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.
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