Last week the youth of Macedonia were out in full force for a couple events that I helped with, Earth Day and Bitola's Regional Spelling Bee. For Earth Day, fellow volunteer Ashley and I worked with the Children and Youth English Conversation Groups that meet at the American Corner Bitola on Fridays. We actually did two weeks of green activities, starting first with the kids reading and discussing a poem entitled "In Tune With Mother Nature." Leave it to Ashley, actually being a teacher and all, to work in the fact that it is poetry month with teaching about the environment. The event was also televised as part of a feature on the American Corner shown on a local TV station. If anyone wants to watch the show, it's online at http://www.tera.mk/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewvideo&Itemid=104&video_id=859. There is a bit at the beginning in English and an interview with Ashley about 15-20 minutes in but otherwise everything is in Macedonian. Maybe for my non-Macedonian-speaking readers you'll enjoy getting a flavor for the language that I attempt to speak and understand.
During our second event with the kids, they talked about their favorite things in nature inspired by some gorgeous Earth Day posters displayed in the American Corner. Then we watched the Dr. Seuss classic "The Lorax" and discussed the environmental themes shown in the film and how they relate to their own community. Finally, the kids designed their own Earth Day posters, staying overtime to complete their amazing designs which touched on everything from deforestation and emissions to wildlife and healthy waterways. The posters are now on display to encourage environmental awareness amongst the people of Bitola. The effort the kids put into the posters was really phenomenal and they included some good likenesses of the Lorax that I particularly enjoyed.
Earth Day Part 3 for me involved a trip up to Skopje to volunteer at a gathering of Macedonia's Green Schools. U.S. AID (Agency for International Development) sponsors the Green Schools program to help encourage green practices and environmental education. Each school developed educational materials to display at the Earth Day festival. At the booth where I was helping, there was an intricate "earth in distress" and a wind turbine. I was impressed when, on the spot, the kids with the wind turbine jerry rigged it to run on a cell phone battery when they found out there was no electrical outlet available (jerry rig, by the way, is also called "doing a MacGyver" according to Urban Dictionary). Sure it would have been cool if the turbine was actually wind powered but it did rotate well and watching them improvise with the cell phone batteries was pretty incredible. So far there are not any wind turbines in Macedonia but I've heard that some are under consideration east of where I live. Anyway, there are nice photos from Earth Day Bitola and Skopje under the Picasa link.
Between all the Earth Day celebrations, I was a judge for Bitola's regional spelling bee. Macedonian is a phonetic language but English is all over the map with tricky bits like silent letters and double letters, hence Peace Corps and the American Corners Macedonia working together to host an English language spelling bee. For two Saturdays we hosted prep sessions where we went through the rules and let the kids practice. Kids from 5th-12th grade were eligible to participate. Rather than spelling aloud, the kids wrote the words one-by-one. If they got 10 words right, they advanced to the national spelling bee in Skopje. The Americans and Macedonians had a few discussions about penmanship to sort out before the competition because there is a pretty interesting way some kids are taught to write the letter "r" here--it's no "r" that I'd ever seen before. We decided that as long as the students could name the letter that was in question, they were fine. The turnout for our regional bee was amazing--270 kids, sometimes having to wait in the rain, came to compete. The reactions when kids advanced were great--big smiles, cheers, and sometimes a jump for joy. You can see for yourself in the Picasa photos taken by fellow volunteer and professional photographer, Phil. It was difficult to tell kids when they messed up, especially if it was on the first or last word, but the elation of the successful competitors made it all worthwhile. After over 7 hours of spelling, over 100 Bitola youth qualified for the national competition so I think Bitola has a good chance of having a national winner!
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