A Busy Time

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.