A Story of Welcomes and Goodbyes

Within the past few weeks, I said goodbye to all of my former sitemates.  By now, many of us PCVs are used to saying farewell to the fellow foreigners that shared this international experience with us.  Even though there was only one PCV from Prilep who was COSing this November, there were also five EVS (European Volunteer Service) volunteers who were leaving Prilep and returning to their countries.  Whenever we were not hanging out with our host families, counterparts, or host country national friends, chances were that we were socializing with each other.

It became clear last year that Peace Corps is a series of “welcomes and goodbyes.”  As volunteers, we are all aware of how much time we have in our host country.  Yet each of our service often overlaps with those arriving before and after us.  Thus, each new year is a new experience, as the compilation of group changes.  As we lose six of our site mates, we will gain three more PCVs and possibly 8-9 EVS volunteers (accumulating this large number likely over the winter months).  While we will certainly miss the group of volunteers who are leaving Prilep, we are excited to see how the medley of personalities, nationalities, and characters that are coming to Prilep will shape our final year in this town.

This group of foreigners in Prilep is now no longer

Prilep Graffiti 

Saying goodbye to this monkey

Sometimes I wonder to myself if I am living in a dream.  What causes me this sensation is the weird coincidences that seem too unlikely to be true.  For example, one of the PCVs who is moving to Prilep is a PCV that I met even before starting my service.  Back in June 2013, I attended a CAPCA (Chicago-Area Peace Corps) event that welcomed all of the individuals who were nominated, invited, or returned to their Peace Corps service.  While networking at the event, I found myself in conversation with a gentleman who worked as a lawyer in Chicago.  He was troubled over the nomination and invitation processes, and since I had recently emerged from this drawn-out experience, all I could offer him as advice was a “hang in there, it will come eventually.”

Skip forward a year and 4 months to Field Day 2014 as we are welcoming the new volunteers.  As we separated into groups to welcome our new site mates, I found myself exhausted from work and unenthused to answer all of the questions of this new cohort.  However, talking with my new future site mate sparked some intrigue in me- somehow, this person seemed very familiar.  My mind instantly turned to that day at the CAPCA event, and I thought to myself, “What are the chances that I already met this person?”  I concluded that they were slim, and disregarded the eerie feeling as déjà vu.  As I tapped into the rumor mill that is Peace Corps to investigate into this character more, I discovered that he hailed from Ohio, so there was little chance that my inclinations were founded.  Additionally, I met the person at the event over a year ago, and receiving an invitation to Macedonia only now would have been a super long wait for an invitation (probably over a year in the nomination process).

However, the more I learned more about my future site mate, the more I believed my first assumptions.  I knew he was a lawyer, but I quickly learned from other volunteers that he arrived to Macedonia from Chicago where he had been working for a few years.  Additionally, this volunteer was originally nominated for Azerbaijan, meaning that as they cancelled his program just a few days before they were ready to depart, his service was delayed and eventually redirected to Macedonia.  Maybe my initial inclinations were correct, but still, what were the chances?

As I was in Lozovo for the slava (where my future site mate was doing his training), I shared my thoughts with a few of the other trainees in his group.  When he and I met at a later time, he confirmed with me that yes, he was that lawyer that I met at the CAPCA event in Chicago in June 2013.  He also seemed to recognize me when I participated in the Community Development panel during one of their hub days, but he could not place me.  Now I think that it is comical how, two people who had met at a small event in Chicago almost a year and a half before are now future site mates.  Weird.

I also wondered if Peace Corps would continue with its running joke of placing the trainee who lived with my host family in PST in Prilep.  Their first volunteer, Erin, was placed in Prilep in 2012.  I was then also placed in Prilep last year, and I wondered if their current trainee, Allison, would also be placed here.  She was not, but we do have something in common- the same birthday!  Thus, we have planned to celebrate our birthdays together somewhere within Macedonia next year.

Welcoming some of the new situates to Prilep
(Note: We have no idea who the person is on the right.  She just jumped into the picture)

I cannot wait for the next group of volunteers to arrive at our site.  I liked all of the PCVs who lived in Prilep this year past- each of their idiosyncrasies added to the quirkiness of our group.  But it will be nice to not be surrounded by West Coasters (who seem to dominate the PCV world).  Now this new group will hail from all different parts of the USA (Illinois, Washington, Ohio, Alabama, and Arizona), so I am happy that our group will be more eclectic.  Personally, as much as I love my former group of site mates, I am a bit tired of hearing about the University of Washington and hearing Tupac’s “California Love”.  Alternatively, I look forward to hearing about snowbirds, speaking in drawls and y’alls, more Midwest homeliness, repeats of “Roll Tide”, and trying some regional cuisines when we gather for some site mate dinners.