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Monday, December 27, 2010

Hi-Tech? No! No-Tech Today


We were finally rocking with our computers in the classroom. Alexandra could use them to demonstrate an English language rule (of which there are thousands that I was, until recently, unaware of)) for all the students to watch simultaneously; she could monitor each student’s computer to insure each student was working on the assignment and not FaceBooking or gathering sports betting information ; she could lock the computers of those who chose to violate the usage rules; she could demonstrate an example of a rule to some students, while those who understood the concept could work on a more challenging exercise; and she was able to play lesson-oriented music through the computer to an external speaker system.

All this ended three weeks ago when her computer encountered a Linux OS problem and became unusable. The regional IT guy who is supposed to keep the computers working, lives in another town and won’t come to repair it until he gets the bus fare/taxi fare from the principal to make the trip across the mountain. One can’t blame him because his salary of 200 Euro/month does not enable him to pay out of his own pocket for the trip and he could never be assured of getting reimbursed anyway. Expense accounts are virtually non-existent because of past corruption practices. So we will wait until one the day when the stars are aligned for him to show up. Prayerfully, we won’t need to order a part.

Now that the some teachers are trying to incorporate computer usage into their teaching strategy, they are finding out about the unreliability issues confronting computer usage (hardware problems, internet connection problems, software problems, compatibility problems) which require technical support staff that can be responsive to one’s problem. I can understand their reluctance to use computers and stick with the textbook.

Currently we are back to mostly using the text and the workbook for the time being and are once again limited to teaching without an asset that teases us on a daily basis. (“Will I work today? Or not? Hit the ON button and find out.””Maybe I will work for the first class, but only halfway through the third class. I’ll surprise you with my unpredictable and of course, unreliable behavior!”). (N.B. The italicized text is the computer talking.)

We have had a few days of winter weather but it’s still remarkably warm. The shorter daylight days seem strange when the temperature outside is in the 50’s and low 60’s. On my morning walk to school, the light of the rising sun gives a different and interesting color to the surroundings then it does on the mornings when the sun is higher in the sky.

The people of Probistip are getting ready for tMacedonia’s most-celebrated holiday – New Years Day. The town has added even more colorful lighting to the community and “downtown” is very lovely. Fireworks (illegal) are heard everywhere. The decorated shops are offering a variety of holiday articles. New Year’s cards are being exchanged and a tinge of Western Christmas is sneaking into the community as Santa Claus and gift exchanging are not so unusual anymore. The students love to sing “Jingle Bells”.

I spent December 25th (the randomly selected date that was assigned to be the birth date of Jesus) over in Zletevo where I took some photos of some beautiful winter scenery. I was able to make small talk with some of the residents (it such a pleasure to watch the positive reactions of people when I, an American, try to talk with them in Macedonian. I say try, because I am not that good and it is sometimes a struggle. But they really appreciate the fact that I am trying and it brings smiles to their faces).

I also did some water measuring of the Zletevo River for an environmental project that was supposed to be done by the students of one of the special subject teachers in conjunction with a world-wide effort (www.WorldWaterMonitoringDay.org.). The deadline of December 31st for submitting data was fast approaching and I wanted to provide the data for the site that we registered. And I knew it wasn’t going to be done soon with the students, if ever. So having conducted the tests by myself, I am now familiar with testing water turbidity, dissolved oxygen, ph level, water temperature and I have learned the importance of how these variables interact. Unfortunately, the students aren’t and haven’t.

Upon my return from Zletevo, I Skyped my family back home at the pre-arranged time of 9:30 EST and I was able to cyberly partake in our traditional Christmas morning breakfast and the traditional opening of gifts.

By the way, Phil and, I quote, “his Best Friend” came to Probistip and conducted a very informative workshop to any Probistipian that was interested in learning some basics of photography. There was a decent turnout and Phil and his “Best Friend” were invited back in the spring by the Mayor’s office to conduct a four-day workshop in Lesnevo. Phil has done a very nice job starting photo clubs in quite a few Macedonian cities. He and his “Best Friend” complement each other’s skills exceptionally well. I just hope they can continue to put up with each other and not drift apart. (FYI : During an interview with a Macedonian magazine last year, Phil was somehow misquoted or perhaps misunderstood by the translator because it was reported in a widely disseminated national newspaper, that Phil’s CAMERA was his Best Friend. Of course we never let him forget and bring it up innumerable times when we’re together.)

P.S. The stars ARE aligned. The IT guy was here today (27 December) and got our computer working. And we didn’t need any parts. He told me he had to pay the fare to get to Probistip out of his own pocket (200 denari) and will not be reimbursed. He must manage all the computers in three large towns/cities by himself. He told me it takes months for him to receive his pay and that makes it very difficult for him and his family to get by. Sadly, he is only one of the thousands here in Macedonia who can never be sure if or when they will receive their salary from the government.

Schools out on Friday the 31st and the students will report back around the 24th of January. Michael F., David, and I will be heading to Phil’s in Bitola to celebrate the New Year’s arrival. I can’t believe this will be my third New Year’s Eve in Macedonia. But believe, I must. (don't forget to checkout the photos)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Just So You Know


Today was the first hint that winter will indeed show up this season. We’ve gotten in about three extra weeks of Sunday afternoon horseshoes because is been so spring-like. But a wicked front came through last night and with it, the 20 degree weather. My neighbors have been stoking their fires all day and I probably won’t see many of them until they come out of winter hibernation. It’s nice that the Peace Corps won’t allow us to have wood burning stoves and requires our landlords to provide electrical heating. The expense of electricity forces most of my neighbors to heat and cook with wood which is much less expensive. My electric bill in the winter is about $80 a month. A teacher and a miner earn less than $500 a month. A pensioner, about $200. So it’s wood for most. The Peace Corps picks up my electric bill which would be a big chunk of my $280 monthly subsistence allowance.

Just so you know:

No such thing as a dozen eggs here. They only come in a 10-egg carton, if you buy the by them the carton…Most people buy 30 or more eggs at a time. There are actually two stores in town that sell only eggs even though you can purchase eggs at any small prodav. Plus most of the villagers raise their own chickens… For the last few weeks I’ve seen quite a few people heading out to the surrounding mountains to pick mushrooms… I’ve also seen a lot of hunters out with their shotguns now during the rabbit hunting season. A home grown rabbit will cost you about 500 denari. A wild rabbit about at least three times that amount. Domestic rabbit meat is white while wild rabbit meat is dark…My fantasy football team sucks…There are few (I am unaware of any) peanut allergies here in Probistip. What’s with the situation in the USA where there is a serious problem with nut allergies, so much so that peanut butter is banned from some schools in North America ( in a place below Canada and above Mexico)…There’s been only one new student in our classes in the two years I’ve been here. Not a good sign…New Year’s lighting is going up today. The Town did a nice job last year in decorating and making the town very festive …I haven’t seen one advertisement for anything to do with Christmas. It’s great. I don’t owe anyone a gift… When you pitch horseshoes, you drink a lot of beer…Aspirin here is expensive ($1.70 for twenty 500 gram tablets). So is one bottle of contact lens solution ($16)… There are no fire hydrants in town. Good thing everything made out of concrete and stone…Got up at 4AM last Tuesday and watched on ESPN America, the Patriots demolish the Jets. It’s the first time in weeks that I turned the TV on…The frame on one pair of my glasses broke. The Peace Corps will replace broken glasses so I went to Skopje to the optometrist, optician, ophthalmologist, optimist or whatever to have them replaced. The Peace Corps allotment of 3000 denari ($60) wouldn’t come close to providing me with a pair of glasses with progressive lenses that I would want to be seen wearing, so I threw in another 3000 denari and purchased a pair of “Police” brand titanium frames that could use my current lenses. You can get anything in Skopje…The Wednesday pazar has recently had broccoli, lettuce, and cauliflower, items which are only available in the Probe this time of the year. I‘ve eaten a variety of broccoli based dishes during this time period. Unfortunately the cauliflowers are as big as a basketballs and I haven’t had the strength to bring one home. There would be a considerable amount of waste if I purchased one, since I don’t preserve them like a true Macedonian…Still only one place in town that sells ½ liter bottles of diet soda for the times when I crave a soda. There are probably over 25 prodavs (small convenience stores) in the Probe, and none of them sell lite beverages. So everyone drinks sugared drinks. Anything sold here with sugar is advertised as providing the drinker with energy…The “No Indoor Smoking” in restaurants law is well observed here so I somewhat marveled at the individuals sitting outside at the cafes today in 20 degree weather enjoying a coffee and a smoke, while their bodies, hunched over, slowly stiffened... You can now drink red wine (the new wine is ready) and eat pastamajka (pizza dough topped with cubed pork bits and egg concoction – extremely delicious) but you shouldn’t drink white wine and you can’t eat ice cream. Why? Because it’s winter and that’s THE WAY we do it here.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

We’re Ready


The cupboards are now filled with a bounty of preserved autumn vegetables and fruits; the ajvar and pinjur jarred; the nuts dried and shelled; the hogs butchered, smoked or frozen; the wine and rakija barreled, the fallen leaves swept up and carted away; the leeks replanted; the firewood split and stacked; the bee colonies put to bed; and the winter wheat sewn. So come on winter! Macedonia is ready.

