"Business" Trip to Nymfaio, Greece

Facebook, through some magical time warp sidebar, reminded me that 2 years ago today I was fending off raccoons on a beach in Costa Rica, two weeks before my departure to Macedonia. Flash forward to this afternoon, with me sewing up yet another tear in my pants, trying to get them to last a few more months until I'm finished in Macedonia. I can't believe this journey has come and practically gone already. Still, I'm trying to wring the most out of these final moments, which this weekend included some "official business leave" in Greece.

How sad it will be when I can't consider going to a summer camp in Greece "work." I traveled with 10 Macedonians to a YMCA camp held near a village called Nymfaio in northern Greece. Relations between Macedonia and Greece are strained, illustrated by the fact that Greece actually refuses to stamp a passport that says "Macedonia" and instead stamps a separate document with a country name more to their liking, but the camp for many years has brought the two nations together as friends. One of the highlights was the campers making games and putting on a carnival for the village kids.

Village kids fishing for candy

Playing Twister in the center of Nymfaio

Also, there was a 5K race where I placed first for the women, third overall. Below is a photo of me with a valedictory laurel wreath and cat face paint, something surely never to be replicated.

Me and the other top women, all from Bulgaria

I also learned this weekend that the saying, "It's just like riding a bike," does indeed hold true--you can not ride a bike for two years and pick it right back up. I am cautiously optimistic that other skills which have not been a part of my life during Peace Corps, e.g. wearing business attire, driving, showing up places on time, grocery store self check-out, using a microwave, etc, will come back just as easily.

Macedonians & me (2nd from left), ready to roll (photo taken by Maja, YMCA Bitola member)

Using the Old to Make the New Happy!

This post is about something fantastic that I had very little to do with but I think everybody should know about. The real stars of this story are my lovely sitemates Ashley, Lauren, and Helene who at a dinner party I hosted (see, I did something!) came up with this idea: making mobiles for the cribs at the orphanage. Helene and Lauren volunteer at the orphanage and described how the babies can have very little stimulation, especially when they are lying in their cribs. We talked about how to do something low cost and tossed around the idea of using recycled goods like plastic bottles and bags (naturally I was all about that, tree hugger that I am). Then we decided to pitch the idea to Club GLOW, a local leadership group that Ashley and Lauren oversee.

The GLOW leaders quickly took to the idea and incorporated it into one of their goals, writing a grant proposal. I played a bit part here too, giving a mini-tutorial on grant writing and the leaders put in a proposal for $30 to buy fishing wire, beads, and other materials needed to fully execute the mobiles. The grant was awarded and the girls bought/collected everything they needed and they scheduled 3 sessions for the club members to gather and make mobiles.

Hats off to Helene for her artistic talent, figuring out how to iron together plastic bags and then cut them into fun designs. The teens from GLOW did an amazing job of creating unique, eye-catching designs and we all had fun unleashing our creativity.

The mobiles were delivered to the orphanage this month and as you can see, they make a big difference and the babies seem to be gaga for them (bad pun, I know). Credit to Ashley for all the photos here and this blog title. I think this project was the perfect way to celebrate Kennedy's founding of Peace Corps, perfectly embodying the "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" ethos. Thanks to my sitemates and GLOW for being such an inspiration!

Hanging the mobiles

Babies wondering what the heck is going on

Whoa, what is that?

This craziness is making my hair stand on end

I think I can get it...

Goodness, what is that?!

Helene and friend

Ashley with her hands full

GLOW member Tea finds a buddy

To COS and Beyond

On paper, 27 months in the Peace Corps sounded like a long time--longer than grad school, longer than I lived in Portland and Germany combined, longer than any relationship that I've ever been in, just long. Not necessarily long in a bad way, just a big commitment of time. And now, that time has practically come and gone. Last week was my COS conference, which in Peace Corps parlance stands for "Close of Service." In other words, I'm almost done so I can move on to ??????

A lot (too much) of the COS conference was devoted to explaining the mountain of paperwork that we must complete to even leave Macedonia and because it would be challenging to process all of us at the same time, they stagger our departure dates which brings up one of the most anticipated parts of COS conference--the infamous LOTTERY. The lottery is essentially this: all the possible departure dates are put up on posters and then our names were drawn one-by-one to sign up for a date. The anxiety was palpable for the people with plans that hinged on leaving by a certain day. We aren't a cutthroat group but had it been an out-and-out race to the board, I think some elbows would have been thrown. As it is, people actually did what they could to help everyone get a timely COS date and we began our individual countdowns: 79 days until my date, November 10th.


