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.

Pushing Forward

Every Peace Corps volunteer has his weakness.  Sometimes it is as basic as missing a favorite food.  At times he has issues with the language.  Sometimes the weather is not to his liking.  Other times, a volunteer will miss his family, friends, or loved one.  Since I have been looking forward to the Peace Corps for so long, I thought that I had safeguarded myself from many of these issues.  The food here is not amazing, but it sits well in my stomach.  I miss my family and friends, but I am able to Skype and write, and most of my friends had lived far from me in the States for the majority of my time after college.  And of course, I love learning languages so that is not an issue for me.  Despite all of the mental preparations, my one weakness has been realized, and I have been trying my best to overcome it and serve as best as I can. 

For the past week and a half my father has been in the hospital in critical condition.  According to word back home, he had pneumonia, which was set on by a combination of viruses, bacteria, and fungi.  He is being treated now, but the cocktail of medicines is now affecting his kidney, which is dangerous since he is diabetic and has already had a transplant.  The doctors are continuing to provide him with oxygen since his lungs are still weak and he is not able to breathe on his own.  Of course, as my father suffers and fights to recover back home, I cannot help but feel helpless thousands of miles away from him.

A Peace Corps volunteer’s best asset during service is a positive attitude.  A positive attitude can overcome and obstacle during service.  However, my positive thoughts are hindered by the trouble back home.  I constantly wonder: how can I help the people here when I cannot help my own father back home?  Despite this struggle, I am trying hard to push forward and stay as positive as I can.  In order to cope with this, I have adapted two methods of thinking through the situation.

First, I pray and hope that my father will recover.  He is a tough man and has overcome many ailments before.  Deep down I have faith that he will pull through and overcome this silly disease.  But these positives thoughts are just as effective as a bandage.  I can cover up the issue, and this coping mechanism is only effective if all becomes well on its own.  Despite staying positive about the situation, thoughts of the alternative always slip into my mind.  What if I never talk to my father again? 

Almost as effective as the first method is the second: even if I were back home, there is nothing I can do to help him recover.  This is his battle to fight, and while he fights his battle I will continue to pray here while serving the people of Macedonia.  All I can do is send supportive words through family and hope that he continues to hold on and recover.  Yet even the second method does not address the issue that, while he is in critical condition, I cannot be with him, talk to him, and feel his presence in the same room.

For a while I have contemplated posting these thoughts on my blog.  I have not shared this information with anyone here- not my host family, not my fellow trainees or other volunteers, not the Peace Corps staff.  The main reason is that I do not want to bring down their positive attitude, and I do not want to gain their sympathy for something that my father is likely to overcome.  But I share this publicly online mostly for future Peace Corps volunteers.  Not every volunteer goes through this ordeal, but I am sure that a handful has experienced this before.  It is nobody’s fault that my father is sick, so there is nobody to blame.  Most importantly, there is no right answer addressing how to deal with the situation.  In my opinion, it is alright to share your struggles with others in your host country to gain support.  It is ok to keep it secret and push on, hoping for the best.  It is also alright to terminate early so that you may support your loved one, or join him or her in the final moments.  Whatever choice a volunteer makes, it will be difficult, and nobody will blame you for the choice you will make. 

So here I am, and here I will be, fighting here while my father fights for his health back home.  I think of him often, especially at night when I am alone and when I feel comfortable enough to cry and pray.  But when I wake up in the morning, I force myself to remember that I am in Macedonia, and that I am a Peace Corps volunteer.  I have a lot of work to do, so I need my positive attitude.

Happy Halloween

There is nothing like an old-fashioned American holiday to make you feel at home.   Yesterday, the Lozers celebrated Halloween in style.  When we arrived to class, our teacher had ready for us Halloween decorations and candy to enjoy.  Emily was dressed as a ninja, and our teacher was dressed as Adele.  During the middle of class, children from the local school visited our class dressed in Halloween garb!  It was very adorable, and we were happy to see that Halloween can be a holiday treasured by any culture.

After class, we all carved pumpkins that our teacher, Sarah, and Emily bought at the local market.  While others cleaned and carved their pumpkins, I made Macedonian-style candy apples.  Since Macedonia lacks caramel or crushed peanuts, I improvised by mixing some Euro Cream (kind of like Nutella) together and provided Nutri-seeds (a health mixture of crushed pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and chia seeds) so that we could dip slices of apples into the two.  It was definitely delicious and provided us with our sugar rush for the day.  However, the jar of Nutri-seeds fell and broke, and in an effort to salvage the seeds, we combined them with the rest in a bowl, but failed to check for shards of glass.  Emily deemed the treat “Trick-Or-Treat” candy apples.

Adele and a ninja

Macedonain candy apples

Mine is the attempted Macedonian flag (without a face)

Ksenija and Ted carved amazing pumpkins, and Emily’s would have been better if her pumpkin didn’t fall on the floor and crack.  Sarah had a migraine and did not want to carve her pumpkin, so I took over and tried to make the Macedonian flag.  I had a pretty crappy knife and little patience, so it came out looking pretty ugly.  Dan brought his pumpkin from home and we waited until it became dark before lighting candles in them.  When we returned to the school to light the jack-o-lanterns, we were impressed.  They turned out very well, and we displayed them in front of the school for the town to see.  We then retreated to the rear classroom to watch Hocus Pocus, as we feasted on pumpkin fries, pumpkin curry, and apples.

After the movie ended and we started cleaning, I noticed that four of the pumpkins had been stolen!  It was difficult to become angry because the perps had stolen all of the jack-o-lanterns EXCEPT for my ugly one!  We all had a great laugh before we returned home.  I guess it is true what Darwin says- “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but those that are so ugly nobody wants to mess with you anyway.”  Right before bed, a few of the older kids dressed in costumes and went house to house trick-or-treating.  Macedonia has the same tradition on Christmas Eve, where children knock on doors and receive candy, as well as on April Fool’s Day, where they dress in costumes.  But it was great to see the children here embrace an American holiday and to experience a little bit of home.

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!