We interrupt our usual programming...

for this short commercial announcement. As you surely sensed from my last entry, I think the youth in Macedonia are terrific. Further, I believe they are the key to improving their society and the world at large. That's why I want to shamelessly plug an opportunity for you (yes, YOU!) to donate to Macedonia's Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World).

[I admit I took much of the following from the camp organizers, great girls that they are].

Camp GLOW is an 8 day multi-ethnic leadership summer camp that brings together 80 high school-aged girls from all over Macedonia, including Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, Roma, Serbian and Vlach young women. The goal of the camp is to empower young women from Macedonia to become active leaders in their communities by providing them with leadership opportunities, and information and training not found in traditional educational environments. The camp curriculum focuses on 8 different thematic components: CIVIL SOCIETY, WOMEN'S STUDIES, LIFE CHOICES, THE WORLD AROUND ME, LEADERSHIP, ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, RECREATION and TEAM BUILDING.

In Macedonia, as in many other parts of the world, there are significant challenges facing women including discrimination, under representation of women in government, unequal opportunities for women in education and employment, women’s rights struggles, domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking, and inadequate women’s health education. Camp GLOW addresses these challenges by educating and empowering young women in a safe and productive learning environment. The Camp GLOW curriculum and activities are taught by young women from Macedonia with assistance from Peace Corps volunteers. The staff from Macedonia is comprised of exceptional young women-leaders who have previously attended the camp as participants and are now in leadership positions such as Instructors, Junior Counselors, Senior Counselors and Administrative and Program Leaders.

Since 2004, Camp GLOW has directly educated over 380 young women and indirectly impacted the lives of many more women through peer to peer education and dissemination of knowledge. Camp GLOW has a very reputable name and is growing in demand and need every year. Girls return to their communities from camp and not only educate their friends about what they have learned but energize new girls to consider applying the next year. Currently they have established 5 GLOW clubs where they interact with others in their communities. Many girls leave the camp feeling a sense of power and new self-worth. Providing young women with this opportunity positively impacts the quality of life and the future of Macedonia.

If you would like to see a video of last year's camp check this out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8hzQCvIAis

Every year it is a struggle to finance the camp. However, each year, with much perseverance, creativity, and new individual sponsors and funders dedicated to the mission, the camp has continued. The majority of the cost for the camp is food and lodging for 7 nights for 80 girls. The camp is held in the mountains at a camp site far away from the distractions of everyday life. This environment really enables the girls to focus on the sessions and immerse themselves. Because we do not want the socio-economic status of any of the campers to prevent them from attending, we only ask girls to contribute by paying a participation fee of about $10 and providing for their own bus transportation to and from the large city closest to the camp site. This enables a wider audience of girls to partake in the program.

Please consider sponsoring a camper for the entire camp for only $100.00. In doing so you will be providing a young woman with an opportunity that may change her future. If you cannot help at that level, any financial support would be greatly appreciated! Please make your donation by June 30, 2010. We have only 2 months to raise $4050! And remember, your contribution is tax deductible.

It is very simple and fast to make a donation! Here is how:

1. Visit the Peace Corps web site at (just copy and paste the link): https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors
2. Search for Camp GLOW Macedonia by entering the project number: 249-035 and clicking "Search"
3. On the page it directs you to, scroll down and click on the project name Camp GLOW to direct you to our fundraising page
4. Make a secure online donation by entering an amount and click “DONATE”
5. Accept our heartfelt thanks for supporting Camp GLOW 2010!

Although I was not selected to be a counselor or instructor for Camp GLOW (because Peace Corps Macedonia has a lot of stellar women who outshine even yours truly), empowering girls is a matter near and dear to my heart and if you are able to offer support to this great cause, I would really appreciate it. I helped Ashley interview girls from Bitola for camp and I'm happy to say that we are sending three phenomenal girls. One girl professed her love for math, another for science. One young lady is doing HIV/AIDS education in the schools. And all of them expressed excitement at getting to know girls from across Macedonia and from different backgrounds from their own. What more can I say--bust our your credits and please make a donation on the Peace Corps website!

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!

