Habitat for Humanity

My new excavating muscles came in handy the following Saturday at the Habitat for Humanity worksite in Veles, a town near my training community. Peace Corps volunteers and staff, together with the Macedonian crew of Habitat, worked on several homes. My job was helping to glue styrofoam insulation to the walls with fellow volunteers Ashley, Sarah D., and Happie and under the patient guidance of Igor from Habitat. You can see more of our handiwork in the photos on Picasa.

Digging Sveti Nikole

Sandwiched between trips to Albania, I returned to my training community - Sveti Nikole - for a little Indiana Jones action. Well, not the tomb robbing or pit of snakes parts, just some excavating. Except real excavation is not like the movies--in reality it involved mostly pick-axing dirt, shoveling dirt, and wheelbarrowing dirt. I primarily shoveled because I failed at mastering the pick-ax. When I lived in Sveti Nikole, I actually ran by the excavation site all the time but never saw it over the hillside. The place is called Bylazora and the objects found there date between the 6th and 3rd centuries B.C. The site has stone walls and what the experts think might be an acropolis and a temple. The project website has more details for anybody who's into that kind of thing because I'm no history expert. My back and arms were pretty sore afterwards, so I was somewhat relieved when the next day got rained out. Excavation started at 5 AM and there are some nice sunrise photos on Picasa.

While back in Sveti Nikole, I stayed with my host family. I spent one afternoon pitting cherries with my host mom Viki, who seemed amused that I'd never done any pitting before. My technique was a disappointment but she let me keep doing it anyway. Kate, my host sister, was in her final month of pregnancy but in good spirits. I have to share about my post-excavation meal with my host family. Keeping in mind that I'd worked up quite an appetite, I was pretty excited when Viki brought in a casserole dish for lunch. Then she sat it down in front of me--a skull, complete with eye sockets and little teeth, swimming in a bed of rice. Kate told me to have some rice and meat and for a few minutes, I convinced myself that the head was just for flavoring. Then, of course, the head was transferred to a plate and Kate began hacking at it with a knife. I inquired if it was lamb but actually the animal in question was a goat. Kate offered me some tongue or brain but I passed, having explained after the pig livers during training that I'm not a big fan of organs. However, I think maybe goat brain induces labor because 3 days later, Kate gave birth to a healthy baby girl!

Albania Mania

One might think that my dearth of posts over the last month was due to a lack of activity but the truth is quite the opposite. For 16 of the last 30 days, I have been away from home and somehow I never managed any writing in between repacking my bag. The unfortunate result is that I'm going to now write several posts back-to-back and try to remember all the best details from the range of things that kept me from "home." Here we go...

Pelister National Park, what Peace Corps calls my "primary" project, has been a tough place for me to figure out how I can be of assistance. I read somewhere that showing up as a Peace Corps volunteer is like having someone who can't speak your language show up in a bunny suit and say, "I'm here to help," and I don't think that is far off the mark. I say all this because it was with some excitement that my counterpart Sashka and I found a potential partner in Albania to work with in applying for a European Union cross-border grant. We'd spoken several times over Skype with our proposed partner, Zamir, and the time had come for an in-person meeting. For reasons I won't get in to, the meeting was delayed until we were one month out from the application deadline, which sounds like awhile before you see the brutal applications the Europeans have concocted. But finally I thought we were going to Albania's capital, Tirana, to meet with Zamir until...Pelister's director and the president of the Park's management board decided we needed to meet with some other people in Albania instead, people with the forestry department. I was, I'll admit, pretty peeved. All I wanted was for us to finally meet with the contact we'd been cultivating since January, the guy we'd already started drafting a grant proposal with. Yet off to Korca, Albania we went...

Albania is the 34th country I've visited and the first new country on a business trip, so my wander-love meant was in fairly good humor as I set out with Sashka, the director, and the board president. Peace Corps slogan is "the toughest job you'll ever love" and I think this may have been "the toughest business meeting I'll ever love." Our meeting with the Albanian forestry folks lasted all of about 30 minutes and did not really relate at all to our grant application. Afterwards, we all drank coffee together because that's the national pasttime throughout the Balkans. Then things really started getting interesting when the Albanian forestry officials led us to a nearby village, toured us around a monastery, and then fed us lunch. Of course, this was lunch with rakija, wine, and dancing the oro. In hindsight, I think the trip was positive for building bridges and hey, how many times am I going to be on a business trip with a monastery tour and the oro?