While the Trainees were in Probistip preparing for their assignments throughout the country, there were 10 Americans in this small town. The seven “youngsters” plus one senior could be seen hanging together at the cafes and sometimes at the disco, heading to and from their classrooms at Nikola Karev Primary School, bonding with members of their host family and attending na gostes (visits)with their host family’s relatives and friends. But they were sworn in as Volunteers on Thanksgiving Day and have been sent out to their new towns and villages, the same routine that every Peace Corps Volunteer anticipates since they submitted their application to join. So as I write this Blog, the MAK15’s are on their own for their very first weekend, armed with a new language, and trying to find food, not getting lost in their new community and assessing where they can obtain what they need in order to be comfortable for the next two years. We’re back to two PCV’s in the “Probe”.

As has been the custom for the last several years, the Trainees were sworn-in on Thanksgiving Day at the Palace Hotel in Kumanevo. The American Ambassador to Macedonia, Philip Reeker, made some brief comments before swearing-in the MAK15’s. The Trainees’ host families, the Peace Corps Staff and current PCV’s attended the event which was followed by a “traditional” Thanksgiving meal that was highlighted by the invitation to feast on 20 well-prepared turkeys (sans stuffing, cranberry sauce, and apple cider) flown-in from the States and prepared by the function hall staff. It was a nice event for everyone in attendance.

I recently attended a meeting in Skopje with the CEO of the Macedonian Olympic Committee. Phil asked me to be in attendance as he made his pitch to introduce golf in Macedonia and more importantly, to discuss a plan to introduce track events throughout the country so as to identify potential future Olympic contenders (a very long term project). Quite frankly, the feeder system is in such disarray (42 different independent sports federations) that it will take some time to get everyone to work together toward this commendable goal. As is the case in many instances in this nation that is having a difficult time getting away from old habits, there is little positive interaction between different sports federations. The other problem is financial. There are 205 countries that are members of the Olympic movement. Only one country is not financially supported by their national government – Macedonia. Needless to say, little is currently happening in this area.

After our meeting at the Olympic Headquarters, we were drinking coffee in a very open, well-lit, quiet and uncrowded cafĂ©, when a thief stole the pocketbook of Phil’s colleague who had momentarily set it on a chair while she made a phone call. The thief was quick and professional. The police officers, who took two hours to respond, said that a common problem in the city.

Friday the 19th of November was National Tree Planting Day and students and municipal workers throughout the country spent a part of the day planting trees. The students and teachers from Nikola Karev went up into the hills near the new church and planted trees and shrubs, supervised by adult town employees. For the very first time, the school day doesn’t have to be made up on a Saturday , probably because a limited number of students attended in past years.

The weather has been mild for this time of the year, enabling us to continue our recreational Sunday afternoon horse shoe pitching get-togethers. The game is popular with a core group of players but there is still a contingent of my neighbors who think they’re too old play. We’re working on them and the time will be here soon when we’ll need more sets of horseshoes to accommodate all the players. On one hand it will be great to need more sets and then on the other hand, I’m not sure how we will be able to fund the cost of purchasing and shipping them from the USA.

The classroom computers continue to provide resources for the students to practice their English skills, albeit they still don’t speak enough. We’re somewhat fortunate to have ours up and running. Several other classrooms have to wait three months for the person responsible for finalizing the installation of the computers to recover from eye-surgery. I am told he is the only one that knows how to complete the set-up.

My bottle-cap project is also going very well. I’m having select students (those who are so far behind that they are just lost, have given up and are warehoused until they graduate) construct sets of caps that will reinforce and enable students to practice such concepts as adjective opposites, past simple and past continuous, possessive and personal pronouns, and irregular verbs. These students love to work with their hands and enjoy the opportunity to be useful during class. And they unknowingly are learning a little English in the process.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Commitment Accomplished


The Peace Corps commitment is for 27 months. My group, the MAK 13’s have now been here for 26 months and individuals have started to return to their home towns in the USA . The out-processing procedures limit the number of Volunteers who can depart to 4 or 5 a week, so the whole process of getting everyone out of Macedonia takes about six to seven weeks. Some Volunteers (I being one of them) choose to extend their time so they can complete projects that they are working on. At least eight Mak13’s have extended for various lengths of time (6 months to a year) which is an unusually high number of extendees. I chose to extend six months so I could complete several in-the work-projects and so that I could finish the school year with the students whom I have grown so fond of.

Meanwhile, the MAK14’s have almost completed their first year on site (plus three months training) and the MAK 15 Trainees will complete their training and be sworn in as Volunteers on Thanksgiving Day, the day after which they will head out to their new assignments in villages, towns and cities throughout the country.
The eight Trainees here in Probistip found out last week where they will call home for the next two years. They had a chance to visit and spend a day there, meeting their counterpart, getting a feel for their new village, town or city, and seeing their new digs. They all seemed very pleased.

Here at Nikola Karev, the computers that were installed 10 months ago in the our English classroom are now fully functional. We have the internet and the teacher can control and monitor each student’s computer, so that FaceBook and sports betting sites can be locked out. Alexandra has found various TEFL sites that enable her to work with different levels of students simultaneously and it throws a little variety into the usually mundane teaching strategies that teachers are forced to employ because of their limited resources. Alexandra has embraced this new technology but I am not sure if many of the other staff members who have this technology, have. Time will tell.

Alexandra conducted a brief workshop for the Trainees on using the computer network and monitoring the students’ work and I gave a presentation on a Model Classroom and on my lessons learned as a TEFL. Hopefully they gained a few insights into teaching in Macedonia but there was no test, so I don’t know how much of it they absorbed or found useful.

Speaking of useful, I finally found a use for all of the plastic bottle caps that I have been throwing into a kitchen drawer, caps I figured I would someday come in handy. I took 26 of them and wrote one letter of the alphabet on each cap so that I had the complete alphabet. I employed them as a manipulative at school when I worked with some of the students who were having a difficult time. It was so successful that we needed more sets so we had a contest to see which class could bring in the most plastic caps, with the winning class getting Michael’s (me) homemade cookies. The winning class brought in 1173 caps and we collected more than 2500 in one week ¬(Only the 5th and 6th Grades participated). We can now make all sorts of manipulatives to reinforce tenses, parts of speech, sentence structure, colors, sounds, etc. All for free!

Despite all of the good things happening in the classroom, there is still room for improvement. Time could be used more efficiently during the 40 minute class. Students’ study skills could be improved. Advanced students could be challenged more. Slower students could be more involved. Class discussions could be better managed. Parents could be more involved. Student accomplishments could be better recognized.

So each day we strive to sell the concept that I have written on a sheet of paper taped to the classroom wall – “Better is the Enemy of Good Enough”.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

A Family Visits


The highlight of the month of October was the fourth visit of my wife, Lee, and the first visit of my younger son and my “idna snaa”(translated “maybe my future daughter-in-law), Jesse and Nicole. My wife stayed for a month but Jess and Nicole could only stay for five days due to their limited accrued vacation time.

It rained everyday they were here but really didn’t prevent the four of us from having a wonderful time. They stayed in a huge elaborate hotel room in Probistip at the Hotel Cresovo Topce which had the most fascinating shower stall. The shower had a radio, blue lights, and nozzles that shot water from every direction (a truly unexpected perk). The hotel staff went out of their way to make sure they enjoyed their stay (45 dollars a night which included a large breakfast).

