As a guest writer on my blog, Lee Barber writes:
“Aj Dobra” (roll the ‘r’) I said aloud as I touched the sheets hanging on the sunny balcony off Majkl’s stan (apartment). It was indeed very good that the laundry had dried in record time and I would have a dry pillow case to use tonight.
Then I realized with a start that I was literally talking to myself in Macedonian. The village of Probistip is tucked deep in a mountain valley in northeastern Macedonia where there is little need to learn English. Michael has made three good friends, all under thirty-something, who speak it well and generously share their time as translators for him, but for the rest we rely on his entry-level command of Macedonian. After 3 ½ weeks of hand gestures, charades and simply talking until I stumble on a word or two that are similar in both languages, I’m starting to get the hang of it. Not so much to speak it, but I’m continually surprised to find myself catching the general drift of a conversation in a language I don’t speak.
For the most part this is because the Macedonian people love to socialize and aren’t about to let a little thing like lack of a common language stop them from inviting a stranger in for coffee and a visit. As they bustle about making Turkish coffee and setting out platters of home-baked goodies and meats and cheeses , they talk a blue streak and don’t seem to mind if your responses are either unintelligible or consist exclusively of “Nay rahz bay rum” (meaning “I don’t understand”). They seem to take the attitude that we’re talking, therefore we’re sharing, a lovely approach to the world, eh?
The talk is not always of good news, though, as there is great unemployment in the village since the mines started closing and the textile factories have slowed to a crawl. Many of the women have so much time to bake, can vegetable and preserves, and tend their gardens because they have lost their jobs.
A mining engineer who is worried that his job too may be cancelled at any time explains that his wife, whose degree qualifies her to teach high school physics, has not been able to find a job in the eleven years since they graduated from college.They are glad she can be home with their two young children for now, but she would like a life outside the family, too.
A young woman with a degree in food chemistry considers herself fortunate to land a job as a nanny and housekeeper in Italy because she does not have the political clout required to get one of the scarce professional positions available.
They speak of these problems with disappointment, but not despair. In some ways they were better off under Communism because the government provided jobs and social welfare, but many of them see these times as a passage to better ones they hope will come when Macedonia is accepted into the European Union.
Americans are such a rarity in the villages that we are picked out instantly, if only for the aggressive way we walk. After five months working in the schools, Majkl is treated like a celebrity by the children of Probistip, who all seem to know everything about him even if they have not had him in class. Any reservations the women of the town may have had about him seem to have vanished with my appearance: the fact that he has a wife seems to make him a safe bet, so even the baba’s who peered suspiciously at him in the past are inviting us in at every chance.
Next time: there are a few things I’m looking forward to back in the States…
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