I don't actually plan to be home in November though; instead I will be on what has now been dubbed my "honeymoon." No, I didn't meet a guy but why let that stop me from taking a great trip? I'm still formulating my plans, but Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania, India, Thailand, and Laos are the places that I'm hoping to visit and then wind up back stateside in early January.

A certain amount of nostalgia and freak-out is washing over me now that I have a COS date. Nostalgia for the many things that I will miss about Macedonia, including but not limited to: my teens, the farmers market, the mountains, my flexible schedule, being "the American," and my Peace Corps family. Freak-out about soon going from a small income to no income and needing to find a job (preferably one I'm excited about doing and that pays well) in what I hear is still a tough market. I'm thinking that I'll return to Washington DC, so if anyone knows of any positions that would be right up my alley then I'd love to hear from you!

In the meantime, I will be updating my resume, eating all the ajvar I can reasonably consume without making myself sick, and figuring out how to close out my projects and say my goodbyes. So much to do, so little time...

YMCA Program Fair in Ukraine

Every other year, YMCAs from throughout the Balkans (reminder: I work with YMCA Bitola) gather together for what they call a program fair to share ideas, learn about the many cultures represented, and have fun. Ukraine hosted for the first time this go around, in a nice wooded facility on the outskirts of Kiev. For me, one of the most memorable parts will be the bus trip to and from Kiev, which lasted nearly 48 hours each way (less for me on the way out because I got picked up in Serbia from my vacation). We'd all been expecting a long trip but more in the neighborhood of 24 hours. As it turns out, Ukraine is a really big place and also, never try to transport a rock band's equipment across international borders.

Getting to socialize with the YMCA Bitola members outside our weekly meetings was a terrific benefit of the fair for me; I feel like I know them much better now and vice versa. Meeting folks from other countries and learning about how their YMCAs work was another positive aspect. I also appreciated the effort the Ukrainians expended to share their traditional culture with us, everything from singing to food to art. For instance, I took a class on making the beautiful decorated eggs that regions in and around Ukraine are known for. You can see the process and my egg here, as well as other photos from the week. When I wasn't taking art classes, I helped my Bitola Y produce a daily news bulletin about all the fair happenings. I must admit that the fair was at times frustrating--seemingly nothing started on time, the schedule had quite a bit of repetition and downtime, and so on--but for a first time effort I think it went reasonably well.

On Saturday, we got to go into Kiev itself and I liked it a great deal. The city is aesthetically pleasing, especially the colorful churches and many green parks. In the parks, I must have seen over 20 bridal couples taking wedding photos, it was fantastic. I also visited a fascinating place called Pechersk Lavra or Monastery of the Caves, where mummified saints and monks are wrapped in tapestries and kept in glass coffins in the caves located under the monastery. It was surreal to wander around the dimly lit corridors and watch people praying over the bodies and even kissing the coffins. On a much lighter note, I must add that I appreciated Kiev's abundance of sushi restaurants which provided me with my first avocado roll since Slovenia in May.

The bus ride home was longer but better because 1) we knew what we were getting ourselves into and 2) we took a 4 hour break in Budapest, Hungary. My last visit to Budapest was just over 10 years ago and it was interesting to see how it has evolved. Sad to say perhaps but one highlight was discovering Cherry Coke and ginger ale and buying some to enjoy at my leisure.

With some relief I say that I'm back "home" in Macedonia, rejoicing in having my own bed and bathroom again and digging on all the delicious peaches and watermelon at the market. Also, I believe I've purged my wallet of the 7 currencies that I used during my recent travels. Happily my country count is now up to 42 which begs the question--can I make it to 50 countries before I return stateside?

Ameri-Serbia: Doughnut Tour, Pt. 3

Technically the next stop on the Doughnut tour was Serbia but for me, it was a little corner of America. Exhibit A: bagels, literally across the street from our hostel. How could we resist, especially after 2 bagel-free years? Delicious. Maybe the tour should be renamed the "Kosovo Bagel." Exhibit B: seeing the final Harry Potter film (and ultimately 5 movies in 4 days). Exhibit C: eating at KFC, which alas does not include biscuits on its international menu. Ahem, right, back to Serbia.

