The Last

Today is my last day in Bitola, which I cannot believe no matter how empty my apartment gets as I give away anything that will not fit in my travel backpack which, believe me, does not hold nearly enough.  Really this is just one of many "last's" this month, such as my last...

Visit to Gostivar / Running Race in Macedonia
At the Harvest Festival 5K run planned initiated by Peace Corps Volunteer Candy and her counterpart Luli, I defended my title as the fastest lady over 20 years old--wahoo! 

Peace Corps Runners, courtesy of Phil Lampron

Clean sweep by the Americans--me, Kerry, & Joany, courtesy of Phil Lampron

Also I drank my last one of these drinks, salep. 

It's a hot drink from Turkey made from orchid root and I hope someday it finds its way to an American coffee chain near me--we non-coffee drinkers should have some options too.

 "Na Gosti (Visit)" With My Host Family
I made one final visit to Sveti Nikole and bid farewell to my awesome host family.  Now at the end of my service, I can really appreciate how fortunate I was to have them take me in.  They helped me get a solid base in the language and they always welcomed me back with open arms.  My baba (grandma) knit me a pair of slippers practically overnight, worried as she was that I didn't have adequate footwear for the winter.  Finally, now that he's 5 years old, I can talk with my host nephew and we understand each other and his little sis is more darling all the time.  My host dad called the other night just to check in, which seems like no better sign that we're really family.

Baba Genka working on my slippers

My "niece" Kijara wearing my running medal and her big bro, Mario

 American Corner Events
It's sad knowing that soon things like playing kickball, overseeing pin-the-wart-on-the-witch, and teaching line dancing can no longer be considered "work."  Then again, I'm still job hunting, so maybe...

Kickball in the city park

With the boys, awesome fall colors in the backdrop

Pin the Wart on the Witch

The Four Seasons--Michelle, Lauren, Helene, and me

Awesome costumes of kids from my sports club

Lauren teaching the moves, courtesy of American Corner Bitola

Cotton eye joe-ing, courtesy of American Corner Bitola

Ana from the American Corner and me with the poster everybody signed for me

Time Mopping My Bathroom
A common quirk here, my entire bathroom floods after every shower.  I will not miss mopping it up every morning.

Appearance on Live Macedonian Television / YMCA Training
My counterpart at YMCA, Viktor, and I were invited to be an hour-long, live TV program to discuss a training we put together on my favorite subject, projects.  Only unlike last time, on this program I had to speak in Macedonian.  People here are pretty straightforward and the consensus from friends who watched the program is yeah, my Macedonian is still rough but it's understandable.  Even better though was that 28 people came to our training, literally filling every seat available.  Happily YMCA is getting new Peace Corps volunteer from the new group, Karli, and her visit coincided with all this excitement.  During my last weekly YMCA meeting, I brought American treats and the tortilla pinwheels were a surprise hit--my job is clearly done. 

In the TV studio which was freezing!

Viktor & me at the training, courtesy of Karli Reyes

Listening closely at the training, courtesy of Karli Reyes

 Coffees
"Having a coffee" is what it's all about here and in this aspect, to use Peace Corps parlance, I've "fully integrated."  Luckily the weather here has been mostly sunny, allowing me to do most of my coffee dates sitting out on the Shirok Sokak pedestrian street, staring at the passersby just like a real Bitolchaka. 

Introducing Karli to drinking coffee on the Shirok Sokak with Viktor

Strolling the Shirok Sokak with my friend Ivona and her daughter

 In addition to the goodbyes with my local friends, I also have bid adieu (or here, ajde ciao) to my volunteer buddies.  They are, I must say, crazy like me--they will sacrifice two years of income for something they believe in, will crash on the floor just to visit a new place, and laugh when others might cry--and it is hard to have them dispersing near and far.  I know I'll see some folks back in America which will surely be fun but different without Macedonia as our backdrop. 

Macedonian Meals
The Macedonians, they know their roasted peppers and grilled meats, among other deliciousness.  Pretty soon my hamburgers won't look like this, with the fries right on the burger (then again, my burger will also probably be 100% beef and that is something to look forward to).

Yum Yum

Days as a Celebrity
Bitola is not a huge place and when I'm out, especially on my runs, I see people I know who wave, stop to talk, give me a high-five, etc.  One of the YMCA members attended our training not in small part because she loves my accent, which I told her will definitely be under-appreciated back home.  Soon I will not be "the American," just "an American." 

A few more last's are yet to come, including my last visit to Skopje, last language exam, and last Macedonian pizza with the side of ketchup topping.  After that, I'm off to Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, India, Thailand (flooding permitting), and Laos!  My sunscreen is indeed packed, so dispatches on these adventures coming soon. 

