Macedonian Adventures of a 6%'er

Catch You Later!

2012-01-14T16:17:00.002+02:00

It’s been quite awhile since my last posting which detailed the eighth grader’s prom. I never had the opportunity to closeout my blog, detailing my last few days before my departure from Probistip and three days later, Macedonia. I have been readjusting to life in the USA and have found it very difficult get motivated to sit down and write. Perhaps my hernia surgery, my son’s wedding, my wife’s rehab from hip replacement surgery, the performance of deferred maintenance to my house and yard, and the cleanup of trees and branches lost to an early snow. I must now close out this blog, writing for the first time as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

I have been away from my Macedonian friends for almost seven months but it seems just like yesterday when I was saying good-bye to them. It was difficult to say farewell but it was tempered by the realization that I will return to see them in the future. I still communicate with some of them with weekly Skypes and e-mails and keep in touch with what’s currently going on the town with David the PCV, who has taken up residence in “my” apartment. It will be impossible to get the Macedonian culture out of my thinking and way of viewing and analyzing life in America, not that I want to. I have an extremely difficult time not always making comparisons between the two cultures when I’m with my family. I can see them wince whenever I begin a sentence with, “In Macedonia …”. I’m getting better at keeping my reflections to myself.

The beauty of Macedonia is paralyzing. Thank goodness I have lots of photos to assist me in remembering my journeys throughout the country.

During my last days in The Probe, some of my friends put together a little going away party at the Dublin Pub. (There seems to be an Irish Pub in every town. They don’t play Irish music and in Probistip don’t have a special menu or serve Irish beer but the “Pub” has a nice ambiance). My friends presented me with a few going away gifts, one of which was a scythe which I was going to get for myself anyway. (You’re probably asking yourself why would I want a scythe. It’s a long story so I won’t go into details here). We had a nice time.

The Director of Nikola Karev School presented me with a copper plaque replica of the school flag that was designed as a result of my suggestion that it would be nice to have a school flag to display. Aleksandra found a local artisan to create the work of art. It’s really beautiful. (You can view a picture of it on by clicking on My Albums at the top of this page).

Many of the students at the school expressed disappointment that I would no longer be in their classroom and a visible presence around town. They asked me to please stay and questioned me when I would return. I got lots of hugs and many of them wanted a photo of us together. My fellow PCV, Photoimage Guy, took some pictures of some of them and I promised the students I would post them on my last blog.

Short and Sweet: My Peace Corps experience was an adventure of a lifetime. I was involved in the day –to-day lives of ordinary citizens in a culture much different than our American way of life. I was in a place where age and experience are respected, which gave me the opportunity to share my observations with individuals who could implement change. I worked with a counterpart who loved to try new ideas in the classroom and had an open door policy with the officials in the municipality.

I know I earned the respect of the people who knew me or of me and I take pleasure in knowing that generations from now, someone , somewhere in Macedonia will ask the question, “Remember Michael, the American, when he….?” I accomplished many of my goals while serving, but as the saying goes, “I got much more out of the experience than I put into it?” Thank you, people of Macedonia.

The Prom

2011-06-26T17:24:00.002+03:00

As in many schools in the USA and probably world-wide, the 8th graders had their Prom to celebrate their completion of studies at the primary level. Next year most would be studying at the high school here in Probistip, some taking the college route and others taking the vocational route. Some students would opt to go to schools in Stip or Skopje or some other city in Macedonia.

The Prom was a well-anticipated event, as expected, and the students talked about it for months prior to the scheduled evening. Many girls made their own dresses and were extremely fashionable in their choice of attire. Not unlike the girls in the States, their selections were influenced by television, movies and fashion magazines. The boys dressed in their finest which for a 14/15 year old boy meant sans suit or tie – Prom casual we would call it. The students didn’t come as boy/girl couples, only as classmates, so 100% of the graduating class attended.

A crowd of onlookers gathered outside the hotel where the event was being held to watch the 72 bedazzling students arrive. In Macedonia, the 6:00 PM arrival time on the invitations meant that things would begin to get started at 6:45 and such was the case when the photographers began taking photos and videos to record this cherished event. Many of the students seeing that I had my camera, asked to pose for pictures, some of which I posted on this blog.

When the photo session was over, everyone moved inside to their tables. The band then began playing dance music so that everyone could begin dancing the Oro, the traditional Macedonia dance. The thing about the Oro is that it goes on forever, in this case 90 minutes. The songs change but the dance steps remain basically the same. Almost every student danced and sang for the 90 minutes before the main course was served. And credit to the band which enthusiastically played the whole time. Meanwhile, salads and beverages were on the tables.

After the main course, the Director and the three home room teachers presented awards to the most outstanding students. They also recognized two staff members who had retired the past year and they presented me with a beautiful oil painting (still wet) of Lee and me done by several of the students.

Then the music turned “modern” and the students danced and sang to every song for another 90 minutes. They knew the words to every song and unabashedly sang along while they danced. I had the opportunity to show off some of my dance moves that I had picked up over the course of time and the students and staff were duly (or dully) impressed (the letter “L” makes a big difference here).

The evening ended around midnight and I was told many of the students continued the festivities on the plaza until about 2AM, despite having class the next morning at 7:15. Surprisingly (to me) most of students did come to school, even though it was a challenge, I’m sure, to wake up. Those that brought a USB were able to get a copy of all my photos to post on their FaceBook site, if they were so inclined.

It was a very well-planned and very well-executed Prom. The students’ behavior was exemplary. There were no fights and no cliques and no one left out of the activities. The students really enjoyed each other’s company. Well done! Well done! (Be sure to check out the photos.)

Stuff on SharePoint

2011-06-07T17:13:00.003+03:00

This blog is mainly FYI to the PCV’s in Macedonia, both TEFL and CD. My Close of Service (COS) is rapidly approaching. It’s hard to believe that I have been in-country now for almost 33 months. I thought it would be a good idea to make my fellow volunteers aware of some of the resources that I have posted/will post on the Peace Corp’s SharePoint site. Regardless of whether they are a TEFL or involved in Community Development, some of the material regarding Secondary Project ideas or Networking may prove to be useful. I presented a portion of the material at the MAK 15 In-Service Training in April.

Posted on SharePoint-Macedonia is a Power Point Presentation (PPP) in Macedonian and English (M&E) on “Why Our Students Need Dictionaries” that I presented to the School Superintendent and Director in my attempts to convince them that a dictionary is an essential tool in learning a language. There is a PPP in English and Macedonian entitled, “Are our Students Eating Well” that I put together to point out the poor breakfast eating habits of many Macedonian school children and the detrimental effects of drinking sugared drinks and the causes of osteoporosis. Both of them resulted in the Superintendent taking some positive steps in addressing both issues.

Also posted is a PPP presentation, “A Classroom Teacher’s Expectations” in both Macedonian and English that we used at the beginning of the school year to educate our students on expected classroom behavior. It proved to be a very effective tool in reducing classroom management problems. The students adjusted their behavior patterns once they knew and practiced them. We occasionally review the presentation with the students to reinforce what they already know and may have “forgotten”.

There is a Fire Drill Checklist (M&E) that I put together which delineates the responsibilities of the fire chief, the school director, and the classroom teacher when planning and conducting a building evacuation plan. Fire drills in schools are unheard of in my community, so this checklist helped convince some officials to address the issue of a safe school evacuation as well as insuring that exits at indoor public gatherings are unlocked and unblocked during events.

There are a few posters in Macedonian that we designed and posted around the school to educate staff and students as to the proper way to “Cough and Cover”; Stop, Drop and Roll; and on how to conduct the Heimlich Maneuver. There is also a poster on limiting the amount of sugared drinks and the fact there are 13 teaspoons of sugar in half liter bottle of cola. These posters proved to be effective tool in bringing about an awareness of these topics. Why not conduct a town-wide campaign?

There is a PPP, Sowing Seeds, Successful Practices, that shares the successful strategies and resources that my counterpart, Alexandra, and I were able to implement in the classroom. Some of them enabled us to challenge the more advanced English Language students and some of them enabled us to provide alternative materials for the students who need more time to learn. The presentation contains only visuals (it was produced with the idea that I would explain each slide) but for the most part, the slides can be understood.

There are copies of three different classic stories that were adapted for reading by multiple students or for casting a play. They were adapted by a friend of mine classicacts.net so she should be sent a courtesy e-mail (crmgates@comcast.net) if the material is used in a public performance. She has given her permission for in-classroom reading to Peace Corps Volunteers in Macedonia. The adaptations make the readings fun and understandable for TEFL students.

There is a chart (M&E) that summarizes the amount of class time spent each year by teachers completing the required information in the Dnevnik (The Big Red Book) and the amount of time students wait while it is being completed. I shared it with the teachers and the director at Nlkola Karev and they were somewhat amazed about how much teaching time is lost over the course of the year.

There is a reference page to a software program that can be used by those responsible for completing the class and teacher’s schedules at the beginning of the school. We installed the program at our school and it saved countless hours of pencil/eraser adjustments. The program contains algorithms that can modify the entire schedule when the most minor change needs to be made.

I noticed when I first started observing the students in the classroom, that when a discussion was being held on any given topic, that it was quite common for more than one person at a time to be speaking, that comments were interjected while someone was trying to make a point, and that the noise level made the entire discussion quite chaotic. There is now a poster on the wall regarding “Rules for Conducting a Classroom Discussion”. We point to it when discussions begin to get noisy to remind the class, but it’s not always followed.

There is a memo “Suggestions for Managing Student Behavior” that I shared with the school Director and some of the teachers. It briefly discusses the need for students and staff to know what the school rules are, that they must be consistently enforced by all the teacher, and that there must be consequences for failure to follow the rules. These suggestions might seem obvious, but my observations proved otherwise. The school director addressed the issue.

There is a file “Games For English Class” that I put in PDF booklet format. I just copied a file that was already in the Peace Corps online library and repackaged it. Most of the English language teachers in Probistip have used it.

There is a PPP on “A Model Classroom” that illustrates the approaches that Alexandra and I took to turn our classroom, an unused chemistry lab, into a classroom that has the tools and the environment to more effectively teach English.

Finally, there is a file “The Best PE Games in America” which has the rules for Kickball, Speedball, Capture the Flag, Knockout and Ultimate Frisbee. I translated the rules into Macedonian (with a LITTLE help from my tutor) and distributed them to all the PE teachers in town and primary class teachers at Nikola Karev. The students loved the games when we played them during my after-school sports program but the PE teacher here seems reluctant to introduce any new activity in his classes. Maybe someday.

(No pictures attached to this blog)

Michael Had a Little Lamb

2011-05-22T10:52:00.006+03:00

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

2011-05-15T20:35:00.003+03:00

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.

Lilacs

2011-04-29T20:07:00.005+03:00

It’s a sunny spring weekend morning and I’m walking back to my apartment after taking a little sojourn around the town. I come upon two young girls who always greet me with smiles and a “Hello Michael!”. Neither of them are in my classes and for that matter, don’t even attend the school where I teach.

One of the girls is carrying a few sprigs of lilacs that she had collected. I mentioned how pretty they were and asked her if I could smell them. She held them up. I sniffed and commented how wonderful they smelled. In response, she handed them to me and told me, "For you!". The smile on her face grew when I accepted them. As we parted I could see that, happy as I was to receive them, she was truly even happier to have given them to me.

Macedonia!

N.B. Don't forget to check out the accompanying pictures!

That Which Is Good

2011-04-13T21:40:00.003+03:00

Probistip got more snow this March (5 cm.) than the entire rest of the winter. It was definitely the mildest of the three winters I have spent here in the northeast part of the country. We still get some cold and very windy days, but spring is slowly making an appearance.

As I predicted in a previous blog, I had some difficulty convincing the School Manager at the Municipality to allow me to conduct a workshop for the English teachers during the school week (not the weekend) and allow them to have a Professional Development Day that started early in the morning and didn’t require them to attend a 4 hour workshop after teaching all day. Initially he agreed to my request, but after speaking with the three school directors, he changed his mind and told me I could conduct the workshop starting at 12:00.

I in turn told him “I wasn’t going to conduct a workshop that violated every principle of conducting a successful workshop and I wasn’t going to do a mediocre job”. The impasse was resolved when Alexandra intervened and we compromised on a starting time of 10:00. I believe this may have been the first time that the decision of a person in power was challenged and only because I initiated the challenge. I had nothing to lose, unlike most citizens in the country who are fearful to challenge the decisions of those in power because of the political ramifications.

Anyway, all 10 of the the primary school English teachers turned out for the workshop. The high school director prohibited his teachers from missing classes to attend the workshop, somehow over-ruling the school manager’s decision (the director must be higher up in the political hierarchy). We had a great workshop and the teachers left with many useful handouts and new ideas. The teachers commented that it was a great experience and wished that they could have more opportunities to learn and share.

I also had the opportunity to conduct a couple of sessions (Teaching in a Multi-level Classroom and Developing Resources) for the MAK 15 TEFL’s who were attending their technical IST (In-Service Training) in Ohrid. This required me to spend 12 hours (round trip) on a bus (plus wait time for connections) and an overnight stay in a very nice hotel in Ohrid. The presentations afforded me the chance to share everything Alexandra and I had accomplished in the past 2 ½ years. I just hope that the PVC’s in attendance got something out of them.

By the way, my beautiful, capable, knowledgeable, talented wife (she reads this blog)) arrived for her fifth visit (and sadly her last since I will return to the USA in June) to Macedonia. And for the third time, her luggage arrived with her, improving the baggage-arrival-with-passenger rating at Sophia International Airport to 60%. I picked her up in the capital city of Bulgaria once again, since it costs $500 less than to fly there than into Skopje. Bobbie (our favorite taxi driver) and I continued our twice a year tradition of stopping at one of the McDonalds in Sophia. He always orders and a Big Mac and I always order three hamburgers, fries and a Skopsko beer. They taste exactly like a McDonalds in America,the hamburgers, not the beer.

March 8th was Woman’s Day in Macedonia (they don’t have a Mother’s Day as we know it - all women are honored). The children bring flowers for their female teachers and many of those teachers bring in sweets for their students. Alexandra got a ton of artificial roses. Traditionally, the women teachers celebrate at a local restaurant in the evening. They seem to really look forward to it.

The town had its annual Cleanup Day combined with the twice a year National Tree Planting Day. This year the high school students in Probistip, along with all the municipal workers, planted the trees while the primary school students cleaned up around the town roads and school grounds. The children came to school this day armed with brooms, garden rakes, hoes, and sticks with nails imbedded in the end for picking up paper. Surprisingly, and despite this plethora of pseudo-armament and the many pointed-stick duels I witnessed, no eyes were lost, no blood was let, no injuries reported, and no lawsuits filed. I also noticed a direct correlation of .97 between grade level and work ethic – the higher the grade level the less the level of enthusiasm and the amount of cleanup actually accomplished. This supports world-wide observations made on this matter of adolescent behavior. Once again my leaf rake was a big hit as few people in Macedonia have ever encountered one and wanted to try it out.

Similar to the Carnival in Strumica on Fat Tuesday, the town sponsored a Masken Ball (Costume Ball) for the young children and students the evening of 31 March. There was a tent erected on the town plaza for dignitaries and judges, a live band and an awesome sound system. The emcee for the evening was exceptionally good. There was also a decent fireworks display. Many residents turned out to watch the children parade around the plaza while the panel of judges, judged. Prizes were awarded in different categories for the best costumes. It was an entertaining family-oriented evening.

At one of our Wednesday evening English conversation group meetings back in the Fall, the topic of recreational activities for children came up, specifically the idea of safe bike-riding areas. The discussion revealed that there were no really safe areas for smaller children. So I half-jokingly suggested to one of our regular attendees, Clavche, that he should initiate a project to resolve this problem. And he accepted the challenge. He worked very hard over the winter months on the project, facing the many obstacles that confront new initiatives in Macedonia. David helped him out occasionally and I printed his posters, but that was it. He was rewarded for all his efforts when on 2 April, 65 bicyclists turned out for the first community ride of the GREEN PATHS Bicycle Club. They traveled to Strumush, a village about 15 kilometers away. There was local TV coverage of the event. Clavche was interviewed on the local TV station. He received the recognition he deserved.

It was rewarding for me to witness the seed of a suggestion turn into Clavche’s completed project.

Trip’in

2011-03-26T10:24:00.003+02:00

This month I received two invitations to travel with two different school groups to destinations that I had wanted to eventually visit during my service in Macedonia. The first was an invitation to travel to the city of Strumica on Tuesday March 8th which is what we know as Fat Tuesday, Mardis Gras, or the day before Ash Wednesday - the beginning of Lent. People from around the country come to Strumica to observe or take part in the celebrations and parade – Carnival. This year there were also groups from Albania and Bulgaria that participated. Last year the students from Probistip won a major prize for their costumes (masques) and this year they returned en-mass dressed as Alexander’s renowned phalanx warriors. They spent many weeks preparing their masques for their return trip this year.

David and I were invited to accompany them on a very nice chartered bus to the Carnival and watch the evening parade. We were treated to a lunch along with the students and later on to a sandwich and juice for the return trip. It was a great photo-op (check them out) and would have been better if there wasn’t a security guard stationed every 6 meters along the parade route blocking the view. I believe it was one of the coldest days of the winter with steady wind, but many of the participants wore some pretty skimpy outfits. After the parade, people partied, as they do at Mardi Grases(what’s the plural of Mardi Gras?) around the world, with lots of loud music and drinks of your choice. I didn’t see any beaded necklaces. Being that we were with the students, we left at 8PM and returned to Probistip at 10:30, although some of the chaperons stayed to party. The students were well behaved, had a wonderful experience and did Probistip proud. Check out www.strumickikarneval.com and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7K36oyNg7o to learn more about the Carnival.

On the 15th, I was invited to accompany a group of eighth graders that were going on an excursion to view the new dam that was being built on the nearby Zletevo River. This was part of the geography teacher’s lesson on studying the water systems of Macedonia. Ivanchay, the teacher, asked me to take photos of the day’s events and wanted me to teach the students how to test the water at various locations. So I had two responsibilities besides being a spectator. The students were thrilled that I was going along and many of them spoke very good English, so there were no communication concerns. Once the 15 passenger mini-bus that Tito rode to school on (why do we ride on a bus but we ride in a car?) arrived, all 25 of us, along with lunches, drinks and backpacks piled onto it for the trip up the mountain to our dam destination.

Ivanchay did a great job planning the day’s events and as it turned out, we precisely followed the time line that he had planned and written out. Timeliness is not a common Macedonian trait, so I was thoroughly impressed. The trip included stops in the town of Zletevo; a stop at a monastery in the mountain inhabited by Orthodox nuns; a stop at a small waterfall for testing the water; a stop at a water treatment facility; a tour of the new dam; lunch along the river where we once again tested the water; a stop where selected individuals descended a 60 degree, 150meter, rain-slickened, rock-strewn incline to view a breathtaking waterfall; and a stop on the way home at a restaurant for tea (Ivanchay and I had a couple of beers. Drinking on field trips in front of the students is acceptable adult behavior, I was told.)

Some of my thoughts along the way: These students really, really get along well with each other. This country is soooo beautiful! How many nuns live in the monastery, do they teach school and if they do, do they rap students’ knuckles with rulers? Why don’t they install guardrails along this narrow mountain road with the 200 meter drop-off to my left,? These rock slides that block the road and that require us to de-bus to clear out of the way, do they occur at scheduled times or could one of them randomly occur at the moment we are passing and sweep the bus over the cliff? Do we have a First-Aid kit with us? Will the girls who were considered to be too-girlie, have their parents give Ivanchay a hard time tomorrow for prohibiting them from descending the slick, rock-avalanche-prone mountainside to see the waterfall? Will I have a heart attack climbing back up the mountainside after proclaiming to the students that I was in an Infantry Division for 21 years and I was used to such challenges? (N.B. I did receive an ovation from the students for having successfully completed the trip and I further embellished the reputation of ALL 64 year old American men in the minds of my Macedonian friends.) Maybe passengers' laps count as a place to sit when considering maximum seating capacities on buses in Macedonia? How well can the driver see now that it is raining when only one windshield wiper works and the windows are fogged-up? Will the bus driver (who by the way was very professional) answer his cell phone if it rings as we’re going around the next blind curve? How qualified is the mechanic who performed the last brake job on the bus and was he in a good mood when he did it? We sure did laugh a lot today.

Can any day get much better than this day in Macedonia was?

Your Trash Could Be My Treasure

2011-03-03T17:16:00.003+02:00

This blog entry is directed to my fellow TEFL Peace Corps Volunteers who have little resources to use in their classroom other than a textbook and workbook. Others are more than welcome to read it if so inclined.

One day when I could no longer fit another one in my kitchen drawer, I finally decided to put to use the beer, soda, and juice container discarded bottle caps (DBC’s) I had been saving (TEFL PCV’s rarely discard anything that may someday prove useful in a resource-less classroom).

To help some of the struggling students who were having trouble with the Latin alphabet, I took 26 of the DBC’s and drew one letter on each. The students thoroughly enjoyed the task of putting them in order while singing the Alphabet Song, or not, and they became somewhat proficient in the sounds of each letter.

This one small success led me to come up with a myriad of uses for the DCB’s. Of course I needed to renew my supply, so I conducted a contest among the 2 fifth and 2 sixth grade classes - the class that collected the most caps in one week would receive a batch of my famous homemade cookies. That alone inspired them to collect over 1400 multi-colored caps. Plus we had a lot of fun competing.

But rather than go on here and describe other ways I found to use the DBC’s in the classroom, at the top of this page, click on to My Photo Albums and open the album “Bottle Caps” where you will find annotated photos describing some of the ways we use the DCB’s with the students to reinforce what they have learned. I am sure you will find many more.

Eat To Live

2011-02-27T14:38:00.002+02:00

Having been here in Macedonia for 29 months I have had the opportunity to sample most if not all of the traditional food dishes. All of them are made with the home grown ingredients that are seasonally based and are very fresh and quite delicious. So right now, root vegetables-potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, garlic, beets- are easily found at the market here in Probistip. Sometimes you can find lettuce and broccoli because some of the growers have installed plastic covered hot houses. Imported oranges, mandarins, kiwis, grapefruit, bananas and local apples are plentiful. For some reason, dried cranberries are available. Hats off to the marketing people from the cranberry growers of America who have overcome the Macedonian tradition of reluctance to try something new or different.

The five meat stores make it easy to procure pork, chicken and sometimes, beef. It’s still very difficult to find lamb in this part of the country. The beef I have bought, however is very tough, so I have been unsuccessful in making a nice roast beef or beef Wellington. The ground beef makes excellent low-fat hamburgers and Shepherd’s pie. You can, of course, find a better variety of meat in the bigger cities. There are quite a few “meats” that are available that I have not developed a taste for or in some cases have not identified, but are quite popular here. Tongue, hearts, intestines, brain, kidneys and all sorts of dried smoked meats and sausages fill the meat displays.

As good as the traditional food is, there is a real shortage of variety in the towns and villages. Here people eat to live, not live to eat. Each of the dozen-or-so restaurants have the same menu and choices. No Italian, Chinese, Turkish, or Mexican. No chain restaurants. But for the equivalent of $5, I can get an enormous salad, fresh bread, 2 beers or 2 glasses of wine, an entrée with fries and a pancake dessert (a crepe). I can get a large roll filled with a “hamburger” (a pork-beef mixture) and fries and covered in ketchup and mayo for 65 cents. A beer would make it $1.05.

Every Wednesday in Probistip is market day, a day to meet up with neighbors and friends from the villages and a day to procure items which aren’t readily available in the stores in The Probe. It’s a very big social event. I am always amazed at the pint-sized babas in their traditional dress who have come out for the occasion to shop. not even 4 ½ fee tall pushing a wheelbarrow or pulling a shopping cart full of a week’s necessities, whether it be fresh produce, paper products or some new clothes.

