so glad to have made my first Macedonian friend!

Now I'm off to go find a CD store nearby so that I can discover the best of local Macedonian music!

Photos We've All Been Waiting For!

A local near my village.

Jesse at Stobi, a nearby archeological site, about 2000 years old.

Some members of the "fan club".

The Macedonian Alphabet.

The city of Veles with the Vardar River, view from our hotel.

My Brother is a Brat

Learning Macedonian is very interesting. The language is very unique, using a Cyrillic alphabet (and not latin based, as Spanish is). However, there are words that are similar to English or Spanish. For example, the word for "table" is "masa". The word for "brother" is "brat". The word for "dog" is "koo-chay" (which sounds a lot like one of my best friend's dog's name). The word for "small" is "malo", where the word "malo" means 'bad' in Spanish!

Although I'm not the fastest learner, I do enjoy learning other languages. I like the way the words are pronounced and roll off your tongue. Macedonian also has a rolled "r" like in Spanish. Writing it is also proving a challenge (however, learning Macedonian is not as hard as Chinese would be! As some of you know, I was originally nominated for Asia! And I learned that indeed, had I been medically cleared in time, I would have gone to teach at a university in China--I met my original Placement Officer in DC). Nevertheless, I am now very glad to be in Macedonia, learning their language.

Oh, and have I mentioned that they have Turkish toilets here? Thank goodness my host family has a western toilet, but in restaurants and in my school where I have 4 hours of language lessons every day, there is a turkish toilet (just do a google search of images to see what one looks like). And when I was in Ecuador I quickly learned that the plumbing system cannot cope with toilet paper and so therefore, the paper goes in a bin next to the toilet...well, it is the same here!

Different Schools of Fish

There are different schools of thought about the Peace Corps and what it does. Just like there are different ideas about how useful or appropriate it is for people around the world to learn English. I struggled with whether or not I wanted to become part of the US government when I personally have issues with it's foreign policy. I also struggled with the idea of teaching people in Ecuador and other countries English. I don't rejoice at the idea that English is becoming the universal language. However, that is beyond my control. What I concluded is that, while I do not believe that American culture is better than other cultures, the reality is that by learning English, people can better their lives, for example, get a better job. That is the reality, right or wrong.

Also, from my experiences in other countries and cultures, I know that to understand another culture you have to experience it to really appreciate it. There is the well known idea that you can give a man a fish or you can teach him how to fish. The Peace Corps goal is to teach him how to fish.

"In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. Three simple goals comprise the Peace Corps' mission:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans."

While I don't believe that the PC is perfect or infallable I do believe that it makes a positive difference. For example, countries that the PC used to go to 20 years ago, for example, Chile, have become self sufficient to the point that PCV's don't need to go there anymore (which, of course, is also argueable, but from actually traveling to Chile and other countries such as Bolivia, I can say from what I saw with my own eyes that a country like Bolivia has a greater need for PCV's right now than Chile).

So, what I am doing in Macedonia right now is learning the language and culture. I would not have this opportunity if it wasn't for the PC. And how many of you would be learning about Macedonia if it were not for my experience here now?

I don't believe that I'm going to change the world. I don't have unrealistic goals of what the PC can do. In fact, I think that I have more to learn than what I have to teach.

The teacher becomes the student. And I am eager to learn.

My Host Family

Things continue to go well for me and I am very greatful. Friday they announced what community we would be spending our training living with a host family. There are about 5 communities in and around Veles, with one group in Veles. One community is Albanian (and Muslim), some towns are about a half hour drive away. I got a nearby town, it is like a small village very close to Veles, but the citizens don't like to be called a village, they say they are a suburb of Veles. I was disappointed at first because I wanted Veles, I didn't want a small town. After language class our group took a field trip to a nearby acheological site called Stobi. It was cool. That evening was the welcoming ceremony where we met our host families. My fellow trainees joked about it being "Free American Day. Take an American home with you. It even has all it's shots!" (immunizations)

I met my host mom Pala and my host dad Dime (dee-may). They had traditional dancing that we also joined in with. Then we packed up all our stuff and were taken home. I met my host grandma "Baba Booba", she is Dime's mother and is absolutely adorable. After they helped me take my stuff to my room the first thing they wanted to know was how old I am. As I was escorted downstairs I saw a few kids standing outside the gate and they said "What's your name?". They stood around and giggled as I answered. I thought of them as a fan club. As I sat in the kitchen some of the braver boys crept up the driveway and peeked in the doorway and repeated "What's your name?" I giggled and Pala shooed them away. Pala and Dime have two sons, both in their 20's. One of them, Loopche, now lives in Holland. The other one is named Kyrie and he is about 27. I think Pala and Booba really like having a girl around. I am really well taken care of, even babied. Plus with the language barrier I spend a lot of time smiling and shrugging my shoulders, so I really feel like a little kid.

I have my own bedroom. All the bedrooms are upstairs, the kitchen is downstairs and so is the bathroom. My only complaint is that I have to go outside to get to the bathroom. It was also raining all day Saturday, so we spend the day with our host families. It was like a day-long language lesson. My family is very sweet, they don't speak much English, but that's what I prefer anyway. Today (Sunday) we got to get a tour of our little town. The fan club was soon in tow. The kids are sooooooo cute and I learned that it is common in this culture for the kids to be overindulged. My family also owns a store that is downstairs, so the family members are often around during the day.

Tomorrow we'll start formal language lessons in town. I also know that we will have a practicum student teaching assignment that will be in Veles, so at least I know I'll be going into Veles often enough to have some internet access (like today).

Thank you all for your e-mails and keeping me up to date on your neck of the woods. I miss you all very much. I still can't believe I'm in Macedonia in the Peace Corps!!!!

(I'll also try to post some photos very soon!)