Less than a week later, the same group from the Park headed out for Albania again. This time we did go to Tirana and talk to Daniela, an associate of Zamir. On the way, Sashka and I discussed an agenda for the meeting and she agreed that thinking before the meeting about what would be discussed was "useful." For me, that learning moment alone was a huge accomplishment! At the meeting, we went step-by-step through everything that we'd drafted thus far for the grant proposal and I was admittedly amused as Sashka, Daniela, and I ran the show, with the director and president mostly twiddling their thumbs. I also must confess the second highlight was lunch afterwards with a pizza topped with arugula (a rare find in Macedonia) and my first German beer (delicious, so delicious!) in many, many moons.

My impressions of Albania were extremely positive. Everyone we met was very nice and the countryside is lovely (if dotted here and there with concrete bunkers that ex-leader Hoxha insisted on building, 700,000 of them at one point--you can read about them here). There's a picture of a bunker and much more under my Picasa link. Also, I am happy to report that Sashka and I are still plugging away with Daniela and Zamir on a grant application. Will we get everything done in time for the July 19 deadline? That remains to be seen, but the cross-border collaboration alone seems like a good, productive thing.

Wild for Wildflowers

After what Heather told me was "unseasonably cool" weather, summer seemed to arrive this week with high temperatures approaching 90 degrees. In the last few weeks though, I took advantage of the pleasant weather to slather on my sunscreen and see more of Macedonia's beautiful scenery.

I took a weekend trip with the Pelister Hiking Club to do an annual hike. We left on a Saturday morning for a bus ride punctuated by 2 coffee breaks and a stop at the market for provisions. I'm still frankly perplexed by how groups in Macedonia decide how to get food for hiking trips. It seems to involve each person randomly buying what the want, including lots of vegetables, and then everyone puts their stuff together and making seemingly bottomless salads. We stayed at a hotel in a village, eating said salads and drinking rakija. Lots of other hikers descended and we spent the evening chatting and dancing oro--the hand-holding, going-around-in-a-circle dance done at most celebrations here.

On Sunday, the hike began at 6:30 am and I think this is the time to note that when people say hiking here, they really mean mountain climbing. In fact, the word for "hiking" comes from the word for "mountain." This isn't surprising I guess, considering 80% of Macedonia is covered by hills and mountains (according to Wikipedia), but suffice to say every hike here seems to start up an incline. In fact, we hiked more or less uphill for 4 hours and then 3 hours back down. The scenery was incredible and well worth the inclines, occasional blustery wind, and a bit of rain. I especially liked the wildflowers, seeing all the people who participated, and taking photos at the top. Also I had a lot of fun getting to know the Pelister Hiking Club folks who put up with my shaky Macedonian and made sure I had a good time. There are pictures on Picasa in the Hiking with Pelister Mtn Club album.

The next day provided a whole slew of new beautiful scenery in and around Struga, a lakeside town in the far southwest corner of Macedonia. In Struga I reunited with the rest of the volunteers from my group for a week of language training. Before things kicked off though, I took an incredibly lovely walk with Kerry and Zach to two villages near Struga. Our destination was several cave churches, dating back to the 13th and 15th centuries. The churches were definitely incredible, tucked up into these rock cliffs right along the lake, but the journey itself was just as enjoyable as we took in more great wildflowers and watched people tending lakeside gardens. The third church, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, was my favorite, not the least of which because you have to pick up the key to it at a restaurant below it and there was just something funny about being given a church key with an angel keychain. Look on Picasa under the Struga Language IST album for the pics.

Full up on natural beauty, I threw myself in to trying to pick up some new words and phrases. Although I took many interesting courses like animals, stereotypes, basic Albanian, women's talk, and men's talk, it seems like the words that stuck in my brain best were the slang--things like how to say something is really boring and that pretty girls are not "hot chicks" here but rather "good fish."