A frustrating task is trying to get an older Macedonian to try a new food. Some won’t even try, some will try reluctantly and some look forward to the new experience. Jell-O because it wiggles too much and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because “we don’t eat salty and sweet together” (Payday), received a thumbs down. Some children at school liked Toll House cookies, others didn’t. Fruit pies when I make them, which are unknown in these parts, generally receive a thumbs-up.

I rarely eat out simply because there is no variety in the restaurants. I can always find something of interest to make at home with the ingredients I have on hand. Frequently I must make substitutions for ingredients but the final dish always turns out edible. The Peace Corps Volunteers in Macedonia put together a cookbook filled with recipes that can be made using ingredients that can be found locally.

Lately I’ve been making my own bread, much to the dismay of the students at school and my male and female friends. Men don’t bake. That’s impeding on the roll of the women folk (clever play on words). Freshly baked buttered bread, 15 minutes hot out of the oven ranks in the Top Ten Pleasures of life on earth. Why couldn’t God have made vegetables taste like freshly baked bread? I would surely look forward to eating my brussel sprouts and green beans.

Most Macedonians in the rural areas have never left Macedonia and are unaware of the overwhelming variety of foods in the world. They are content eating the foods that their families have been preparing for hundreds of years. Variety doesn’t really matter – unless you’re a PCV who has lived in-country for the last 29 months.

Classroom Management 101

2011-02-12T12:46:00.003+02:00

A milestone was reached upon our return to school on January 24th. It became very apparent to me very early in my classroom observations in Negotino and in Probistip, and verified by almost all the PCV TEFL’s throughout Macedonia, that the students behaved somewhat like the characters in the novel Lord of the Flies. By this I mean there didn’t seem to be any behavioral direction for the students to follow, so they more-or-less behaved as children would behave, given no supervision. When I asked the Macedonian teachers if students were always so “uncontrollable”, they would respond that when they were in school under the Yugoslavian Government, things were quite different and discipline was not an issue.

So the missing key here in “Deadwood”, as I soon realized, was that the students didn’t really know how to behave and were ignorant what the teacher expected of them. To address this hole in their schooling, I put together a Power Point Presentation for Alexandra entitled “My Expectations in My Classroom”,“My“ referring to Alexandra. She accepted the idea and presented it to each of her classes (5th, 6th, and 8th grades) on their first English class of the New Year.

The topics covered in the presentation were: Do Your Own Work; No Leaving the Classroom Once You Enter; Be Ready to Work When the Bell Rings; Check the Chalk Board for Your First Assignment of the Day; Follow Our Classroom Rules As Posted on the Wall; Look at Me When I Am Speaking; Rules for Conducting a Class Discussion; Bring Your Handout to Class; When Another Student Is Speaking, Listen; Do Your Homework; Ask Questions; Comply With Our Noise Level Chart; Be Prepared to Answer Questions; and Listen and Learn.

These topics might seem rather basic, but each one of them was something that the students needed to hear from the teacher. So Alexandra spent the period explaining in detail what she expected in her classroom. Other teachers may have different or no expectations, but her English class would be conducted in compliance with her expectations (a new marshal in Deadwood).

The difficult part for Alexandra now, is to enforce and reinforce her expectations. It’s a lot of work initially to change behavior patterns and it’s tiring. She is letting the students know she means business and she’s getting wonderful results. The students, for the most part, have bought into her ideas. The students now come into the classroom knowing they can’t leave to wander the hallway and hangout near the water closet. They know they must be ready to work with pen/pencil, textbook and handout when the starting bell rings, not starting to get ready (they have a five minute transition time to get to their next class). They must check the board and begin their assignment while the teacher fills in the Dnevnik (another story). They know if they break one of the class rules (developed by the students themselves) they will write the rule out 15x’s in English and 15x’s in Macedonian for homework. They know they must face the teacher and look at her when she is speaking and not be doodling or daydreaming. They know they must bring their handouts that Alexandra and I put together to save time by eliminating copying vocabulary and grammar rules into a notebook. They know they must raise their hand to make a comment during class discussions and not just yell out their opinions while another student is speaking. They know Alexandra keeps a record of completed homework assignments. They know they should not be embarrassed to ask questions and that the teacher thinks they understand what she is talking about if they don’t. They know they must be silent when the teacher gives them a “One” command; whisper on a ‘Two”; indoor voice on “Three” and rarely, if ever, use the “Four” or “Five” mode. A “One” is the default mode.

So far the results have been wonderful. The students now have understandable guidelines and they are very content to follow them. I also have noticed Alexandra’s surprise and elation how classroom behavior has changed and she admitted that it’s fun to come to school with a new idea to try out on the students. She also knows from experience over the last few weeks, that initially it’s going to take a lot of effort on her part to reinforce and enforce her newly codified expectations. But she fully understands that her efforts now will result in a better learning environment for her students for years to come. It’s all up to her.

I challenged Alexandra last December to see if she could teach her lessons for the month of February without using the designated textbook that was selected to be used in Macedonia (and which I hate for many reasons – another story). Sadly, most teachers only have the text and workbook and no other resources and couldn’t accept such a challenge. We’re now half-way through the month and she has yet to use the textbook. Instead, she has devised some wonderful activities, found relevant websites on the internet, introduced the students to ThinkQuest on the computer, and used pertinent music and lyrics. I don’t doubt that she’ll make it to the end of the month and meet my challenge.

I’ve been busy building up a supply of teaching resources that the English teachers can use to supplement and reinforce their lessons. My son Jesse and his friends made a donation of a continuous ink-flow printer and supplies necessary to make laminated flash-cards, game boards and other materials that need to be protected for re-use. The materials will be available for use by any of the English teachers in Probistip.

I’m also completing “Operation Bottle Cap” so there will be a handy supply of manipulatives for working with students of varying abilities, from the simple making of the Latin alphabet to irregular verbs and opposite adjectives.

My next immediate goal is to conduct a workshop for all the English teachers during which Alexandra and I will present all of the strategies and materials that we have developed over the last two years. I’ve got to convince the manager of the schools here in Probistip to allow the teachers to attend. When the Ministry of Education sponsors a workshop, the managers and directors jump through hoops to insure teachers attend. Locally initiated workshops are unheard of so I’ve got to make a convincing argument to have one.

How’s My Liver Doing?

2011-01-23T19:39:00.002+02:00

During this holiday season, a lucky member of each Macedonian family has the opportunity to be blessed with health, good fortune and happiness on Badnik (Christmas Eve). How? If you are the one to acquire the coin hidden in a piece of homemade bread given to you at dinner, then you will receive many benefits in the New Year. And if you are a male married during the previous year, you are afforded a SECOND chance to win such blessings. It happens on Voditci.

Voditci is the day commemorating the baptism of Jesus. In the Orthodox Christian community, there is a tradition whereby the local priest, after a short ritual ceremony, tosses a cross into a lake, river or whatever body of water is available. Recently (within the last year) married males from the village or town compete to retrieve it. This is the strict tradition in Zletevo but in many communities now, any adult male willing to confront the frigid waters, can participate.

The previous two years I attended Voditci in Probistip where the event is conducted at the town swimming pool because there is no lake or river in the Probe (see my blogs from January 2009 and 2010). This year along with David and our good friend Clavche, I went to the nearby, (15 minute taxi ride) town of Zletevo where they have a river. At 6AM we set out and were among the first to arrive at the site on the Zletevo River where the ceremony would take place. The only ones there before us were the individuals warming the rakija and tea and the individuals setting up the sound system. This gave us the opportunity to get the best spot to take photos.
Traditionally, men from the community contribute to the rakija pot and so there is plenty of the stuff to go around and it’s free. So in order to meld into the community as envisioned by the Peace Corps, at 6:45 AM I had my first rakija of the day solely to be “one of the guys” (AKA “peer pressure”). In 64 years I had never had a 104 proof alcohol so early in the day but its warmth and sweetness was comforting on a cold winter morning. Plus the men in the town were pleased to see that I was participating in one of their beloved traditions.

We were told that the ceremony would start about 7AM, so IAW Macedonian convention, people started to arrive at 7:15 and the ceremony began at 8:15. Time is an approximation, not an exactitude, here in this wonderful country. But since my fingers were pretty numb from the cold, I was glad when the priest and his entourage finally arrived. After a brief liturgy under the gazebo, the pope (the Macedonian word for priest is “pope”) and the men from Zletevo who had been married the previous year, participated in the traditional throwing and retrieving of the cross (check out my photos).

During the event when I was changing lenses on my camera, a lens cover flew off and landed on some rocks at the edge of the water. It would have been very difficult, if not impossible to recover it, so I kind of wrote it off. But the many Zletvoians who witnessed it, were deeply concerned about the situation. Remember that David and I were visitors in the community and stood out from everyone else. People were always looking at us out of curiosity, but in a very friendly way. And so it was important to them to retrieve the lens cover for their guest and they did so when one of the non-recently married swimmers climbed up onto the rocks to retrieve the lens cover. Everyone nearby was sincerely relieved that I it was returned to me.

When the ceremony was over and after my third to-be-sociable-rakija (and to prove my American manhood to the Macedonian men), we headed back to the center where we would search for a taxi to take us back to Probistip. However, on the road back, Stojche, one of the gentlemen we had been talking with, invited us into his home for a “na goste” (a visit). This always sems to happen here in the smaller towns and villages. People invite strangers into their home for food, drink and conversation. We went.

Two and one-half hours later, 5 more shots of homemade rakija, salad, coffee, lots of laughs and a sharing of life’s experiences with Stojche and his wonderful wife, the three of us headed back to Probistip. Cab fare was 160 denari ($2.50) split three ways. I appreciated the fact that I wasn’t the driver and not in the position of having to prove to my Macedonian friends that I was capable of driving after consuming an inordinate amount of alcohol.

When I returned home I needed to get some shut-eye. The rakija had taken its toll. I grabbed a blanket and headed out to my chair on my balcony. It was a somewhat mild winter day and it was sunny. As I lay ensconced on the recliner, I briefly reflected on my wonderful 8 rakija-day among the wonderful people of Zletevo before I fell asleep (passed out) for the next well-deserved two and half hours. This gave my liver a chance to do whatever God intended it to do. I was pleased knowing that I survived the binge and that the men of Zletevo appreciated my participation in their tradition and rewarded with an A+ (when it comes to drinking their National beverage). All in all, a challenging day’s work as a PCV.

I’m now looking forward to a couple of alcohol-free months. And, I believe, so is my liver.

Many Traditions

2011-01-16T12:27:00.002+02:00

The month of January is basically a month of celebrating. It’s like the time in America between Christmas and New Years when everyone “goes to work” , however you want to describe work. The holiday spirit lasts three to four weeks. Why not? We can always accomplish tomorrow what we could have accomplished today.

The town looks very festive during this time and the lights will probably stay up till at least February. I’m hoping we get at least one snowfall during this time. School is not back in session until the 24th so the students are slowly forgetting much of what they learned in the first half of the school year. The teachers have finished their grading and record keeping as required by the overzealous demands of the remnants of the socialist record-keeping bureaucrats. Yet the teachers must still report to school almost every day, be seen, drink a cup of something hot because the building is not heated, and then head back home after an hour or so. Why? No one knows.

Since Phil is always free-loading off of everybody, David, Jim, Michael, Lillian and I decided to invade Phil’s place in Bitola to celebrate the New Year and freeload off of Phil. Much to his credit and my astonishment, he was the perfect host and put together a couple of nice meals. We celebrated with 10 other PCV’s who had come to town and who stayed with a couple of other Bitola-stationed Volunteers. The seniors amongst us acknowledged the New Year with cigars and Jack Daniels ($30 a Liter) on the square at midnight. There were thousands of people attending the event and everyone seemed to be having an enjoyable time. I was able to get a few really good photos of the fireworks because it was the first time I was actually under a fireworks display. They exploded directly overhead. There were no safety zones set up and we stood directly next to the launching area.

I understand from the many people who asked me where I was, that there was a very nice celebration in Probistip. As nice as Bitola was, I looked forward to my return home to Probistip on Sunday, having eaten all of Phil’s food and drinking most all of his hard-to-come-by black tea (You can find a half dozen or more kinds of tea in Probistip. Tea has a medicinal value and there is a tea for every ailment. Apparently there are no ailments that can be cured by drinking India tea (black tea – Lipton) because none of the stores or markets carry it).

In the USA, it’s back to our daily routine after New Years. Here, we still have the Christmas season ahead of us. On the 5th of January, David and I were invited to attend a traditional ceremony that takes place on the mountain. Many of the men from town head up to one of the local mountains for the purpose of collecting oak leaves which they will place in their Christmas Eve fire. I’m not exactly sure of the meaning of this tradition, although I did understand oak, smoke, strength, health, and luck when it was being explained to me. Of course the occasion was celebrated on the mountain with blessings by the priests, rakija, wine, food and traditional music and dancing.

Last year I was unprepared for the tradition of children coming around on Christmas Eve morning(December 6th). Representing angels (I am told), they carry a large staff and go house –to-house singing the words:”If you are asleep, wake up! If you are awake, make us cookies! If you can’t make us cookies, then give us walnuts! If you can’t give us walnuts, give us chestnuts! If you can’t give us chestnuts, give us some money? If you can’t give us some money, then we will break your window!” This kind of puts a damper on the “angel” scenario, but according to the police chief there have been no reports of broken windows on the last few Christmas Eve mornings. This year I was ready for the children, although I might have slept through their 6AM arrival had I not heard them singing across the street.

Christmas Eve (Badnik) is spent at home with family. A meatless meal is served and traditional formalities are carried out (see my blogs from January 2008 and 2009 which go into more detail). (Congratulations to my good friend Violeta in Negotino for getting the coin this year!) On Christmas Day (Boshik), families and friends visit one another. Gift giving is kept to a minimum, considering Father Ice made some deliveries on New Year’s Eve. Gift giving is not a big deal in Macedonia. I love the idea. No stress in trying to figure out if your wife wants a new iron or a new vacuum.

After the religious celebration of Christmas, many people look forward to celebrating Old New Year’s Day, January 13th in accordance with the Julian calendar. Another excuse to party! David and I were invited to attend the party of the municipal employees. It took place at the fish restaurant located in a beautiful setting in the mountains and owned by the mayor. It was another fun-filled party with the traditional food, drink, music and dancing that one comes to expect at these occasions. I was even able to throw a few of my infamous dance moves into the traditional Ora which a few adventuresome Macedonians were able to mimic.

The last traditional event of the season will take place on the 19th when the men of the town/village who were married the previous year will attempt to retrieve the cross thrown into the bitterly cold lake/river/ swimming pool by the local priests, commemorating the baptism of Jesus (once again, if interested, more detailed accounts of this event are reported in my blogs from January 2009 and 2010).

During this school break I have been putting together materials for a workshop for all the English teachers in Probistip. I have to try and sell the idea of canceling English classes for one day to the “superintendent of the schools” so the teachers can attend on the school’s time in Alexandra’s classroom. Usually teachers are expected to attend these workshops on weekends (great for morale!) This is a novel approach to offering in-service training so it might be a hard sell. We’ll see.

Hi-Tech? No! No-Tech Today

2010-12-27T18:59:00.004+02:00

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)

Just So You Know

2010-12-12T10:56:00.002+02:00

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.

We’re Ready

2010-11-28T11:55:00.002+02:00

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 café, 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.

Commitment Accomplished

2010-11-17T17:49:00.003+02:00

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”.

A Family Visits

2010-10-31T17:14:00.003+02:00

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).

Harvest Time

2010-10-24T09:58:00.002+03:00

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.

Some Other Doings

2010-10-09T10:44:00.003+03:00

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.

A New School Year

2010-09-12T10:22:00.002+03:00

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.

What Do You Do When There Are No Students?

2010-08-28T15:00:00.004+03:00

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.

Summer Jaunting

2010-08-09T10:11:00.003+03:00

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 café 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.

Villages in the Municipality of Probistip

2010-07-26T11:01:00.003+03:00

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.

The “Suburbs” of Probistip

2010-07-10T20:21:00.001+03:00

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.

Happenings Around Town

2010-06-28T20:46:00.004+03:00

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 café 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.

Such a Beautiful Country

2010-06-13T16:08:00.003+03:00

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.

Happenings at School

2010-05-23T22:30:00.003+03:00

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.

Class Picture Day

2010-05-11T19:01:00.002+03:00

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.

Lovely Lee B.

2010-05-02T17:35:00.004+03:00

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.

The Arrival of Spring and My Wife

2010-04-18T19:34:00.002+03:00

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.

Random Observations

2010-03-28T23:27:00.004+03:00

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.

Pensioners and a Presentation

2010-03-14T18:57:00.005+02:00

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!

Saint Trifon’s Day Round II

2010-02-26T22:08:00.003+02:00

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.

500+ Days

2010-02-20T21:20:00.004+02:00

I have now been in Macedonia for 500-plus days but it seems like I just arrived.

Changes are taking place in our school and English language classroom. The long-awaited computers have arrived and have been installed on all the new desks in selected classrooms. They aren’t functional yet, but we’re expecting a team from the government to come by next week to verify that they were properly installed. Then it will be light-up time.

The Ministry of Education is working toward the goal of having computers in every classroom. While this might initially sound like a worthy goal, I personally believe (and I am not the only one) that it brings about a myriad of other issues. First of all, the teachers have not been trained on how to use them (training is scheduled) and many of the older teachers have not accepted the idea of computers. From a classroom management standpoint, they extremely limit the layout of the classroom. They take up most of the student’s desk space, limiting the use of textbooks and workbooks. They establish a confining environment so that the teacher cannot work with individual students and make it difficult to review a student’s progress in their workbooks. Perhaps a work station with five or six computers would be a better alternative. Anyway, we’ll see how it works out.

Alexandra initiated a Consequences for Misbehavior procedure for the students. She posts on the wall-mounted chart instances of misbehavior for students who fail to comply with the class rules. There are five steps, with the fifth offence resulting in a trip to the Principal’s office. It has made a marked difference in the behavior of the perpetual miscreants. Up to now there were no formalized consequences for misbehavior.

MAK 13’s (that’s me) had their Mid-Service Training in Skopje for three days (M,T,W). Our counterparts (Alexandra) had two days (W,Th), with Wednesday being an overlap day when we were all there. It was a time to rejuvenate our language skills, learn more about the Macedonian educational system, hear about accomplishments and challenges of our peers, share ideas and catch up with our fellow MAK13’s doings. The intent of the get-together was to set the stage for our second year of service when most volunteers experience their most successful accomplishments.

I had to return to Skopje a week after the MST for the required mid-service physical and dental exam. The results of the rather cursory exam found me to be in good health. Dr. Darko, the Peace Corps doctor, had me get on the weigh-in scale fully clothed, as do the nurses at my doctor’s office at home. I hadn’t seen nor been on a scale for 500-plus days, so I was curious to find out my current weight. I’m usually in the 195 lb. range (doesn’t 88 kilograms sound better?) but the scale registered 205 lbs. So I subtracted the weight of my hiking boots, cell phone, digital camera, winter-weight clothes, wallet, coins and watch and estimated that, buck naked, I would weigh only 150 pounds (the percentage of error is +/- 35lbs.). Great news! My diet of wine, rakija and bread is having great results.

After my physical I had to kill some time before my 4PM bus to Probistip, so I decided I’d treat myself to a McDonald’s lunch. There are three McDonald’s in Skopje. I ordered three burgers, medium fries, and a Sprite. Initially my taste buds were perplexed but soon realized that they had savored this combination of ingredients before and they burst into an uncontrollable celebration. They wanted more and more and more, ignoring the signals from the depository of the after-chew. I resisted the urge to consume a fourth burger. My lunch was definitely the highlight of this trip to Skopje.

Most adults and twenty-somethings (although the latter qualify for the former) don’t patronize McDonald’s. They have grown up with 30 denari huge sandwiches that are similar to a hamburger, but are topped with fries and ketchup and mayo. They must pay 50 denari for a small McDonald’s hamburger without the fries. However the teenagers and children in Skopje love the place. On the day I was there, the place was packed with high school students and mothers with their young children. So I figure in 20 years there will be a Mickey Dee in every city and town in Macedonia.

Til then I’ll have to settle for a 30 denari pork hamburger (sans beef) on a large bun and topped with fries, mayo and ketchup here in the “Probe”.

Back in Action

2010-01-31T09:18:00.003+02:00

The students returned to school on the 20th. They were pleased to be back after a 21 day vacation. Upon my return, I was greeted by the three flagpoles that were once hidden behind 30 foot evergreens next to the school building and now stand way out in front of the school, proudly displaying the Macedonian National Flag. The Director must have gotten tired of me harping about flying the flag, because she had them moved over the vacation. Or maybe she just thought it was a good Idea. Anyway, we are currently the only public building, or for that matter any building, flying the national colors daily. I’m hoping the idea catches on at the Municipal Building and the other two schools in town.

Alexandra and I are still coming up with supplemental ways to teach English. We are developing a system to rollback the amount of time the students spend in class copying vocabulary and grammar rules (good news: the government provides books to all students; bad news: students can’t write in them ). We are using music, English reading materials from our friends in America, and Macedonian-English dictionaries. The several dictionaries that we have open up many new instructional techniques and allow us to involve in different ways, all of the learners in class. In learning a new language, building a working vocabulary is a key to building up the confidence of the learner to speak and write. The texts that the Macedonian teachers must use, fail in helping the students build a vocabulary because they are genetically written to teach English to students, regardless of their native language.

Currently students attempt to learn English without classroom dictionaries. In reality, 98% (hyperbole) of the English teachers in Macedonia do not have their own classroom . They must travel from class to class and bring with them, only what they can carry. So dictionaries are not used and learning a new language remains more challenging for the students than need be.

David and I took a day trip to Skopje over the holidays (he hadn’t yet had a chance to explore it) to catch the Christmas decorations and ambiance of the capital during the holiday season. The City Fathers (if there are such people) did a marvelous job and located a temporary ice skating rink in the center plaza. People were having a good time and in good spirits. When you go to Skopje, you can leave your Macedonian language home. Most of the store clerks and waitresses/waiters speak English so at least you can make a purchase or order some food without getting out your dictionary. I stocked up on peanut butter and David bought a Macedonian flag to fly on national holidays.

The 19th of January is a feast day/holiday in the Orthodox Balkans, or at least here in Macedonia. The feast day commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The local priests, at the conclusion of the morning ceremony, toss a cross into the lake (as in Ohrid), the river (as in Vardar) or the swimming pool (as in Probistip). As I understand it, men from town who have married within the last year, are entitled to plunge into the winter waters in an attempt to retrieve the floating cross. Honor and blessings are bestowed upon the retrieveree (click at the top of the page on my annotated photos)

We’ve had a few light snowfalls in January, but unlike my first winter here, it has remained cold enough for the snow to stick around for more than a day. The children continue to flock to the "hill" outside my apartment, having as much fun as any skier or snowboarder at Aspen or Whistler. The majority of the residents in my neighborhood heat and cook with wood and basically live in one room for the duration of the winter. With the cold weather of the last few weeks, I see the babas (grandmothers)and pensioneers continuously fetching wood from their storage sheds located behind of the apartment buildings. Fortunately, all I need to do when it gets too cold, is turn up the dial on the thermostat of my electric heater. Electricity is an expensive alternative to wood, so a large percentage of Probistipians continue to use the traditional method of heating and cooking.

I am currently working on a bunch of projects (try to visualize a bunch of projects) which are keeping me very busy. I met the mayor’s chief-of-staff who invited me to give a presentation to the mayor and his staff on my observations and ideas as a one-year resident of their community. I was asked to facilitate a session at the upcoming mid-service- conference for the MAK13’s. I’m monitoring the best English students at school who are translating into Macedonian, Physical Education activities for the lower grade teachers and English-for-Police for the Probistip Police Department.

Right now, I have to do the monthly cleaning of my apartment, do two loads of laundry once the water comes back on, bake a pie using the apples that I received from my neighbors, make a carrot (the Vegetable of the Month) salad that I found on the internet which uses maple syrup and make some soup using the carcass of yesterday’s roast chicken.