During their stay we all visited my host family (the family I lived with during my 10 weeks of training) in Negotino where they were treated with the celebrity status that was afforded to me during my stay. We hung around watching and learning how to make rakija, ate a traditional breakfast and lunch, and toured downtown Negotino. We also visited, via a three hour bus ride, the cosmopolitan city of Skopje and the old Turkish bazaar with my Peace Corps buddy Michael F. We had innumerable “na gostes” with all my Macedonian friends and hung out at the cafe’s meeting and talking with the locals. We visited Alexandra in her home in Zletevo. Jesse and Nicole spent a day at school meeting the students, participating in some language games, and answering all sorts of questions from the students. They said they had a great time, wished they could have stayed longer, and couldn’t wait to tell their friends about the hospitality and friendliness of the Macedonian people. If there is a next time, perhaps there will be some sun so they will be able to see that there really are beautiful mountains in Macedonia.

Meanwhile Lee B. was here for her fourth visit. It meant that for four weeks I was no longer a bachelor and had to share computer time and bathroom usage, eat vegetables, and endure her chronic habit of misplacing her things. I calculated that I spent at least 37 hours waiting for her to “be ready in a minute” or find something that was lost in her purse. As a “bachelor”, I drink out of the carton, eat out of the pot, use the same fork and spoon for days, change the sheets semi-annually, wash dishes weekly and have twice, in two years, cleaned the bathroom. My way of life dramatically changes during her visits. I have to readjust to talking when I have no interest in the topic, to taking walks for the sake of walking, to express my feelings, to eating when I’m not hungry, to listening to cat stories, and to purchasing stuff that I don’t need.

But when it’s all said and done, I find it’s all worth enduring. It’s the price I have to pay to be with my honey and best friend of 38 years (and counting).

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Harvest Time


In most of the villages and towns and even in some of the larger cities in Macedonia, the people are preparing their winter stock of food, just as they have done for centuries. It’s a social time when neighbors get together and roast their peppers, salt/vinegar their cabbages, cauliflowers, peppers and green tomatoes, make wine and rakija, and split and stack wood. It’s a busy time but everyone seems to enjoy the season.

The market on Wednesdays is now stocked with canning jars and equipment, giant heads of cauliflower, peppers of every shade of red, yellow, orange and green, pickling cucumbers and cabbages that require a forklift to move.

Various varieties of apples, plums, blackberries, apricots, figs, quince, pears and earlier in the summer peaches, melons, cherries, and strawberries are being made into slatko (fruit in a thick syrup) and compote (fruit in juice) for something sweet to eat and drink during the winter months. Chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts are being shelled. Red peppers and eggplants are being made into into ajvar while tomatoes and peppers are being made into pinjur (a paste if thick or a soup if thinned) or are being preserved in oil and spices. Cabbages, cauliflower, green tomatoes and garlics are being preserved in a salt and vinegar solution in large barrels or large plastic containers. Strings of drying red peppers, to be crushed into paprika, are visible on almost every yard and balcony. The root vegetables –potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and garlic are available all winter at the local produce market, so that they are being somewhat ignored at the moment.

Hunters, with their hunting dogs, are industriously procuring their winter rabbit meat. Most of the winter supply of pork, goat, mutton and chicken is still wandering around the barnyards and fields, blissfully unaware of their date with the dinner table, not as a guest but as the main course. They will soon be butchered and the meat salted, smoked or packaged for the freezer.

So temporarily, during this harvest season, the outside air is filled with the aroma of roasting peppers and eggplants and the smoke and smell of burning wood from the outdoor grills and the sound of logs being cut and split. It’s an ambiance that I will miss upon my return to Massachusetts where open fires are prohibited between May and December ( and only between 10AM and 4PM with a permit between January and April on days when it is safe to burn) and where cutting firewood at 7AM or after 5PM would be inconsiderate to my neighbors.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Some Other Doings


Peace Corps Volunteers are encouraged to engage in projects other than their primary activitiy (TEFL in my case) known as secondary projects. Excluding anything that has to do with English teaching, I have quite a few of them that are in the works that enable me to interact with Probistipians outside of the school. I’ll mention several short-term activities to give you an idea of some of the things one can be involved with when not pursuing their primary activity.

I have observed the dearth of recreational activities(why do people use this word “dearth” unless they’re trying to impress someone), for the men in town. Granted, they have sedentary activities such as cards, chess, conversing and watching sports, but there are no golf, bowling or recreational activities that promote some sort of exercise. So as I mentioned in another Blog more than a year ago, I am going to experiment with the idea of introducing Probistipians to horse shoe pitching which is a very popular activity with many people in America. The biggest problem was manufacturing steel pitching shoes which are much larger than a genuine horse shoe. So in early September with the fabrication of our fourth pitching shoe having been accomplished by the local blacksmith (refer to the pictures in My Albums), we held our first afternoon of horse pitching in the town park. Those that tried it, really liked the game. With the frozen ground and colder weather arriving soon, we will probably have only a few more matches left until spring. Little steps.

David’s idea of a town-wide photo contest was a success, with 23 citizens submitting 50 photos to be evaluated.Three photos were selected as the ‘winners”. I mention this event even though I had minimal input, because I contributed the “internationally known photographer from America (PCV Phil) to be one of the judges. Since we arrived in Macedonia I have provided Phil with morale, financial and technical support and so I called in some of the cards and had Phil lend his reputation to the promotional material for the contest and participate as a judge. I will reluctantly agree that he did a fine job, just don’t let him know I said so. I am sure that this event will continue to grow over the years as word gets out and owning a digital camera becomes more commonplace in Probistip.

Back in April or sometime thereabouts, three girls from a pool of 27 applicants from Probistip were selected by a lottery to attend the Peace Corps sponsored GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp held in July. http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorps/sets/72157624542888873/ and www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8hzQCvIAis .They successfully attended the camp with my expectation that we start a GLOW Club at the high school when they returned to school in the Fall. With minimal input from me, they organized, using FaceBook, the first meeting of their new GLOW Club. I was invited to attend and was totally impressed by their enthusiasm and organizational skills. They are planning a host of events over the course of the school year. I don’t think they’ll need me anymore but will check in from time to time and will be available if needed.

Perhaps my most important secondary project, if you want to call it that, is socializing with my Macedonian friends and neighbors and meeting new Macedonians. There is always an invitation awaiting me to have a “na goste”, have a coffee at the cafe, visit a village, meet a relative, or imbibe a rakija. There is no better way to share the spirit of America and to learn about the real people of Macedonia than lots of laughs and a good conversation. Luckily I can do it everyday. There is no dearth of opportunity or dearths(?)of opportunities.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A New School Year


Here in Macedonia, the school year begins on September 1st. The teachers have been required to come to the school building since August 10th because the Ministry of Education requires them to do so. This is the way it has “always” been. So with almost three weeks to prepare for the opening day, the class schedules should have been established, teachers’ classes should have been resolved, textbooks ordered and packets assembled to be given to the students and everyone, one would think, would be ready to hit the ground running.

But such is not the way we do things here in Macedonia. True the teachers are present three weeks prior to the first day but since there are no professional development sessions, no team planning, and no new materials to prepare, the time is used to socialize. On August 31st, school directors have a teachers’ meeting at which time the goals (without teacher input) of the new school year are dictated to the staff, teaching assignments are proclaimed, the date of arrival for recently ordered textbooks from the Ministry is approximated and plans for the first day’s schedule are revealed.

It will take about three weeks before the final class schedules are set in stone as teachers who are not fortunate enough to have twenty classes (full-time) will be attempting to locate open class times at nearby towns and schools. Quite often the number of classes a teacher is given relates directly to his/her political party affiliation or her/his relationship to the mayor or other public officials (make note of my politically correct use of his-her/ her-his). Teaching ability and academic knowledge are not necessarily a critical factor in the employment process.

The school year begins somewhat chaotically with multiple classes assigned to the same time slot, with teachers not knowing how many or which classes they will teach and with some students lacking textbooks. But that’s the way we do things here. Everything will eventually work itself out and by October, it will be smooth sailing.

