"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)

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?