Wait a minute! Aren’t those women’s chores? I hope I’ll still remember how to use a hammer, change the oil in my car, and spit once I return home to America.

More Holiday Season II

2010-01-10T14:30:00.003+02:00

Christmas on the 25th was just another day and it didn’t really seem anything like a holiday. I did however, enjoy my Skype’ed visit that evening with my wife, sons, their maidens, my mother, my brothers, sister, brother-in –law, sisters-in-law, niece, nephews, and as the case may be, their wives. Also a quick thank you to my neighbors back home– the Wilsons, the Hoveys, the Nolans and others - who have watched out for my wife over the last year and eased any concerns that I may have had in her ability to survive two-and-a-half years without me.

The week after the 25th was the lead-up to the holidays here. Decorations went up, people bustled around the town and the holiday spirit began to appear. The students at school were busy decorating classrooms and common areas. As usual, Alexandra took the lead and was overseeing the whole process. It was nice watching the students make most of the decorations from ordinary pieces of paper.

The music teachers with the help of some of the classroom teachers put together a wonderful New Years Pageant which I recorded. I put together a souvenir DVD which I hope we can use to raise some money for English-Macedonian dictionaries. Since this is a new concept, I will have to sell the principal on the idea.

We had a wonderful teachers’ holiday party at the local hotel. Macedonians love to dance and they seemed to dance the Oro non-stop. I kind of missed the Chicken Dance, YMCA, the Hokey Pokey, and the Electric Slide, but maybe someday in the near future some innovative Macedonian (probably Alexandra) will sneak it into a Macedonian celebration. I feigned ignorance of the Oro and chose not to participate, not because I couldn’t dance it, but because I didn’t have the stamina to dance non-stop for 40 minutes at a time.

Most of the excitement in Macedonian is focused on the first day of the New Year. So the other PCV in Probistip, David (you met him in previous blogs) and I went to Bitola, the second largest and most beautiful city in Macedonia (reference earlier blogs from my wife) to spend time (and free lodging) with the most famous photographer from Connecticut, Phil.

Winter bus rides afford riders a great view of the countryside landscape. The defoliated trees along roads enable one to experience a unobstructed view of the valleys, rivers, and distant mountains. The emerald fields of winter wheat stand out in the otherwise brown and gray landscape and the leafless vineyards and arbors, with their dress-right-dress formations remind one of a North Korean tribute to President (dictator) Kim Jong-il (that’s my analogy, OK? Maybe that wouldn’t be your’s.).

Bitola was dressed in all its holiday splendor and ready to rock at midnight. We caught up with the other volunteers from Bitola, Heather and Katy and Michael (who just completed his PC service) and his friend from Australia, Ed. We showed up at midnight on the square with lit cigars and took in all the sights. The party lasted until 2:30 in the morning. We successfully dodged all the fireworks that were being tossed from all directions.

The secular holiday of New Year’s Day was the most celebrated holiday during the days of the Yugoslavian Republic. Orthodox Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were working days. Now Macedonians have freedom of religion and there are many holidays related to the saints of the Orthodox Church. I was invited to spend Christmas Eve with Jasmina’s (my language tutor and friend) family. Jasmina’s mom put out all the traditional fare (no fat is served on this day, so fish was served) and her father provided us with the recently made rakija and wine from this year’s harvest. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are relatively quiet holidays where family members spend the day at home with one another.

The students are off until the 15th or 20th. I’ll verify the exact day tomorrow. The teachers, however, are required to show up each day for a couple of hours. Once the ridiculously cumbersome (my personal opinion) grading and the documenting -of-grades process is completed, there is little to do for the teachers. So everyone socializes for a couple of hours and then everyone departs for home.

I’ve got lots of stuff to try out, and hopefully implement, in the upcoming months, so I’m looking forward to the students’ return and an invigorated back-to-business attitude for a new year. Don’t forget to check out my newly uploaded photos. Catch you later!

The Holiday Season Year II

2009-12-21T17:51:00.003+02:00

While the hectic holiday season is probably boiling over in America and the non-Orthodox Christian world, here in Probistip the inklings of the holidays are beginning to surface. Since the biggest holiday is New Years Day, I am just now beginning to see the decorations and lights in town and on individual homes and apartments. Fireworks, which are illegal but still tolerated as in my home state Massachusetts (you are only fined for possession of fireworks after you blow your finger(s) off and are leaving the hospital post-surgery), are sporadically being set off by the local youths. The recently elected mayor and town counsel purchased some new decorations for the center (with of course some discontent from some of the older residents but no complaints from the children) which remind anyone walking in the center about the special nature of this time of the year.

Rather than have me explain again in detail the customs and rituals of the holidays in Macedonia, refer to my blogs from last year – Christmas in Macedonia and The Macedonian Holiday Season. Remember, Santa visits the Balkans on New Year’s Eve, having enjoyed a week’s rest after bringing joy to the children in other parts of the world. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are relatively quiet family days in Macedonia.

School continues until the 30th and then the entire country seems to go on a hiatus from working although it is not officially vacation time, similar to the workweek between Christmas and New Years in the USA.

Skopje on the other hand, is magnificently decorated and in full holiday mode as I found out on my trip there last week for a warden’s training meeting with Goce, the Safety and Security Officer for the Peace Corps in Macedonia. The training for selected (from a pool of volunteer Volunteers) wardens insures the execution of the Peace Corps ‘ plans for PCVs in case of a disaster or civil unrest . The Peace Corps puts a great deal of effort into insuring everyone’s safety in emergency situations.

Thanks to the wonderfully generous Macedonian-Americans from the Midwest, we now have a library of English language reading materials for the students at our school. Their organization held a “book raiser”, collected over 500 books and magazines, boxed, shipped, and paid an enormous sum of money to get them to us. When they arrived (after a few misunderstandings at the customs office), the children and teachers were elated to have the riches of so many new reading materials. From having only soft-covered textbooks and workbooks, they now had a library to help them learn a new language.

We are in the process of cataloging the reading materials so the students can sign them out and read them with their families at home. Alexandra has already assigned book reports to some of the advanced students, both to challenge them and get their recommendations. She has used the library to provide supplementary reading to the student s who have completed their work (in the past they would idly sit at their desks waiting for everyone to finish). And we are in the process of designing lesson plans that supplant the rigid structure of the textbooks yet meet the same instructional goals.

The new Student Council is learning its role in the school. We are in the process of developing standardized rules for the entire school to replace the rather hodge-podge set that are in place now. It’s a fact that students like order and well-defined structure and the Student Council members, with input from their classmates, have corroborated that hypothesis. So in the near future, with student ownership of the rules, and consistent enforcement by the teaching staff, the days of Dodge-City-like behaviors should mellow out. We’ll see.

Since my first days at Nikola Karev, I had wanted to get everyone together, as we do in America, and recognize the Macedonian patriots that had come before them. I put together a plan and “sold it” to the principal and then as usual, Alexandra took charge and executed the plan with the help of our new Student Council. Therefore I am extremely pleased to announce that on Monday morning, the 21st of December 2009, the entire school population met prior to heading to their home room classes, and sang their National Hymn (anthem) led by the school chorus. Everyone was talking about how great an idea it was and we will continue this ritual every Monday morning from now on.

If you read this blog before Christmas, then accept my wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year. You can of course post-accept them if you read it any time after then. December 25th is a workday for me but I’m looking forward to New Year’s Day. Hopefully you will not have overburdened Santa (or as we call him “ Father Ice”) with too many presents to deliver on Christmas Eve, so that he will have the energy to bring me mine the following week. Meanwhile I am looking forward to enjoying the gathering at my brother Mark and sister-in-law Joanne’s home on Christmas Day via Skype.

Mov'in Along

2009-11-30T18:38:00.006+02:00

Although we’re astronomically into the winter season, the weather has been pretty mild. While we have had a few frosty nights and the mornings are chilly, the afternoon temps get up into the high 60’s. Snow isn’t expected until late December according to the locals. The trees for the most part have shed their leaves and have been swept up and deposited into the dumpsters that are located throughout the neighborhood.

Speaking of leaves, I recently discovered and purchased two grass rakes at a hardware store in Kumanavo when I was strolling around there last month. I believe they were the only two grass rakes in Macedonia (an unverifiable fact). They are sold without the handles, so that I was able to bring them back to Probistip. Having watched my neighbors and the custodians at school sweep leaves with the short handled brooms and pick up trash that didn’t make it into the dumpsters with their hands, I thought I would introduce the concept of a grass rake into my neighborhood. Most of my friends and neighbors had never seen a grass rake (everyone has a garden rake) and they weren’t sure what it was for. So I obviously drew a crowd the first time I used it outside my apartment and was able to Tom Sawyer the local children, convincing them it was fun to rake leaves with this wonderful tool. The men were very curious and several of them asked where they could purchase one. My answer was the same answer I give to the children when they ask where they can purchase a Frisbee, “Not in Macedonia, yet”. I will try to convince one of the local hardware shops to stock them. I donated one of the rakes to the school where I have noticed that it is being put to good use.

School is in full swing now. On Friday, the students finally received their books for geography, math, Macedonian, biology and informatika. Since this is the first year that the government is providing books to all students, there was a delay in shipping them all out to every school in the country. We are four months into the school year and the students now have their books . Since the students must return the books at the end of the school year, late deliveries won’t be a problem next year. The downside of not owning the book, is that the students must spend a lot of time copying grammar rules and vocabulary during class time which puts a strain on the time we have to actually teach.

The Director has been very supportive of our suggestions and she is a pleasure to work with. After a meeting with her last week, we have now started a Student Council, will display the Macedonian flag at the school , sing the National hymn during Monday morning home room time, involve the school in ThinkQuest ( http://www.thinkquest.org/en/ and in the World Map Project (http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/library/R0088_worldmapproject.pdf ). We will also establish and implement an emergency evacuation plan for the school.

This school year I am running an after-school sports program entitled “Games From America”. So in addition to the usual basketball, jump roping and Frisbees, we have already played Kickball, Capture the Flag, Knockout, and Ultimate Frisbee. The students who show up seem to really enjoy the exposure to games other than football, volleyball and handball. The first time we played Kickball, I was very lucky to have Amber, Kate and Dan (the three trainees living in Probistip) participating. It dramatically reduced the time it took me to explain in Macedonian, the intricacies of the game, as they were able to demonstrate and model the somewhat complicated rules. The students loved the game so much, that we wound up playing for two hours and it has become the number one game request.

Thanksgiving Day coincided with Swearing-In Day for the MAK14’s. So we all – trainees, host families, and Volunteers – assembled in Kumanavo for a wonderful time. The American Ambassador to Macedonia sworn in the Trainees (this will the last time I have to use the word “trainee”) after which we enjoyed a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal, highlighted by the turkeys flown in from America and prepared by the function hall staff. I actually ate nothing but turkey, consuming at least three pounds of meat, knowing full-well it will be 364 days until my next opportunity to savor my favorite non-flying bird. We all returned home to Probistip around 8PM, time enough for the new Volunteers to spend their last night with their host families and time enough for me to Skype my family in Massachusetts to participate in a family-cyber-Thanksgiving-dinner.

Dave moved in on Friday morning and is currently settling into his apartment. He is looking forward to working in the Municipality, learning how to cook for himself, and utilizing the Macedonian language. Dave is my age, so I now have a playmate and we will have to like one another, otherwise it will be a long 13 months living right next store (no one ever says “nexT (pause) door)” to one another.

A Good Time Together

2009-11-08T19:39:00.002+02:00

The month of October was highlighted by a visit by my honey who describes her visit in the previous Blog. We had a great time just hanging out, visiting PCV’s in Skopje and Bitola, attending “na gosti’s with neighbors, exploring the new supermarket, walking around the neighborhood, and editing English translations for the Municipality.

A new supermarket? Yes! Probistip now has a place where I can shop for many items which the small food shops couldn’t stock because of limited shelf space and a lack of refrigeration. My Market (yes, it’s in English) is a small chain of supermarkets in Eastern Macedonia. Opening day at the new My Market was heralded in with folk dancers, traditional Macedonian music, and free food and beverages (I saw a few of my students enjoying a beer) . I can now find a selection of cheeses and breads, diet sodas, frozen foods, a reliable supply of beef, and alcoholic beverages other than beer and wine. Unfortunately, some of the smaller shops (prodavnitzas) will probably lose out to this new competitor, putting more people out of work. I will continue to shop at the ”prodav” and butcher shops for the items I can get there, but the variety at the supermarket is a tantalizing drawing card.

The six trainees that are here in Probistip (we all hate the word “trainee”) are in their final three weeks of preparation. They are a great group and are having a wonderful time together in “The Probe” – as they like to call it. Two weeks ago they found out where they will be assigned for the next two years and last week they visited their new homes, met their new counterpart, and toured their new community. Amber will be going to the city of Strumica; Kate will be going to a village (Gradsko); Dan will be going to the city of Stip; Jennifer will be going to the town of Makadonski Brod; Keri will be going to the capital city; and Laura will be going to the town of Kocani. I realize these locations are meaningless if you don’t have a map, but for those of you who do – Bon Appetite or whatever. They all will all be TEFL’ing in Eastern Macedonia.

On Halloween, the six of them, plus Maja their language instructor, costumed up for their training day in Kumanevo with all the other trainees in MAK14. Their costumes were hilarious (see photo) and they got more than their normal share of stares when they walked to the school in costumes to be picked up for the ride to Kumanevo. They actually went out Trick-or-Treating to each of the host families homes on Halloween night and were a big hit with everyone they encountered.

On the day after Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving Day also happens to be the day the trainees on this cycle will be sworn in as full-fledged Volunteers and I won’t have to refer to them as Trainees anymore) they will all depart Probistip and for the first time since they’ve been in Macedonia, they will be un-tethered and on their own. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since I was wearing their shoes.
Their departure from Probistip is offset by the arrival of a new MAK14 Volunteer who will be living here for the next two years – Dave from Michigan. Dave was assigned here (the first time The Probe has had two PCV’s) to work in the Municipality. I’m not sure what exactly that entails, but I’ll soon find out. Dave will be living in the apartment right next to mine (it’s an unusual arrangement to have two volunteers in the same town living so close to one another) because the Peace Corps staff couldn’t find a suitable place anywhere else. At least I know where to go now to borrow a cup of sugar. With Dave’s arrival I will no longer feel the pressure of representing 300 million Americans. I will now have to represent only 150 million, which is a more tolerable number.

There are lots of new activities happening at school which I will address in my next Blog.

Toether in October

2009-11-08T10:57:00.003+02:00

Once again, I’m told (by Michael in his Lieutenant Colonel Erhartic incarnation), that I have been given the great honor of being “guest editor” on his blog and get to share some of my experiences in this ever-fascinating new country.

Owing to technical difficulties (meaning I have difficulty with all things technical) the format of this month’s blog will be different from the usual, which separates photos and text. Michael’s pictures tell the story of our adventures much better than my words can, so if you will copy and paste the link below onto your browser, it will (I hope) take you to a series of photos and captions that tell the tale of October in Macedonia from a visitor’s perspective.

http://picasaweb.google.com/barber229/OctoberBlogPhotos#

Guest Blog

2009-10-13T21:57:00.003+03:00

I am pleased to have, as a guest contributor to my Blog, my wife Lee, who will share her experiences traveling to and visiting me in Macedonia.

I’ll spare everyone and be brief about the first six days of, my visit this time: the jetlag; the lost luggage/no clothes because carry-on luggage was full of heavy stuff for Michael and the Peace Corps.; and the three-day flu, so vile that if it ever comes back, I will lop off my own head just to get it over with. I stared at ceiling moaning piteously day and night while Michael made excuses to all the people I had met on my last visit, many of whom expected to be first on my rounds of welcome back Na Gosti (barely translatable, means have a visitor as a guest).

Poor, poor me!

But I’m going to consider today, Oct. 11, the start of a three week visit and simply dismiss my first week here as a bad dream. It all would have happened anywhere in the world.

Except maybe the part about how I should spend five hours on various buses and an hour in a taxi to pick up my luggage at a different airport than the one I had arrived at…

Luggage balks at Balkans

I had arrived in Sofia Sunday afternoon excited to see Bulgaria, my husband and the lovely Macedonian town of Probistip, not necessarily in that order. Apparently my luggage did not share my enthusiasm and had decamped somewhere between Boston and the Balkans. Air Bulgaria would fly it to the Macedonian capital of Skopje when they found it, I was told, and I could go pick it up myself. (A clerk was unmoved by my despairing plea about the length of that journey, and the fact that by then I would be in my fifth day without a change of underwear. Apparently a long history of invading their western neighbor made any sort of ground sortie by Bulgarians onto Macedonian soil problematic).

Fortunately Michael is sophisticated in the ways of Eastern Europe by now and with the help of our Bulgarian-speaking driver (Bobbie), found someone who saw the wisdom of keeping foreign visitors happy. They would drive my luggage to the border when they found it and hand it off to Bobbie to drive it back to Probistip.

Faster, better, cheaper—the American way. This approach had apparently never occurred to them, so score another blow for international understanding.

There are grapevines, and then there are grapevines.

I continue to be amazed at how news travels in a town without a daily community newspaper, community center, phone chain or e-mail chain (there is a local TV station with local news and community happenings). Nattily attired in a pair of old slacks I had used to pad a delicate electronic device in my carry-on luggage and the most effeminate tee shirt in my husband’s wardrobe, I ventured out on day two for an espresso in the town square and the makings of dinner.

After 10 months of working and teaching in this small mountain town, Michael seems to have gotten on hailing terms with most of its residents, so just strolling to the center with him could turn into a half-day excursion. Many neighbors now wanted to stop and exchange a few words with the Amerikanski. Today was no exception.

As we made our way the few blocks from Michael’s apartment building to the café we discovered that, to a man--or woman, as the case tended to be at this time of day--each person we encountered already knew I was in town and understood precisely why I was so oddly attired. Our vegetable vendor knew. The butcher knew. The folks relaxing in the café knew.

Had someone posted a notice in the municipal building?

Staggering back home with our cloth shopping bags full we were not , of course, surprised to find that Yelitza, the tiny baba from the next building, knew all about my arrival. We’d spent hours chatting and drinking coffee in her apartment on my last visit, so she would have been considered an interested party—but how did people I’d never met know this detail of my life?

Who cares, already?

And why would anyone who did happen to know it think it was interesting enough to pass on? But Yelitza moved on quickly to news of her own: she had learned some Engliski since I last saw her.As we waited expectantly she drew herself up to her full 4’9”, thrust her thumbs up in the air and pronounced clearly: “aw-w-w-l-l-righty!” Jim Carrey’s mother would be so proud.

Back at apartment building #6 on 11 Oktombre Street, a never-before-met neighbor commiserated over the lost luggage, of course, and then chattered on to Michael for several minutes.

“She’s sorry about your luggage, but she says it will be here tonight,” Michael explained.

“You mean she hopes it comes tonight, right? You said that as if she knew,” I told him.

‘No, I meant she said it would be here tonight at 5. Bobbie left for the border an hour ago.”

And so he had, we discovered from a "missed-call' message on our cell phone a few minutes later. Even Michael doesn’t have enough command of Makadonski to find out how she came to know about my luggage before I did, but lesson learned none-the-less:

Don’t even think about doing anything in a Balkan village that you wouldn’t want every soul in town to know about.

I’m hungry (what else is new?) so I’ll sign off now and wander down to the front stoop. Someone out there is bound to know what Mikey is making for dinner tonight…

A Busy Time

2009-10-12T13:59:00.002+03:00

We now have seven Americans living in Probistip, thanks to the arrival of six Peace Corps Trainees who will be undergoing preparations for their future assignments as English Resource Teachers in distant Macedonian communities. They are living with host families in Probistip while they are undergoing training. On their first Saturday here, I accompanied them as they spent about seven hours visiting each host family, with each family providing food and drink with the traditional Macedonian hospitality.

All reports are that they are having a wonderful time, keeping extremely busy, and picking up a little Macedonian language during their 4-hour daily language classes. Laura (Illinois), Keri (Ohio), Amber (Arkansas), Dan (New York), Jen (Oregon), and Kate (Ohio) are training at my school (I’ve become somewhat possessive of Nikola Karev), so I get to see them just about every day. The remainder of their MAK 14 brethren are training at various other sites within the Kumanavo region.

Actually, there are seven Americans in Probistip at the moment, albeit (I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “albeit” ever before!) one of them is only visiting. October 4th marked the arrival of my wife for her second visit to this wonderful place. She had a great time back in April meeting all my Macedonian friends and their families, visiting and participating in English language classes, and learning about the culture of Macedonia, which she enthusiastically talked about upon her return to Massachusetts. I picked her up at the airport in Sophia, which is about a four hour one-way ride (dependent upon the border crossing into Bulgaria) from Probistip by taxi (70 Euro round trip). She arrived on time but unfortunately without her luggage which was sent to some other country via Bulgarian Airlines. Initially the airline insisted that when it was found, Lee could pick up her lost baggage at the airport in Skopje at her expense in time and money. But with my innate diplomatic skills, great sense of humor, convincing arguments and a very nice Belgian Airline supervisor, we made arrangements to have the airline deliver the luggage to the border crossing (they can’t deliver out of country due to customs rules) where our driver Bobby would pick the luggage up, all at the expense of the airline. So Lee survived her first two days in Macedonia with only the clothes on her back and some reinforcements from my wardrobe. She will be writing about her adventures on this Blog as soon as I am finished monopolizing the computer.

School’s in full swing now despite the schedule having to be altered every other day. Final changes have yet to be made due to the haggling of the two primary school Directors who are trying to adjust the times of the elective French and German language classes. We’ve had four National Holidays in the first five weeks of school, which makes it difficult to have any flow in the classroom but it does enable me to display my Macedonian flag on a regular basis.

The Ministry of Education provided books to all the students this year. Although the English language books were ordered in June, they arrived late (four weeks into the school year). This gave us plenty of time to review last year’s lessons. Students must still purchase their workbooks, which complement the textbook, but the price of the workbooks has increased from previous years. The students will be required turn in their not-too-durable-softcover student books at the end of the school year, obliging them to spend a great deal of class time copying vocabulary and grammar rules into their copybooks. I’m curious about the life expectancy of the students’ books and frustrated by the loss of teaching time as the students transfer information from one reliable source (the textbook) to another unreliable source (their copybook).

The school went on a very nice picnic on Friday of last week. Actually the school didn’t go. It remained where it was built. The staff and students went on a hike to the new chapel on the hill where everyone seemed to have a very pleasant morning. The children brought blankets and food while the teachers had the affair “catered”. I made it a point to bring frisbees and jump ropes and they were in constant use by the students. I am not sure what activities the students would have participated in had I not brought them but the children here are resourceful and I’m sure would have found something to keep themselves occupied (checkout the photos). The students were dismissed at 10AM and then the teachers and staff enjoyed a hearty breakfast together.

I am currently conducting classes after school for some of the teachers and staff at the school who have an interest in learning English. A representative of the Police Department asked me to conduct basic English classes for his officers and that project is in the works.

My after-school sports programs will start once the final class schedule is published. With Lee here, we’re overbooked for visits to the many people that want to see Lee again, so I’ll be drinking a lot of rakija and speaking a lot of Macedonian in the next couple of weeks. I also have to get used to sharing my stuff but that will only be for the next 19-or-so days and nights. No more drinking out of the milk carton, leaving the toilet seat up, and or eating meals without vegetables, among other inconveniences.

Back to School

2009-09-21T15:05:00.005+03:00

With two weeks of preparation behind them, on a brilliant September morning the teachers welcomed their students back for another year of learning. Similar to the first day of school in America, everyone was a little anxious, quite excited, and for the most part, glad to be back. Children and teachers were wearing their new back-to-school ensembles and they all (the children) appeared to be a little bigger and taller than when we left them in June. The parents of the first graders, who were escorting their children to their very first day at Nikola Karev, seemed just as apprehensive as their charges as they waited for the welcoming address of the director and the welcoming performance by the fourth graders.