Alexandra and I are looking forward to continuing our quest to teach English with such resources as supplementary English reading materials, dictionaries for all students in the classroom and very soon, the Internet. Since Alexandra has her own classroom, she can organize it to her own standards, store teaching materials, display student work on the wall and take personal pride in its appearance. Most English teachers in Macedonia must travel from class to class, bringing only those materials which she/he can carry – a textbook and a piece of chalk. This greatly limits their opportunities to be creative and employ teaching strategies which address the different learning styles of the students.

Nikola Karev Primary School (NK) where I teach usually houses grades 1 through 8. However, this year, in order to alleviate crowding at the high school, the first year students (freshmen/freshwomen) are going to classes at NK where there are extra classrooms. This eliminates the need to have double sessions at the high school, where in the past few years, first-years attended a second session from 1-6 o’clock.
The students, dressed in their new finery, fully rested and having grown so much in two and one half months, like students everywhere in the world on the opening day of school, were pleased, excited and anxious to be back with their friends and a familiar environment.

Without the need for double sessions, I was always advocating a LATER start to the school day – from 7:45 to 8:00, 8:15 or whatever. So this year, without the need once again for double sessions, the starting time for school was changed to 7:30, fifteen minutes EARLIER than the previous starting time. Not exactly what I as advocating for. The fact that this earlier starting time requires the already sleep-deprived children and teenagers to awaken a quarter of an hour earlier and presents the teachers with an even less attentive first period class, did not factor into the decision. Most importantly to me, it points out to me my need to reevaluate of my advocating strategy.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

What Do You Do When There Are No Students?


As a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in the Peace Corps, I am often asked by family and friends back home, “What do you do” when there’s no school?” I always reply that “there’s always a school but sometimes there are no students in attendance at the school.” They will then, in a somewhat annoyed manner which I can’t understand, rephrase the question, “OK, what do you do at the school that is always there when the students are not in attendance, a#$@%*e?”

Well, the key word here is “you” because each Volunteer’s experience is different. Some Volunteers take their vacation time and travel throughout the Balkans. Some will go back home to America for a brief respite. Some will visit other Volunteers throughout Macedonia. Others will sleep all day and party all-night. However, most of the TEFLs are involved in secondary projects within their community and keep somewhat busy with community based projects all year round.

Unlike America where teachers traditionally are on vacation for several months in the heat of the summer and when school is not in session, teachers in Macedonia have only a four week summer vacation. They are required to be physically present at the school even though the students are away on their summer vacation from June 15th until September 1st. This year the teachers were required to be at the school until July 8th and expected to return on the 10th of August and in some cases, even sooner. Since there is no in-service training or professional development activities during this time frame, and once their administrative duties have been completed, they do little but hang around, socialize and drink coffee for a couple of hours until they depart for home to escape the summer heat. So technically, a TEFL has only four weeks of “summer vacation.”

One of the best investments I made was an inexpensive Epson printer/copier/ scanner which enables me to crank out all sorts of projects, lesson plans, letters, and downloaded reference materials that I can share with my counterpart and with whomever else I am working. I labor with my tutor Jasmina and translate materials into Macedonian. The fact that David’s counterpart is the Mayor’s chief-of-staff, enables me to have plenty of opportunities to casually share my observations with the powers-to-be. And quite rewardingly to my ego, they are very open to my suggestions (age and experience are respected in Macedonia).

So without going into too much detail, the following are some of the primary and secondary activities I have initiated or have pushed along this summer (keep in mind the time distance between initiating and completing a project in Macedonia is much longer than in the States): bank-sign-repair project; town beautification project; safety and evacuation project for the schools and movie theater; Why Students Need Dictionaries Power Point Presentation; International Horseshoe Pitching Tournament; Knock Hockey game board; Independence Day Parade consultation; Physical Education booklet for primary grade teachers; student behavior project; Frisbee lessons at the park; English conversation group; Ask Why, Ask Who project; Photo Contest; English for Police Project; Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) club; Children's Nutrition Power Point Presentation; mini-lesson plans for class; and A Model TEFL Classroom Power Point Presentation.

This summer has also provided me with the opportunity to sit at the outdoor cafes and talk with my fellow Probistipians as well as the Japanese engineers from the dam, the Indian managers from the mine, and Americans visiting their relatives or just passing through (when someone from America is in town, my neighbors always insist they come and meet “Michael”). I also had a nice visit with a woman from Taiwan, Carol, who was visiting a friend in Probistip.

Since I did not want to end my Peace Corps service in the middle of the school year, I extended my tour for an additional six months (my wife suggested I extend for two more years - what’s with that?). Twelve of the thirty-five MAK13’s extended for a year which is an unusually high extension rate. Anyway, near the end of a Volunteer’s tour, the Peace Corps hosts a Close of Service (COS) seminar (this year in Ohrid) during which PCV’s are briefed on many topics which have to do with returning to the USA and readjusting to a new way of life. They cover such topics as opportunities to work in the Federal Government, college fellowships, resume writing, completing COS paperwork, health insurance, and the psychological issues confronting a returned Volunteer. Our counterparts were invited for two days to receive some recognition for putting up with us Volunteers.

But most importantly, it was the last time all of the MAK13’s would meet together as a group where we could share stories, compare notes and complain to each other one last time. The first MAK13’s depart for home in early November, their 27 months of service completed.

The MAK 15’s arrive in-country on the 13th of September, as fresh and as eager as we were at what seems like a very short time ago.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Summer Jaunting


On July 8th the teachers were officially unchained from the mandate of having to show up at the student-less school. The students had been on vacation since the middle of June so the teachers socialized and hung out for a couple of hours each day until emancipated from such a requirement. My daily routine has changed to some degree but the days still seem to fly by.

On the Fourth of July, Americans visiting or living in Macedonia were invited to attend a celebration on the grounds of the Embassy in Skopje. About 10 PCV’s took advantage of the opportunity and it was well worth the trip to Skopje. So Michael F., David, Phil and I paid 300 denar (well worth it) to get a chance to mingle with other Americans, visit our Embassy, and partake in a July 4th picnic.

The buildings and grounds of the Embassy are beautiful. However, for such a small country, the American Embassy is somewhat gargantuan and much too ”in-your-face”. It sits upon hill overlooking Skopje and looks more like a fortress with its fencing, barriers and guards (Yes, I know all about terrorists). Getting onto the grounds was similar to boarding an aircraft with all its security checks but once you got through security, all was forgotten. The “picnic” itself was super. We had beef hamburgers on Wonder Bread hamburger rolls from America, beef hotdogs on Wonder Bread hot dog rolls, all the beer you needed, and plenty of side dishes and desserts. It was a pleasant day. Phil and I celebrated our one-year anniversary commemorating our arrest for photographing the President’s motorcade (see blog of July 2009 – You Are Under Arrest).

The weather has been reasonable. We seem to get wicked thunderstorms several times a week which hasn’t helped the vineyards. Too much rain is not good and I’ve heard that 30% of the crop has already been ruined. The temperatures get into the 90’s on most days but there is limited humidity so the heat is very tolerable for me. The mosquitoes come out at about 7PM and they are intolerable, especially if you forget to apply repellent. It’s impossible to sit at a cafĂ© and enjoy a beer. However, the mosquitoes must be afraid of heights, because they are non-existent in my third floor apartment (aka 2nd floor in Macedonia) where I keep all my screen-less doors and windows open all summer.

In my neighborhood, during the dog days of summer, few adults venture outside until 6PM. Then everyone appears, sitting on their steps conversing, walking the little ones in their strollers, or setting out to do errands or visit friends. Children play outdoors until 11’ish, apparently not affected by the mosquitoes.

With time-off during the week, I have been able to attend a festival in the small town of Pechevo with my friend Slavche where traditional Macedonian songs and dances were performed; tour the village of Lesnevo and its monastery with David and my friend Goran; visit my host family (Kocho, Slavitsa, and Violeta) in Negotino; attend a mega “na goste” on Iliden Day at Alexandra’s beautiful home in Zletevo; and hike out to the many surrounding villages with David where we always seem to connect with the world’s most hospitable people.

The usual slow pace of initiating or completing projects in Macedonia is made even slower during the summer when everyone is on vacation. There is no delegation of authority so one must wait until “The Decision Maker” returns to work. So the Independence Day Parade (8 September), Photo Contest, Emergency Evacuation, and Town Beautification planning that we are involved in has crawled to a standstill for the time being.

