Site Visit

From Wednesday to Friday, I embarked on my site visit to Prilep.  Without a doubt, I was excited to meet my new homestay family, my counterparts, and to explore my home for the next two years.  On Wednesday morning, I took a direct bus from Lozovo to Prilep.  Ted and Sarah joined me since the bus continued to Bitola and Ohrid. 

After about two hours, I arrived in Prilep, and a few of my counterparts welcomed me at the bus station!  Angela (one of two Angelas I will work with) was joined by recently inaugurated AISEC members, and they took me straight to a café to briefly explain AISEC.  To put it simply, these are a few of the important, basic facts that I made note of when learning about AISEC:

1. AISEC is an international student organization with two committees in Macedonia- one in Prilep, the other in Skopje.
2. AISEC committees are sustainable groups because they have a consistent revenue stream.  Each committee arranges exchanges where students can volunteer or work as interns abroad.  Students pay a small fee to the local committees for this opportunity.
3. There are about 40 students in the AISEC group in Prilep, but there are 5 elected board members (a president and 4 vice presidents).  My immediate counterparts are those on the board, but I will likely interact with all active members over the next 2 years.
4. My initial duties will be putting together marketing for exchanges and building an alumni databank through networking.  Of course I have already picked up a handful of secondary projects to keep my time involved, so the next few months look busy.

I was also able to meet with my new host family.  My new host mother, Olgica, is very kind, and she hugged me and kissed me on the cheek the first time she met me.  Olgica has a tough work schedule, as she works from 5AM-9AM and again from 6PM-9PM each weekday.  Her husband owns a construction company and works all over the country repairing the facades of houses and other buildings.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, I have my own floor upstairs with my own bathroom, living room, and kitchen!  I am very excited to have a place to withdraw and work/ meditate over the next couple of years.

During my last night in Prilep, I was invited by my new host family to Olgica’s brother’s place on the other side of town for his Slava.  This Slava was my third and MUCH different than the one I experienced in Lozovo.  The dinner table was covered in meat dishes, with plenty of sarma.  Sarma is made by wrapping minced meat in cabbage and cooking it.  However, none of my new family ate the cabbage wrapping but gobbled up the meat.  I have not seen so much meat, or people eat so much meat, in so long!  My new host family also drank a lot!  We stayed late, until 12:30AM, and each time my host father finished his drink, I thought to myself, “ok, it’s time to go now.”  Nope.  Another bottle of wine appeared out of nowhere, and his glass was filled three more times after he finished the drink that I thought would be his last.  I felt sorry for Olgica, who had to wake up at 4:30 the next morning to work.

The expectations of the site visit were very low.  The volunteers were expected to meet their counterparts, visit their organization, meet their family, and explore their village/ city.  Unfortunately, I am currently unable to report much about Prilep.  There are many things to talk about, and it is a beautiful city.  However the whole experience is still sinking in, and it will take a few days of living in the city before I can share its awesomeness.  I also refrained from taking pictures as to not annoy my counterparts, so expect pictures of the city to appear in December.