In America, a new school year usually means new teachers, new classmates, new subjects and a chance to get a fresh start. In Macedonia the system is set up so that from the fifth grade through the eighth grade, the students are grouped as a class and stay together for each subject throughout the day. They keep the same home room teacher, who gets to monitor their progress (or lack thereof) over the course of four years. So the first day is somewhat tempered by the reality of the fact that basically, you as a student , just had a two month respite from your four year journey with the same 22 people.

This administrative-system, which takes precedence over an educational system, fosters a sense of boredom and familiarity that challenges the students’ motivation and enthusiasm. They are cheated of the opportunity to observe the learning styles of other students in their grade level as they are lumped into a one-size-fits-all learning group. Students who choose not to learn but to be disruptive; students who want to learn but need more time to grasp a concept; children with learning disabilities who require individual attention; the average students and the students who are high achievers remain classmates until graduation. The primary school teachers –especially teachers who must travel from class to class and school to school because they lack their own classroom – are challenged to teach multi-level classes with no resources. What might the results be?

Scheduling classes is a major undertaking. The teachers, rather than the administrators, work out the schedule amongst themselves. In the past, it has been a paper/pencil/eraser affair but I showed Alexandra a scheduling program I found on the internet. In keeping with her interest in trying new things, she mastered the workings of the program, and became the school's Master-Scheduler. The only downside to this new hi-tech practice, is that every teacher needed to talk to her about making changes here and there. So most of her free time during the first three weeks of school was spent updating the schedule to keep up with the hourly changes.

One of the reasons for the delay in producing a final schedule is that teachers must have 20 classes per week to be considered full-time and earn the maximum salary.This year due to the loss of one full class and the Ministry’s decision to limit students to one elective course, some teachers were unable to find 20 hours at Nikola Karev. The Director and the teachers worked out times with other schools in the region, which took some time and added to the delay in producing a final schedule. Now three weeks into the school year, the schedule is in place and most of the teachers have their 20 hours.

Despite this system imposed upon the teachers, learning does happen. The school is a fun place to be and the children love to be there. Change is coming down the pike. The Ministry of Science and Education is aware of many of the problems and is implementing changes. This year for the first time, the Ministry is providing all required books without cost to every student in the country. This eliminates the problem of the poorer students coming to class without books and just sitting, unable to follow and learn and eventually dropping out of school, believing learning is boring. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, funding will be provided, so the teachers can have paper and copying machines to enhance their teaching material arsenal.

The next group of Peace Corps Volunteers (MAK 14) arrived in Macedonia last Sunday (which means that Mak13’s have been here a year) and I had the opportunity to be on a panel which tasked me with describing my experiences as a senior volunteer in a mostly Macedonian-speaking community. The other panelists described life as a married couple in an ethnically-mixed community (Macedonian-Albanian) and as a Volunteer in a mostly Albanian community. It was great sitting up front, a seasoned veteran and mister-know-it-all. I delivered my spiel, and listened to the presentations of the other Volunteers. I watched the faces of this wonderful group of TRAINEES who had been in-country for two days and had the same questions and concerns as I did, not really sure of what lay ahead.

However, sometime before the end of the presentation, I remembered that one year ago I was sitting where they were, and then I realized that I had only been here a year, and was not yet a qualified veteran, that I was really a long way from knowing it all, and like the newly arrived TRAINEES, not really sure of what lay ahead.

There will be more in my next Blog about the arrival in Probistip of six PC TRAINEES who will be spending three months as my neighbors. They will be learning the ropes before being sent out on their own and perhaps preparing to sit on a panel next year upon the arrival of MAK15.

Be sure to check out the newly added photos.

Flags, Refrigerators, and More

2009-08-30T13:27:00.002+03:00

Yesterday, August 28th, was a National Holiday in Macedonia, a new religious one in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At one time in Poibistip, when the mine was functioning at its full capacity, it was an important secular celebration for the mining community. There is an interesting pictorial history at the modest mining museum at the Cultural Center where there are photos of the miners in their miner dress-uniforms, with parades and other events conducted on this day. But sadly, the tradition has passed and it was a pretty quiet and hot summer day. I understand that there was an evening football game and an after-game dance at the football field (AKA soccer field) but I didn’t make it over there this year.

Unlike Americans, Macedonians don’t display their national flag on holidays. It’s a tradition that died out after the breakup of Yugoslavia. All over Probistip you can see the weather-worn flag holders on the light poles lining the main street and if you look closely you can see triple flagpoles hidden amongst the now 30 foot evergreen trees in what were at one time prime locations at the schools and public buildings. The senior citizens I have spoken with would like to rekindle the tradition but I’m not sure they know how to initiate the plan. So I have added it to my list of projects (along side of my original plan to get the Macedonian flag at school) and will seek out a few seniors to lead the way with me in the background.

So I took the first step yesterday and displayed my recently acquired Macedonian flag from my apartment window (see my pictures) and thus became the first and from what I can tell, the only resident in my neighborhood to do so on this holiday. Passers-by made comments upon seeing the dangling flag and maybe on September 8th – the next holiday- they’ll be a few more flags. I did check with my Macedonian friends beforehand, and they assured me it is totally acceptable to display the flag.

Correction: In my last blog I reported on the vendors selling melons and I inaccurately identified the round yellow melons as “boctons” but Alexandra informed me that the “boctons” are really the watermelons. She told me the name of the yellow melons but, surprise, surprise, I can’t remember it at this moment.

The door on my 35 year old refrigerator fell off last week. There were indications that this event might occur because it hasn’t sealed properly for the last few months and it was difficult to close. So my landlord, Dimchay, came over several days after my urgent call to check it out. While waiting an additional several days for the miester (repairman) that Dimchay was searching for to drop by, I propped the door closed using a kitchen chair. One can’t appreciate a functioning refrigerator door until one doesn’t have one. I dreaded having to get something from the fridge and was amazed as to how many times I needed something in the course of the day? And then have to put it back.

I didn’t think it could be repaired. The hinges were bent and worn and rusted out and the door was totally misaligned and it was missing washers and bushings. On Saturday morning Dimchay showed up with the refrigerator miester and after a cursory examination, they emptied it and hauled it away in the back of a Zastrava Coupe. I was left with the contents of the fridge scattered about the kitchen as they headed off to wherever, not really understanding exactly when they would return and wondering how long traditionally refrigerated food would survive on a 90 degree summer day.

They returned within the hour with the fridge with its newly welded hinges and replaced parts, ready for another 35 years of service. I really admire the way Macedonians fix things rather than replace them. They seem to be able to repair things that most of us in the States would discard believing they were not repairable. The newly hand-crafted hinges on my eyeglass frames, the perfect picture on my once useless TV, my now functioning Toshiba computer (without replacing the motherboard) give testament to their skill.

Although many of the public areas in Probistip are well-worn from time and weather, the town is kept meticulously clean by the public officials and private citizens. Every morning the women are outside sweeping up any discarded trash, fallen leaves, or whatever else doesn’t belong on the sidewalk or curb (It’s still quite common to witness people throwing chip bags, soda bottles, candy wrappers, etc. on the ground rather than in trash receptacles). The town street sweepers come by frequently with their wheelbarrows, branch-brooms, and six-inch wide shovels and the garbage trucks come by daily (or so it seems) to empty the dumpsters.

Individuals receiving public assistance are required to work (I believe four hours daily) for the town during the warmer months and can be seen weeding vegetation along the curbs and the sidewalks. Many of the public areas have been resurfaced, repainted, and repaired by various crews and so you can witness the pride that Probistipians have in their community.

Almost every tree in town is a fruit bearing tree. There are few maple, ash, oak or other decorative trees. In most yards now the trees are ripe with pears, various kinds of apples, plums, chestnuts, walnuts, kiwis, figs, pomegranates, and/or apricots. These will all be harvested as “winter food” and some will be turned into compotes and marmalades, while others will be stored in root cellars and barrels. Of course the grapes are almost ready for the mid-September harvest and the peppers for ivar are being harvested as I write.

The children return to school on September 1st but their class schedules are not finalized for several days/weeks. The teachers returned on August 18th and are required to put in two hours daily. During these sessions, the teachers get their rooms ready, attend meetings hosted by the director, get updated on the newest changes from the Ministry of Education, and find out how many classes they will have in the upcoming school year. Teachers need twenty classes a week to be full-time and due to the declining enrollment in Probistip, several teachers now find themselves for the first time, having to hustle for classes at other schools. 140 desktop computers are waiting to be installed in the classrooms but internet connections are not yet available due to its cost to the school.

The custodial staff ripped out the old laboratory sinks in Alexandra’s classroom (with a great deal of prodding from Alexandra and me), opening up much needed space and giving her many more classroom management options. For their efforts in prioritizing our request, I promised them a peach pie, which they settled for in lieu of their initial request for round trip tickets to visit America.

So I am off to the kitchen to fulfill my pledge, substituting a Lou’s Crumb Cake for the pie because the fruit vendor didn’t have peaches yesterday.

Downtime?

2009-08-16T16:23:00.003+03:00

Teacher’s report back to school on Monday the 17th and the students will return in September. So I’ll find out real soon what is expected of a teacher during the pre-season.

The summer progressed exceptionally fast. As I try to figure out what I did for the last five weeks, I am having a difficult time accounting for extended periods of time. I traveled to Kavardaci for two days to assist Maggie with her Wackey Wednesday activity. I spent three days on buses to and from Skopje when I had my dead computer brought back to life. I spent four days in Dojran making sure my colleague Phil survived his last week there before he transfers to Bitola where he will actually have something to do. I spent some days in Skopje, picking up supplies and visiting Najstar (The Oldest) Michael and conducting business at the Peace Corps Headquarters. I’m not sure if my In-Service Training and Habitat For Humanity days in Veles fit into this time period, but let’s just say they do as it will help me account for some of the time I am trying to account for.

The rest of my time has been spent in Probistip. While my days start at 6AM and end between 10 and 11, Probistipians seem to begin their outdoor day at 5PM and end at it at about 1AM. Their need to get a good night’s rest, having gone to bed at 2AM, getting up at 9 or 10, eating breakfast then, with a large lunch at 3 or 4, followed by a nap until 5 or 6 with dinner at 8 or 9, somewhat limits my daily contact with my neighbors. Macedonians are a very industrious people and are always busy. It’s just that I don’t see many of them in my neighborhood during the hot weather because of my North American circadian cycle.

I have spent a great deal of time researching and preparing materials and Power Point Presentations for various officials to be presented when the new school year begins and the summer funk has faded. The internet and my Epson printer/scanner/copier have been indispensable in helping me document the information that I will present.

For the English classes, Alexandra and I have created award certificates which we’ll present to last year’s deserving students to hopefully motivate this year’s students; we’ve established an account with ThinkQuest which will enable students to create websites on the school’s computers while working with students from America and around the world; we’ve planned a seminar for the other English teachers in Probistip, during which we can share some successful methods that we tried last year; and we’ve established a state of the art English classroom with scavenged materials and donations.

I am working on a compilation of games and activities for Physical Education classes and translating them into Macedonian for the teachers in grades 1-4, who must teach PE to their classes, and for the PE staff at the school who must follow a curriculum dating back to the Yugoslavian days (read mostly football). (N. B. Whenever I say I am translating something into Macedonian, I mean I translate it, take it to my tutor Jasmina, and we work on re-translating it into something a Macedonian can understand. After I retype it, she rechecks it once more for spelling and typos. It’s a tedious process but I am seeing improvements each month. Hopefully at the end of two years, I will have a resource that can be distributed to schools throughout Macedonia.)

On the last day of the school year Alexandra and I met with the Director and she was very open to our suggestions regarding establishing a Student Council; an after-school detention procedure to hold students accountable for their in-school behavior; an emergency evacuation procedure that would require more than the one current exit for the entire school; a infusion of "patriotic behaviors" that would entail having at least one Macedonian flag displayed at the school and singing the National Anthem on Monday mornings. I’ve put together all the materials, so implementing these ideas won’t require much work.

Four girls from Probistip were selected to attend a Peace Corps sponsored camp this summer called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and I promised them I would help them establish a GLOW Club at the High School in the fall. Jasmina has agreed to be a mentor, and I’ve gathered materials for this project.

I put together a Power Point Presentation for parents and teachers (in Macedonian, mind you) which addresses the question of “Are Our Children Eating Well?.” The answer to this question is “NO,NO, NO!” The children’s breakfast diets are atrocious here and the presentation just raises questions and an awareness of the problem.

I am planning on an informal meeting with the new mayor to offer my services to improve the English language versions of the Probistip website and work with any of the businesses in town that produce brochures with English. I would volunteer to work with whoever does their translating to make the material more understandable to any English reader. Many of the travel brochures, websites, and town documents that I have read in Macedonia need a a lot of polishing. I also prepared some materials to share with the mayor and his staff that would educate them about how a small town government works in my home town in Massachusetts. It would open up the opportunity for me to learn about how things are organized here in Probistip.

Other projects that are in the planning stages include a Women’s Health Fair; a unit on Health and Human Reproduction (HIV-Aides Awareness) for the high school students; an Ultimate Frisbee League; an after-school jump rope team; a horse-shoe pitching league for the pensioners; a Knock-Hockey production line; a muffin distributorship; a plant that makes and distributes ice; a pie, cookie, donut and crumb cake addition to the limited selection in at least one of the bakeries in Probistip; an English language conversation group at the Culture Center for residents who want an opportunity to practice their English; a Skype-buddies group between students at my favorite school in America (Blanchard Memorial) and students here in Probistip, so the they can learn about each other and practice their English speaking skills.

Exactly how many of these activities will ever come to fruition remains to be seen. It will be challenging, yet fun trying to implement them. Many of the ideas are new here and require changes in attitude. Education and a solid marketing strategy are essential. So I am always on the lookout for the 20%’s like Alexandra and Jasmina who are open to new ideas, are willing to think outside a somewhat small box , and are willing to take part in implementing some of the changes. Onward!

Mid-Summer, Macedonia

2009-08-02T13:49:00.002+03:00

Now that I have my computer back, things have returned to normal. Without my computer I had to actually read a book and watch B-movies from the 70’s and 80’s. I never knew there were so many bad movies out there. I did get a lot of language studying in and I organized some of the stuff I had been putting off. I put everything in the kitchen in alphabetical order. For example, when you open the utensil drawer, you will notice from left to right, forks, knifes, and then spoons. The dishes and glasses are arranged – coffee cups, dinner plates, juice glasses, large bowls, sandwich plates, saucers, soup bowls, tall glasses, and tea cups. I could have arranged them - bowls, large; bowls, soup; cups, coffee; cups, tea; glasses, juice; glasses, tall; plates, dinner; and plates, sandwich – but I think that I made the right decision by employing the former technique. I would love to hear others' feedback on this issue. Anyway having my computer back has rescued me from having to make such frivolous, yet rewarding decisions.

The weather in this part of the country hits the mid-90’s on some days but there is little humidity so I am quite comfortable. Laundry hung on the line will actually dry completely in two hours. There always seems to be a breeze, so my stan (apartment), equipped with a Peace Corps issued fan, remains tolerable for me. The traditional Macedonian, however, believes that a breeze (promaja) will cause one to become sick with a headache, shoulder problem or worse. Accordingly, few families have fans and few of the apartment dwellers open their windows. If you ever come to Probitsip, you can identify my apartment from the street, because it is the only one in the neighborhood with all the windows open. One of my students mentioned that the only time his mother opens the windows is when she is cleaning.

This fear of a breeze (promaja) also makes bus travel somewhat uncomfortable because regardless of the temperature, the windows on the bus that can be opened, will not be opened. In many cases the buses lack air-conditioning. The high outdoor temperatures combined with the body temperatures of the passengers along with the perfumes, deodorants, food smells and body odors make bus travel a truly sensory experience. I have traveled on several buses this summer that were air-conditioned. The driver would have to turn it off when traveling uphill but the ride was pleasantly and unexpectedly comfortable.

During these summer months it’s kind of weird to go outside and not see many people until five or six in the evening. Those residents who don’t work seem to sleep in, especially the teenagers, until after 12PM. Then it’s "too hot" to be outside and lunch is at 3’ish after which a nap is in order because of the big mid-day meal and heat of the afternoon. Around 5’ish the residents are out on the streets and this goes on until after midnight. I have yet to adjust to this schedule and am usually in bed by 11PM.

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Wednesday market walking amongst the crowd and surveying the stalls for my week’s supply of fresh produce. Suddenly a microphone was thrust in front of my face by a reporter for the local TV station. Accompanying her was a cameraman and I then I realized I was a participant in a man-on-the- street interview. The only problem was that I could only understand 7 out of the 10 words of the question I was being asked. So I gave my usual, “I am from America and I am learning Macedonian. I know a little of your language.” This comment always encourages a Macedonian to speak faster and in longer sentences and I find myself guessing about what they are talking about, not understanding 30-50% of the words. So when I was asked the question of the day, I heard the words for weather, sun, rain, hot, and like but really didn’t know what she was asking. So hoping I was in the ballpark, I answered, “I like the weather when it’s sunny and hot but I also like the rain.” She gave me a quizzical look, thanked me and proceeded on to find another interviewee. I figured the reporter could get a better response from any other living person in Probistip. The next day Jasmina, my tutor and friend, casually informed me that, “Oh, we saw you on TV last night. You spoke very well!” Go figure.

Melons are in season right now and almost everywhere I go I will notice “melon vendors” plying their fruits. They have a melon here that looks somewhat like a cantaloupe and it’s called a “bocton”(pronounced boston). So for the last week or so, at the market and on the street corners, I hear the name of the capital city of Massachusetts, my home state, being proclaimed throughout the Republic “bocton, bocton, imam bocton tuka”(get your melons here).

So now that school is out until September (teachers report back on the 18th of August), what goes on in the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Macedonia? Tune in next time and I’ll fill you in. I’ve got a lot to do right now. (FYI: those of you who get this posting directly as e-mail may be missing my wonderful captioned photos that you can access at Picasa from my blog)

Toshiba Satellite, Toshiba Satellite, Oh Toshiba Satellite!

2009-07-27T22:38:00.002+03:00

You have betrayed me. You have proven yourself to be unreliable. My trust in you no longer exists. You have absconded with a portion of my meager wealth. You have forced me to undertake tedious journeys under adverse conditions. You have mocked my decision to purchase you in America. I can no longer sing praises of your glory for your glory has vanished from my world. I look at you with contempt.

What came upon you when you decided not to power up only 12 days after your one-year warranty expired? I treated you like a brother (my real-life brothers might think that that might be a problem) affording you with a place of prominence in my castle (you know the saying – “my home is my castle”). I protected you from electrical surges. Neither food nor drink could approach you. You never lost a challenge to gravity. You were my most prized possession, more so than my wife and sons (who probably don’t consider themselves possessions anyway).

Your Maker - the Toshiba Corporation- refused me the opportunity to bring you back to life under their Goodwill Program that would have enabled you to have been repaired at no cost, reasoning it was so close to the expiration of the one-year American warranty. I came to learn that laptops purchased in Europe have a two- year warranty and three years if purchased in Japan (or is it Germany?). You have rubbed salt in my wound and mocked my fellow consumers in the “home of the free and land of the brave” (or is it “the home of the brave and the land of the free?”). Why only one-half of a European warranty for Americans?

Your doctor gave me a choice to get you back to where you once were. I could pay 300 Euros for a new motherboard or 140 Euros to get the burned out components replaced (how did you manage to “burn out?”). I chose the latter since that was only ½ of my monthly subsistence allowance and I would be able to eat at least every other day. A somewhat easy decision.

You forced me to undertake a six-hour perilous round trip on a bus with neither air-conditioning nor operational windows in 90 degree heat to the only repair facility in the entire country. Three times! You subjected me to waiting hours in a darkened bus station for the next bus departure to my hometown in Probistip. Three times!

So now that you have robbed me of both my treasure and my trust, and have stolen three days of my life, I find myself sitting once again before you, composing this dispatch. I do this not knowing when you will choose to betray me again.

Maybe someday I will no longer point to the heavens – as does an enthused baseball player after hitting a home run– when you respond to my request to power up. Maybe someday! Till then: Toshiba – Caveat Emptor!

(N.B. Knowing that I would be in Macedonia for 27 months, I purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop computer, considerably more expensive than other comparable laptops, relying on what I was told regarding its reliability. My experience has proven to me that “It” is not reliable (13 months before a major problem). I also raise the question as to why the Toshiba Corporation has different warranty standards. Are they enabled by weak consumer protection laws in the USA to offer a minimal one-year warranty. Based on my experiences and if I were to be so asked, I would not recommend this brand of laptop to anyone considering purchasing a Toshiba brand laptop in the USA.)

"You're Under Arrest!"

2009-07-06T23:21:00.003+03:00

It’s July 4th and Phil and I are in Skopje visiting “Naistar” (the Oldest) Michael. There are six Michaels in Peace Corps Macedonia – I am Postar (the Older) Michael. We are there to attend an afternoon picnic organized and sponsored by the American embassy and open to any American citizen that happens to be in Macedonia.

We had spent the morning shopping for stuff that we can’t find in our communities. I purchased a muffin tin and a Bundt pan so that I can continue my quest to introduce “new” foods to my Macedonian friends and neighbors. We had taken many photos of a musical group that was performing in the center and of other interesting things that caught our interest. We had taken off on our 20 minute trek back to Michael’s apartment (79 year old Michael wasn’t with us because he didn’t want miss his workout at the gym) and had three hours to get ready for the 4 o’clock picnic. It was a quiet Saturday and there were few pedestrians or shoppers about at this time on a summer day.

We were walking down the main boulevard and as has happened on numerous occasions before, noticed ahead that the traffic lights weren’t working at a major intersection and that a police officer was directing the flow. Nothing we haven’t experienced before. We got to the intersection, started to cross and stopped on the middle island, checking for oncoming traffic.

It is then that we saw in the distance, a motorcade approaching . Great timing we thought and got our cameras ready for when it passed by. Who was it – the mayor, a foreign dignitary, a rock star? We had no idea but got are cameras ready and took a few pictures in the less than 5 seconds it took for the motorcade to pass. We put away our cameras wondering who it was that was totally obscured from our view behind the blacked-out windows on the vehicles. We proceeded on our way.

Our way was less than ten steps before we heard a whistle and the police officer who was directing traffic and next to whom we were standing when the motorcade passed, heading towards us. He motioned for us to stop and asked us in broken, yet understandable English, of what we were taking pictures (a rhetorical question perhaps because he already knew the answer). “The motorcade”, we answered. He asked us for identification (we gave him our Peace Corp ID’s) and he called for backup. Within minutes there were eight more police officers on the scene – four plain clothes and four uniformed in four separate squad cars. They asked for our passports which Michael brought, after our call, from his apartment. They confiscated our cameras and refused to talk on the phone to our Peace Corps Security Officer who speaks perfect Macedonian considering that he is a Macedonian.

So Phil and I were standing around, trying to guess what we did that merited such an overwhelming response from these law enforcement officials. We ruled out jaywalking. Then the Paddy Wagon (politically incorrect term nowadays but I don’t know what else to call it) arrived and Phil and I were ushered into it. We were told we were “under arrest for photographing the President’s motorcade" a seemingly serious offense in this developing nation. (The Paddy Wagon appeared to be brand new, so Phil and I believe that we were the first prisoners to utilize it, somewhat of an accomplishment in and of itself).

Earlier on I had called the Peace Corps Duty Officer and told her of our predicament. She in turn called our Safety and Security Officer, and he in turn called his contacts at the American Embassy. Within the hour a Peace Corp staff member and a representative from the Embassy arrived and sat with us in the waiting room while the police inspectors examined our photos and did whatever it took them two hours to do.

By four o’clock (the picnic starting time), after signing statements that we didn’t need a lawyer now, that we wouldn’t need a lawyer later, that we needed no medical care, and that we were treated well, and after signing a couple of other innocuous papers, we were given back our cameras and credentials and on our way back to the apartment, already late for our sole reason for being in Skopje. All this was accomplished with the Embassy representative translating and guiding us through the process.