I have had the time to create a few Power Point that I will present to the School Director, the Superintendent of Schools and the Parent Council. These include such diverse topics as “Why Students Should Have Dictionaries When Learning English”, “Are Our Children Eating Well?”, “Modifying School-Wide Student Behaviors”, and “Classroom Management and Effective Teaching”. Translating them into Macedonian is the difficult part and I spend many hours attempting to do so. Jasmina, my tutor, works with me to arrive at the understandable final Macedonian version.

I also have a bunch of other projects, both school and town related, that are in the working stages. I can’t really do much with them until September when everyone is renewed after a long summer vacation. I’ll talk about them in a future blog.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Villages in the Municipality of Probistip


In my last Blog I toured the “suburbs” of Probistip which are relatively new, something like Levittown on Long Island, New York and about the same age. However, the villages that are spread out throughout the geographical area of the Municipality of Probistip have been there since the times of the Ottoman Empire. Most of them still have no running water, employ outhouses, and are inhabited by the full array of barnyard animals. They do have electricity, telephone service and the ubiquitous satellite dish. The Municipality has assured that there is a paved road to each of the villages from the main highway, but inter-village travel is accomplished on wagon trails and footpaths.

Most of the villages have seen a steep decline in the number of full-time inhabitants but there are a considerable number of people who live in town during the week and retire to their village on weekends and holidays. Sadly, there are also a sizeable number of abandoned homes in each of the villages I have visited, attesting to the changing times when a family can no longer subsist under such conditions.

Very few of the villages have “convenience stores” so a taxi ride (@ $5-6 round trip), a tractor or auto drive into town on pazar day (Wednesdays in The Probe) is required for such purchases as soft drinks, candy bars, chips or whatever comfort food one craves.

David, the other PCV in town, has set a goal to visit every one of the 32 villages in the Municipality during his two-year stay. My goal is less ambitious. I have accompanied him on several of his “hikes” so far and each one has been an experience which a person would never encounter as a tourist. When you enter a village on foot, it feels as though you were 400 years back in time. You really can understand how difficult (compared to modern times) daily life was. The residents must go to the village watering hole to fetch water if their home well is dried up, maintain a plethora of farm animals and equipment, sow and reap, maintain a flower garden, prepare winter food, patch roofs, make wine and rakija, etc. And yet, everyone seems so content.

The most wonderful part of our excursions is meeting the village people. We have yet to go to a village where the people haven’t greeted us with smiles and hearty hellos. Every villager we have met has invited us into their home for refreshments and good conversations and we rarely refuse. While few villagers speak English, we are able to carry on conversations in Macedonian as long as I have my handy dictionary with me (which I always do). Our visits are always full of laughter. They always have questions about America and they all seem to know someone who has been there. We all talk about our families.they are always curious to know why we are here and they marvel at why someone would leave America to come to Macedonia. They ask me how I like Macedonia and I show them my tattoo with the Macedonian and American flag and the Peace Corps logo and they smile appreciatively. It is always difficult to get up and leave such hospitable and genuinely warm people. They always insist we come back for another visit. And we will.

Click on the top of this page to view My Albums and get a taste of village life in Macedonia. A picture…blah, blah, blah. Also check out my YouTube posting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWO8NqqLT-w.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

The “Suburbs” of Probistip


Probistip is the newest town in all of Macedonia. The approximately 33 villages within the Municipality, however, date back to the 17th century (more on this in my next Blog).

The town itself was built after WWII when Yugoslavia opened a fully operational iron and lead mine and large factory that made auto and truck batteries for the entire country. It became the second most affluent town in all of Macedonia. Apartment buildings for the miners and their families were built as well as homes for the managers and professional staff. I’m guessing, as time went by, miners built their own homes away from the center of town. These are the “suburbs “as I like to call them.

(N.B.The mine and battery factory are currently operating at only 20% of capacity (this % is hearsay) so unemployment within the community stands at 35- 40%. The residents have experienced the best of times and now they are enduring some tough times).

A couple of weeks ago on one of the last days of Spring, I took an early morning Sunday walk through the southern neighborhood of Probistip (I forget the name) where many of these homes were built and where many are still in different throes of completion. Being mindful that Probistip is relatively small, it is only a 5 minute walk to this part of the town from my apartment building.

In this part of town (southern “suburbs”) some of the roads have yet to be paved, unlike the northern side “suburbs”, where all the roads are asphalted. Many homes in the southern neighborhood are in different stages of completion but almost all of them have vegetable and flower gardens, grape arbors and fruit trees. The neighborhood on the northern side was established first and all of the homes are well established with beautiful landscaping and outdoor patios and arbors.

Rather than try to explain what I saw on my stroll, go to Click here to Check Out My Photo Albums at the top of this page. Check out the beauty of the Springtime in Probistip.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Happenings Around Town


Probistip has a local TV station that promotes the events that are scheduled to occur in the town but since I have cable TV, I don’t have access to that station. Accordingly I quite often don’t hear about scheduled events until after they take place. Now that David (the other PCV) works at the municipal building, I can get a better heads-ups on whose coming to town or which local organization is sponsoring an event.

I missed the biathlon that takes place here each spring (I did report on it last year) but as far as I know, that’s the only major event I didn’t know about. At the end of this school year, the students from the two primary and one high school put on a musical program at my school. This was in addition to the individual evening school performances that took place on separate dates at the old movie theater or as I call it, The Death Trap. The children and high schoolers are very talented and Macedonians in general, love to sing and dance.

The Municipality sponsored a “Run Day” for all the students. While not a requirement, every student was expected to participate (not all did). So on 14 May, the teachers escorted their students to “downtown”. Starting with the pre-schoolers and finishing up with the high schoolers (for whom it seemed to be a very-voluntary event) everyone ran a course corresponding to their grade level. Certificates were presented to the first three finishers in each category. It was another well-intentioned effort by the municipality to foster a sense of community in the town.

20 May was National Firefighters Day in Macedonia. Children from the primary schools presented flowers to the Probistip firefighters who were assembled on the plaza. Also there, was the fire truck that was donated by the United Kingdom last year and a fire Captain from England who had returned to Probistip this year with some additional equipment. In the U.K., fire fighting vehicles must be replaced every 10 -15 years, at which time those that are still functional, are donated. Members of The Florian Society, a firefighter’s organization, use their vacation time to deliver and train firefighters from developing countries in the use of the donated equipment. David and I met the Captain, who was delighted to find additional English speakers (he did have a very competent firefighter-translator from Skopje with him). After a demonstration of the fire equipment, David and I were invited by Risto, a town official, to the fire house to have a traditional Macedonian feast with the firefighters and town dignitaries to celebrate the day.

On the evening of the 20th, the Fourth Year graduating students (Seniors) had their Prom Night. What was fascinating was the tradition of, what appeared to be, the entire town showing up at 9PM to line the street as the 4th Years arrived at the hotel where the formal celebration was to occur. I really enjoyed watching the crowd as the students with their escorts walked the “Red Carpet”. The girls dressed exquisitely on their big night and rivaled any fashion models walking the Runway. I felt I was back in America on Prom Night, Anywhere, USA.

The Mayor’s Office also sponsored (through the Ministry) free English and basic computer lessons for the residents. I don’t recall the exact number of participants but it was quite impressive. The English instructors chose to use the textbook that was assembled by several previous Peace Corps Volunteers and is the one I use at school with the students I work with. I offered to assist the instructors but none of them took me up on my offer.

Our Wednesday evening English Conversation Group continues to be a blast. We have a fun time talking about whatever seems to be a topic of interest for that week. I really admire the individuals who come every week wanting to practice their English. David and I learn so much about how real down-to-earth Macedonians feel about the issues of the times and they in turn have so many questions about life in America. It’s a great time to share.

Several of the PCV’s in Skopje put together the First Annual Squirrel Basketball and Football Tournament for the purpose of collecting new or wearable clothing for those in need in the city. Such a concept does not yet exist in the Macedonian mindset. Instead of paying an entry fee, teams had to bring usable clothing on the day of the tournament. A dozen-or-so PCV’s from all over Macedonia traveled to Skopje to assist the organizers who had done all the preliminary work. I worked as a basketball referee. The event was an all–around tremendous success and the outside agencies that participated are already talking about next year. Great job, Jordan and Sarah (PCV’s)!

