Practicum Continued

We are well into week 7 of Pre-Service Training, and we are all required to wrap up our practicum projects.  This week has been very light on work since classes have been reduced to three hours per day.  The TEFL teachers are spending their afternoons visiting schools and accompanying teachers so that they may partially teach an English class.

For the Community Development volunteers, we are all putting the final touches on our practicum projects.  Emily and I met with our organization weeks ago and had decided to promote their website within Lozovo.  The website that the organization designed is actually pretty nifty- citizens from each municipality are able to register through the website and provide their input to how the municipal government should spend its budget.  After the municipal government finalizes its budget, the website tracks the needs of the community and how the municipal government spends the tax-payers’ money.   We planned to meet at the pazar last Thursday to promote the website to the citizens of Lozovo, but when Emily and I looked for them after class, we could not find them.

We arranged a meeting with them earlier this week in Veles to discover that they had in fact arrived at the pazar on Thursday and were able to meet with a few citizens.  However, they had arrived when we were in class and were unable to stay after class ended since they had a meeting back in Veles later that day. Emily and I assured them that we were in no way offended, and we only felt bad that we could not be of more help.  However, the organization assured us that their visit to Lozovo was more successful than they had imagined.  The mayor of Lozovo called them for an impromptu meeting and was happy to promote their website to the community. 

The Peace Corps has prepared us for the professional work experience and culture in Macedonia.  Keeping in mind the 80/20 rule (aka, generalizations are just that, and do not apply to every organization), most organizations are relaxed on timeliness and formalities.  Most successes in Macedonia are measured by connections and networks and not necessarily by accomplishing tasks.  Thus the organization had a huge success on Thursday- they gained the backing and promotion of this municipality’s mayor.  Emily and I have also volunteered to serve as a facilitator for the website.  If citizens from Lozovo experience problems with the website, they are free to call us and ask for help.  Emily and I created a beautiful poster, and we will present our practicum project to the other volunteers on Monday during Hub Day. 

Oh yeah, and Happy Halloween!

Slava

This past weekend, the town of Lozovo celebrated its Slava.  Each city and town in Macedonia has its own Slava, where the town saint is celebrated during its commemorated day.  Each household also has its own saint as well, and I believe my host family celebrates its Slava at the end of November.  A family usually celebrates its Slava by attending a liturgy at the local church and bringing a sweetened loaf of bread to be blessed.  After the service, the family returns home and shares the bread with the rest of the family.  The bread signifies a bloodless sacrifice, commemorating Jesus Christ’s own sacrifice on the cross.

Lozovo celebrated its saint, Saint Petka, on October 27 at the new church in town.  Saint Petka (also known as Saint Parascheva) was born in Europe in the 11^th century near Istanbul.  The stories of Saint Petka are blurred (she may have left despite her parents’ insistence not to leave, she may have left after they passed away), but she led an ascetic, pious life where she left her hometown and fasted in the Jordanian desert.   After years of fasting, God appeared to Petka and instructed her to return home so that she “may give her body to the earth and her sould to God.”  After her death, her remains (relics) were carried throughout the Balkans, and thus she serves as an emblematic saint for the region.

The Slava started pretty late at the new church in Lozovo.  Once the sun was set on Saturday evening, a small band consisting of singers, a saxophone player, and a keyboard player played the oro to the villagers.  Food was offered to all of the guests, and  beer was available for purchase.  Men and women, young and old, joined together to celebrate their town, eat, and dance the oro all night long.  My host brother, Alexandar, returned from Skopje and we made our way to the Slava.  It was definitely a joyous event, and the celebration drew two volunteers from last year, Scott and Justin.  Aleksandar and I left the Slava momentarily so that we could celebrate the Slava of his sister’s family’s household.  We ate and relaxed a couple of hours before he and his girlfriend headed to a graduation party, and I headed back to the Slava to dance the oro some more.

How does one dance the oro?  As the music plays, people join hands and gather in a circle facing each other.  All synchronize their steps as they continue to move together counter-clockwise in the circle.  Most oros are simple in their steps for occasions like these, but they can become pretty complicated for those who have advanced oro skills.

As the celebration ended for the night, a few of the volunteers headed to the highlight of Saturday nights in Lozovo- Club Trend.  Scores of high school students (and some college students) gathered in the bar or loitered outside of it.  We assumed the club was more crowded than usual since many of these youngsters visited from afar for the Slava.  It was great to finally experience Club Trend, since I could hear the pulse of its music every Saturday night from my bedroom.  Inside the small coffee bar, teenagers and young adults drank their beers as they sang and danced to the most popular Serbian dance songs, also known as Turbo Folk. 

The next day, my family put on our Sunday best and returned to the oro.  While people danced outside, all were invited to enter the church.  Before entering, my family and I crossed ourselves three times.  Once inside, we each bought five candles, lit them, and placed them in a communal altar for our intentions.  As I lit mine, I kept in mind my father who is sick back at home, and I prayed for his quick recovery.