In the end, the police inspectors and the police commander apologized for what had happened and for the use of the term “arrest” when it should have been “detained”. His officers speak very little English. He had to follow pre-established procedures and we got the impression that he felt it was foolish to forbid taking pictures of a motorcade, regardless of who is in it.

At no time during this adventure were Phil nor I concerned about what was happening. We knew the Peace Corps and the Embassy had our back and they kept in constant contact with us during the whole time. The “arresting” officers were low key, yet professional. They didn’t take our phones; they didn’t search our bags, and they didn’t handcuff us on the trip to the stationhouse. In the end, they asked us to please erase the pictures of the motorcade, trusting us without supervising us, to do so.

One of the main requests of the Macedonian Minister of Education is that we assist teachers in improving the critical thinking skills of today’s students. After witnessing us openly take photos of the motorcade and realizing that we were Americans ignorant of the law, the traffic officer had two choices. He could have informed that one can’t photograph the President’s motorcade, asked us to comply with the law in the future, and asked us to delete the photos. Or he could have called in reinforcements “according to procedure.” Option 1 would have been the proper call in this situation if the officer had the option. But“according to procedure” is how many things are governed here in Macedonia, often in cases where common sense would dictate a more sensible approach.

So Phil and I, serving together in Macedonia, have now broken the law, been detained by a squad of police officers and have ridden together in a Paddy Wagon - boasts few if any Peace Corps Volunteers can make. The brotherhood has been strengthened and a solid reminiscence has been engraved in our story telling repertoire.

I am unable to support this episode with any photographs, for aforementioned reasons.

School's Out!

2009-06-21T10:59:00.002+03:00

I learned a lot about the educational system here in Macedonia over the last seven months and I still have a great deal to learn. But I am not sure I will ever understand it. The students who went to “summer school” last week finished up and so it won’t be until September that we’ll have students to work with. That doesn’t mean the teachers won’t be seeing each other. Their attendance is required for a few hours each day until the 5th of July. I’m still not sure what is expected of the teachers during this time, now that the cumbersome grade reporting system has been completed. I understand they report back to school in August, weeks before the students return.

Most students in the fifth through eighth grades take 14 or 15 subjects each year, so documenting and accurately recording each student’s progress is a monumental task. But the teachers know the routine and get the job done in a timely manner. The students pick up their promotion certificates and final grades about two weeks after the last classes and exams. During this two week period while they are completing all the paperwork, the teachers receive calls from concerned parents asking the teacher to please consider giving their child a higher grade. There is also a formal appeals process that enables parents to actually challenge a teacher’s final grade. So grade inflation is a chronic problem.

Directors at the high school and primary schools dictate that every child will be promoted much to the dissatisfaction of the teachers. I’ve been told that not one student has had to repeat a grade in at least the last eleven years at the Nikola Karev Primary School. Classes are filled with students who are years behind their peers, somewhat neglected and lost and who present a great challenge to the teacher who must teach in a de facto multi-level classroom with no resources. Using a 7th grade English textbook with a student who has the knowledge base of a 3rd grader is the only course of action that the teacher has.

Other little quirky things (from my perspective) that I’ve observed include the fact that, by law, teachers are not allowed to collect money from the students. So when her class went on a field trip, Alexandra had to watch over the shoulder of a student who actually touched the money and counted it. Students must pay for the paper upon which the teachers prints their exams. The money collected, of course, by one of the students. Students who get a One (a Five is the highest grade) as their final grade must attend “summer school” which entails a five day/ten hour opportunity to make up for a school year’s worth of non-learning . A student who receives three Ones must repeat the school year (there are plenty of candidates who have these credentials) but as I mentioned above, no student maybe left back. So one of the student’s teachers is “asked” to inflate the One to a Two. To compound the issue, teachers receive no stipend for teaching “summer school” so any borderline students who could possibly benefit from an extra week of class, are upgraded to a Two, limiting the “remedial “class size.

The upbeat news is that today’s leadership in Macedonia is aware of many of the issues that I mentioned. Efforts are being made to change those aspects of an educational system that has been in place for decades. It will take some time to accomplish but the 20%’ers will see it through.

I did get to employ some of my wrestling skills that I used to use on my brothers when we were growing up on Long Island. I had to break up two different classroom fights during the last weeks of school. In both cases two boys were going at pretty well. They watch a lot of WWF wrestling here and the boys were head-butting, choke holding and attempting to throw chairs, ignoring the potential consequences of their actions. They wouldn’t comply with the Alexandra’s demand to stop. I reluctantly stepped in and employed my infamous Half-Nelson (that used to bring my brothers to tears) on one of the boys so that I could immobilize him momentarily and position myself between the combatants, thereby preventing any serious injuries. My technique worked and there were no tears or cries of pain or running to mommy like my three brothers did.

My standings as a martial arts expert rose considerably in the eyes of the students who witnessed the events. I received kudos and high fives and word of “Michael’s moves” spread amongst the school population. Ironically, Alexandra has a martial arts Black Belt but she let me handle the situation. As is the case in Probistip, the boys who were fighting were seen later in the day, once again good friends, hanging out together. Perhaps they were relieved that their altercation was broken up by the referee and there wasn’t a winner or a loser.

Some Things I’ve Come to Know

2009-06-05T22:41:00.002+03:00

Not a day goes by here in this wonderful place where I don’t learn something new or get a different perspective on living in this world. I always thought that roosters crowed only at sunrise, because in the stories I read as a child, that’s what they did. But the fact is they crow all day. And so the crowing roosters, baying donkeys, squealing pigs, singing birds, barking dogs, and yowling cats create an auditory environment that at times is enchanting and at times annoying.

Now as you know, if you’ve read my previous blogs, I live near the center of the town in the apartment complex built for the miners’ families. So on warm days, the women (and some men) on my street sit outside at hastily built tables of scrap wood and talk about whatever women talk about. I am now a familiar face with a wife, and so upon my return from school, I walk a gauntlet of smiles and “Dobar Dens” (Good Day) from the groups sitting in front of each apartment. It’s nice to know I’ve been accepted into the neighborhood.

The men in my neighborhood have been busy the last few weekends cutting, splitting, and stacking recently delivered wood for next winter’s heating and cooking. I still marvel at the fact that, for the most part, each apartment in each building has its own woodpile. But wood is less expensive than electricity, so I can understand the rationale behind it. Luckily my apartment has been retrofitted with an electric heater and the Peace Corps picks up the tab for electricity.

The bread here is crusty and chewy on the day you buy it. But the next day it is somewhat dried out and tasteless (the result of having no preservatives). So after six months of enduring day old bread, I figured out that maybe if I toasted it, it would be more enjoyable. Not having the luxury of a toaster or an oven broiler, I discovered that I could put a slice of day old bread on a stovetop-heated pan without oil and it would manufacture a pretty good piece of hot toast, so good in fact that I plan on throwing away our toaster when I return to the States.

I take lots of pictures. Occasionally I will get a good picture of a student and have it developed at the local photo shop for equivalent of about twenty cents. When I present it to the student, they are so excited and so appreciative. The smiles are immeasurable and the rest of the class seems to share in the joy of the recipient. Twenty cents can buy much, much more than a pack of gum here in Macedonia.

Soda is the drink of choice among the children. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Fanta and many locally produced sugar laden beverages take up more shelf space in the shops than any other product. Sadly, many of them advertise themselves as “energy drinks”. Diet sodas are almost non-existent in Probistip. Needless to say the prevalence of sugar drinks has contributed to the need for more dental care than is available to many of the students. I recently read or viewed somewhere, that one measure to help reduce the enamel eating effect of soft drinks is to sip the beverage through a straw. This, as I understood it, would help eliminate the “bathing effect” on the teeth that drinking from a glass or bottle creates. Mad sense to me. So yesterday for the first time in the 8 months I’ve been in-country, I thought I’d try a locally produced cold soft drink. I purchased a “Cola”, bottled in Macedonia. Much to my surprise, when I opened the bottle, there was a straw in the bottle from which to dentally-healthfully (you know what I mean)enjoy the “energy drink”. Cutting edge – straw IN the bottle!

Cabbage is a staple, much like bread. I will see people purchase 10 cabbages and twenty onions at the Wednesday market (pazaar). All sorts of fabulous salads and dishes can be made with cabbage and onions but I always wondered how a person could use so many cabbages and onions in a week. One cabbage and one onion will last me a week. As it turns out, a person buying that many cabbages and onions is probably picking up them up for family, friends and neighbors. Question answered. Next question: How much do 10 Macedonian cabbages(not those whimpy cabbages they sell in American supermarkets) weigh? Answer: Too much.

Strawberries and cherries are in the market now. They are picked when they are ripe and at the market the same, or no later than, the next day. Deeelicious! Tragically, In their 3000+ years of existence, Macedonians have never tasted a strawberry or a cherry pie (USA style). Strawberries with rhubarb – nope!

I tried to find a pair of sport sandals herein Probistip but the only ones I could find were either “not my style” or were the flip-flop kind that I always struggle to keep on. Leather shoes are very expensive in Macedonia, so most available footwear is made of synthetic materials. So through the convenience of on-line shopping I ordered a pair of Made-in-China sport sandals from the All-American company in Freeport, Maine – LL Bean. As usual, they were great and despite the $35 shipping fee and the $4 pickup fee at the post office (Powsta), which were fees beyond the control of the Bean Corporation, I am very pleased with my purchase. Besides owning one of the most expensive bathrobes in Macedonia, I now own the nicest pair of leather sport sandals in Probistip.

The new U.S. Embassy is now open in Skopje. It’s a fortress-looking structure, located in a prime location in the capital. It’s quite ostentatious (my personal opinion). Previously , the various Embassy offices were scattered about the city. Now everyone on the staff is located in one place which improves the security for everyone involved. Sadly, with the world situation the way it is, you can’t just drop into the Embassy. You need to make an appointment at least three days in advance to gain entrance.

The Embassy staff is very supportive of PCV’s. They invite us to many of the holiday events that happen at the Embassy, let us have access to the swimming pool , and provide us with access to the Skopje Scoop- a newsletter that keeps the Embassy community attuned to what’s happening in town. The only catch is that unless you’re a PCV serving in the capital or in a nearby municipality, you really can’t take advantage of their hospitality.

I remember when Yugo’s came to America when Yugoslavia introduced them to the American car market. They weren’t a big hit and became somewhat of a joke because of their poor quality construction. Well here in Probistip those babies are still on the road. Those four cylinder, diesel engined marvels , along with their sister Zastava’s, are workhorses. They all have tow bars to which are attached trailers that transport everything from mattresses and household goods to cement and fieldstones. These vehicles have been on the road for over forty years. So much for poor quality, America!

An Excursion

2009-05-25T23:37:00.003+03:00

On Friday the 22nd I had the opportunity to Skype the sixth graders from the Blanchard Memorial School in Boxborough, Massachusetts. I had taught there for 33 years and retired two years ago so it was great to see the faces of so many students that I last knew as fourth graders. They grow so fast. My former colleague, Rob, set up the meeting with the help of the Blanchard staff. Although there were audio problems, I was able to answer their very-well thought out questions. Next school year, when the computers are finally installed at the Nikola Karev school, we’ll have some great opportunities to have the students from both countries interact and work together on some fun projects.

On Saturday the sixth and seventh graders from the Nicola Karev Primary School went on their end-of-the-school-year class trip and I went along with them. At 7AM five home room teachers and about 80 students on two busses, took off for a day of travel to five different points of interest in the surrounding towns and villages.

The first stop was in Radovis, an agrarian town where we stopped to view a new church that was recently built by a Macedonian gentleman who had made a fortune in the U.S. Upon his return, he built this beautiful church for his community in thanksgiving for his blessings (This is my understanding of the story. If anyone reading this blog has more knowledge on this topic, please feel free to post your comments at the end of this blog.) The church is exquisite and will be around for many centuries.

We then boarded the busses for Smolari, where there is a waterfall that is well worth seeing, hidden in the mountainous forest or forested mountain. We had to pass through a small village, and hike up a steep trail to get to the waterfall. It was well worth the challenging effort to spend a few Kodak moments on site. On the way down, we bought freshly picked cherries from some of the local youths who had set up a lemonade-for-sale style stand in the forest. Needless to say, they were delicious although I question whether they had been washed. The students found a vendor that sold ice cream and so as to blend in and since it wasn’t winter and I wouldn’t catch a cold from eating one, I contributed to the local economy and bought a bar- an ice cream bar that is.

Our next destination was Bansko, another agricultural town where the plan was to have lunch. Bansko is also known for its hot springs and there used to be numerous places to use the water to treat various health issues. It was about lunchtime and the day was heating up and the farmers were coming into the village on their tractors to grab some refreshment at one of the cafés. The students wanted to wait until the next stop before eating lunch and so they refreshed themselves with ice cream and soft drinks from the local prodavnitza (convenience store).

The next, and as it turned out to be our last, stop on our excursion was the town of Strumica – established in the 2nd century B.C. There were parks , and amusements, and shops and malls and cafes and fast food. The students from Probistip were set free and told to report back to the busses in three hours. The teachers found a nice outdoor restaurant where we rested and leisurely dined, and when the bill came, I was told that I had been treated to lunch. Macedonian hospitality again.
After a brief stroll through the center and a few minutes of throwing in the park, the frisbees that I had brought, we departed for home.

I learned a lot more about Macedonia on our trip. I witnessed how well the students got along with each other and how supportive they were of each other and how they are so much like the students in the USA. I got to practice my Macedonian and they were able to practice English in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. I was able to drive Alexandra crazy with questions about agriculture, business, education and law in Macedonia. I discovered they grow rice and mine gold here.

One of the neatest things while traveling on the bus through the” food belt” of Macedonia was witnessing areas where ancient farming techniques are still being practiced. I saw hectare upon hectare of tobacco fields where each tiny plant was tenderly hand placed in the ground. I saw a farmer scything a field while another worker was pitch forking the dried hay onto a horse-drawn cart. I saw more horses and donkeys than tractors and cars. I saw a fish farm. I saw shepherds and goat herders. With the exception of a passing motorized vehicle every now and then disturbing the setting , one would come to believe that he had been transported back to the 16th century.

I also learned that farmers can grow poppies that are used in the production of morphine. I saw many blossoming poppy fields while busing through this area. The growers must sell the whole plant, not just the pods, to licensed pharmaceutical companies.

Luckily, Monday was a National Holiday – Saints Cyril and Methodius – a relatively new holiday (you couldn’t celebrate saint’s days during the former communist days) which also recognizes the country’s teachers. The long weekend was needed to rejuvenate body and mind in preparation for the final weeks of this school year.

While I was writing this blog, my apartment building shook a few times. The area experienced some earthquake tremors from a seismic occurrence whose epicenter was in a town some distance from here. Not to worry I’m told, it happens all the time. So the next time my walls sway and the sofa vibrates, I’ll be sure not to be concerned.

Wherefore Art Thou ?

2009-05-20T20:56:00.002+03:00

When I awoke on Wednesday morning, I immediately realized that I was once again living in MY OWN domain. “Wherefore art thou my sweet Lee B.?” There are no longer half-full coffee cups abandoned in each of the three rooms. I find a horizontal surface, no longer cluttered with the concoctions fabricated to hide, suppress, inflate, deflate , accentuate, diminish, cover, uncover, remove, straighten, curl, color, highlight or otherwise improve what God gave a woman when she was born. I proceeded to check my e-mail without waiting for my turn to use my computer. It was back to normal – normal being a relative term.

But then I realized that my best friend (and wife to boot) had departed Macedonia for the warmer climes of Egypt to meet up with her best friend since high school, where they will see for themselves if there really are camels, pyramids and sand in Northern Africa.

(An aside: When my Macedonian acquaintances and the students were asking me where Lee was going, I would respond in Macedonian that “she was going on a vacation with a friend. I was unknowingly using the word “priatel” which is the masculine form for “friend”. Many a Macedonian and quite a few students initially looked a little confused at such an American tradition of letting one’s wife go on vacation with another man, but they accepted it as the way we do things in our country. Once I realized that I should be using the word “priatelka”, (meaning a female friend) people seemed to respond without the quizzical look on their face.

While Lee B. was here, we had a wonderful time. We were wined and dined by the families of my counterpart (Alexandra), my tutor (Jasmina) and my colleague (Dobchay). We visited my wonderful host family in Negotino and got a tour of Kocho’s vineyard. We were given a personal tour of the ancient city of Kratevo by Trichay, a news journalist who lives in Probistip. We picnicked in the beautiful mountain village of Lesnevo. We quickly toured the cosmopolitan capital city of Skopje (the weather was too warm) and stayed with Michael F.(PCV). We visited the lakeside town of Dojran and stayed with Phil (PCV). We were invited into a neighbor's apartment to spend an hour conversing in languages that none of us understood but with each of us comprehending what the other was talking about. We drank home-brewed rakija and wine. We spent hours together at outdoor cafes (not during school hours) drinking expresso and beer (not together) and talking with Maceonians who wanted to practice their English. We sampled Macedonian cooking at local restaurants where you could order an appetizer, a salad, a bountiful entrée, drinks, coffee and dessert for less than $8. We rode on buses, in taxis, and in privately owned vehicles. (How come you ride ON a bus but IN a taxi or IN a car?)

We accomplished all of this in addition to spending hours at the school with the students who seemed to be infatuated with Lee, especially the girls who had many questions to ask an American woman. They were somewhat disappointed when they learned that she had to go back to America so soon but relieved to know that she would be returning again in the autumn.

The three goals of the Peace Corps are: (1) To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and woman. (2) To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and (3) To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Goals two and three were positively and unquestionably addressed with Lee’s visit to this land of beauty, hospitality and friendship.

A Wife's Impressions II

2009-05-14T20:12:00.003+03:00

As a guest writer on my blog, Lee Barber writes:

“Aj Dobra” (roll the ‘r’) I said aloud as I touched the sheets hanging on the sunny balcony off Majkl’s stan (apartment). It was indeed very good that the laundry had dried in record time and I would have a dry pillow case to use tonight.

Then I realized with a start that I was literally talking to myself in Macedonian. The village of Probistip is tucked deep in a mountain valley in northeastern Macedonia where there is little need to learn English. Michael has made three good friends, all under thirty-something, who speak it well and generously share their time as translators for him, but for the rest we rely on his entry-level command of Macedonian. After 3 ½ weeks of hand gestures, charades and simply talking until I stumble on a word or two that are similar in both languages, I’m starting to get the hang of it. Not so much to speak it, but I’m continually surprised to find myself catching the general drift of a conversation in a language I don’t speak.

For the most part this is because the Macedonian people love to socialize and aren’t about to let a little thing like lack of a common language stop them from inviting a stranger in for coffee and a visit. As they bustle about making Turkish coffee and setting out platters of home-baked goodies and meats and cheeses , they talk a blue streak and don’t seem to mind if your responses are either unintelligible or consist exclusively of “Nay rahz bay rum” (meaning “I don’t understand”). They seem to take the attitude that we’re talking, therefore we’re sharing, a lovely approach to the world, eh?

The talk is not always of good news, though, as there is great unemployment in the village since the mines started closing and the textile factories have slowed to a crawl. Many of the women have so much time to bake, can vegetable and preserves, and tend their gardens because they have lost their jobs.

A mining engineer who is worried that his job too may be cancelled at any time explains that his wife, whose degree qualifies her to teach high school physics, has not been able to find a job in the eleven years since they graduated from college.They are glad she can be home with their two young children for now, but she would like a life outside the family, too.

A young woman with a degree in food chemistry considers herself fortunate to land a job as a nanny and housekeeper in Italy because she does not have the political clout required to get one of the scarce professional positions available.
They speak of these problems with disappointment, but not despair. In some ways they were better off under Communism because the government provided jobs and social welfare, but many of them see these times as a passage to better ones they hope will come when Macedonia is accepted into the European Union.

Americans are such a rarity in the villages that we are picked out instantly, if only for the aggressive way we walk. After five months working in the schools, Majkl is treated like a celebrity by the children of Probistip, who all seem to know everything about him even if they have not had him in class. Any reservations the women of the town may have had about him seem to have vanished with my appearance: the fact that he has a wife seems to make him a safe bet, so even the baba’s who peered suspiciously at him in the past are inviting us in at every chance.

Next time: there are a few things I’m looking forward to back in the States…

A Wife's Impressions

2009-05-08T21:51:00.003+03:00

Warning: While I am is constantly cleaning up Lee’s mess, rearranging everything to accommodate her every desire, and having to share all my stuff with her in my “bachelor” apartment, I have assigned her the task of writing this newest posting. Please forgive the lower quality writing style that follows.

It has been two weeks since I (Lee) woke up in Probistip and I’m amazed at how quickly one can get accustomed to conditions that seem unthinkable to an American from New England at first blush.

Like needing to plan at least two hours ahead before taking a shower—that’s how long it takes for the tank hanging over the bathtub to heat enough water for a quick wash-up. It takes about a half hour to heat water to wash dishes, so we tend to save them up for the end of the day.

And discovering why the village has no recycling program: materials we take for granted are scarce and expensive, so very little gets thrown out. Soda bottles become wine decanters; jelly jars make fine sugar canisters; butcher paper can be used to grease a baking sheet.(No such thing as Pam)

It’s an excellent day when a merchant gives you a plastic bag because your cloth bags wouldn’t hold all your purchases--it means you can keep your bread fresh an extra day or you can cut it open to use as a pastry cloth.

And learning to watch out for oneself. Apparently Macedonians still believe people should have a certain degree of common sense and see no need to post signs indicating that hot products will be hot, that a road obviously under construction could hold unexpected hazards, or to warn people to watch their step around gaping holes in the pavement.

The posted photos tell most of the story: Probistip, where Michael is assigned, is truly a different world from ours--sort of post WWII era Eastern Bloc with cell phones and grocery scanners. It strikes me as strange that they would spend money on such technology when they lack so many conveniences Americans take for granted. But here my own cultural assumptions have skewed my perceptions: this is not a choice for them; technology is relatively inexpensive whereas, for example, it would cost a fortune they don’t have to replace all the Turkish toilets with ones that flush.

I am reminded that choices come only with affluence.

The town we're in is tightly packed into a small valley, with houses stopping abruptly on the edge of town to give way to fields and vineyards and lambs and goats. This is the kind of ‘cluster zoning’ small town America has been resisting since it was first proposed in the 1970’s, preferring instead to control growth by demanding one or two acre minimums for each new house built. End result? Suburban sprawl that means no one can get anywhere without a car.

Though each home here sits on only a tiny patch of land, every square foot is put to use. Give a Macedonian a two by five-foot patch, and he’ll grow strawberries, leeks, lettuce, tulips, roses—you name it. Those who have cars pave only the two strips needed for tires and plant the middle strip with onions and root vegetables. Poles with a few wires strung between them support grape vines, which leaf out in the spring to form cool shady patios by the time the summer sun heats up with Mediterranean ferocity.

Without massive expanses of lawn to fertilize, water, weed, and mow, their energies go in to creating tiny Edens—virtual outdoor rooms, glimpsed through garden gates but otherwise totally private, overflowing with immaculately maintained roses, lilacs, lemon trees and tiny evergreens growing in patches of ivy.

To compensate for small house lots, many families also have plots of land outside the village where they grow grapes to make their own wine and rakia--a deadly cousin to brandy which is tossed back at the slightest provocation. Michael's host family, seen in the pictures posted in May, took us up to their plot, which we reached by hiking up a hill past a shepherd (a full timer whose job description hasn't changed in thousands of years)and his flock and fields of wildflowers.

Kocho is one of the lucky ones whose plot is relatively flat, but from his hilltop vantage point you see plots of grapevines clinging to the hillsides at angles only a billy goat could love. Undeterred, small growers like Kocho turn the soil between rows each year one shovelful at a time and trek out regularly to tie the vines meticulously to succeedingly higher layers of wire as the spring and summer progress.

On May 1--celebrated fervently here to honor the working man and woman--people go out into the woods and fields and up mountain tops to have skara--roughly comparable to what we call a barbecue. Since rain threatened this year, our hosts hauled tables out on the patio and cooked up the unbelievable assortment of meats pictured in the May photos. Not only is the food fantastically tasty but even the simplest snack is presented in a way that puts Martha Stewart to shame.