Pre-gaming

I truly don't know where to begin--I'm currently on Day 16 of 25 straight days on the road. Right now I'm in Novi Sad, Serbia as the tail end of what I dubbed the "Kosovo Doughnut" tour, all the countries bordering Kosovo but not including Kosovo because until literally days ago, Peace Corps forbid volunteers from going there. Now, in their infinite wisdom, they've changed the policy just as I've run out of vacation days...oh well, I'm going there when I'm released from the clenches of their control in November anyway, a time when vacation days will no longer tie me down!

There's lots to say about the Doughnut but for now, I want to catch up on the "pre-game" in Macedonia, getting me psyched up for vacation. First we had another baseball session with the American Sports Club, where we managed to have fun despite the searing heat on our now completely brown field.

Next came Pivofest, aka Beer Fest, in Prilep. Of the new beers I tried, the Czech beer Staropramen stood out above the rest. Mostly Pivofest is a fun excuse to catch up with friends but over grilled meats and, of course, beers.

Last but not least I traveled to Gostivar for Sheep Day which is exactly what it sounds like, a day devoted to sheep. The many facets of sheep were represented, from milking and shearing to cheeses. My favorite part though was the traditional wresting, where shirtless men literally poured sunflower oil all over themselves and then wrestled. Before the matches, they did some pumping up exercises which you can watch here.




After Sheep Day, the Doughnut began. I'd like to say that I'll write about that trip soon but at dawn tomorrow I am being picked up by YMCA en route to the Ukraine for a week-long festival, 300 young people from throughout Europe converging near Kiev. Yeah, the next installment might not be for awhile...

Play Ball!!!

Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical. - Yogi Berra

I think Mr. Berra was right--baseball takes 140% effort, particularly when you are teaching the sport to 25 complete novices ranging in age from 8 to 18. Last Saturday, the American Sports Club put on a 4-hour baseball extravaganza, starting with the basics and working our way up to a full-fledged game and man, it was really, really fun.

Pulling off this event could only be done with the help of many parties that I want to give a shout-out to. First, the American kids who donated equipment and the organization Pitch In For Baseball for collecting it and sending it to us (and my wonderful parents for covering the shipping). Second, the American Corner Bitola staff for finding a playing field, buying snacks and T-shirts, and the Corner's interns for covering everything from translating instructions to playing catcher. Third, to the American Sports Club founders who applied for the equipment and helped teach the younger kids on Saturday. And last but far from least, my fantastic regional sitemates from Peace Corps who got up early on their Saturday, who didn't complain when we ran out of snacks, and who know WAY more about baseball than me so the kids actually learned how to play properly.

All week I had been dreading that the forecasts for rain would be true and cause the game to be canceled but miraculously, we got an ideal sunny spring day. We played on a field outside the soccer stadium and I guess the magnetism of baseball is undeniable--several kids defected from soccer practice and joined us instead. I must say, the youth impressed me with their ability to pick up the game even if it took us awhile to get everyone to understand that if you don't run over the base, it doesn't count. I think when we have real bases instead of egg cartons this will be clearer because, after all, why would you stomp egg cartons? Also memorable was when one kid hit a homer and proceeded to run the bases carrying his batting helmet tucked under his arm.

One of my favorite parts was Kaylee and Lauren's solution for putting the kids in a memorable batting order--they just lined them up in height order, shortest to tallest. I'm sure the major leagues will be switching to this approach soon, it's so logical. And the night before the game, we had a baseball talk at the American Corner where I gave them cracker jacks made by yours truly and we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," a requirement for earning a taste of said cracker jacks.

There are photos and even some video of all the baseball revelry up on Picasa. Some of the pictures are taken by me, but most are from Helene, my sitemate, and Stefan, an American Sports Club founder who is an amazing photographer. To close, I'd like to use another Yogi-ism:
I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary.

Doubleheader

Saturday was my monthly American Corner doubleheader--American Sports Club followed by Readers' Club. Only 6 kids came to sports club but they were happy to break in our new (to us) donated baseball equipment from a U.S. organization called Pitch In For Baseball. It's still very much winter here, evidenced by the snow flurries that Lauren and I walked through pulling my suitcases filled with baseball gloves and balls, so we did Baseball 101 inside.

Lauren and I make pretty interesting coaches with only a couple years of little league between us, but thanks to the power of You Tube and its tutorials on such helpful topics like coaching youth baseball catching drills and how to catch a baseball, we did a respectable job (in my opinion).

As suggested in one of the videos, we started by tossing around a bean bag (OK, lentil-filled sweat sock) that Helene nicely whipped up at 10:30 on Friday night. Pros at throwing and catching, we moved on to catching grounders. Then everyone broke off into pairs and did that most American of pastimes, playing catch. With the exception of one kid, everyone was playing baseball for the first time ever and they were shockingly good. The kids were very enthusiastic and are eager to have an actual game outside in the spring.

