Thursday, April 29, 2010

E-A-R-T-H D-A-Y

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!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

IST, lakeside in spring, because life isn't fair

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.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Колку е?

On Tuesday, I got my first haircut in Macedonia which yes, means I hadn't gotten my hair cut in 7 months. It was overdue. I went to a hairdresser recommended by my fellow volunteer/neighbor Heather because she said the stylist does a good job and knows English, the second factor especially reducing my haircut anxiety. I forgot to ask Heather how much a haircut would be at said salon and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was 100 MKD (Macedonian denari). That's only $2.50, including the blow dry (but not shampooing). Only the day before, I paid slightly more than that for one large eggplant. There are definitely some idiosyncracies to pricing here that continue to catch me off guard. I thought it would be interesting to take a page out of the Lonely Planet travel guides and give you an idea of "How Much" different things cost in Macedonia. That's what the title means, by the way, "how much is it" and it's one of the phrases I use frequently. I'll put the prices in dollars but the exchange rate is roughly 40 MKD = $1.00 US.

Can/bottle of Coca Cola: $0.75 at the store, $1.50 at a cafe

Liter of Skopsko beer: $2.50 at the store, $4.50 at a bar

Cheap bottle of wine: $2.50 at the store, same price as a glass at a bar

Liter of milk: $1.25

1.5 L bottled water: $0.50

Loaf of bread: $0.75

2 lbs of tomatoes: $2.50 in winter, $0.75 in summer

1 lb of spinach: $1

18 eggs: $1.75

Block of cheese: $4

Chocolate bar: $1.50

Personal pizza at a restaurant: $4

Long sleeve t-shirt: $10

Movie ticket: $3

Monthly phone, cable, internet package: $25

Roundtrip bus ticket, Bitola - Skopje: $15

Taxi ride in town: $1.25 - $4

Actually purchasing what you meant to: Priceless

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A Foreigner Turns 30

Believe it or not, I actually spend a fair amount of time thinking about what I want to write on my blog. Usually it's when I'm in motion--on my morning run, walking to work, a long bus ride, etc. Right now I have a couple things to say and thought about breaking them into several blogs but I don't want to lose the ideas so apologies if this entry is a bit all over the map.

First off, if you look at the comments section from my last post, there is a request from a Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga, Farfum, who is trying to get postcards from all over the world for his students and he will teach lessons based on the locals in the postcards. It seems like a really cool idea and I plan to send a postcard from Bitola. I encourage others to also send something from your corner of the globe; you can read more about the project at http://farfumandtonga.blogspot.com/.

April 1st is a bit like Halloween in Macedonia--kids dress up in costumes and adults go to masquerade balls. There are some cute pics on Picasa of the kids in Bitola picking up Easter eggs. It's tradition here to color eggs, just like it is at home, but they don't do egg hunts. You'll read below what they do with the eggs.

As I inevitably had to, I turned 30 this weekend on Easter. Another volunteer, Justin, also turned 30 a day earlier and we planned a hiking weekend with about 8 volunteer buddies. Unfortunately Justin got sick at the last minute but the rest of us soldiered on for a glorious weekend outside. Led by 4 Macedonian friends of fellow volunteer Zach, we walked 1.5 hours to a village called Dracevica in southeast Macedonia (about 3 hours by bus from my site). We stayed in the old schoolhouse which doesn't have running water or plumbing but does have tables, dinnerware, and bunk beds. You'll see in the Picasa photos that we washed dishes in the village fountain, and there was a doorless outhouse. The weather couldn't have been better so we spent most of our time sitting outside in the sunshine (me with my sunscreen, of course), interspersed by indulging in delicious food and drinks.

This year, Orthodox Easter overlapped with Christian Easter and the Orthodox celebration here includes going to church at midnight. The village church was opened up and we got to see the terrific paintings on the walls. We lit candles with the other weekenders in the village and then walked around the church 3 times while they rang the bell. Then, as is tradition, people tapped colored hard-boiled eggs against each other (head to head or butt to butt) and the goal is to have your egg stay uncracked the longest. It was, suffice to say, a memorable way to start a new decade. The next morning, we had to rise early so everyone could catch their respective buses home but I was serenaded with happy birthday on the hike down and that was another first for me. Once I got home, I relaxed, got more birthday greetings online and by Skype, and just savored the wonderful weekend.

I've been asked how it feels to be thirty, whether I'm freaked out about being older, etc. I did have one mini-meltdown, essentially because I'm not doing what seemingly most people do at this age and got myself wondering if I've got life all wrong. I don't have a spouse, a house, or a kid. Heck, I don't even have a car or a bicycle anymore. Sometimes I want these things but if I thought about that too much, I would 1) drive myself crazy and 2) not enjoy what is going on in my life that I've wanted forever. The Economist (which I borrow free from the American Corner) had an interesting article recently on being foreign and it really captures the path that I've chosen (or has chosen me, I'm not exactly sure). For instance, it says, "Foreignness [is] a means of escape--physical, psychological and moral. In another country you [can] flee easy categorisation by your education, your work, your class, your family, your accent, your politics. You [can] reinvent yourself, if only in your own mind. You [are] not caught up in the mundanities of the place you [inhabit], any more than you [want] to be. You did not vote for the government, its problems [are] not your problems. You [are] irresponsible. Irresponsibility might seem to moralists an unsatisfactory condition for an adult, but in practice it can be a huge relief." The article goes on to say, "All other things being equal, foreignness is intrinsically stimulating" but counters later with, "Beware, then: however well you carry it off, however much you enjoy it, there is a dangerous undertow to being a foreigner...somewhere at the back of it all lurks homesickness, which metastasises over time into its incurable variant, nostalgia...it is not the possibility of returning home which feeds nostalgia, but the impossibility of it." The article really hits home at the end by saying, "But we cannot expect to have it all ways. Life is full of choices, and to choose one thing is to forgo another...the homebody chooses the pleasures of belonging. The foreigner chooses the pleasures of freedom, and the pains that go with them." So right now, I am a foreigner--irresponsible and nostalgic perhaps but choosing the pleasure and the pain because I can't expect to have it all ways.