Imagine you had an important secret to tell your parents,
but it is a secret they may not understand without further explanation. For example, imagine you have decided to join
the armed forces, or to marry a woman/ man they never met, or to move to the
Democratic Republic of Congo for a job.
Now imagine trying to explain all of that in your best, albeit
imperfect, foreign language. That is
what I had to do with my host mother today, and the difficulty of explaining
the circumstances to her in Macedonian made me procrastinate this task so late.
Some of my family and friends already know, but I have
recently decided to extend my service in the Peace Corps. Especially given all of the problems with my
father’s health during my time here, I did not think it was possible. But with his health stabilized, and with the
prospect of an operation in the next year improbable due to the current risks,
I realized that I had an opportunity to continue my work here if I wished. The biggest question I mulled over during my
travels through Central Europe was, “What will I do between when I return to
the USA and when graduate school starts?”
Pondering this question, I felt that finding a part-time job until
school starts would be a significant gap in my CV. However, work with AIESEC Prilep no longer
was as challenging for me as it had been before. The organization has made HUGE strides over
the past year, and more can be done with different energy and ideas from a new
Peace Corps volunteer.
Eventually a new idea popped into my mind- What if I changed
organizations to AIESEC Tetovo? Then I
could focus on the Talent Management functional area (which I prefer over other
aspects of AIESEC) and rebuild an organization that has been struggling over
the past year. Therefore, I consulted
with the leadership body of AIESEC Macedonia, submitted my request for an
extension and a site change with Peace Corps, and decided that I would move to
Tetovo and work with AIESEC Tetovo until May 2016.
Given that I was extending, but not in Prilep, I felt that
my host mother may feel betrayed by my decision to move to a different
city. Tetovo is VERY different from
Prilep, and she has taken me in as part of her family. On the other hand, I never lead her on to
think that I would extend in Prilep, and she has the opportunity to host
another volunteer for the next two years. Based on our conversation today, she
seems to understand my reasons for this decision, and nonchalantly commented “Тоа е живот,” or “That is
life.”
Overall, this decision to extend has evolved pretty
quickly. Already I have an apartment
lined up for Tetovo, and I am tutoring in Albanian via Skype (there are
virtually no Albanian speakers in Prilep).
Furthermore, I already have planned the member recruitment and a small
seminar in December during AIESEC’s planning conference this past week.
As one of my earliest posts note, I had always been
interested in working with both Macedonian and Albanian cultures, and I am a
bit surprised that I will actually be able to work in such a community during
my final months of service. One of the
realizations I came to during my trip through Central Europe was that I was not
ready to leave yet. Eating kebabis and
pickled cabbage in Serbia, I noticed that I missed the food despite only being
away for about a week, and that I would miss it more once I return to the
States. My time in the Peace Corps not
only has made me fall in love with Macedonia, but with the Balkans in general.
So with this extension,
I am facing challenges and opportunities that I did not imagine at the beginning
of this journey. Many of my new friends that
I met in DC will leave for the USA months before I do. I will spend another half year away from
family and close friends from back home, delicious American food, and my
cat. I will again have the experience of
entering a new site, making new contacts, probably experiencing culture shock,
and then facing a departure shortly after.
The last few months of my Peace Corps service will definitely be
exciting, busy, frightening, and challenging.
But it will be another half year of living in this beautiful country.
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