After rolling the equipment home, I hustled over to the American Corner for the Readers' Club discussion of The Aspern Papers by Henry James. I'll be honest--I wasn't crazy about this book and although some of the other book club members liked it better, I wouldn't say anyone gave it a ringing endorsement. Next month's book is O Pioneers! by Willa Cather and I've been a bit ashamed that I went to University of Nebraska but never read anything by this fellow Husker and venerated author who set many of her stories in the state, so I look forward to finally reading one of her tales.

It was a very American Corner/You Tube week for me--I also gave a presentation there on Wednesday about Presidential Monuments (Mt. Rushmore, FDR Memorial, etc) where I used some You Tube videos to give people a virtual visit experience. Maybe I needed a spicier presentation title though--only 5 people came. I'm blaming the cold weather, even if it wasn't all that bad out. Besides learning to make my title zippier next time, I also discovered an amazing dance (watch this video from about 3:10 minutes) and did you know Eleanor Roosevelt was born a Roosevelt?

Professor Kalinowski's Excellent Adventures

I began trying to write a blog based on the carol "12 Days of Christmas" but got stumped on about day 5, so it's going to be the usual prose instead. First off, I think it's important to note that winter is officially here and I dug out my long underwear again. It snowed about 6 inches on Monday and it hasn't gone anywhere because the temperature also hasn't broken freezing since then. Thank goodness I am one of the volunteers here with a decent heater--others are literally wearing stocking caps inside.

A new project of mine, a Readers' Club, officially kicked off in the last couple weeks with discussions of the books Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. For a new book club, I thought the meetings were well attended and the discussions were lively. We face the limitation of only having 8-10 copies of every book, but everyone is encouraged to read the book within two weeks so we can have up to 20 people take part each month.

With the new chilly temps, American Sports Club moved inside this month with Finger Football, otherwise known as folded-paper-triangle-American-football. Although not as cardio intensive as previous months' sports, Finger Football was a good introduction to American football terminology (touchdown, field goal, extra point) and scorekeeping. Plus, everyone had a good time and went home with their own paper football.


Professor Kalinowski has taught two lessons recently, one to an adult English language class on Thanksgiving and another to college students studying public administration on Strategic Planning. After both classes, the students were invited to ask me questions about my experience in Macedonia and the queries ranged from, "What is your favorite food here?" - answer: sarma and ajvar, to, "Do you find guys in Macedonia attractive?" - answer: I have seen attractive guys, but I'm not much for the ones who wear flashy jeans or lots of hair gel.

There are good and bad things to report about Pelister National Park, my work assignment from Peace Corps. The good news is that Pelister held a grand opening for its new tourist information center. This is the center that they have been telling me would open any day now since August, so it was gratifying to see the day indeed arrive. However, we seem to have our wires crossed when it comes to when they want me to work and my counterpart has gone incommunicado, so that's bad. Luckily I have kept myself busy with the above and helping my new sitemates get acquainted with Bitola.

It is tough for me to believe it is less than 12 days to Christmas because here it will not be Christmas until January. I miss the carols and decorated trees the most, but there are some lovely lighting displays up the center of town and my parents sent me super packages with goodies like homemade cookies and new running shoes. Truthfully, being in a country where gift-giving is not a major part of Christmas is very freeing but I'm not sending back all my new treats either!

Scary Good Fun

Today it was frights and delights bringing America to Bitola with Capture the Flag and Halloween. The American Sports Club played Capture the Flag this morning in a new location, the city park, which seemed appropriately spooky filled with fog and autumn leaves. I learned to say Capture the Flag in Macedonian, which has a wonderfully fun-to-say rhythm: фати го знамето (fah-tee go znah-meh-toe). The realization came to me today that I enjoy playing these types of games much more now than I did as a kid and I think it comes down to the fact that I was so short as a child that it was almost impossible to play as well as everyone else, but now my 5'2" stature puts me squarely in the middle of the pack among kids and I can capture the flag now and again.


Halloween is not celebrated in Macedonia, but the American Corner held a Halloween party with a terrific turnout of ghosts, witches, and Arabs (seriously, these were the most popular costumes). I went as a pirate, proud of my homemade cardboard-and-aluminum-foil dagger and blue eyepatch (blue because, well, I don't have a black marker). Almost everyone there was celebrating Halloween for the first time, so we filled them in on the traditions and their origins, followed by playing games. Some more of the boo-tiful shots from the party and sports club are up on Picasa.

K-k-k-kickball!

Explaining a baseball-like sport to people who have never played the game--this was the task before Ashley and me as we participated in the Bitola American Sports Club's second event, kickball. For the uninitiated, kickball is essentially baseball but you kick a bouncy ball instead of batting. However, as I said, none of the kids had ever played baseball so we needed to explain everything--what is a base, what are the bases called, which order do you run them, what's a foul, what's an out, etc--and do it before we lost everyone's attention.