Finally, it’s great to be in Europe during the World Cup. South Africa is in the same time zone as Macedonia so the games are on at a reasonable time. It’s fun to be caught up in the excitement here in “The Probe”. Here one can drink their coffee, beer, or rakija at an outdoor cafĂ© and watch the games on a large plasma screen, interrupted only occasionally by the hoof beats of a donkey or horse cart, the crowing of the nearby roosters, or the scooters driven illegally by helmetless 14 year olds.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Such a Beautiful Country


I had the opportunity to go with the seventh graders, and three teacher-chaperons, on their end-of-the –school-year excursion. This year our travels took us to the western part of the country. We went to the Mavroro National Park, which boasts a man-made lake and breathtaking mountain vistas and to Lake Matka, another man-made lake just outside the capital city – Skopje (I talked about Lake Matka in my April blog). Stops along the way included a visit to the head springs of the Vardar River and the historical Monastery St. Bigorski (St. John the Baptist). Check out my photos and if you are interested, you can find more information about these places on the internet: http://www.360cities.net/image/st-john-bigorski-monastery-macedonia

We left the school at 7:30 and arrived back in Probistip at about 10 PM. We spent a total of about ten hours on the bus, interspersed with timely stops along the way. For me they were very pleasant hours because they gave me the opportunity to sightsee the wonders of this country. I think the students could have benefited with more time hanging around but they behaved extremely well and for junior high school students, seemed very interested in the different sites.

Most of the Albanian-Macedonians (about 20% of the 2 million Macedonians) live in the western part of Macedonia. They adhere to the Islamic culture. Peace Corps Volunteers who are placed there must learn Albanian and some Volunteers learn both Albanian and Macedonian (God Bless them!). As we traveled through the many areas near the cities of Tetevo and Gostivar, there were times when I felt as though I was 400 years or more back in time. Everywhere there were horse drawn plows, donkey carts, families in traditional clothing, scarved women hunched over in the planting fields, goat and sheep herders, free-roaming cows, pitch forks, scythes, and hay wagons. Of course there were also luxury cars, extremely beautiful homes with vegetable and flower gardens, plasma TV’s and John Deere tractors. The extremes of the old and the new exist together very well in such a geographically small country. Macedonia justifiably has earned its title - The Switzerland of the Balkans.

Macedonia is a photographer’s and outdoorsman’s paradise. The beauty of the country is numbing. Perhaps someday, an entrepreneur will start a tour company specifically for photographers. I’ll be the first to come back and sign up.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Happenings at School


As is the case in most schools in America, the students sense the end of the school year and learning (and teaching) has slowed down considerably as the talk of the class trip, sleeping-in, visits to their grandparents’ villages, and the lazy summer days ahead permeate throughout their conversations. Everyone will be promoted and will spend their next school year together with the same classmates.

This last month has seen the acquisition of Macedonian/English dictionaries (a donation from one of my sons and one of my sisters) which are invaluable asset in helping us teach. The students become empowered when they can find new words when working on their exercises without having to continuously ask the teacher the meaning of words when trying to write a sentence or paragraph. They now have the confidence to attempt to read English language materials from our English resource classroom library and the dictionaries give Alexandra a resource to accommodate all the students in this multi-level classroom. There are incalculable ways in which to incorporate them into our lesson plans and have the students more self-involved. Sadly, we are one of the few, if not the only, English language classroom in the country, that has a Macedonian/English dictionary for each student to use during class time (everyone does have useless non-functioning computers though).

We now have new curtains in the classroom that Alexandra purchased with the profits from our bake sale. After much discussion, the students voted that the curtains would be a wise, immediate and longtime investment to help brighten up their classroom.

The geography teacher is working on the World Map Project that I introduced to Alexandra. He has done a wonderful job working with some of the eighth grade boys to tackle the task. It was very rewarding to me to be able to suggest the project, give him the plans and then just sit back and watch another teacher other than Alexandra, take over the task. The World Map Project should be completed by the end of the school year.

There are so many proficient students in our English classes. They are far ahead of what is being taught in the textbook and for the most part are very bored. Fortunately our classroom has the resources to challenge them. Some of the students are translating a book of activities and games into Macedonian. The compilation will be used by the First through Fourth Grade teachers who must teach physical education (as well as music and art) to their students but have little training in that area. Another student translated a booklet I found on the internet (English For Police) into Macedonian for use by the police department. I’ll spend some time over the summer coming up with additional projects for next year.

My new tattoo is a big hit with the students. Many of them now have a self-made, drawn in ink tattoo on their arm. Some of them have the fake tattoos that come with a purchase of gum. I’m sure the parents appreciate that I’m such a positive influence on their child.

Class trips are coming up in the next few weeks so the class treasurers are collecting and securing the class trip monies. As I’ve mentioned in other blogs, teachers aren’t allowed to collect money so the total responsibility for carrying and safeguarding the collections is placed upon 7-13 year olds.

Earlier in the year, I had shown some of the classes a few of the “Traditional American Dances” that were popular in our country, namely The Chicken Dance, The Macarena, YMCA, and a few others. The students loved them. So this year at the student talent show which is held at the old movie theater, in addition to the performances by the mandolin orchestra, the school chorus, and the folk dancers, Alexandra had several of the groups perform these “Traditional American Dances” in front of the school body and their parents and friends. The dancers were a big hit, especially the boys who dressed as The Village People. The student emcees actually gave me (Michael from the Peace Corps) the credit for introducing these American dances to the students. And as usual, Alexandra was responsible for recruiting the students, holding the practices and designing the costumes. (Be sure to check out the pictures of the event in My Albums.)

All the teachers received a laptop computer to use in conjunction with the useless computers in the classroom (Do you sense my distaste for the “Computer on Every Student Desk Initiative”?). Alexandra, I believe, may be the only teacher who is actually using her laptop now. The teachers have yet to receive their training on its use, but Alexandra is very computer savvy. She found English lessons on the Internet, downloaded them and with the Principal’s In-Focus projector which she borrowed, supplemented the textbook lessons.

Tragically, the $160 plus shipping projector bulb burned out last week, putting an end to that initiative. But we will overcome this setback. Somehow.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Class Picture Day


Unbeknownst to me, today was picture day at school. As Alexandra’s class was leaving to get their photo, they pleaded with me to be in their class photo. One of the students said to me, “Michael, please be in our class picture. When I am older, I want to be able to show my children a picture of you with us when I tell them how you came to our country from America to help us to learn English and what a good person you are.”

To the cheers of all, I humbly went.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Lovely Lee B.


For the month of April, my companion for the last 39 years paid me a visit. It was her third trip to Macedonia and, as was the case the previous two visits, we had a wonderful time hanging out in Probistip for most of the time, but also visiting other volunteers in Ohrid and Skopje.

She accompanied me to Ohrid where I facilitated two TEFL sessions for the MAK 14’s who were assembled there for their In-Service Training with their counterparts. We extended our stay for one day and were able to tour the beautiful city of Ohrid. The eight-hour buses rides to Ohrid from Probistip afforded us the opportunity to take in the breathtaking scenery of Macedonia in the spring. Farmers were plowing, winery workers were pruning and burning last seasons growth, wildflowers were blossoming, streams and rivers were roiling and the winter wheat, still in its infancy, greenified much of the landscape.

We also had the opportunity to visit Michael F. and Phil, two other PCV’s in Skopje. Besides the usual dining and cafe-ing , we, along with Michael F., went on a day trip to Lake Matka. The man-made lake, about 20 minutes outside the city, was formed when they built a dam for hydro-electric production. It provides a beautiful recreational area for city residents who want to get away from the excessive summer heat or who just want to relax in a naturally beautiful surrounding. A short boat ride on the lake took us to some awesome caves that have been developed as a tourist attraction and were well worth viewing.

The highlight of the trip to Skopje was my initiation into the world of tattooing. Najstar (the Oldest) Michael, Phil and I agreed to get a tattoo sometime during our Peace Corps experience. Najstar had gotten his the previous week and so as agreed upon, I decided to get mine with my wife’s blessing (Phil was off to some foreign land and will get his later). The tattoo artist did a great job on both Michael’s and my tattoos. The children at school are totally impressed, while at first not believing it is a real one, while the adult Macedonians cannot comprehend why a 63 year old American would get a tattoo which displays a Macedonian flag. And while they can’t figure out the why, their faces light up in appreciation when they see it.