In Belgrade, the first day we wandered around the city and visited the museum devoted to inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla invented the radio and electric generators, among other things, and I really enjoyed the demonstrations of his inventions. I do, however, blame the crazy wireless electrical currents for making my watch lose about 30 minutes. On day 2, Kerry and I took a free walking tour led by a young gal from Kosovo who has been a refugee in Serbia for 12 years. She provided a great mix of historical info and local lore, including describing to us a regional dish that we ate for dinner nicknamed “girl’s dream,” which is an, ah, cylindrical shaped meat stuffed with cheese. If you need a visual, check out the Doughnut Pt. 3 photos here. Finally, I visited the mausoleum of Tito, the former leader of Yugoslavia, which included an interesting exhibit of relay batons. The batons were given to him as a symbol of his continuous leadership and support from the nation’s youth. I’d never heard of anything similar, so it was quite the unique collection.

From Belgrade, I continued on solo to the city of Novi Sad. There’s not much to do in Novi Sad but it was where my work site, YMCA Bitola, agreed that they could pick me up on our way to a regional festival in Ukraine. So, I used the time to recharge my batteries, mostly at the cineplex. The YMCA bus did indeed come for me though little did I know that our destination was 38 hours away—more on that next time.

This concludes my narration of the Kosovo Doughnut tour but let me just end by saying how fortunate I was to have two super travel companions who put up with my fast walking, popping out of bed in the morning, and searches for “snacks” (which incidentally became my trip nickname as the names Katie, Kerry, and Kaylee together are a mouthful)—thanks ladies for the great adventure!

Doughnut Tour, Part 2: Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dubrovnik (oh my!)

Mint chocolate chip gelato—that’s how you start a city off right, as we did with Dubrovnik, Croatia. Perhaps attributable to being exposed to new and different cuisines, my travel companions and I spent an unhealthy amount of time talking about food and drink during our travels. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Well, mint chocolate gelato (~$2) definitely hit the spot and counted as “lunch” before wandering around Dubrovnik.

Reaching Dubrovnik from Kotor involved a 4 hour bus journey, followed by a toasty wait to shove our way onto a local bus and a perplexing but ultimately successful bus ride to our guesthouse, perched on the hillside overlooking the city and the sea—not bad for 16 Euros (~$24) per person/night. Down, left, down, right, down, down, down we walked until we ended up at the old city. Kaylee, seasoned traveler that she is, had already toured the city so Kerry and I wandered alone on the city walls and Kerry climbed every tower you could because that is the kind of person she is, which I love her for even when I’d rather be sitting at a cafe drinking a cold Coca Cola. As friends and travelers will, we struggled to agree on a restaurant for dinner that met our price requirements (about as cheap as feasible) and tastes. Losing the deciding match of rock-paper-scissors, Kerry’s seafood restaurant it was and I had a passable veggie risotto. The highlight of the day though followed when we bought wine (including accidentally, but shockingly good, a Macedonian wine never before seen by us in the homeland) and we drank it watching the sunset from guesthouse balcony.

Another new day, another new country, another new currency—from Dubrovnik, we carried on into Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), our fourth country and fourth currency (the Konvertible Mark—KM). When Bosnia is mentioned, I think shelling and conflict is what first comes to many people’s minds but the legacy of that time, seeing how the country did and is recovering, was part of what made it so fascinating.

Our first stop was Mostar, a city about 3.5 hours by bus from Dubrovnik, where we stayed at one of the best hostels I’ve ever been to because it’s like a home—you take your shoes off at the door, they welcome you with a slice of cake, and they serve a hot breakfast in the morning. Mostar is small and thus made for wandering. We checked out its famed bridge from many angles but sadly missed the one brave soul that day that plunged from the bridge into the river below. The bridge was shot into pieces and destroyed during the war but rebuilt using stone from the same quarry as the original. On our hostel’s recommendation, we also wandered around a bank that snipers used where there are bullet shells on the floor and documents still strewn around. Enterprisingly enough, in the tourist shops you can buy pens made from shell casings.

Mostar marked the start of THE RAIN, a storm that doggedly tracked us for the remainder of our trip (note the dark clouds in many of the photos here). Really, I’ve never had such a rainy period which, during some storms, reminded me of my visit to Vietnam in the wet season, it was like that. We had a bit of good fortune the next day that it was only cool but not raining for our visit to the Kravice Waterfalls and a village called Pocitelj. These sites were part of a tour offered by the brother of our hostel owner, a tour that came well recommended and should because of the guide’s insane energy. He enthusiastically showed us how because in the BalKANS you CAN, he outfitted the back of his van with a variety of stools to carry more passengers. For me, sadly, the tour did not live up to the hype because we spent 5 hours climbing around waterfalls (and in my opinion a person can swim in many places) and did not go to Medugorje, a site that I’d been hearing about from my Catholic relatives for years where the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared. Sorry family, close but no cigar. As referred to in my last entry, this was a need-more-rakija situation for me where it would have been better to have no expectations of the tour at all and thereby not be disappointed when it followed our guide’s whim to spend the day swimming. The village stop in Pocitelj was better, where we played name-that-flavor trying various nectar concoctions made by a villager and sampled in her home. One was like a virgin mojito, it was fantastic. Haha, I can’t believe I used the word “virgin” twice in this paragraph and in two completely different contexts.