The game actually started well although we did realize in the course of our play that we forgot a few key points, such as you can't actually pass the person in front of you as you run the bases, even if you are faster than him or her. Also the batting order is not to be renegotiated every inning, and players on the bench cannot kick the ball away from the catcher in an attempt to help their runner reach home plate. We had to move the second base, aka egg carton, about halfway through because it was getting lost in a mud pit. A few shoes (and one pair of glasses) came off in early innings until everyone got their kicking techniques perfected. All-in-all though, the match-up between Ashley's Wild Dogs and my Wildcats was a rousing success.


More pics are up on Picasa and I think you'll agree, we have one of the most scenic fields in all of sports. Our baseball equipment donation was approved and everything is in the mail, so next time we play kickball the kids will get to really run the bases and not egg cartons!

Ultimightier Ultimate?

Saturday was the Bitola American Sports Club's first event, Ultimate Frisbee, and when I awoke to a light but steady rain, all I could think was, "Oh no!" The kids did such a great job promoting the event with flyers around town, a Facebook page, and a website, but all I could imagine was that nobody would come to play in this kind of weather. Dutifully fellow volunteer Kaylee (who got up at 5 AM to come help) and I went to the meeting spot and were pleased to see a few hardy souls waiting. All told, 10 kids showed up to play!

I feel like I can't emphasize enough what troopers these kids were--first of all, it is a half hour walk to the field where we played. Then they ran warmups in the rain, practiced throwing in the rain, listened to the rules in the rain and, you guessed it, played Ultimate Frisbee in yet more rain. We were wet, we were sliding around on the muddy field dodging cow pies, and we had a blast! I posted some pictures on Picasa, but it really doesn't do justice to how terrible the conditions were but clearly everyone was smiling and having fun nevertheless.

I am happy to report that, if we can figure out the shipping and customs, we will be getting a donation of baseball equipment from a group in the U.S. and another organization may be donating American football equipment. I am not sure what sport we'll tackle next month but we are having a planning meeting tonight to figure it out. I am certain, however, that we will play Ultimate Frisbee again sometime!

Boy oh boys

Spending last week in the woods with 86 teenage boys from cities and villages throughout Macedonia at boys camp (aka the Young Men's Leadership Project) turned out to be one of my favorite experiences here thus far. The boys represented the various ethnic groups from Macedonia but their shared enthusiasm, intelligence, and spirit united them into successful teams. Every day the boys had lessons on leadership, civil society, personal development, health, teamwork, and my class--outdoors. After class there were 4 hours of electives ranging from ultimate Frisbee to mosaics to hip hop. Anyone with any energy left after those 10 hours was free to play ping pong, watch a movie, or do origami.

Each team also got to spend a night camping outside with the West Kent YMCA from England that drove all the way to Macedonia just to help with camp. They brought archery equipment and the Americans taught everyone to make s'mores, which are apparently unique to the USA because nobody else had ever heard of them. The camp was truly an international collaboration with the Red Cross of Macedonia doing a workshop on how the boys could plan community volunteer projects, as well as teaching first aid and CPR.

I was an Outdoors instructor with fellow Peace Corps volunteers Jim and Natty. Jim spent his whole career in the military and taught outdoor survival there, so he was perfectly suited for our subject matter and Natty is from the wilds of Massachusetts and also well versed in outdoor survival. They developed lessons on fire-building and knot tying, map and compass reading, and edible plants and animals, while I wrote lessons on decomposition (using timelines to guess how long different items take to disintegrate) and the 3 R's (reducing, reusing, recycling) and plant and animal identification (plus a web of life exercise). I think the boys surprised themselves with how many ways they came up with to reuse a plastic bottle and there was more interest in the plant and animal scavenger hunt than I expected. The weather was less than ideal the first few days, i.e. pea soup fog and intermittent rain, but the boys hung in quite well and I felt like they really enjoyed our class. Pictures from camp are up on Picasa.

Camp closed with a mini Olympics and team skits, including a scathing yet hilarious parody of camp staff. I shared the sentiment of most of the boys that I didn't want camp to end--I was having too much fun playing forest battles (aka capture the flag in the woods), catching up with the other volunteers, and playing more games of Scattergories than I can count, not to mention being free of email and the internet for a week. Alas, it was destined to end but the group of boys from Bitola that Ashley and I have been mentoring seemed to take all the lessons to heart. They want to do a project in Bitola and start an American Sports Club for American football, baseball (the camp's home run derby champ is from Bitola!), etc. We are having a meeting this Friday so they can strategize.

Already the guys are asking me if I will extend my volunteer service and it is wonderful to have them saying that they don't want me to go. I am looking forward to helping them launch the sports club but truthfully I think that through the combination of what they learned at camp and their innate greatness, they could do it all by themselves.