Project Czar

Every year, Lake Superior State University puts together a list of words that should be banished due to "mis-use, over-use, and general uselessness"; if I were to banish a word right now, it would be project. In Macedonia, everybody likes to talk about "making a project." Correctly said, they want to do a project and by that they mean figure out some way they can get money, write that idea on paper, and then try to get somebody to hand over the cash.

Some of these projects are legitimately good ideas related to an organization's mission and should be funded, but all too often it's a way for them to pay for something entirely unrelated to the stated project. Or an organization that works on a topic like healthcare will apply to do something entirely outside their stated mission, like homeland security, just because there is project money available.

Lately I have been helping people write projects. It is my sincere hope that they will use the pointers that I offer for genuinely needed projects and so far, that seems to be the case. I collaborated on grant applications with two Peace Corps volunteers to renovate a firehouse and to build a language library in a school, valuable additions to their respective communities. With local teen girls who take part in the Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) clubs, I gave guidance on designing successful projects, meaning projects that are truly valuable and then thinking about how to get resources needed to do the projects. I know I say it over and over, but the kids here are amazing. I thought I was an all-star in high school but I wasn't spending my Saturday in grant writing workshops conducted in a foreign language.

The systemic problem with projects is that they imply something short lived--we are handing out fish*, not teaching people to fish. But teaching fishing is hard--you have to find people who want to learn, gather rods and bait, find a place stocked with fish, etc. As Peace Corps volunteers, we are fishing instructors but sometimes you give somebody a fish so the have the energy to keep learning to catch one themselves.

*In Macedonia, the fish carp is (transliterating the Macedonian) called "crap." This makes me smile every time I see it on a menu.

Strumica Carnival

As in many corners of the world, the lead-up to Easter begins in Macedonia with carnival. The main celebration is in a city called Strumica and last week I took a 4 hour bus ride to this southeast corner of the country for my first carnival. I stayed with Jim and Dianne, a volunteer couple in their 70s who put many of us "youngins" to shame with their energy. Dianne fed me and her other guests with the ease that comes from being a mother of 5. I must say one of the highlights was toast. Toasters are available in Macedonia but not common and it's not an exaggeration to say that I probably hadn't eaten toast in a year and a half and I hadn't thought about it much but man, it's some delicious stuff.

This year, carnival fell on May 8th which is International Women's Day which is a holiday for honoring women and our many contributions. The holiday is marked by giving flowers to women from their families or coworkers and often women will go out to eat together to mark the occasion. Below is a photo of Dianne and Kerry with flowers they got from Dianne's language students.


After carbo loading on toast, Kerry and I did some exploring of Strumica. We came across a trail with signs instructing dubiously advantageous exercises and we proceeded to take photos of each other trying them out.


The evening was the carnival itself and it was rather frigid and blustery out, which made the slow procession of the parade (about one float every 5 minutes) hard to enjoy. By far the most fun was taking goofy photos pre-parade and watching the fireworks that were launched directly above our heads.

Robert and Aimee having a Mustache Party

Me, Jim, Lillian, Kerry, & Gordana

As I had been warned, the second year of service is much busier and it was hard to get away but once I was out of town, I realized that a break was a welcome breather. Plus really, how could I miss my last carnival in Macedonia?

When the Saints Drive In

They were joking about being treated like saints but it did seem like they had performed a miracle, getting a slew of equipment for firefighting and lifesaving across Europe to Macedonia. By "they" I mean Bruce and his colleague (far right and left in the photo above) who are members of a group named Operation Florian, which provides training and equipment for improving firefighting worldwide. These guys drove literally for days, including 15 hours in Serbian customs, from England with gear for fire departments throughout Macedonia. Happily, they also managed to bring 5 CPR dummies for Red Cross Bitola!

Red Cross Bitola met with me a few months ago about their need for new CPR dummies to do trainings on CPR and first aid in the local schools. Their dummies were broken and Red Cross is essentially the only CPR trainer in the area, so the students had no opportunity to learn and practice this important skill. I wanted to know that the Red Cross was serious about this project, so I asked them to write a proposal outlining their needs and their plans for trainings and I was pleasantly surprised when they did so. After a little polishing, I sent the proposal on to Bruce.

Bruce and I first crossed paths in Sveti Nikole as he worked with the firefighters there and I had language classes above the firehouse. Then we were both at the young men's leadership camp last summer, where instead of fire equipment he brought young Brits who shared camping with the guys. Knowing of his work with Operation Florian, I thought Bruce might have ideas about how to fulfill Red Cross' need. He didn't make any promises but it seems there was divine intervention that made the dummies materialize.

Red Cross was ecstatic about the new dummies and their gratitude is what made Bruce say he was going to be named a saint. Giving so much of his time and energy to supporting the people of Macedonia, I would say he's well on his way to sainthood.