Now I'm back in Bitola and spent a good share of the week on grants. I'm helping Pelister National Park to write a grant application and for the Small Project Assistance (SPA) Committee that I'm on, I "championed" an application with fellow volunteer Lillian. As a champion, I provide feedback to Lillian as she puts together a SPA grant application and when the SPA committee meets to evaluate the applications, I present the application. I put an album on Picasa of some summer scenes from Bitola, so you can see why focusing on grant applications can be tough.

Advanced Placement

Volunteers in Macedonia do some amazing stuff and perhaps nowhere more so than in the kitchen. Peace Corps Macedonia has earned the moniker "Advanced Placement Home Ec" because of the lengths we will go to in order to recreate our favorite dishes from home. In the last month, I've made apple pie from scratch (including peeling the apples and making the crust), made Tom Kah Gai Thai chicken curry soup after hauling canned coconut milk from the capital city because we were out in Bitola (I know, I know, I'm really roughing it here), and prepared a pesto pizza with homemade crust and non-pre-shredded cheese (pre-shredded cheese being my go-to back home). Usually people want to know what I'm doing here and honestly cooking is often the answer, especially if you factor in shopping time at the market for ingredients.

Is cooking volunteer work? Tonight it was because Sam, our soon-departing Fulbrighter, gave a presentation on American Food and Drink. It's really something to be in a room with people who don't recognize a picture of a burrito, don't know guacamole or what it is used for, and have never seen a tater tot, let alone in a Midwestern casserole. To complement the presentation, we made a sampling of American dishes. My contributions were oatmeal M&M cookies and PB&J sandwiches. The cookies were a big hit, the sandwiches less so. Ranch dip may have been the most popular contribution--people were loving it on potato chips. What I scarfed down as much of as possible was sushi made by one of the American Corner members of Macedonian-Polish heritage who learned sushi-making from his aunt. Sushi hadn't crossed my lips at all in the last 9 months and I had to make up for lost time.

Ingredient substitutions build character, or at least creativity, this much I know is true. Below you'll find some photos of my recent creations.

In Other News

You have read a lot about what I'm up to, my impressions of Macedonia, yadda yadda yadda and since I don't have anything particularly new and thrilling to share, I thought I'd point you towards some other takes on Macedonia. First up is Pauza, Peace Corps Macedonia's quarterly newsletter written by volunteers: http://macedonia.peacecorps.gov/resources/pauza/Pauza_Winter2010.pdf. I particularly recommend "Momentous Occasions" on page 5, Macedonia hotspots on pages 8-9, and the article by yours truly on page 11.

Also, CNN recently did a series on Macedonia that can be found at: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/ilist/. My recommended top features are "Name Squabble," "Future of Education," and "A New Napa Valley."

Finally, if you aren't getting enough of volunteers blogging about Macedonia then you can find my comrades' blogs at http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/?showcountryinfo,mk. As much as I'd like to think that I've got the market cornered on funny stories and cultural insights, I must admit there's other great stuff out there in the blogosphere to check out--but come back!

Whose stupid idea was that? Oh yeah, mine.

Sunday was the Skopje Marathon and I ran it in 3 hours, 52 minutes, 37 seconds. If you asked me at 3 hours, 53 minutes, I'd say choosing to run the Skopje Marathon was one of the stupidest things I'd ever done. I went out too fast, I started walking in the second half, and the heat was a lot more noticable as I went a second time around the exact same course. However, I can say that I finished in the Top 10--okay, it's true there were only 8 women in the marathon and I came in 6th. And to add insult to injury, if I'd come in 5th place then I would have won 150 Euros. But still, I was the top--well, only--women's marathoner from the U.S. and I had a fantastic group cheering me on. There were about 10 Peace Corps volunteers (most of whom did the half marathon or 5K) cheering me on and another 5 or so language instructors from our training who were rooting for me. I've never had so many people on a race course shouting my name, it was really awesome. I posted some photos from the official photos and from fellow volunteer Kerry on Picasa. Will I do the marathon again next year? No. The half marathon? Maybe.