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:
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! |
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| 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!
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