Last week Peace Corps Macedonia put on the first of two In-Service Trainings (IST) designed for my group of volunteers, MAK 14 (14th volunteer group in Macedonia). The Technical IST focused primarily on work-related subjects intended to help us accomplish more in our various communities. My actual work counterpart was not able to attend the IST with me because she had an exam but another coworker Pece came instead. Pece and I had some good dialogue about work at the national park prompted by the sessions, so I think attending was beneficial. The best part of the IST was having the MAK 14s reunited for the first time since we were sworn in as volunteers on Thanksgiving--and the desserts at the conference site, really good, a close second.
Peace Corps selects this time to conduct the Technical IST because historically (according to a graph they've shown us), this is a low point in most volunteer's service. Frankly, I think they were about 2 months late but April is a much nicer time to go to the lakeside town of Ohrid, so who am I to complain? We did a walking tour of the city and I finally got to see the Sveti Jovan church, probably the most photographed place in Macedonia. There are pictures through the Picasa link. As you can imagine from seeing the photos, I quite enjoyed doing my morning runs along the lake, even if it did rain on me every morning. One morning a guy on a bike asked me where I was going, in Macedonian, to which I responded, "straight," in Macedonian. Then he asked me, in German, if I speak German, to which I replied, "a little," in German. Then he asked me more questions in Macedonian.
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