At home in Probistip, Lee B. went to the school and worked with the advanced English students in each class, affording them the opportunity to experience more challenging work . They really seemed to enjoy the sessions. Lee B. also spent some time with Michael on Skype and in person, discussing his proposal to revitalize Macedonia’s dying garment industry, and searching for ways to interest non-governmental investors.

We also spent time at many "na gostes" (visits to friends and neighbors) where we drank liters of rakija, along with the standard salads, coffee and sweets. We idled away time at the outdoor cafes, people watching and conversing on occasion with individuals who wanted to practice their English. We walked around town, bombarded (in a wonderful way) with “Hi Michael, Hi Lee” from the children and the friendly smiles and “hellos” from the townsfolk.We celebrated Orthodox Easter and Worker’s Day, the first of May, with our Macedonian friends. It was a relaxing, yet busy, time.

She’ll be leaving the country on the 6th of May and we’ll both be looking forward to her October return. My time in Macedonia is flying by but it seemed to fly-by exceptionally fast the month of April 2010.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Arrival of Spring and My Wife


Spring-like weather arrived in Macedonia for the 4.6 billionth-or-so time coinciding with my wife’s third visit. This time the airlines didn’t misplace her luggage and her flights were on time despite flying British Airlines which was embroiled in a strike by its cabin crews. We (Bobby the driver and I) picked her up in Sophia, Bulgaria which is an eight hour round trip including the border crossing, without incident.

Besides her exuberant personality, she brought me some Log Cabin pancake syrup, a Christmas-present dress shirt from my mother-in-law, a supply of cigars (non-existent in Probistip), heavy duty socks, contact lens solution (very expensive here), a hard disk memory drive to back up my photos, laminated donated menus from Chili’s and Friendly’s (which I will use in class), two seasons of the TV series “Rescue Me”, three pounds of Twizzlers for Phil and new camera equipment that Phil had sent to Lee for her to lug over here so he could avoid the shipping and handling charges.

Unfortunately Lee caught some kind of bug on the flight over here and her throat was extremely sore. We got to test out the health care system and were pleasantly pleased. A visit to the local privately-run clinic cost 360 denari (@ $6) and the medications at the pharmacy cost 140 denari (@ $3). Within a few days, her throat cleared and she was cured.

The first of April in Macedonia is the same as April Fool’s Day in America with the exception that the children dress up in costumes (known as masks in Macedonian) similar to our Halloween. The children come to school dressed for the occasion and mid-morning head to the center plaza in parade-like fashion.

This year on 3 April there was a ceremony and a lunch for the army veterans from Probistip and Kratevo. The Assistant Secretary of the Army is from Probistip and he scheduled a performance of the Macedonian Army Band. Many residents turned out on a beautiful spring day to listen to a wonderfully diverse program of music. After the performance, there was a luncheon to which David and I were invited at the hotel. We sat at the table with the veterans and had a great time “talking “and laughing even though no one at the table spoke English. We had a great time. There were several partisans amongst the group who had fought in WWII with Tito against the Bulgarians and Germans. I took a group photo which seemed to please the group and I have distributed a copy to each of them.(checkout My Albums)

This year Orthodox Easter Sunday was celebrated on the 4th and Easter Monday on the 5th. I got to fly my Macedonian flag for four consecutive days. (For some insight into how Macedonians celebrate Easter, check out my Blog from 30 April of 2009.) This year Lee and I colored some eggs using the dyes that are sold in the shops and pazars. The dyes produce rich and deep colors, unlike the dyes we use when coloring eggs back home. Whether the dyes are more toxic has yet to be determined, but we felt no ill effects from eating the tons of egg salad created from the many eggs given to us by our friends and neighbors (it’s a custom to bring an egg for each member of the family you may be visiting in the days after Easter).

While we only colored eggs, Alexandra colored and decorated eggs with her family. She presented us with four beautifully decorated eggs that were works of art. They were exquisite. Unfortunately they were perishable and we had to eventually use them in a salad. Remarkably, we used all the eggs that we had colored and those we had received from others. Understandably we won’t be eating hard-boiled eggs for quite some time.

Also during the week there was an exhibition at the House of Culture (like a Community Center) at which eggs decorated by children were incorporated into displays which used artifacts from the Town museum.

We also had a Tree Planting/Clean-up Day at the school. Someone at the Ministry declares that on a specific day, all public employees will plant trees throughout the country (but the time has to be made up on a Saturday sometime down the road). It’s a nice concept and everyone seems to enjoy themselves. At Nikola Karev some of the older students went out to plant trees while the rest of the students cleaned up the trash on the school grounds and around the nearby neighborhoods. I got to use my grass rake as did some of the students who had never seen such a tool. Unfortunately by the next day there was a good amount of trash on the school grounds because many of the students still discard their trash onto the ground rather than use the provided bins.

With my wife here for the month of April, I will now have to bite the bullet when it comes to sharing my computer, going for walks when I’m not interested in walking, turning off lights that for some reason are on midday, closing cabinet doors to prevent a head injury, shutting drawers left open for whatever god-knows reason, eating healthful food most of the time, and controlling flatulence.

But in the long run, I guess, it’s well worth it to have her here.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Random Observations


Macedonian men, especially seniors like me, don’t smoke cigars. The men congregate in the center, sit around in the park, dine on wonderfully prepared and delicious food, drink homemade wine and rakija, smoke lots of inexpensive cigarettes but don’t enjoy cigars.

There is a national helmet law requiring scooter and motorcycle riders and passengers to use one. With few exceptions, I’ve never seen anyone wearing a helmet nor heard of anyone being cited for failing to wear one.

Another law that went into effect last year was the requirement for bread to be packaged (for health and sanitary reasons) when sold in the markets. It has taken a while, and the bread still makes the trip from the bakery to the store buck-naked, but now paper bags are provided so customers can take the loaf home on the final leg of its journey to the table.

Students as young as 13 go the discos where alcohol is served to those 18 or older and where the music is exceptionally loud. They also place bets at the numerous sports betting parlors in town.

Many men have a well-trimmed and very long fingernail on the pinkey finger on one of their hands.

The model airplane glue that is banned in many places in the States is the glue the students use for most of their in-school projects. For some reason the students seem very mellowed out in Crafts class.

There is no need to put warning signs or install safety barriers when repairing or digging on or near a sidewalk. This employs the same reasoning that I use when I refuse to chop the ice on the steps during the winter months in Massachusetts. My family members and neighbors, my 84 year old mother and 94 year old mother-in law maneuver over them very well because they assume that the steps will always be icy and therefore are always cautious. Those of us who live here in Macedonia are well aware of the potential existence of unguarded construction sites, keep vigilant at all times and thereby avoid any accidents. It’s called defensive walking.

Those of us over a certain age will remember the railroad crossing guards that were employed to manually raise and lower the crossing gate to stop traffic and pedestrians upon the approach of a train. I saw one at the crossing in Veles last month on my bus ride to Skopje.

In addition to the Peace Corps, there are many other countries extending aid to Macedonia during its quest to join the European Union. China, Japan. Germany, Sweden, Holland, and Bulgaria are just the one’s I am aware of. There are others. There’s also an EU version of the Peace Corps.

No ice in The Probe. No Margaritas, no Daiquiris, no Mojitos, no Slush Puppies, no Iced Tea, no kegs, no ice for First Aid (R.I.C.E.). Many families have large freezers but not for ice-making purposes.

Macedonians don’t eat ice cream in the winter for health reasons – it could give you a cold. But any day now, the locks will come off the ice cream freezers in the markets. It will be deemed safe to indulge in the flavors of your choice until the first frost of autumn or sometime thereabouts.

There are no fire hydrants here in Probistip. I’m curious to know what a Macedonian dog would do if it confronted one.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Pensioners and a Presentation


Having lived here in the Probe for more than a year, I finally learned that there is a Senior Center (Pensioner’s House). This revelation occurred only because David works at the Municipal Building and his buddies introduced him to some of the pensioners (retirees) who frequent the place. The Center itself is nestled on a hillside in the middle of a residential neighborhood and I had walked by it many times without realizing what it was. It has a modest recreation hall/meeting room, bar, and kitchen facilities. The upper floor contains nine apartments for pensioners who have no family with whom to live.

