Michael Had a Little Lamb

I missed having lamb for the past three Easters, so two weeks ago I questioned one of my friends as to why it was so difficult to find lamb at the meat markets in Probistip. After all, there’s sheep all over place. “Well in Probistip, we don’t eat lamb” was the answer. I didn’t pursue the answer to the question “Why?”. I’ve learned there probably wouldn’t be a logical answer that would satisfy me as a person from outside the Balkans. In the western part of Macedonia there there is a large Albanian (Muslim) population and pork is not eaten and hence, lamb and beef are everywhere. Probistip is in the northeastern part of the country (mostly Orthodox Christian) and pork and chicken are the meats of choice, the only choice, at least here in Probistip.

So answer in answer to my question of “how could we get some lamb”, my friend Darko replied, “we could go to one of the villages and buy a lamb.” I had been thinking, like maybe a leg or some chops, but a whole lamb? Pressured by my craving for lamb, as well as my curiosity as to how we were going to pull this off, I said “OK, let’s do it?”

Darko put a plan together and its execution began on a rainy Sunday evening. He and his father picked me up in their family Yugo and we drove about 12 kilometers to one of the villages where a person could buy a lamb. Crammed in the back of the Yugo for the journey, I wondered how I was going to share such limited space with a lamb who probably wasn’t going to be too cooperative in such a new environment as the backseat of a Yugo with someone who wasn’t even from his village or for that matter, his country.

When we arrived in Stubol, we had to wait a little while for the return of the shepherd from the pastures with the flock. After penning up the sheep, the owner of the flock (the shepherds are hired hands) went into the pen and picked out our future dinner, secured his legs and weighed him on a scale that had probably not been calibrated to any standard weight for a half a century or more. The rain soaked, dirt covered lamb (the lamb’s wool looked nothing like the pure white lamb’s wool that appears in children’s books) weighed in at 19 kilograms (42 lbs.).

My newly purchased (@ $60) lamb was then put into the trunk of the Yugo (I was relieved I didn’t have to share the back seat) and we proceeded to the village of Old Probistip, where awaiting us would be the local butcher to perform Step 2 of Darko’s plan. Darko and I didn’t want to watch the actual throat slitting, so we waited until the task was completed and then entered the garage to watch Ruman do his thing. Every internal organ (intestines, stomach, liver, kidneys, head) was excised and cleaned to be used in some local dish. There was no waste. The gutted lamb was left whole and not cut up into the usual parts that I am familiar with – chops and legs.

Step 3 involved taking my lamb (now weighing 9 kilograms or 19 lbs), to Darko’s sister’s home where freezer space was made available. Step 4 took place the following Friday when the frozen lamb was removed from the freezer in preparation for Step 5A, baking the lamb in the oven at the local bread factory where Kire was a supervisor, on Saturday morning. We figured there would be enough lamb for about 8 people, so the guest list for our picnic included some of the regulars at our weekly English conversation group. David, John (a visiting friend of David’s who had been in the Peace Corps in 1964), Goran, Clavche, Kire, Anita, Darko and me made it onto the guest list.

Step 5B was the actual eating of the lamb. Darko and Goran selected a site that was set up for picnics up in the mountain alongside the Zletevo River. We purchased all the makings of a salad and some mushrooms while I brought rakija from Negotino, cigars, homemade cinnamon buns and marshmallows to roast (marshmallows are unknown in Probistip and I thought it would be fun to introduce toasting marshmallows to my friends. Lee had brought them for me on her recent trip.) Others brought the wine, beer, bread, water, soda utensils and plates. We also brought the horseshoes.

We piled into a combi (a large van) that we had hired (500 denari round trip for $6) in front of the bakery at noon and headed up the mountain. The location was unbelievable and very isolated. The owner of the property charges 50 denari ($1) for each person using the fully equipped campsite.

The lamb turned out to be the best I ever ate and I had enough to keep me happy for a long time. We had an enjoyable afternoon. I learned the proper way to prepare lamb from scratch while my friends learned how to toast marshmallows, appreciate an after-dinner cigar, and recreate with a game of horseshoes.

Check out the annotated photos for a much better perspective on the joys of living here in Macedonia.

A Quiet Visit

My wife Lee was here until the 7th of May, having arrived here on the 4th of April for her last visit to Macedonia with me as a Peace Corps Volunteer. We definitely plan to return for visits with our Macedonian friends and to breathe in the breathtaking scenery that is everywhere. I’ll be able to drive so that we won’t have to spend so much time on buses and taxis, although it’s very easy to travel around the country via public transportation if time is not an issue. We kind of just hung around Probistip, visiting friends, hanging out at the cafes when the weather permitted, watching a movie or two in the evening after dinner. During a Volunteer’s last three months of service, they are not permitted to take out-of-country-vacation days. This didn’t bother me because I had no desire to travel outside of Macedonia.

We were invited to the wedding reception of our friend Jasmina’s brother. It was a wonderful event and we learned first hand how Macedonians celebrate such an important event. It was so much like the traditional wedding reception in the USA. There was lots of food, lots of drink, lots of loud music, and lots of laughter. We sat at a table with some people who spoke English, so we were able to ask lots of questions about marriage customs and traditions.

Lee’s best friend Peg, came for a four-day visit. During her stay we visited the various neighborhoods of Probistip and were escorted by my friend Goran to Kratevo, Lesnovo and Zletevo where we took in the sites offered in these very old villages. We introduced Peg to many traditional Macedonian foods. She seemed to enjoy them. On the 7th of May, the ladies took off in a taxi to Durres in Albania, with a day stop in Bitola, where they caught an 11PM overnight ferry to Italy for a 10 day holiday.

On a somber note, two young men and a high school girl from Probistip were killed in two separate auto accidents during the last few weeks. I also know two families in town who lost teenagers in motor vehicle accidents several years ago. Excessive speed was the cause in each incidence. The road conditions and the age of the vehicles probably have every parent worrying when their teenage children go out a car.

The eighth graders at school have basically shut down, making teaching a little more challenging. They all know that they will move on to the high school next September, regardless of their final grades, so there is little chance of motivating them at this point in time. Graduation, Prom Night, class pictures, and the spring field trip have taken over as the major interests of the eighth graders. To make matters worse, the internet at the school either doesn’t work or when a connection is made, it functions so slowly, that using the computers is no longer a choice. There is no IT person on the staff to resolve problems, so the computers lay idle while the Internet provider continues to be paid monthly.

As I am writing this blog, the students have only 18 days of school left and I have only 28 days left in Probistip, 31 days in Macedonia. I am beginning to finalize the last of my projects and submit copies of them to the Peace Corps’s SharePoint website where other volunteers can check them out for ideas that they may find to be helpful in their communities.