Sadly we missed our second breakfast at the hostel to make the most of our overnight stay in Sarajevo. The whole day it rained, but I guess that set the mood for seeing some of the war sites, like a tunnel people dug to get food and other supplies without being subject to sniper fire and divots in the sidewalks from shells that are filled in red and called “Sarajevo roses.” Rainy weather was also a fine excuse for us to spend time at the Sarajevo Brewery drinking rare (at least in Macedonia) dark beer.

Unfortunately Sarajevo marks the point where Kerry came down with some kind of stomach bug, making her relatively miserable for the next few days. She’s a trooper though and we carried on to our next stop in northern BiH, Jajce. The town of Jajce is picturesquely perched over some waterfalls (though admittedly there was some kind of construction marring part of the view during our visit) and it was nice to visit a town that is still being discovered for its tourist potential. Our hostel owners were awesome about letting Kerry rest in our room, even after we’d checked out and they cleaned it, so we left BiH with a good impression about the local people. This nation seemed happy to share its story and show off its resiliency and I’ll admit, BiH won me over as new fan.

Doughnut Tour, Part 1: Albania & Montenegro

As mentioned previously, I recently completed a two week tour around the Balkans with my friends and fellow Peace Corps volunteers Kaylee and Kerry for what was affectionately dubbed the “Kosovo Doughnut.” Prohibited by our Peace Corps safety policies from entering Kosovo, we decided to tour around it including Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Using time-honored backpacker staples—hostels, grocery / ice cream lunches, and commandeering restaurant napkins to use as toilet paper—I did the whole vacation for $800. Yeah, I actually kept track of what I spent, that’s how I roll. Apparently other Americans missed the memo about how affordable the Balkans can be though because we encountered only a handful of other Americans at the hostels and I didn’t even see one senior citizen group from the states. Ok, that affordability demands some compromises that perhaps most Americans couldn’t make but for posterity, here’s how it can be done with Part 1, Albania and Montenegro.

Albania was the cheapest place we stayed—6 Euros ($9) per person to share a 3-person room. Sounds great, right? Ok, I should mention the toilets were Turkish (squat) toilets down the hall, the shower was upstairs, and the door of our room didn’t actually lock—but what a bargain! Not that it mattered much where we crashed, everyone was tired from taking the overnight bus because nobody sleeps well upright, even me who amazed Kaylee and Kerry with my ability to fall asleep almost instantly on every bus we took.

Our destination in Albania was Shkoder (also called Shkodra), in the northern part of the country. There isn’t a ton to see there but it was a convenient jumping off point for our next stop, Montenegro. I did enjoy checking out the Rozafa fortress where I bought some filigree silver earrings made locally (or so I was told) and we had fun scandalizing the locals by drinking a 3-liter tower of beer while taking in the nightlife on the pedestrian mall. Traveling in Albania was made infinitely easier with Kerry’s “mad skillz” with the Albanian language—Kaylee and I were most appreciative to her for not letting us get stuck in the outskirts of Durres.

From Albania, we used a taxi/bus/bus to get to our next destination: Kotor, Montenegro. Kotor is a walled town located on the northern coast on a large bay in the mountainous nation of Montenegro. Since it was sunny and warm, we availed ourselves of the pebble beach walking distance from town. We also forked over some euros (Montenegro is the only country we visited that actually uses the euro as its currency but they are widely accepted in tourist destinations) for a day-long tour hitting some of the country’s highlights. Unfortunately, due to a flat tire on the van and our guide’s Balkan sense of time, we didn’t hit everything on the itinerary. After almost 2 years living in the Balkans, I’m still working on just trying to go with the flow and be happy for the good times; however, this may require increasing my rakija consumption.

Kotor is the only place we stayed for 3 nights, which was great for relaxing and bad when the hostel kept running out of toilet paper—what were we paying 15 Euros (~$22) a person per night for if not TP? Not that anything that trivial could spoil our fun and you can see for yourself in the pics here.