Just So You Know

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

Just so you know:

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