The townspeople continued to relax, dance, and eat as they enjoyed their Slava.  It was great to see all of the people I had met in Lozovo at a common celebration, and I enjoyed celebrating with them.  I definitely look forward to returning to Lozovo next year to celebrate again!

Field Day in Skopje

Saturday was our first Field Day in Macedonia!  These events happen once a year during PST right before a group of volunteers heads home for their Close of Service.  Each year, the Field Day is hosted in Skopje, and this year it was hosted in the City Park (Градскиот Парк).  We arrived early in the morning as a race was wrapping up in the park.  The City Park is very modern and large, and it felt like I was back in an American city.  We all proceeded to the gazebo, where volunteers brought food and drinks for all to enjoy. 

City Park in Skopje

Field Day!

A Bro Pack

After we all mingled and ate, several groups split and headed off into the city.  A few made their way to the Peace Corps HQ, while others headed straight to the Irish Pub.  I followed the group along the river to the Old City, or Старата Чаршија.  The Vardar river was crossed by many bridges, and as we approached the center, huge statues and Greco-Roman buildings dominated the cityscape.  Many of these buildings and statues were recently added to downtown Skopje as a part of “Skopje 2014”, and many Macedonians jokingly call the project Skope Vegas.  The centerpiece of these monuments is a staute dedicated to Alexander the Great.  Yet the statue is named “The Great Horse Riding Warrior”, or something like that, in order to not offend Greece and surrounding countries by claiming Alexander the Great as Macedonia’s.  Once we reached to Old City, the acrhitecture became more Turkish and thus more authentic.  Walking through the Old City, I finally felt like I was in Europe, as the narrow streets were lined with quaint coffee shops and Ottoman architecture. 

The Vardar River and Kameniot Bridge

Alexander?

Lozers across generations

Old City

The rest of the day was spent relaxing over beers and coffee.  By 6PM, we gathered at the Irish Pub near the river and gathered for one final picture.  The next field day will not occur until next year, but I certainly look forward to my next visit to the capital.

Site Announcements

On Wednesday and Thursday, the permanent sites for the MAK18s were revealed.  This day came with much anticipation, as we would finally discover where we would live and what we would do for the next two years.  I tried my best to temper my excitement, since we will continue to live in our training sites until the end of November.  However, since the sites were revealed to us, it has been very difficult to contain my excitement.

FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS, I WILL LIVE IN PRILEP AND WORK FOR AN ORGANIZATION CALLED AIESEC AT THE PRILEP FACULTY (UNIVERSITY) OF ECONOMICS.

When I discovered my placement, I was very ecstatic.  AIESEC is an international student organization that facilitates transfers across the globe.  Many Americans are aware of the organization since it has a few operations in the US as well.  My counterparts will be college students, so I am mentally preparing myself to working with younger folks for the next 2 years.  Everyone in Macedonia has told me great things about this organization.  The PC staff who interviews the organizations that sought PC volunteers told me that she was awed by the preparation and organization of this group.  Finally, other PCVs have told me that I may be required to travel internationally for my work, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  For a Wikipedia article on the organization, see below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIESEC

As for my new host family, I have heard only the best as well.  Olgica and Ljube are an older couple, and they have hosted a PCV before.  I will inhabit the second floor with my own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and common area.  Thus, even though I am technically living in a homestay, I will basically have my own apartment for the next two years.  I am beyond excited to cook for myself and have some private space. 

The city in which I will live, Prilep, has a population of about 70,000 people, and it is one of the more “medieval” looking cities in Macedonia.   The major industry in the city is the cigarette factory (I cannot seem to escape the tobacco industry in this country), and Prilep may be known for its Pivo Fest (beer fest) which takes place every year in July.  I am also lucky to live in the same city with four other amazing volunteers, one of which has been leading a few of our Community Development technical sessions, and the other who had lived with my PST family the year before!  Finally, everybody raves about the Thai restaurant in my town, which is the only Thai restaurant in Macedonia.

If you think that I am the luckiest volunteer, you may be right, and you may be wrong.  Other volunteers living in Lozovo have had perfect matches for their site placements as well.  Vatche, the small-business guru, will work for the Financial Bureau in Veles, Ted will work at a zoo in Bitola (not too far from me!), two volunteers were placed in or near the capital (Skopje), and one volunteer was placed in the gem of Macedonia, Ohrid.  I have the utmost respect for Peace Corps, as it seems that they had worked very hard to match our skills and interests to our site placements with the finest precision.  On Hub Day, we spent our first hour celebrating our site placements and putting our clip-art pictures onto a map of Macedonia.  It was a fun event, and Peace Corps put in a lot of effort to help us celebrate in style.

A map of all of the MAK18 site placements

PC made us custom candy! 

Prilep!

Knowing where I will live for the rest of my service, I feel much more relaxed, but simultaneously pumped.  I look forward to being surrounded by Economics students and professors, and I look forward to nerdy conversations about Micro and Macro, similar to those at UChicago.  Now I just need to learn how to talk about the Euler theorem, the Solow model, and other economic jargon in Macedonian!