David and I were invited by one of the members (Malevka) of their traditional folk group to attend one of the their weekly practices. This group of retirees travels around Macedonia and other Balkan countries performing ancient folk music and dance.

So David and I attended one of the 2-hour Wednesday afternoon practices as special guests and were warmly received by the 30-or-so members of the group. They were very pleased to have us there and very proud of the accomplishments of their group. We got to listen to and observe music and dances that have been performed in Macedonia for hundreds and hundreds of years. The performers were dressed in their everyday clothes and I look forward to seeing them in their traditional garb (garb- what a neat word that doesn’t get used enough).

Upon the completion of the rehearsal, we got to meet the president of the Pensioners’ House and learned a little about the retirement system in Macedonia. (Warning: the following information may contain details that are inaccurate due to my inability to fully comprehend rapidly spoken Macedonian). Every worker must retire at the age of 62 (or 64) to make room for younger workers. Everyone who has worked receives a modest pension (it varies based on your occupation), health care and discounts on some services and products. The retirement system is financed by a payroll deduction from every workers’ wage/salary. I believe it’s about 140 denari (@ $3). I plan on asking more questions about the retirement system when the opportunity presents itself.

David had the idea that it would be great to bring the group some American cookies and cakes as an after-practice treat. So two weeks after our first visit, we returned bearing our home-baked goodies which turned out to be a tremendous hit amongst the seniors in attendance. They enjoyed David’s oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies and my crumb cake and apple-walnut cake, asking us for the recipes and jokingly suggesting that we bring them every Wednesday. We were invited and accepted their offer to join them in dancing a simple Oro (a circle dance) and were invited to be their guests at the annual folk festival in Bitola. We were extended an invitation to drop in at the Center any time.

On the weekend of the 6th, Phil and I visited Michael in his new apartment in Skopje. Michael’s landlord was unresponsive to Michael’s request for repairs so the Peace Corps let him move to a new, very nice apartment, ideally situated about half a mile away. Phil had a Photo Field Day for his Skopje Photo Club on Sunday. We (I joined in as a guest-member after paying Phil 250 denari) went to the Old Pazar and spent an afternoon taking photos with Phil giving helpful tips to the 10 of us in attendance, nine of whom were not required to pay Phil.Check out the photos by clicking on "View My Albums" at the top of the page.

Last week I was able to give a Power Point Presentation to several departments from the Mayor’s office. Some of the officials in Probistip had asked me about my thoughts about their town now that I had lived there for more than a year. So I put together a presentation that offered my observations and questions in an organized format for those who were interested.

I pointed out my concern that there is no evacuation plan at my school and only one exit through which 450 people would have to pass. I referred to the flag now flying in front of our school and hinted that it would be wonderful to see one flying in front of all the public buildings. I mentioned the difficulty of translating Macedonian into English for English speaking readers and volunteered David’s and my assistance in helping with editing any documents that needed it. To help improve community pride and have some fun while doing it, I suggested we organize a parade on their Independence Day (September 8), have a Miss Probistip Contest, sponsor Cleanup Days, promote neighborhood greening projects and playground equipment upkeep, and perhaps have an Agricultural Fair in the autumn. And since we would do it with volunteers, there would be little cost to the municipality.

These ideas, for the most part, are new and haven’t been organized by volunteers. There will be a learning curve since the concept of volunteering is still in its infant stages in this former socialistic country where everything was taken care of by the State. But everyone seemed enthused with my presentation and said that they liked my ideas and thanked me for sharing them.

The municipality can’t sponsor the Miss Probistip Contest for some reason but every male I talked to offered to assist. On the other hand, I was promised by the powers-to-be, and I quote, “Michael, we will have your parade and we will have lots of flags”. Looking forward to it!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Saint Trifon’s Day Round II


Although Saint Valentine is starting to show his presence in Macedonia, Saint Trifon, the patron saint of wine makers, still rules the day on February 14th. And so as we did last year, we forced ourselves to attend the wine festival in Negotino (see last year’s blog of February 20th to get the background). This year I traveled with PCV David, so I was unable to stay with my host family. We roomed at the monastery with Phil. We had a very comfortable room in a beautiful setting about a mile outside of the center of Negotino. A taxi ride to town was @70-80 denari which divided by 3 was about about 60 cents each, so the location was hardly an inconvenience.

We left Probistip Saturday morning on the 7AM bus and with a timely connection in Veles, we were in Negotino by 10:45. After storing our stuff in our room, we walked into town to the apartment of the PCV now living in Negotino and working at an NGO of woodcarvers - Tracy. She had arranged a wine tour in Demir Kapija, a nearby village and 10 of us PCV’s took advantage of the opportunity. Eight of us were 6%’ers (over 50) and two of the crowd were in there seventies. Words can’t describe the beauty of the area so check out my photos. For 600 denari (@ $12) we received a tour of the facility, a large selection of meats and cheeses to go with the wines we tasted and tastings of five different varieties of wine. I must admit that this is not what one expects to do when signing up for the Peace Corps. To drink wine out of a wine glass instead of a mayonnaise jar was downright decadent.

There was a giant birthday party at Tracy’s apartment that evening attended by the many PCV’s and local Macedonian friends of Tracy. There was plenty of food, and sweets and wine and most importantly, the opportunity to catch up with the other Volunteers.

On Sunday, St. Trifon’s Day, I figured I’d saved at least $150 because it wasn’t Valentine’s Day like in America where every male is required once again to prove his adoration of his significant other with offerings such as flowers, greeting cards, and candies. Here in Macedonia, we are only required to drink free wine on the 14th of February. Much less stress.

So at 10AM the festivities began on the plaza in the center. The local priest conducted a ceremony (to which, to the best of my observations, few people listened) and the mayor (I think) trimmed the vines in accordance with the tradition that has been carried out for centuries. The 10-or-so vineries that had booths set up, started serving their “samples” (i.e. full 6 oz. cups) during the ceremony and kept filling and refilling cups for the next two hours. Meanwhile 12 different folk dance groups from Macedonia and surrounding Balkan countries entertained the crowd with traditional folk dances.

Once the wine ran out and the entertainment ceased, I took off up the hill that I had traveled everyday during my three month training period, to visit my host family that introduced me to the simple way of life in Macedonia. They were expecting me. I had called ahead earlier in the week to let them know I would be in town and why I wouldn’t be staying with them. Violeta, their English-speaking daughter and my Guardian Angel, was in Skopje, so there would be no speaking English for the duration of my visit. As usual, Slavitca had prepared a special lunch of sarma (meat in cabbage rolls) with an assortment of sweet and hot peppers on the side.

As so happened, St. Trifon’s feast day this year, coincided with the Day of Forgiveness which is celebrated a certain number of days after Christmas. On this day, people seek forgiveness from their family members for any transgressions that may have made during the past year. It is the day when many Macedonians make and eat baklava and Slavitca had made a wonderful version of baklava. I headed back to the monastery after my four hour visit loaded down with homemade wine, rakija and baklava, reflecting on the fact that I had not spoken English for the entire four-hour visit. Slavitca and Kocho are the best.

Back at the monastery, Phil, David and I hung out on the veranda, despite the cold temperature, smoked my last three cigars and sampled the wine that Kocho had given me. We were joined by three other PCV’s that were staying an additional night and we all hung out listening to Phil tell us how great a photographer he is and David commiserating how great it was growing up on a farm in South Dakota and attending grammar school in a one-room schoolhouse. (FYI: David was the most outstanding student in his grade every year from the first through eighth grade. The fact that he was the only one in his class should not, he argues, detract from that accomplishment. To be ignored, says he, are those who will argue that he was the worst student in his class.)

To end the evening, I proposed that we abolish forever the Latin calendar St. Valentine’s Day and in its place, celebrate the Orthodox Feast of St. Trifon. The motion past unanimously and we vowed to never again buy a soon-to-be-wilted rose or a sappy red card or recite a love poem or spend money on a candle-lit meal at an over-priced restaurant on the 14th of February. It will forever be a day dedicated to pruning the vine and drinking the wine. If of course my wife lets me.