You rarely see a chubby Macedonian though, at least in the villages, because whatever you want or need you must walk to acquire--and have I mentioned that it's hilly here? You get interval training whether you want it or not. Which is good, because along with the very healthy cucumber, garden tomato, cabbage and leek salads and chorba (a thick Macedonian soup) I have acquired a taste for burak (pronounced boo-rahch). The closest thing I can compare it to is a huge croissant pastry filled with meat or cheese and spinach and baked in a sea of oil. Macedonians eat them for breakfast along with drinkable yoghurt.The light variety is about as tasty as fat free cream cheese, but the high test is ambrosia.

I'll have the rest of my life to eat egg white omelets and lowfat cottage cheese, I reason, so on the mornings that I don't go into school with Majkl I walk a few blocks down to one of the little shops that seem to occupy every third building and pick one up fresh for 30 cents.

Michael is badgering me for another post, so more later. The buzz is that strawberries are coming in today and to the quick go the spoils, so
I’m going to hoof it down to the town square where the stalls are set up and see what I can score.

Boston to Probistip

2009-04-27T17:30:00.002+03:00

Yes I am here, as if you hadn’t noticed, Mikey…to hear you tell it, so far I have 1. eaten you out of house and home 2. used up a day’s worth of hot water in a single morning 3. given you ulcers by insisting on drinking coffee near your precious computer 4. scattered crumbs on your previously tidy floor and 5. generally disrupted your swe-e-e-e-t bachelor existence.

Okay, so I’m pretty bad with crumbs, but I’m used to having a Dust Buster, now aren’t I? Give me a few days to adjust.

Michael tells me everyone wants to share travel experiences, so here’s the bottom line: Boston to Athens via London on British Airways is a pleasantly uneventful journey. Athens to Probistip—not so much. But it was much better than it would have been without the advice of other PCV’s, who responded generously to our pleas for guidance on making the trip and spared me a dozen additional hours on local milk runs.

Alexandra, Michael's counterpart, put us in touch with a nice young taxi driver who drove him all the way to Thessaloniki and back to pick me up in the middle of the night, cutting another 6 or 8 hours off my trip. At least I think he was young—it was pitch dark and I had already spent 29 hours on trains, planes and automobiles (not to mention a couple of buses) by the time Michael wrestled my luggage to the parking lot from the train station.

“Wrestled” is no exaggeration, in this case. Advice to anyone trying to carry six weeks’ worth of clothing plus two bags full of items their PCV needs from home between Athens and Macedonia: DON’T. Pop for the cost of shipping or hire a taxi to get you out of Athens before the local transportation authorities get a crack at you.
The Greek citizens I spoke to were lovely and helpful, but transportation employees seemed to take sadistic pleasure in throwing as many roadblocks as they could in my way. They suddenly didn’t seem to know which bus went to the train station, where I could find a telephone or cash machine, or even if there WAS a train to Thessaloniki that night.

When a kind passer-by actually reversed direction to lead me to the correct bus, the driver tapped his foot impatiently as I stumbled toward the door, considering it beyond his purview to help me haul my large wheeled bag out of the street, to which it had escaped after hitting a crack in the sidewalk. It also did not occur to him that I might get to the door sooner if he picked up my smaller suitcase, which had cast off the bungee cord binding it to its big brother and escaped in the opposite direction during the melee.

I did finally make it to the train station, only to discover that for reasons known only to train employees, they refuse to accept your baggage until one-half hour before your train departs. Having four bags and five hours to wait for the train to Thessaloniki, I tried to ask the five men idling and smoking behind the luggage counter if they would make an exception. With a grin of great self-satisfaction one of them said clearly, “None of us speak English” and shared a guffaw with his coworkers.That’s when, to my delight, I discovered that there are certain universal hand gestures which they DID understand. I know it was beneath me, Mother, but it felt wonderful.

So enough with the complaining. As anyone who has been to this mountain valley knows—the trip was well worth it. When I finally ‘came to’ from my jetlag, we walked down cobbled streets to the town center to cries of “Hello, Michael” and “What’s shaking, Michael” from just about every passing child. They all seem to be getting a great kick out of learning American slang. Their eIders stopped us at least every block to engage us in enthusiastic conversation, even though I couldn’t understand a word and Michael caught only a few here and there. It didn’t matter if we didn’t speak the language, they let us know: we must come in for coffee.

I can’t begin to do justice to the natural beauty of this place and the friendliness of the people in a short blog, so I’ll break it into small pieces in future entries. For now there are boxer shorts and lace panties to hang out to dry on our balcony and garden tomatoes, local cheese and crusty bread to collect from little shops down the street.
Swe-e-e-t.

Spring, Easter and Dumpsters

2009-04-27T14:57:00.001+03:00

Spring has arrived in Macedonia with its warm days and but still cool nights. I am told that this spring has been rainier than those of the last few years, so that maybe there won’t be too many waterless days this summer. Most Probistpians are outside now, tending their flower gardens and getting the soil ready for planting vegetables. The trimmed grape vines and fruit trees are budding. Lettuce is already available. Macedonians love the land and make use of every square meter to grow something, whether it be something to eat or something to beautify their surroundings.

Orthodox Easter was celebrated last weekend here in the Balkans. It is perhaps the most important holiday of the year. On Great Thursday (Holy Thursday), before the sun rises, families will dye three eggs the color red. This I was told, represents the Holy Trinity and the color red represents the blood of Christ. Later in the day, the eggs are gently rubbed across the heads of the children (I am not sure of the significance of this ritual). Nobody went to work on Great Friday (Good Friday). On Great Saturday (Holy Saturday), many families decorated eggs. Unlike those colored pills that you added to vinegar water that I used as a child, the dyes used here in Macedonia produced dark reds and blues and greens that gave the eggs deep rich colors.

At 11:00 PM on the eve of The Great Day (Easter) I went with Jasmina (my Macedonian tutor and friend) to the local church and attended a ceremony in which all of the parishioners with lighted candles, a ringing church bell, and led by chanting priests, walked around the church three times before the midnight hour. There was a great turnout of attendees and I saw many of the students from the Nicola Karev School. Most people lit candles for their family members and friends, and with the weather being temperate, it was a nice ceremony.

On The Great Day (Easter Sunday), children receive the decorated eggs and go about playing a game whereby two of them would lightly smack two eggs together. The one whose egg cracked would have to give it to the one whose egg remained uncracked. Using a decorated wooden egg to enhance one’s collection is not an uncommon practice and individuals with many eggs are always under suspicion for having employed such a tactic. Alexandra, Jasmina, and children from school gave me beautifully decorated eggs that I had to reluctantly destroy and turn into egg salad (a classic riches to rags story). As with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny doesn’t work in Macedonia. There are no candy-filled Easter baskets hiding somewhere to be found. Peeps, jelly beans, and chocolate bunnies have not yet challenged the ordinary plain white egg for dominance in the Easter Sunday diet of Macedonia’s children.

One other very significant event took place in Probistip last week. One of the first things that a visitor to most municipalities throughout the country notices is the poor condition of the trash dumpsters which residents use to get rid of their household garbage. Invariably they are missing the top enclosure which enables the local homeless cat and dog population to feast on discarded foodstuffs (and in the process litter the surrounding grounds). They are wheel-less, rusted and an eyesore in the otherwise meticulously clean communities. Well now Probistip can lay claim to the title of “A Town That Has Only New Dumpsters”. Every old and somewhat useless dumpster was replaced with a brand new fully operable state of the art trash depository. While I do wonder where the homeless animals are dining, I have noticed the litterlessness of the areas where the dumpsters are located.

Oh, and by the way, my wife arrived from Massachusetts for a four-week visit.

Six Days in Ohrid

2009-04-15T22:04:00.002+03:00

Each spring Peace Corps Macedonia brings together the newest batch of Volunteers (MAC 13’s) for six days of In-Service Training (IST). Also invited this year were our counterparts for technical training for the first three days and MAC 12’s for the last three days for language training.

Training was conducted in Ohrid, a gem of a city and a destination point for thousands of vacationers during the summer months (check it out on the internet). The hotel where we trained, ate and slept was exceptionally nice. Having three meals served daily, and having a variety of food was appreciated by all the Volunteers.

The permanent PC training staff put together a very complete schedule of topics, including a tour of the city one evening, led by a professional tour guide. The Volunteers scheduled a flag football game between the MAC 12’s and Mac 13’s , which, thank goodness, resulted in a 6-6 tie due to the arrival of darkness.

From Monday through Wednesday morning, those Volunteers who work in Community Development (CD’s) and Non-Governmental Agencies and their counterparts had sessions on such relevant topics as Fund Raising, Tourism Development, and Non-Governmental Organization Law.

Those Volunteers who are in the English Language Program, along with their counterparts, sat through sessions such as Team Teaching, An Overview of the American Educational System, Dealing with the Multi-level Classroom, and Teaching with Limited Resources. Everyone had a chance to share ideas and plan for the upcoming months.

On Wednesday afternoon the counterparts left for their communities while the MAC 13’s learned something about grant writing and the NGO’s learned a little about teaching English to adults.

The MAC 12’s began arriving and Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning were devoted to language training. The Peace Corps brought in 12 Language Facilitators who were experts in Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, or Roma. The sessions were for one hour with a six-participant limit. Each volunteer had the opportunity to pick lessons from over 100 topics in the course of the 2 ½ days. For example, I signed up for Possessive Pronominal Adjectives, Perfective and Imperfective Verbs, Useful Phrases, Conditional Sentences 1&2, and Imperatives all in the Macedonian language (not being an English Language Major, I was unaware that when I said “My car” or “Their dog” that I was using a possessive pronominal adjective. But as they say, you’re never too old to learn.) Most of the Volunteers enjoyed the sessions and found them to be quite beneficial. I said “most of the Volunteers” because I did not poll all of them and “most” is a safe word that leaves lots of room for error.

We were also updated on current safety and security issues; learned of initiatives by PCV’s that were open to all; discussed upcoming administrative requirements; and had the opportunity to talk with the medical staff and receive required immunizations.

It was a well-planned and worthwhile week of learning, conducted in a beautiful city on one of the world’s oldest lakes, and surrounded by my fellow PCV’s. But I’m glad to be back home in Probistip.

Planting Seeds

2009-04-05T12:02:00.001+03:00

Sadly, because of the lack of jobs in the town, there appears to be much idleness amongst the unemployed and underemployed men. I’m not too sure yet, but the lack of resources in the homes also contributes to the lack of recreational activities for the children. When asked, the children reply that their favorite activities are playing computer games and watching TV. Some children belong to sports clubs (football, handball, basketball, volleyball, karate, folk dance) all of which charge a fee and are for only a few hours a week.

So I am trying to introduce some inexpensive activities that potentially could provide hours of recreational fun. I have introduced a few already and they have been well received by the participants. But it’s only the start. The seeds are being planted but they’ll have to be watered and fertilized, and cultivated before they fully ripen.

DISCRAFT makes and distributes the Ultra-Star Professional Sport disc for Ultimate teams and players throughout the USA and the world. They also offer Peace Corps Volunteers ten free misprinted discs and the opportuntity to purchase up to 50 more misprints for $3 each. The Volunteer must pay the cost of shipping and handling. The discs retail for more than $15 a piece. I purchased 10 discs and so for $91 which is more than 1/3 of my monthly subsistence allowance($61 shipping to Macedonia), I now possess the only 175 gram Sport discs in Probistip and maybe in all of Macedonia. My ultimate plan (get it?) is to have a boys and a girls Ultimate team that can travel to other villages and towns to introduce the sport and have some fun meeting kids from other communities. The seed has been planted.

Last week after school there were some eighth graders hanging out on the school steps, so I took out a Sport disc from my backpack and for the next hour we had a great time tossing it around? For the first time in the 3000+ year history of Macedonia, you could witness teenagers tossing a disc on a warm and sunny spring afternoon, mimicking a scene on thousands of college and high school campuses and city parks in the USA. The seed has been planted.

I found a long piece of rope at school and wondered if the students had ever jumped rope. The teachers said that when they were schoolgirls, they jumped rope but that today’s children weren’t too familiar with it. So I brought out the rope one day during my after-school basketball and showed them some techniques of long and short jump ropes (one of the PE teachers showed me where there were some unused short ropes from years before). The students loved the activity and now all they want to do is jump rope. I am hoping to see groups of children jumping rope when I travel through their neighborhoods. I’m trying to convince the Director to purchase some ropes for PE classes and for the students to use during the breakfast break but he hasn’t agreed to YET. I’ll get Alexandra to work on him. The seed has been planted.

Many people throughout the USA love the activity of pitching horseshoes. It’s a great social activity for everyone and it provides some excellent recreational time for the participants. You can also drink beer while you play. So my long range plan is to have a horseshoe pitching league in Probistip which would help fill idle hours and provide recreational and social opportunities for anyone interested. My biggest problem, as it was with the discs and jump ropes, is finding horseshoes. The horseshoes in Macedonia (and maybe in all of Europe) are about 1/3 the size of a regulation horseshoe used in pitching. My friend Kolae introduced me to a blacksmith in the next town over who said he would try to fabricate a suitable horseshoe but I have yet been unable to get back there with the exact measurements. So until I can get my hands on the necessary equipment, I’ll have to wait to plant the seed on this activity.

Luckily I have Alexandra, my counterpart and friend and Jasmina, my Macedonian tutor and friend, who fully support me and pave the way in helping me resolve any problems I encounter along the way.

And finally a memorable moment for me. In the classrooms, the students sit at double-desks so that they are seated side by side with a classmate. I was helping a student who was having a problem understanding the proper use of in/on/under/and next to (I have the same problem learning when to use za, vo, da, na, po and doe). As I was engaged in explaining and demonstrating the differences, the other student at the desk said in his Macedonian-accented English, “Michael, you are a very good teacher”. “Well thank you Petar”, was all I could come up with to such a spontaneous and flattering compliment. He didn’t realize it but he had made my day.

I’m off to Ohrid for a week of technical and language training and a chance to see my fellow MAC13’s.

The Bake Sale

2009-03-25T18:08:00.002+02:00

History was made in Probistip on Monday the 23rd of March 2009. This following the peaceful Macedonian Presidential and mayoral elections the day before. Let me explain.

Several weeks ago I left a Teacher’s Dream Sheet in the teacher’s room which asked the teachers to “write down three items that they would request if they had three wishes.” The items they wished for were very surprising to me because for the most part – one teacher wished for a TV and DVD player- they were items which are taken for granted in most American schools. Teachers wished for permanent markers, paper, children’s musical instruments, math books, scissors, and a new carpet to replace the 15 year old carpet in the after-school classroom.

These wishes offered me the excellent opportunity for me to bring up the idea with Alexandra of fund raising. She already has her students bring in plastic bottles and scrap paper for which she has a buyer but the return is somewhat minimal. I asked her if they ever had a bake sale at school but the concept was novel to her and as I came to find out, every other Probistipian. Baking something at home, bringing it to school and selling it was never done before. I explained that if each of the 24 students in her home room brought in twelve cookies and we sold them for 5 denari each, we could raise 1400 denari in one morning. At first she wasn’t too sure it would work but she’s always willing to give anything a try (a 20%’er). She accepted the challenge of setting up this historic first bake sale.

She brought up the idea with her homeroom class and they were extremely excited about this new idea (all future 20%’ers?). The classroom was abuzz (another word I’ve always wanted to use) with who was going to make the posters, man the table, set up, clean up, and count the money. It was decided that it would be held the following Monday during the school’s breakfast period. There would be over 400 potential customers that would pass by the table set up outside the cafeteria. Location, location, location – we had it all.

Failing to work under my philosophy that it’s always easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission, Alexandra suggested that we get the rubber- stamped permission of the school Director before conducting the bake sale. I explained that in America we would do something experiential without asking for permission and then if need be, seek forgiveness if someone had a problem with us having done it.

But Alexandra knows the Macedonian way and wisely mentioned our plan to the Director. He liked the idea but told us that we couldn’t sell food school-wide because a child could get sick from contaminated food. He gave us permission, though, to have the bake sale within the confines of the classroom , and we could only sell food amongst her class and to staff members (don’t ask me to explain the rationale).

So the new plan allowed us to purchase the ingredients, spend Sunday afternoon making the cookies, carefully transporting them to school over the icy sidewalks on Monday morning, and then buying them back from ourselves at our own bake sale. Although this didn’t adhere to the strict definition of either “bake sale” or “fundraiser”, the students were still excited as ever when Alexandra informed them of the “minor” change to the original plan. At least we didn’t have to make signs and posters advertising the sale to ourselves.

So on a cold and icy Monday morning the historic event began upon the arrival of the 24 students in Class 6V. Unlike most other Monday mornings in classrooms all across the world, this one was filled with energy and determination. The students dutifully set up classroom, proudly displayed their homemade goodies, and quietly scouted their potential purchases from their classmates’ bounties of sweets.

Alexandra did a wonderful job promoting the bake sale to the other teachers – none of whom had experienced one. She made some flyers that the students delivered to each teacher reminding them of the event and inviting them to come to the classroom to make a purchase. The sale could only be conducted until 9:30 when 6V had to head out for another class and German class would take over the classroom where the sale was taking place.

It was great sitting on the sidelines and being able to watch the proceedings as students and staff engaged in an activity that brought smiles to the faces of all the participants. The students were eager to describe to the potential buyers the background behind each cookie: “My grandmother makes that one on very special family occasions”; “That’s my father’s favorite.” ; and “That one is from America. Michael made it”. With such great marketing support behind them, my apple cakes and butter cookies were the first items to sell out.

The teachers were pleasantly surprised by the wide assortment of goodies. They had never been to a bake sale and marveled at the concept. They exclaimed that they wanted to try one of each item as they proceeded to purchase the entire inventory by 9:30. “When’s the next bake sale” echoed throughout the hallways.

Working together, Class 6V was able to raise over 1000 denari for classroom items. The 23rd of March 2009 was a good day at the Nikola Karev Primary School in Probistip, Macedonia.

Bits and Pieces

2009-03-15T14:46:00.001+02:00

Alexandra and I had some success with our Homework -Team Project which attempted to get the students to do their English homework on a daily basis. As with classes worldwide, motivated students would complete their homework assignments while the less-than-motivated students would proffer every excuse, to include laziness, for not doing the assignment. We arranged each class into three teams and awarded points for completed assignments. At the end of the month, the team with the most points would receive an American cookie made by Michael (me ) and a free class outside playing an American game with me during a scheduled class. The team with the second-most points would get to participate in the outdoor game while the team with the least amount of points would have to stay inside and complete an English language assignment . After explaining the rules to one of the classes, a student proclaimed, “Now we have a reason to do our homework!” Go figure.

The completion rate for the month of February was over 95%. Peer pressure played an important role in the whole process as students would chastise teammates for not completing the homework assignment. The contests were close and I enjoyed watching the winners respond to their first taste of a Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie. While Alexandra and I work still have to work out some of the kinks, the students are fully engaged in this month’s challenge on newly selected teams.

International Woman's Day (IWD) is celebrated in Macedonia and in many other countries throughout the world, on the 8th of March every year. It recognizes the economic, political and social achievements of women. It is very similar to Mother’s Day, but it recognizes all women . Many children brought flowers or candy to school for their teachers on Friday this year while the teachers distributed sweets to their classes.

Another cute Macedonian custom is the tradition of children bringing sweets to their classmates when it’s their birthday. As they hand a sweet to a classmate or teacher, each classmate or teacher grabs each ear of the birthday child and gently pull upwards, thereby encouraging him/her to grow taller as they wish him/her a “Happy Birthday”.

Tooth Fairies don’t work the Macedonian beat, at least not in Probistip. The children here are fascinated by the idea that you can receive money for a tooth. When a Macedonian child loses a tooth, he/she throws it up on the roof of their home and chants something to the effect of “Take this tooth of bone and return to me a tooth of silver.” (my English speaking colleagues couldn’t remember the exact wording at the time of my writing this blog). A child only gets to do this for the first lost tooth. So if there are any unemployed Tooth Fairies that you might know of, let them know that there is an abundant supply of teeth in Macedonia.

One of my goals during my stay in Probistip is to set up an Ultimate Frisbee league. It’s an activity that requires a minimal amount of equipment and can be enjoyed by the upper grades and high school students. Friends tossing a Frisbee in the center or in the park would be much more preferable than friends sitting on the provided benches with little to do when hanging out. The only problem is that I CAN’T FIND A STINKIN’ FRISBEE OR FLYING DISC ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY. I searched over 20 different stores when I was in Skopje last week, and although the clerks knew what a frisbee is, not one of the stores stocked them.

Before they can participate in a game, the students need to learn how to throw a Frisbee and I need to find a source of disks. So my first task is to try to convince a shopkeeper in Probistip to stock some mid-level discs that interested parties may purchase. I did find three light toy discs that are adequate for indoor use and have a travel distance of about ten feet and the students are very eager to use them. So I know that better quality ones will sell once I get the ball (or should I say disc) rolling.

Scooters and mopeds are beginning to appear around town, so the warmer weather must be on its way. The Peace Corps prohibits Volunteers from riding on them but it sure appears to be a pleasant way to get around. You don’t have to worry about some big SUV running you off the road.

Sadly, our Country Director Bob Cone, who only six months ago took over the position, had to resign so he could be with his wife Joan while she recovers from breast cancer surgery. Bob and Joan earned the respect and friendship of all the Peace Corps family here in Macedonia and they will be missed. It’s not that often that everybody loves their boss. They were the perfect fit for the job. Fortunately Joan is expected to recover fully and perhaps someday we’ll cross paths.

No More Waiting in a Line

2009-03-01T16:30:00.002+02:00

One of the most mentioned cultural differences that PCV’s talk about is the Macedonian’s ignorance of waiting in a line. Every Volunteer has had the experience of having an individual cut in front of her/him while he/she was expecting to be the next person to be serviced whether it is at the post office, bank, market or entrance to a building. They are not doing it maliciously. It’s just the way they do it. They form semi-circles around the person being attended to.

On Friday I had to go into Skopje for a Sexual and Reproductive Health Education Committee meeting that I had volunteered to serve on (more on that in a future blog). I was standing behind a woman who was purchasing a ticket at the bus station ticket window and leaving her a little space so she could maneuver away from the window. I was obviously the next customer but as she began her move away from the window, this gentleman reaches in front of me and puts his money on the counter and requests a ticket to Skopje. It’s like I was invisible. There were only the three of us in the station at the time. I bit my tongue but vowed to take up the Peace Corp’s mantra and assimilate into the community – no more lines for me, only semi-circles.

The opportunity to assimilate came sooner than I expected - that afternoon on the last bus from Skopje to Probistip. Fridays are crazy at the bus terminal. University students are heading home for the weekend, commuters are commuting and weekend travelers are hustling to their weekend sojourns. So if one doesn’t want to stand for the two-and- a- half hour trip to Probistip, one needs to capture a seat. The word “capture” implies some form of violence and my no-more-wait-in-line conversion mentally prepared me for Operation Get a Seat.

At 4:30 I innocently stood in the back of the crowd of experienced travelers, feinting that I had no desire to participate in the upcoming event. I counted about 60 adversaries meaning anywhere from 10-15 standees. People were shuffling back and forth and the nervous tension could be felt all along the platform as everyone waited for the 4:40.

My position in the back of the crowd gave me the advantage of seeing the bus approach the station before anyone else. Therefore while it was approaching, I casually maneuvered to the front of the awaiting crowd which had not yet spotted the bus. Having this initial advantage did not last long as the crowd began to surge toward the anticipated boarding spot (the no-line mentality). I had to use my backpack to block and push people away. I was able to knock two elderly ladies and three little schoolgirls away from the bus door (it’s an acceptable practice) as college students and businessmen competed with me – the rookie- to board.

