I've got friends...

in low places, as Garth Brooks says, or at least a lot of places. Fortunately I have gotten to visit several of them this month because, as the Beatles put it, I get by with a little help from my friends. They help me have fun and distract me from the fact that the national park doesn't want to give me any work until we move our office into the new info center (which was supposed to happen about 6 weeks ago).

I spent a day with volunteer Sarah F. hiking to a monastery near her town, Demir Hisar, about 30 minutes from Bitola. The sweetest, tiniest old lady works there and we found out that her kids live very close to me in Bitola. Meeting her was worth battling the little gnats that hounded us on the walk up. That day I also learned what tobacco looks like and, for all its evilness, it's actually a very beautiful plant. Tobacco is a popular crop in this region and now is when it is being harvested. It is sewn onto a string and then hung to dry. You can see some photos up on Picasa.

Then I made two trips to Ohrid, hosted by volunteers Adam and Karen. I went swimming with volunteers Kerry and Candy and I must say, it was much more enjoyable than when I went in January. Also, Candy's counterpart helped organize a wine and cheese festival and naturally we had to check it out. Admittedly a cheese fest is less exciting in a country that essentially has only 2 kinds of cheese but the quality was excellent.

Then I saw my college roommate Jen again for a day wandering Ohrid with her Albanian and American colleagues from her excavation in Albania. Jen is the first friend or family member of mine that has made it to Macedonia, so she gets extra points for that. Nobody has made it to Bitola yet though and I must say, you don't know what you are missing out on.

My second visit to Ohrid was for the Хорски (amusingly pronounced "whore-ski") фестивал, i.e. choir festival. On the opening night, choirs from around the world stand in different parts of the city and sing. We got to hear over 10 groups perform and when you end the night with gelato, what can be better?

Finally, I went to the city of Prilep for a hiking excursion organized by one of the boys from camp, Rubin. We were a small group (just me, volunteers John and Kaylee, Rubin, and Rubin's cousin Goran) but Rubin was a great guide and the weather has cooled off, so it was a really pleasant time.

Back-to-back posts on friendship--jeesh, what's up with that? I've gone soft, apparently. But friends, beware: I may be showing up on your doorstep next.

The Facebook Volunteer

The last year (well, it will be a year in 16 days!) has certainly had its share of the unexpected but one of the biggest surprises has been how Facebook has factored into my volunteer service. I reluctantly joined Facebook about 2 years ago in order to be able to trade photos with people that I met traveling. Then I followed the natural progression of finding (or being found) by people from all over space and time. Still, I was not exactly updating my status every hour.

It all started innocently enough--there was a Facebook page set up for my group departing to Macedonia where we could get advice from volunteers in-country and I would check it frequently. Then, once I arrived here, I found out that Facebook was a great way to keep track of what my friends stateside were up to, not to mention keep up on U.S. events through their links to the "newsworthy," be it earthquakes in Maryland or the Huskers joining the Big 10. Plus suddenly I had about 70 new volunteer friends too, and I could keep tabs on all their 8 hour neighbor visits and bus journey woes.

At this point, I'm not sure I could even be an effective volunteer without Facebook. Almost all the locals that I interact with on a regular basis are now one of my "friends." Exchanging Facebook posts is one of the best ways to reach my teen boys--no surprise there, I guess. Is YMCA meeting tonight? I better check on Facebook and oh look, there is a hike this weekend posted by the Pelister Hiking Club. Peace Corps staff likes to ask me how I'm doing at making local friends and while I feel like I have more acquaintances than friends so far, the 254 friends on my profile page suggests I have done a bang-up job.