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.

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

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.

Well caffeinated, ready to go?

Groups of teenagers strolling the pedestrian mall or drinking coffee in the outdoor cafes is a very common sight in Bitola and they have the seemingly universal teenage trait of being (or at least trying to be) cool. In the last week, I had several opportunities to engage with Bitola teens and fortunately those cool exteriors seem to house some terrific youth.

The first opportunity was when I faciliated a talk on American families at the American Corner resource center. The audience was comprised of very bright high school sophomores who in fact summed up their free-time hobbies as "drinking coffee." And while American teens typically love a good cup of coffee, it usually comes between a soccer practice and a piano lesson and many (probably too many) other scheduled activities. Do teens in Macedonia want to go beyond coffee?

They claim to but I was left wondering when on Saturday, fellow volunteer Ashley and I held a first meeting for the Young Mens' Leadership Project (YMLP). YMLP, as the name implies, teaches 13-18 year old guys leadership skills through activities like a summer camp and a community service project. We had 16 guys sign up as interested in the camp but only 4 showed up for the informational meeting. Luckily those 4 are fantastic and my favorite part of the meeting was when we were doing a game about surviving a nuclear holocaust and what 3 people the boys would choose to survive. They picked a doctor to help with injuries and a scientist to help grow food--and a lawyer to manage even distribution of the supplies! They have a strong sense of equity, that's for sure.

Finally, yesterday was Day of the Trees, a holiday held 2-3 times per year so people can go plant trees and a busload of teens from the agricultural high school pitched in under the guidance of my national park coworkers. The way it works is there's a stick for punching a hole in the ground, then you insert a seedling and push the soil around it with your feet. I posted some photos of the process on Picasa. The kids made quick work of seeding an area that had been burned by a forest fire about a year ago. Sure, they probably went to drink coffee afterwards, but my faith was restored that these kids want to make a positive difference and can put down the espresso for a good cause.

Snow Way!

Although my Peace Corps assignment is with Pelister National Park, until this weekend I'd only been there once. Luckily my neighbor/fellow volunteer Heather introduced me to Pepo, a local who runs a mountain hut in the park and he invited me to hike up to the hut which is located next to a lake called Golemo Ezero (Big Lake). We began our hike at 6:30 AM on Saturday, a 4 hour uphill climb through mostly snowy terrain. Pepo and I had started out with two 18 year old boys but I only kept up with them for the first third of the hike. Despite growing up in Colorado, I'd never really hiked through snow and particularly not with a 20 pound backpack so for me it was tough. That said, it was well worth the effort. I posted pictures on Picasa and yeah, it was pretty spectacular. The lake is visible literally on the last step and completely frozen over now, but what really blew me away were the mountain tops we viewed when we hiked a little way past the lake. During World War I, there was a great deal of fighting throughout this area and apparently you can see the trench remnants during the summer months.

In the evening, we were joined by Pepo's best friend who hiked up another way which took 13 hours and left him feeling like he'd been beaten up. Although the hut has several rooms, I was happy to sleep in the room with the wood stove and it was very comfortable. Probably the main downside to being there in the winter was the lack of a functional outhouse and I minded Pepo's advice to pay attention to the wind direction.

On Sunday, several day hikers came up and we sat around drinking a Macedonian specialty called Mountain Tea. They make it with dried herbs and it's really delicious. I followed the conversations as best I could, chatting a bit in my still rough Macedonian. We left around noon for the hike down, which took half as long as going up. You would think that means the way down was easier and I think overall it was, but I do have sore calves today from plunging down a snow covered mountainside where my footsteps sometimes sank down until the snow was up to my knees. Let's just say it was a good thing that Pepo loaned me a snow ax or I might have just slid back down.

The fun and outdoors over for now, I have a full week juggling several projects including trying to organize something for Earth Day, prepping for a SPA (small project assistance) committee meeting, revising an agenda for a proposed environmental leadership camp, talking to a potential grant partner for the park, reviewing suggestions for the park's new visitors center, and getting ready for a meeting about the summer young men's leadership camp. I'm busy but it's a varied, good busy.