When the driver opened the door I was the second person to board, preceded only by an elderly grandmother. My victory in this contest enabled me to pick the seat of my choice and watch the last 15 passengers sullenly take a place in the aisle. If I recall correctly, they were the ones waiting in a line to get on the bus, courteously allowing the elderly and people with children to enter ahead of them.

On the very comfortable ride to Probistip, I was able to gloat over my ability to assimilate so easily. The two elderly ladies and the three little schoolgirls that I knocked over were amongst those now standing in the aisle, rather uncomfortably. They would often look toward me and mutter something in Macedonian that I took to be unpleasant. I would just look back, raise my index finger and mouth “Jac sum Broj Eden“ (“I am Number One”). I have to find out if their reply of sticking out their tongue at me has a universal meaning.

Anyway, I can’t wait to go to the post office.

Saint Trifon's Day

2009-02-20T22:31:00.003+02:00

I had an opportunity to visit my host family on the weekend of February 14th to celebrate the annual wine festival held in Negotino. While American’s are celebrating St. Valentine’s Day in accordance with the Roman Christian calendar, Macedonians are celebrating St. Trifon's Day, the patron saint of wine growers, in accordance with the Orthodox Christian calendar. American’s spend millions of dollars on their loved ones to celebrate this day(helpful hint: tell your significant other that there’s nothing special about the Valentine’s Day because you love them more as each day passes and so setting aside one day makes no sense. Besides tell them you’re allergic to the color red. I’ve used this strategy for years and have saved hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of dollars. The added bonus is that my wife doesn’t talk to me for two weeks.) Macedonians in the wine country celebrate this day by ceremoniously pruning an old growth vine in their vineyard. It is the opening, if you will, of the new season in the vineyards. For more information on this tradition, go to www.winemk.com. The celebration really enlivens an otherwise dreary February.

About 30 Peace Corps Volunteers made the journey to Negotino with many of them staying at the beautifully renovated St. George’s monastery (there are some pictures of the monastery that I posted when I was training in Negotino). It was a good time for all of us to catch up with each other’s adventures in our towns and villages. I stayed with my host family and we had a busy time.

On Friday afternoon we attended a wine tasting event sponsored by the major wine producers in the region. There was plenty of food and wonderful Macedonian wine for all. On Saturday morning, seven of us hiked to Kocho’s modest vineyard and he performed the vintner’s ritual of pouring wine, rakija and holy water on a vine while saying a prayer. He then trimmed the first vine in the row (he only has 1499 more vines to trim and tie up before the warmer weather arrives). It was nice to witness first hand a ritual that has been performed in the vineyards for hundreds of year by a real vintner and a good friend.

We then hiked to the center where the celebrations began at 11:00 with traditional folk dancers performing. The mayor and other officials spoke from the stage set up on the plaza and the local priests performed a ceremony. Then the wine booths set up around the plaza began offering wine from their vineyards. The term wine tasting didn’t really apply because they filled up your cup and refilled it when it was empty. It was more like wine guzzling. The wines were very tasty (I’m sure this isn’t an oenophile’s term) and very affordable.

I found it interesting to note once again, the absence of women at events such as these. Of the 1200 or so spectators, there were only a handful of women and they were the newer generation of females. I am not sure if I saw any women over the age of 40. It was definitely not a family affair.

Phil, Michael Sr., Brittany and I, along with Violetta got back to Kocho’s at about 2PM and Kocho grilled chicken, sausages and kabobs on his outdoor grill. It’s very unusual for Macedonians to grill in the winter months and Kocho received a few puzzled stares from passersby. The local dog and cat population took the time to drop by to investigate from whence the heavenly aroma of grilled meat was emanating (I’ve been wanting to use the word “whence” for the longest time. My next goal – to use the word “thence”.). We had a great Macedonian meal prepared by Slavitsa with all the Macedonian love that goes into making guests feel comfortable and relaxed.

I left Negotino on Sunday morning on the 8AM bus to Velez, arrived in Velez at @8:45, caught the 9AM to Stip and arrived in Stip at @9:50. The only bus to Probistip on Sunday is at 2PM, so rather than wait 4 hours in a unenclosed, unheated bus station, I took a taxi to Probistip (500 denari = @$10) and arrived home at 10:20. This was a record time from Negotino to Probistip. I don’t anticipate it ever happening again.

Solo Eating

2009-02-10T17:27:00.005+02:00

Food shopping in Probistip is nothing like food shopping in most of America. No longer do I have to unload ten bags from the car, bags filled with whatever I impulsively purchased (usually items high in carbohydrate and fats that nutritionists abhor). Probistip’s great for a guy who hates to go food shopping. We have one small “cypermarket”, which is about the size of a 7-11 and has most of the very basic stuff that I need . What I like best is that I don’t have to waste my time deciding which brand or what size of an item to purchase. To save on the limited shelf space, the store has limited choices. One brand, one size. I just take what is offered. No need to compare prices, trans-fat percentages, or sodium content. I just thank Edesia and Bibesia (the Roman goddesses of food and drink) that I found what I needed.

Also to save shelf space and keep the costs of purchasing reasonable, most items that are packaged come in somewhat smaller quantities than I am used to. Baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper and other such items come in small packets the size of the sugar packets one finds in restaurants in the States. I can purchase wine, beer and whiskey (until 7PM). The clerk will bag sugar for me in any amount and I can purchase one egg or as many as I need . I can choose from a small inventory of cleaning products, personal hygiene and laundry products.Milk comes in unrefrigerated one liter boxes, which upon opening require refrigeration. Milk is relatively expensive in Macedonia ,so sadly families turn to soft drinks and fruit juices as the beverage of choice. Children, I’ve notice, drink a lot of soda.

I purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from one of the several small shops and I purchase meat from one of the three butcher shops. Today I purchased eight mandarin oranges, two grapefruits, a tomato and a small lettuce for 106 denari or approximately $2.00. There are several pastry shops that have wonderful sweets but there is little variety and I can only indulge in so many tortes and éclairs. One of my future projects is to inspire the bakers to increase their offerings with the promise that I will be one of their best customers.

Additionally, there are a score of small convenience type shops scattered throughout the town. There are too any of them to count and they all have the same limited inventory of basic stuff. I don’t know how they attract customers because nothing differentiates one from another. I can purchase the same loaf of bread, the same brand jogurt and a pack of Orbit gum from any of them.

Although I’ve yet to do so, I can take a 45 minute bus ride to Stip and food shop at one of several large supermarkets. Of course I’m limited to purchasing only what I can carry and waiting six hours for the return bus to Probistip.

The Peace Corps gave us a small cookbook before we left for our permanent sites. It contains recipes collected and compiled by past and present PCV’s in Macedonia that use ingredients commonly found within the county. I’ve successfully tried several of them - chicken and rice, apple crisp, German apple cake, rice pudding, oatmeal –raisin cookies, apple pie, fried chicken, french fries and other nutritious all- Macedonian dishes.

Cooking for oneself does present its challenges. If I make a casserole I’ll wind up having to eat it for the next two or three days. If I’m really busy, I take the path of least resistance - peanut butter and jelly – to satisfy any hunger pains. With a small freezer, I have to rely on fresh vegetables to be in compliance with the updated Food Pyramid. Problem is at this time of the year, I can only find winter vegetables (carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbages) at the market. Green-leafy is out of the question right now, but come late spring, summer and fall, the succulent Macedonia fruits and vegetables will be in abundance. The Peace Corps provides me with my multi-vitamins and prophylactic aspirin, so I’ve limited my chances of developing scurvy for the time being.

All I all, eating for one is OK. I do find it somewhat inconvenient though, to have to refill my own glass, to get up to get the salt shaker I forgot to bring to the table, to criticize only myself for overcooking the meat, to have to get up again to refill my plate with seconds, and to then have clear my own place, and wash, dry and put away the dishes and pots. Where’s the fairness in that?

I just heard the timer going off (or is it going on?) so I have to go and check tonight‘s dinner – Mac and Cheese and french fries. Luckily I got some ketchup yesterday so I can include a vegetable with my meal tonight, although it can be argued that potatoes are a vegetable. Bon Appetite!

(N.B. I am reporting on my experiences here in Probistip. Larger municipalities have modern well-stocked supermarkets.)

Up and Running

2009-01-28T18:55:00.001+02:00

After five weeks of waiting for T-Home to install my Peace Corps required phone land line and my not required but essential internet connection and my nice to have cable TV, I am waiting no longer. For the 1650 denari installation fee and a one year contract of approximately 2900 denari ($60.00)per month, I have a phone from which I can make unlimited calls to Macedonia Telecom subscribers; 70 cable TV stations; and a fast DSL internet connection (6144/766 kbps)with unlimited downloading capability. The Peace Corps gives me 500 denari/month for the required phone line, but I am responsible for the cable and internet. This takes a little bite out of my subsistence allowance, but a few more meatless meals should cover it.

There are many TV stations that play English language programs with Macedonian subtitles. These could complement my weekly tutoring classes. However, as my family at home can attest to, sitting down to watch a TV show means falling asleep in an armchair (or any chair for that matter). So I’m not anticipating “watching” much TV.

The internet will now allow me to get background information for some of the projects I am planning and to find invaluable references to share with my English-teaching colleagues. It will also save me the $25 Sunday evening calls to my wife as I will be Skyping from now on.

On the 19^th of January, Macedonians (as probably do all Orthodox Christians) celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. It is the last day of celebration before the beginning of the new work year. On this day in each town, the local priest throws a cross into whatever large body of water is available and men from the town will dive into the water, competing to be the one to retrieve it. In Probistip where there is no lake or river, they use a very large swimming pool on the outskirts of town. In Ochrid, they use the lake and in Skopje they use the Vardar River. It’s a very well attended event and is the end of the long holiday season.

I missed the first day of school on the 20^th, because I was able to travel to Skopje to our Peace Corps Director’s home to watch the inauguration ceremonies of our newly elected President. About 35 Volunteers from across the country made the trip. The director and his wife put on a sumptuous spread and made everyone welcome and comfortable. I made it back to Probistip for Thursday morning classes and many of the teachers congratulated me and seemed truly impressed that Americans make such a big deal out of having a new President.

On the 26^th, I again traveled to Skopje, this time to attend Warden training. Wardens are volunteer Volunteers who assist the permanent PC staff in ensuring that volunteers throughout Macedonia are evacuated safely out of the country if the need ever arises. Wardens are briefed on the various contingency plans that have been devised and their role in the execution of those plans. Every measure has been taken to ensure safety of the Volunteers, so parents, spouses, family and friends can rest assured that the Peace Corps in Macedonia is prepared for any emergency that may arise.

The weather in Probistip has been comparatively comfortable with the temperatures in the low 40’s Cloudy and rainy days are the rule over the last few weeks. I kind of miss shoveling and snowblowering (the spell checker won’t approve this word) the snow deposited by the many storms hitting New England this winter. I miss chopping the ice off the sidewalk and raking the snowdrifts off the roof. And I especially miss competing with the ice to stay upright. Truly the joys of winter. (A special special thanks to my next door neighbor, Andy, who has assisted my novice – but now experienced - wife in removing tons of snow from our ice-rutted driveway. Thanks Andy!... and to all of my neighbors who have lent a hand in helping out when needed.

The Macedonian Postal Service

2009-01-18T15:32:00.003+02:00

Sending packages from the USA to Macedonia is very expensive. It’s a minimum of $49.95 to send a box about the size of two size 17 shoe boxes. My favorite sister, Luanne, sent me a surprise New Year’s box of goodies that contained a beautiful sweat shirt, a box of gourmet cookies, and a bottle of maple syrup. The maple syrup allowed me to have French toast one morning, served American style. My Macedonian friends do not know what maple syrup is, despite the fact that they have many maple trees. They also are not familiar with the other syrups (Log Cabin, Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth) since they don’t use these products on their pancakes. Macedonian pancakes are crepes, filled with chocolate crème.

Anyway, I digress. The postman delivers regular mail to my apartment, leaving it by the door since there are no individual mailboxes at my building. The postman does not deliver packages. He will leave you a yellow card that notifies you that you have a delivery awaiting at the Post Office. I’m not sure about domestic packages, but if the package is from outside of Macedonia, the cost of picking up the package will be indicated on the card. So not only do they not deliver packages, they require you to make the trip to the Post Office and then charge you 186 Denari (About$3.00) to lug it home.

I believe that this procedure has something to do with Customs, since every package that comes into the country is opened up and its contents examined. The package are then resealed, banded and sent on their way to their final destination. Maybe the cost of picking up your package has something to do with covering the cost of the materials to reseal it. I will investigate this matter further, since I am curious as to why things are done the way they are.

On the 16th of January, I received my first Care package from my Number One Supporter – my wife. She had mailed them on the 7th of January, between Massachusetts’ snow storms. In return for the shipping costs for two parcels ( $100) and the 372 Denari (186 x 2) to pick them up, I obtained about $60 worth of things that they don’t have in Macedonia or that I have been unable to find as of yet. I was giddy as I opened the resealed boxes and discovered that I now have a good vegetable peeler (I was using and could continue to use the butter knife, but I was losing a lot of the potato and carrot in the process); Log Cabin Syrup for my pancakes (to go along with two bottles of maple syrup); 7mm lead for my mechanical pencil; horseradish for my meatloaf; Centrum Silver vitamins for my over 50 needs; a good carving knife so I can give my bread knife an occasional rest; black non-wife-beater style undershirts; a meat thermometer so all the pork I have to eat (very little beef in Probistip) won’t give me trichinosis; plastic Ziploc bags so I can store leftovers from the serves-four recipes and there being only one of me; wash cloths and dish rags for cleaning the bachelor pad of the previous Volunteer in which I now live; aromatic candles to assist in the battle to overcome the cabbage-oriented smells of my neighbors’ winter diets; pot holders which will replace the cumbersome dish towels which routinely failed in their efforts to protect my hands from being burned; three bottles of Costco contact lens solution at $3.00 a bottle enabling me to forego the $16 a bottle investment in Probistip; and a two-cup measuring cup with metric volumes so that I don’t have to refer to conversion charts when I am making peanut butter cookies.

I also received a t-shirt (Macedonia – America: The best of both worlds), a History of Russia DVD set, and a beautiful and comfortable L.L.Bean flannel shirt (thank you Mom-Barber).

These simple things will give me much pleasure over the next 24 months. It was a great Care package but the extreme cost of shipping will limit future bundles. If I really need something badly, I can plan on going to Skopje where I’ll probably be able to find it. Right now, I have everything I need (except my internet connection). I’m one happy camper.

Christmas in Negotino

2009-01-10T14:01:00.002+02:00

The visit with Kocho, Slavitza, and Violetta for the celebration of the Orthodox Christmas was wonderful . The food was delicious Macedonian fare in unending amounts, made from scratch, with local ingredients. I was unable to be in Negotino on Monday evening when the men in the village make bon fires, sing songs, and drink heated rakija with added water and sugar. But there were also bon fires all over Probistip and the sound of the men singing folk songs could be heard from all directions. The fires remind everyone of the fire set by the shepherds for the birth of Jesus. I’m not sure where or when the custom of drinking alcohol began or its relevance.

On Tuesday morning on my bus ride to Negotino, I noticed many children walking in groups as the bus passed through the villages. I found out later on that this event occurs on January 6th, the morning before Boshik (this is a transliterated way to say the Cyrillic-spelled word for Christmas). It is very similar to our Halloween, in that the children go from door to door as early as 4 AM, singing a song for the residents in return for goodies such as fruits, candies or money. They carry a stick or small pole (reminiscent of the shepherds) and make their way through the neighborhood collecting goodies.

Boshik Eve is spent with immediate family members. Kocho led a ritual with candles that highlighted the birth of Jesus . He invited God into his home and he gave thanks for the previous year’s blessings. He then distributed chunks of a loaf of bread that Slavitza had baked earlier in the day to each of us. One coin was hidden in the loaf of bread and the person who found the coin in their chunk of bread would have good fortune in the next year. Kocho got the coin this year. Relatives and friends called throughout the day to report who got the coin in their family and to find out who got the coin in Kocho’s family.

Boshik is also a day spent with family members. All we did was eat and eat and eat. We all rewarded ourselves with two hour naps which got us ready to eat some more before we retired for the night. It is very similar to our Thanksgiving Day meal when we gourge ourselves, watch football, and take naps before we eat our turkey sandwiches. Later on in the evening, Brittany dropped over for a visit. She was visiting her host family and we had a pleasant time as she updated us on her adventures as a Volunteer.

I left Negotino on Thursday morning at 10:30 and arrived in Probistip at 3:30. The five hour bus trip would be reduced to no more than 90 minutes when driven by car, but taking a bus lets you enjoy what Macedonia is all about. My host family stocked me with a supply of pickled vegetables, jarred plums, and a new supply of rakija which I will enjoy for the next few months.
Since we had a few snowfalls in the days prior to Boshik, the landscape took on a new appearance, so the bus ride afforded me some terrific views through the iced up windows. Generally, snowfalls melt quickly in this part of Macedonia but this winter has been colder than usual (this debunks Rob’s theory of global warming) and so the snow is sticking around. People use spades, pointed shovels, handle-less brooms, and dustpans to clear sidewalks and stairways. I didn’t see a single snow shovel , a lightweight tool which would speed up the snow removal process. I’m going to try to convince one of the local hardware stores to stock a few next winter. Some entrepreneur could do well selling snow shovels throughout the country (although they probably have them in the mountainous west). Then again, maybe not.

Dodging vehicles on unplowed roads is a skill that I have quickly mastered. The snow gets packed down on the side roads and village roads. There is generally one travel lane down the middle with snow piled up along the sides. So the trick is to move as far to the side as possible and tromp through the piled up snow when you hear a rear drive, bald tired, mufferless, first- gear-missing, four cylinder, diesel engined, inspection-expired, four passenger (with six passengers) vehicle sliding through the iced up grooves towards you. Fortunately, most people leave their cars at home when it snows.

I started Macedonian language lessons with my tutor Jasmina. She is an English-speaking lawyer who has lived with her family in Probistip for her entire life and she will help me expand my communication skills. Her family is very charming and friendly and her father and I try to communicate, somewhat successfully , with limited language skills in each other’s native language. The Peace Corps will pay for 24 hours of lessons per quarter so that Volunteers can continuously improve their language skills. There is also a great staff in Skopje ( especially Ivana the language program manager), which will provide us with any resources that we may need to help us master a new language.

My language skills must be getting a little better because I’m getting fewer puzzled looks from the clerks at the shops. If my skills aren’t getting better then the clerks must be getting used to my New York/ Massachusetts accent and I’ve been speaking well enough all along.

The Macedonian Holiday Season

2009-01-03T12:20:00.000+02:00

Sometime in November I began to notice the appearance of what we know as Christmas decorations in Negotino. Santa Claus was beginning to appear in various small shops, holiday lights were beginning to glow in the evening, and Coka Cola commercials on TV were beginning to have a holiday theme with Santa Claus as a main character. The town center was outfitted with seasonal lights. I began to wonder how Santa fit into the picture in Macedonia since they have no Saint Nicholas who brings gifts on Christmas. Santa works on New Year’s Eve in Macedonia.

As it was explained to me by my friends here in Probistip, celebrating religious holidays was frowned upon during the days of Communist rule. So rather than outlaw Santa while discouraging the Orthodox celebration of the birth of Jesus, he was permitted and encouraged to visit on the secular holiday of New Year’s Day. So today throughout Macedonia (and I suspect in all the other Orthodox countries in the world), Santa visits on this night. Christmas Eve (January 6) is celebrated with family dinners at home and Christmas Day is celebrated with extended families and friends. (if anyone reading this blog has anything to add or to correct my understanding of this holiday, please do so in the comments section below).

My town of Probistip has its New Year’s lights on the square and on the street poles on the main “thoroughfare” and many families have their New Year’s lights decorating their homes. I can see New Year’s trees shining through the windows of many of the apartments and homes. On Tuesday evening I attended a teacher’s party at the hotel. There were 70-or-so teachers from the schools in Probistip and everyone was dressed in their finest. There was a live band that played for three straight hours before dinner while the teachers danced various versions of what we know as the Hora, during the whole time. They really enjoy dancing here. I promised everyone at my table that by the next New Year I would be dancing with the best of them and playing the accordion. My first lessons are next week providing I can find a used accordion.

I traveled to the capital to celebrate New Years with my Peace Corp buddies Michael and Phil. Michael is assigned to an Non-Governmental Organization dealing with the textile industry, and has his modern apartment in Skopje. It’s a three hour bus ride from Probistip to Skopje (270 denari or @ $6) but it was time well spent. Unlike my apartment which was constructed a half century ago, Michael’s has all the conveniences of a modern apartment. It has up to date electrical wiring, hot water faucets in the kitchen and bathroom, radiators in every room, an elevator, and to top it off, his apartment faces the mountain, affording him a glorious view of the mountain and the large cross that oversees the city. For the first time in three months I was able to shave with hot water and take a shower in a heated bathroom.

Skopje is a cosmopolitan city so different from Negotino and Probistip. 700,000 people live there and it has everything you would expect to find in any major city in the world. So Phil and I hit the jackpot when we went to a large supermarket and found items that aren’t readily available at the smaller markets in our communities. I found some peanut butter, brown sugar, mustard in a jar rather than in a packet, dried spices, black tea, brown shoe polish, and food wrap, all of which I was able to bring back to Probistip. There were hundreds of other items that unfortunately I wanted (needed?) but one can only carry so much on a bus. But Phil and I were very pleased with our New Year’s presents that we purchased at the market and we are looking forward to enjoying them through the cold winter months.

The only problem we faced visiting Michael on this major holiday was that all the restaurants were closed for the two days we were in Skopje (they were all open for private parties only). We had hoped to dine out one night and we walked for quite some time looking for an open restaurant. We found only one – McDonalds. The establishment does a booming business so it was quite crowded with families and teenagers. So on New Year’s Eve for 2009, 5000 miles from the States, in a country somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, we dined at McDonalds - Big Mac, fries, and a Coke, double sized. It was rather good.

On Tuesday I travel to Negotino to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Boshik) with my host family. It will be a nice reunion.

The Nikola Karev Primary School

2008-12-30T13:41:00.002+02:00

My first two weeks in a Macedonian primary school were marvelous. The Nicola Karev Primary School is one of two primary schools in Probistip. There are approximately 440 students in grades 1-9. Grade One is what we know as Kindergarten. There are 37 teachers. The facility itself is the largest school in Macedonia, tracing its construction back to 1986 during the mining boom days. It has a large gymnasium and boasts a small indoor swimming pool for teaching swimming. Sadly, the school doesn’t have the resources to maintain the infrastructure to the highest standards or to heat the pool in the colder months, but the staff does a wonderful job in making it a warm and friendly place for the children to learn with the resources they do have.

My counterpart, Alexandra, is one of three English teachers at the school. She was recruited and assigned to me by the Peace Corps. She is a highly motivated teacher who is anxious to learn everything there is to learn about teaching English. I will be working closely with her and the other English teachers in Probistip over the next two years (I will also be involved in other projects within the community). Alexandra grew up in Probistip and she seems to know everyone of the 10000 residents. She is married and has two young sons and she now lives in a village about a ten minute drive from Probistip. In her role as my counterpart, she has introduced me to the entire staff at the school, has taught me the ins and outs of the Macedonian educational system; has answered thousands of my questions; has taught me how to shop at the bazaar and the local shops; and has been my guardian angel (just like Violetta in Negotino).

Grades 1 -4 go to class from 7:30 til 11:30. They are in a self-contained classroom and have the same teacher for every subject except English. The classroom teacher teaches Macedonian, math, geography, social studies, nature, art, music and physical education. The English language teacher comes to their room for three 40 minute classes each week. Since the classroom teacher must also teach Physical Education, I understand that this doesn’t happen as often as it should. The students’ favorite after-school activities nowadays are watching television and playing computer games. So someone might want to look into this arrangement pretty soon of having untrained classroom teachers conduct unscheduled PE classes. The teachers in these grades are hired for their ability to teach everything and, since they get no breaks, for their superb bladder control.

The children and adolescents in Grades 5-9 go to class from 7:30 til 1:00. They have home room first thing on Monday morning with their home room teacher who stays with them as their home room teacher until they move on to the high school. The teachers have five years to get to know their students and the students’ parents. The homeroom class then stays together as a group for the rest of the day as they switch classes for the different subjects. Students the upper grades have Macedonian language, English, a required choice of either German or French, Physical Education (with a certified PE teacher), History, Math, Biology or Chemistry, Computer, Art, Crafts (Shop a s we know it).

The teachers keep all of the information about their home room students (grades, absences, misbehavior, and whatever) in a very formal and serious Big Red Book. The teacher picks up the book from its dedicated place in the Teacher’s Room at the beginning of the day. The book accompanies each class as they attend their different subjects and it is returned at the end of the day. It is considered a great honor to be the student who transports the Red Book from class to class.

Although this is supposed to change within the next year (the Ministry of Education will provide the books), students still have to purchase their books, workbooks, and school supplies for each class. They can buy individual sheets of paper from their teacher (a break even, non-profit pain for the teacher) for tests or projects. Some families cannot afford the books, so some students will attend class without them and sit in place while the others are doing exercises in their workbooks. Another problem that I mentioned before is that many students use hand-me-down work books with the answers filled in with ink. So when it’s time to practice a newly learned concept or to complete an exercise in the workbook for homework, the students with the previously owned books have “completed” the assignment before they even started. Obviously, they learn very little; they don’t reinforce any concepts taught that day; and they make it difficult for the teacher to verify that the students understood the lesson. This issue should be resolved next school year when, as I understand it, every student will receive schoolbooks from the Ministry.

The one undeniable similarity between the Nicloa Karev Primary School, the Straso Pindzur Primary School in Negotino, and Blanchard Memorial where I taught for 33 years is the children. They all have the same interests (computer games and TV); they like the same foods (pizza and pomme frits); they want to be famous actresses, actors or sport heroes when they grow up; and their smiles and laughter light up the room. So what else is new?

Much more on the schools later.

P.S. I just turned on my TV with the green lines and there’s an NFL night game on between the Cowboys and the Eagles. It’s Monday night (NFL on Fox) but it’s only 3:30in the States, so the action isn’t live. The commentary is in Macedonian (or Serbian?) so I am not sure when the game was played. The announcers keep talking about Arizona, Minnesota, New England, the Jets and Miami, so I am assuming this is a recent game . The best part is that there are few commercials, so after kickoffs, punt returns, time outs, TV time outs, field goals and touchdowns, the camera pans around the stadium and the team benches. So now I know what goes on at the stadium during the commercial breaks that I used to suffer through which tried to convince me to buy a beer I didn’t like, a car I couldn’t afford, or some medication I don’t need. When was the game played?

Setting Up Housekeeping

2008-12-24T16:57:00.004+02:00

After three months of living with my host family, I now find myself in the position of having to take care of all those services that were provided to me during my pre-service training. Fortunately, a five minute walk gets me to “downtown”, so once I figure out who sells what, I can purchase what I set out to buy.

Probistip is a small town and it has no supermarket where I can do one-stop shopping. There are four or five shops that sell fresh fruits and vegetables, several meat markets, a few pastry shops, and innumerable small shops that sell convenience foods, cartoned milk (milk is sold in one liter cartons off the shelf, not refrigederated until opened), and bread. I have been able to find all the basics but the choices of a product are limited. In the larger towns and cities there are supermarkets that rival the ones in the states. Someday there will be one in Probistip, but sadly it will hasten the demise of a many of the shops that serve the residents now. I can take a 20 minute taxi ride over the mountain to Kratevo or a 40 minute bus ride to Stip whenever I have the need to add some variety to my diet.

I found most of the cooking utensils and dishes that I needed to supplement the stuff that was left to me by Ryan, the previous Peace Corps Volunteer who lived in the apartment before me. He worked for a non-governmental agency. Cleaning materials can be found in many of the shops. I have a brand new washing machine, so my concern about washing my laundry in the tub was alleviated. As is the case for most families in Macedonia, I have no dryer. There is a clothesline on my balcony and to my surprise, the clothes dry rather quickly inside on cold days when I have the electric heater turned on. Turn-around time for my laundry is now down to a day and a half or maybe even a day.

Before I set out on a buying spree, I get out my Macedonian dictionary and write out the Macedonian word for whatever I’m trying to find so I can ask a clerk if I can’t find it. In many cases, the label is written in English or has a picture so I can take the item off the shelf like an experienced Macedonian. Other times I have to use my Macedonian because I don’t have my list, and this can result in a five minute mime routine starring the clerk and me. Eventually we locate the requested item.

Wednesday in Probistip is bazaar day. On market day you can find almost anything among the vendors that travel here to sell their goods at outside stalls and booths on the town square. The town comes alive on this day as everyone comes out during the morning hours to do their weekly pantry-stocking with fresh produce. I can also find clothing, household gadgets and almost any stuff that I can find at Wal-Mart. The quality may be lacking in many of the products (not the produce) but the items serve a purpose and will get the job done.

So I am now satisfied that two of the most basic of human needs – food and shelter – will be met with no problem by the only alien in the Municipality of Probistip. I can check it off the list of Things to Learn How To Do.

A Volunteer

2008-12-17T14:20:00.002+02:00

On Saturday morning MAC 13 dispersed throughout the country. The Peace Corps staff was stationed at the major bus stations to help with our baggage. What we anticipated to be somewhat of a challenge, transporting two years worth of luggage and other issued items (manuals, water distillers, electric oil heaters and food and wine from our host families) to our new sites, turned out to be a somewhat painless operation. Our host families helped bring our stuff to the pickup point and our counterparts or new landlords met us at the end of our journey. As a former military logistician, I was totally impressed with the planning and execution of the operation.

It was very difficult for me to say goodbye to my host family. They took such great care of me during my introduction to their culture. They shared everything they had. We laughed a hundred times a day. They answered all my questions and they even ate the ice cream I bought in the winter and tried peanut and jelly sandwiches. I can without reservation that they are one of the finest families I have ever known. I am looking forward to our visits over the next two years.

The trip provide me with some spectacular views as we passed through the countryside and made our way up and over the mountain and into Probistip . Photographers, amateurs and professional alike, could spend years trying to capture the beauty of this country.

My landlord was waiting for me at the newly renovated bus station. We loaded my baggage onto his car and he took me to my new home – an apartment on the third floor of a Soviet-era style building. The complex of apartment buildings was built during the 50’s to house the miners and their families. As it is in Negotino, the outside of the buildings need some work but the apartments themselves are roomy and comfortable and for the most part in good shape. Surrounding the complex are homes that are commonly seen in the villages.

My landlord is a biology teacher at the high school (known as the gymnasium in Macedonia) who lived in the apartment and raised a family in it. He now lives in another part of the town. He doesn’t speak English so we used a lot of hand gestures and head shaking as he was showing me around and demonstrating how to use the various appliances. Thank goodness “OK!” is a universal expression.

We signed four copies of the lease (rent is 7000 dinari/month or $140/month and includes water and trash pickup) and we made arrangements for me to register at the police station on Monday.

He left and I realized that for the first time since I arrived in the country, that I am now alone in a town of 10000 people, the only American and one who barely speaks the language. What an adrenaline rush!

A Trainee No Longer

2008-12-14T16:11:00.002+02:00

We made it! Through training that is. On Friday the 12th, the U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Phillip Reeker, swore us into the Peace Corps. The Prime Minister of Macedonia was out of the country, so the Minister of Education and Science, Pero Stojanovski, attended in his place to formalize the acceptance of the new Volunteers.

Many of the host family members attended the one hour ceremony, even though it was a workday for them. There was a reception afterwards, during which time we got to say goodbye to our trainers who did such a great job getting us ready to be out on our own. Most of the language trainers will head home to their respective communities throughout Macedonia, working in various positions until the Mac14 trainees arrive next September. Then they will again be employed by the Peace Corps.

After the reception, many of the volunteers, went into Komanavo for the last time as a large group, and celebrated together on their achievements and on the adventure that lies (lays?) ahead. Everyone headed home in the early evening to spend their last evening with their host families and to pack for their morning departure to places where they may be the only American in the town or village and where they will be spending their next two years.

Our Last Week as a Trainee

2008-12-06T11:25:00.002+02:00

On Monday September 29th MAC 13 (the 13th Peace Corps group to serve in the country) landed in Skopje, Macedonia. We knew very little about the country – its history, its culture, its educational or political system or its language. It is now December 6th and the Peace Corps has done a wonderful job in preparing us to go out on our own. We have been provided with the basic knowledge in these areas by a staff of dedicated, personable, and knowledgeable individuals. We know that wherever we are within the country, someone from the Peace Corps permanent staff will be available to support us, whatever our need might be. They have given us the confidence which will enable us to settle into our new community.

We are now in our last week of training and will be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers on Friday the 12th. We have had over 156 hours of language training; classes on safety, cross-cultural issues, and medical issues; lectures on politics and history; 16 hours of teaching experience in a Macedonian school; TEFL classes; and interactions with hundreds of Macedonian citizens within our community.

The excitement of moving to our new permanent site, however, is tempered by the fact that we will be moving away from our host family. These are the first Macedonians that we met and the ones that we have grown to know and to care for. We have lived with them for almost three months and we have shared many a meal, many a drink, and many a laugh. They have taught us about their country and their community and we have taught them many things about the USA. We have learned about their families and they have taken an interest in learning about ours. And all of this has been accomplished without them speaking English (except in a few cases) and without us speaking Macedonian.

Fortunately, Macedonia is small geographically, so we will be able to visit our host families throughout our two-year stay. Of course there is the mobile (cell phone) but at this point in time my conversations in Macedonian would be severely limited due to my scanty vocabularia (sounds good, not a Macedonian word – or any language for that matter – maybe Latin?).

We believe we are ready, and willing and now we are able!

Some of the Homes I've Visited

2008-12-06T11:20:00.002+02:00

Please be mindful that my comments in this session are based on my observations of only a dozen or so homes and the discussions I’ve had with other Trainees and in no way is intended to infer (or is it imply?) that every home in Macedonia is the same. As in most countries, the size of the home is somewhat dependent on the economic status of the family. In the villages, many of the families have lived in the same homes for generations if not centuries. One person I met in Skopje has lived in the same apartment for 61 years. He raised a family in it and now enjoys his retirement in it.

As the old expression goes, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, so too you can’t judge a home by its exterior. As you travel through Macedonia, you will notice that many of the homes are not quite finished. The outside walls tiles are exposed, giving the home by American standards, the appearance of neglect. This is of course not the case. It is very expensive to have the outside walls stucco (-ed), so families put off having it done until they are able to afford it. This may be years or maybe never. Not having the job done does not affect the stability of the house. Once completed though, the home takes on a majestic appearance.

Cement, stone, iron, ceramic tile, and marble are the construction materials of choice. Structures are rock solid and that is probably why I haven’t seen too many smoke detectors and why the schools I’ve been in don’t practice fire drills.

The interior of the homes that I have visited look nothing like the exteriors of the unfinished homes. The walls are stucco (-ed) and painted in light colors. There are wall hangings, curtains and brightly colored carpets throughout. They have beautiful wood and tiled floors. The living room has comfortable sofas and armchairs, along with the always-on TV and the wood stove. The interiors of the homes are very inviting and comfortable.

Most homes in Negotino do not have central heating. There is no natural gas available and limited use of heating oil, so homes are heated by wood burning stoves and electric space heaters. My host family has a portable (meaning they disassemble it in the warmer seasons and store it in the garage) living room stove that keeps the place toasty.

The kitchens have all the appliances that you would find in most American kitchens, perhaps a little smaller and in most cases, without the stainless steel , the automatic ice maker, and the microwave. My host family, in addition to the electric stove, also has a large wood burning stove/oven. They use it in the colder months because it is multi-functional. They use it to boil and bake while at the same time it helps to heat the rest of the common living areas and dries recently washed laundry. I plan on installing one when I return to the U.S. but will have to put on an addition to the kitchen in order to accommodate it. There is a small electric water heater above the sink that provides hot water for the kitchen sink.

My host family has two beautifully tiled bathrooms. The larger one has a large tub and hand-held showerhead. To take a shower, you stand in the tub without curtains and using the hand held spray, you wash and rinse. The drain on the tiled floor and the tiled walls willingly accept the overspray. The tub is quite large, climbing in and out takes practice and you will need a lifeguard if you ever filled it to take a bath. The tub is used to do laundry if you don’t have a washing machine. I understand most families in Macedonia have washing machines but dryers are very rare due to the high cost of electricity. I still believe that opening a Laundromat, with extra dryers, in one of the larger communities could be a successful enterprise despite the fact that every Macedonian I talked to said they wouldn’t use one.

One factor that takes some getting used to in the cold weather is the that bathrooms are not heated. The bathroom window is kept open even in freezing temperatures. There is only a cold water faucet. I have found out that shaving cream has a totally different texture when used at 35 degrees and that I can forego that first cup of coffee to wake me up after splashing my face with icy water. There may be an electric heater high on the wall in the bathroom with the shower, but by the time it kicks in, you’re heading out to a warmer location (warmer being a relative term). There is a wall-mounted electric boiler outside of the bathroom that provides hot water to the tub and washing machine as long as you give it two hours to heat the water.

During the colder months, families retreat to the living room area which is warmed by the wood burning stove and in some cases by an electric space heater. The kitchen wood stove also puts out a lot of warmth so it is a great place to hang out. All the rooms have thick wooden doors that can be closed to conserve the heat while the hallways, the bathroom (s) and the bedrooms are usually unheated.

It is the custom in Macedonia for individuals to take off their street shoes when they enter a home. The floors remain in pristine condition, not having to undergo attacks from the dirt and grime that accumulates on the bottom of shoes.

Macedonians have access to cable TV, fast internet, and cell phone technology and the competition for customers by the various providers is as competitive as it is back in the States (since I’ve been in Macedonia, I love saying “back in the States” – it makes me feel as though I’m in some WWII movie). Advertising such services blankets the media.

Anyway, on the 13th of December, I will be moving to the town on Probistip. I will no longer be living in the beautiful and comfy home of my host family but I will be living in an apartment, initially constructed to house the miners and their families. Reports on apartment living will follow.

A Quick Note on Fashion

2008-11-23T16:13:00.000+02:00

When packing for my two year stint in Macedonia, I wondered how the people dressed and where they purchased their attire. I packed for the cold weather because I was arriving in late September and was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get what I needed in Macedonia.

I discovered that I didn’t need to be concerned. While you can find the basic necessities (underwear, winter accessories, jeans, shoes etc.) in every town that I’ve visited, you may have a little trouble in the small towns finding the newer more fashionable items (suits, coats, blouses, shirts) in your size or preferred color. Many shop owners will try to order what you want if they don’t have it in stock. However, you can always travel to a larger town and most of the time, find what you want. Skopje has everything, so spending a Saturday in the capital, shopping at the city malls and drinking coffee at the cafes is an avocation (private joke: Hey Jess, this is the second time I’ve used this word) for many Macedonians.

The following comments are based on my daily observations while residing in Negotino. They may not be applicable to all small towns and villages. The children in the schools I’ve been in dress like children in America. Same goes with the teenagers. The girls prefer the low waist cut tight jeans while the teenage boys prefer the washed out baggier styles. Things change quite a bit for the girls in the evening hours when many of them head down to the plaza or the cafes and discos. Then they are dressed as though they were modeling clothes for a fashion magazine. High-heeled, knee-high boots are very popular. I am amazed every evening when I return to Kocho’s home, at the agility and balance of the females as they descend the steep, cobblestoned, pockmarked streets to the center in spiked heels.

During their leisure time, young men prefer track suits. They are everywhere this time of the year. Matching tops and bottoms are in fashion right now. The retired men seem to wear suit jackets and comfortable slacks as they stroll around the plaza or sit on the benches discussing whatever they discuss. Mothers and middle-aged women seem to prefer the outfits that you would see in suburban America. The older women, for the most part, dress in black (I believe this has a cultural meaning that I have to learn about in greater detail).

I have yet to see a department store during my wanderings. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. Most of the shops I’ve seen are specialty shops. If you want shoes, you go to a shoe store; if you want a shirt, you go to a shirt store; if you want a toy, you go to a toy store. Quite often the stock is limited in the smaller shops, so you must settle for what you can get and not what you may want. This is ideal for all real men (defined as men who hate to shop) who can walk into a shop and tell the clerk, “I’ll take whatever shirt you have in the size closest to mine and in any color closest to black). No stressful decisions to make regarding material (cotton or a cotton-blend), color (fushia or raspberry); designer (Ralph Laure or store brand) or neck size/sleeve length. You take they have and get out of there as soon as possible. After all, you went there to get a shirt and nothing else and you got one. What a system!

This was a short fashion report but as I travel around the country, I will gather more material for Fashion Report II. Just remember, that if you can’t find it somewhere in Macedonia, then you probably don’t need it.

My First Teaching Experience

2008-11-16T12:36:00.003+02:00

In addition to language training, those of us who will be teaching English as a second language (or more appropriately, those of us who will be resource persons for Macedonian teachers of English) we were also given the opportunity to practice our teaching skills in a Macedonian school. We worked with a Macedonian counterpart who currently teaches English in the school to which were are assigned. My counterpart was Petar Lasov who has been teaching at the Straso Pindzur Primary School for the last fourteen years. Under Petar’s guidance, I assisted, team taught, and taught fifth and eighth grade English classes.

Schools throughout Macedonia vary from town to town, city to city, and village to village. Recently, the Ministry of Education decentralized the operation of the country’s schools, giving more responsibilities to the Municipalities and the Country is in the beginning stages of implementing new educational strategies . The Straso Pindzur Primary School has undergone some recent renovations funded by USAID and the infrastructure is in good condition. The rooms are large and the ceilings are high. The rooms are heated by radiators under the windows. The hot water for the radiators is generated in a central boiler fueled by wood. I watched one day as the school custodian stacked an enormous quantity of recently delivered logs and wondered how long it wood take (get it?) to cut and stack it all.

The school is wired for the internet and has a computer lab for student classes and a computer room that is used by the faculty. There is no wireless router, so my laptop couldn’t connect. Petar said that there is a national project underway whose intent is to have a computer on every student’s desk within the next few years.

In Negotino primary school classes are conducted in double sessions. The fifth through eighth grades are scheduled from 7:30 to 12:30 and the first through fourth grades go from 12:30 to 5:30. There are two different teaching staffs that conduct classes of 20-25 students. The students remain in the same classroom throughout the day, with the exception of science and physical education. The students, as I understand it, take classes in math, geography, art, Macedonian and English, science, computer literacy, and religion (Orthodox and comparative).

Following are some observations that I have made in my very brief exposure to one Macedonian Primary School.

The teaching staff that I met was dedicated to their profession. They were friendly and experienced and all trained at the university. At Straso Pindzur, the teachers lacked most of the materials that teachers in my community in the USA use on a daily basis. Since Petar had to move from class to class, he had no place to keep any materials that he could use to supplement the lessons. He did have access to one of several cassette players, but otherwise his only other resource was a piece of chalk and a worn out blackboard. On the days I was with him, because he changed classes every period, he had to write the same 15 vocabulary words on the board in each 8th grade classroom. There was a new donated copy machine in the computer room and a donated printer connected to a computer. However there was no toner or ink and the equipment sat idle. Copy paper was not available. Funding for such items is not currently budgeted at the school but the teachers are hopeful that this issue will be addressed in the future.

Most of the students had English Language workbooks that they purchased from the school. However there were students whose families could not afford these books and they were forced to sit in class unable to follow along and participate. Many of the students had pre-owned workbooks with the answers previously filled in so that, as most students anywhere would do, they didn’t really need to read the passages to complete the exercise.

The biggest cultural shock I had, as did my other Peace Corps colleagues, was what happened during the 15 minute and 5 minute breaks between classes. Once the bell rang at the end of a class, utter chaos (from the perspective of teacher from Massachusetts) breaks out ( students chase each other through the halls; they wrestle; they yell to their friends; they hustle to visit friends in other parts of the school building; and they leave the school grounds to get something to eat)). However, at the end of the break they were all back in their seats, waiting for the teacher to begin the lesson.

At the end of each class, a student was assigned to erase the blackboard. They use wet sponges to remove the chalk. The next teacher would have to write on a wet blackboard. Did you ever try writing with chalk on a wet board? The chalk doesn’t work. The Macedonian teachers had a difficult time trying to understand why we use dry erasers and would just wait until the board dried. No problem.

There was only one electric outlet in each room in which I taught but plans are underway to rewire all the classrooms. There are no practice fire drills but that’s probably because everything is constructed out of concrete and stucco which lessons the fire hazard.

There is a Teacher’s Union, but I didn’t get into any details about how they function in comparison to the Teacher’s Unions in the USA. I'll find out mmore about it at a later time.

My first exposure to a Macedonian school was very positive. I am lookinfg forward to being in my next school full time. Most of the students were eager to learn and practice their English and were very interested in learning about America. It's definitly a two way street, as I am very eager to learn and practice Macedonian and to learn about Macedonia.

Food Experiences in Negotino

2008-11-08T11:53:00.001+02:00

In Negotino, where I am staying with my host family, I am enjoying on a daily basis the abundance of fresh (and I mean just picked from the garden fresh) fruits and vegetables. The tomatoes, which I have never eaten raw in my life, are tender and juicy. The apples, grapes, kiwi, pomegranates, leeks, cabbages, peppers, eggplants, and cucumbers can be purchased daily from any of the many produce stands in the town and village. The open market on Tuesdays and Thursdays brings in purveyors from the surrounding villages as well as the backyard growers of vegetables and fruits.

My host family serves me traditional Macedonian meals three times a day. Breakfast, poyadok, could consist of Turkish coffee, white cheese that is flakey similar to feta, sometimes eggs, hardboiled or fried, bread, 3.2% milk (into which Macedonians add sugar), drinkable yogurt, marmalade, chocolate spread similar to peanut butter, thick bread soaked in eggs (French Toast without syrup)) and fried in oil, byrek (flakey pastry filled with cheese), tea, sliced meats and meat spreads similar to liverwurst. Although available, cold cereals are not eaten by my host family. There is no Macedonian word for cereal. They use the word “corn flakes” to describe any corn, wheat or rice breakfast product. They have never had oatmeal, pancake syrup, or peanut butter. It’s not available.

Lunch (rycheck) which is served at three o’clock in the afternoon and is the main meal of the day, consists of soup, bread, a meat dish of either chicken, pork or beef, a vegetable dish of peppers or tomatoes, mashed potatoes or rice, wine or rakija and sometimes a sweet for dessert. My family is not big on sweets. They always have fresh fruits available.

Supper (vechera) is served at 8PM as we sit in the living room watching the news or some other show (Serbian Survivor for example). It is a light meal, usually consisting of food leftover from lunch. You might have cheese, always have bread, milk or wine, fresh tomatoes or cucumber, sliced meats and sometimes a sweet purchase at the store.

Those who aren’t having their meals prepared for them can find most of the ingredients for preparing their meals in Negotino. Butcher shops, fruit and vegetable stands, pastry shops and small convience stores are in the downtown area. There is one supermarket that has a decent inventory of instant soups, pastas, snacks and wines. Maybe it’s because we are in the wine growing area of the country, but you can purchase a very good bottle of locally produced wine for 150 denari ($3.00). Milk is sold in one liter sealed boxes and is sold off the shelf. It must be refrigerated after opening and tastes fine.

I have not dined out yet, but I understand from listening to current Volunteers that every town has a restaurant or two that offers a good dining experience. In Negotino, there are many food stands where you can purchase a “hamburger”, byrek, or sandwich (tost).

All said and done, you cannot go hungry in Macedonia. On December 13th, when we head out to be on our own, our cooking skills will truly be tested. The Peace Corps staff said that many trainees put on 20 pounds during their stay with their host family but they lose it all and more living on their own and having to cook their own meals. They do provide us with a Macedonian cookbook to help get us started. thank goodness for that.