Retaking the field

"You give 100 percent in the first half of the game, and if that isn't enough in the second half you give what's left."--Yogi Berra

This week, I participated in what Peace Corps calls our mid-service conference but in fact I am 17 months into the 27 month commitment, so well past the halfway point. I would say that my group of volunteers has in fact given 100% in the first half, leaving our tanks somewhat empty for the second half. The conference was intended to recharge our batteries and well, they tried...luckily we are a determined, awesome bunch and will not be satisfied until we make a good dent in our long project lists before we depart Macedonia.

My game has changed a bit, for the better. As mentioned in earlier posts, working with the local national park, my "job" if you will, was not going smoothly because I struggled to get my coworkers involved in any projects with me. I brought my concerns to Peace Corps and the staff supported me in changing jobs. My new job is with the YMCA in Bitola. YMCA Bitola works with youth on developing leadership skills, leading healthy lives, and exploring the arts through comics and movies. The name YMCA may conjure images of children and rec centers so let me clarify. First, youth in Macedonia means 15-30 year olds (yes, I still make the cut, barely) and second, our only facilities are a small room in an office building.

I have actually been working with my YMCA Bitola coworkers, Viktor and Jovce, since March. They asked me to help them develop their first strategic plan, a three year plan outlining their goals and how they intend to achieve them. Believe me, thinking much more than a month into the future is unusual for organizations here so YMCA Bitola is taking a big step to make themselves better and stronger. My rapport with Viktor and Jovce is great, lots of sharing of ideas and I appreciate their openness to trying new things. Finishing the strategic plan has been one of my biggest accomplishments as a volunteer, so now I'm looking forward to taking a larger role in its implementation too. Game on!

Me and Viktor (far right) with the U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia

Me and Jovce at the YMCA Bitola Office

Schools in a Century

I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to collect essays and find judges for an essay contest that Peace Corps organized. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Yet how quickly it descended into me having a spirited exchange with one of my judges who threatened to sabotage the competition because she didn't approve of one of my other judge selections. History from previous contests factored into where this irritated judge was coming from but regardless I was frustrated by the fact that what was in the best interest of the kids was not the first priority. Fortunately, the judging was eventually completed and Bitola's winning essays will go on to the national competition.

The contest topic is "My School in 100 Years," so the 7th - 12th graders described (in English) how education in Macedonia will be different in a century. The students did a terrific job of being inventive, and yet I was also struck by how some of what they envisioned is already a part of many American schools. For instance, many students wanted a cafeteria where they could eat while socializing with friends. Students here attend either a morning or afternoon shift, so meals are eaten at home or snacks are purchased from shops near school. Swimming pools were another frequently mentioned but relatively commonplace feature of American high schools. Items like these were a reminder to me of how fortunate students in the U.S. are.

Some of the ideas were pretty fantastical--flying schools, robots as teachers, classrooms that reconstruct themselves depending on the class, German classes held in Berlin, and microchips in students for learning lessons, just to name a few. Other students pragmatically honed in on correcting some of the flaws they see in the current system, such as, "A big improvement will be if the teachers pass through a thorough teaching test...if a test is conducted, the professors will be chosen by how good they are at teaching, not by who has the friend with the highest position in the school." One essay went so far as to predict that schools would vanish all together due to neglect by greedy politicians, but the student encouraged taking action to prevent schools from disappearing. Which predictions will prevail is impossible to say but since most of the essays focused on improvements, I think their generation has the will to turn some of their dreams into reality.

Entertaining Evils

Evil spirits and costumes conjure up Halloween for Americans but in Macedonia, these are the making of the Old New Year. As I did last year, I went to the village of Vevchani where they have an incredible parade in homemade costumes. The costumes are burned after the parade, a way to rid evil going into the new year, so all new creations were on display. There is not much more to say except check out the photos on Picasa and if you do you'll see that boy, are we looking for Bin Laden in the wrong place.

Putting Macedonia's Water to the Test

"In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference." -- Rachel Carson

When I was in 3rd grade, my class was given a list of famous people and we had to choose someone on the list to write a report about. Somehow I chose Rachel Carson, a scientist who raised awareness about the natural world and risks to it, particularly the dangers of pesticides. Now, no one thing made me gravitate towards working on environmental issues, but I have to think that exposure to the ideas and work of Rachel Carson at a young age was formative. That's why I am excited by the success of a project that I have been organizing in Macedonia, World Water Monitoring Day.

Last summer, Peace Corps Macedonia was contacted by one of our former volunteers named Patty who works now for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She asked if we wanted to receive kits to use with local students to test water quality. Sciences classes here rarely have the resources to do lab experiments, so this was an excellent opportunity to do something hands-on and to teach the kids about the importance of clean water. To make a long story short, I took the helm of organizing the project in Macedonia.

In eight different communities, Peace Corps volunteers led the kids through testing water from local rivers. As is apparent from these pictures on Picasa, the water testers had such a good time they almost forgot they were learning. What really impressed me was that in many communities, the youth shared the results with their peers and even local leaders. Our partners in the U.S., EPA and CH2M Hill, also put us in touch with schools in Colorado and Costa Rica to exchange photos and videos with. This international dimension helps show the kids that water is a global resource that we all need to work to protect.

Lauren and I did water testing with an 8th grade class at the primary school where she teaches. Unfortunately there wasn't time for the students to help us collect water from the river, which left Lauren and I alone attracting stares from passersby as we lowered a bucket from a bridge into the river running through town. The students did enthusiastically participate in the testing though and found the Dragor River is relatively healthy, which surprised some of them, mentioning the trash they had seen floating in the river. We are exchanging photos with students from my old school district, Aurora Public Schools, which should be interesting for the kids in both locations.

At the suggestion of my country director, this project got written up on the Peace Corps website. Already it has been pointed out that my "village" of 100,000 people is hardly that but hey, it's still a flattering writeup. It is a bit embarrassing that my name is mentioned so often because it truly was a group effort, so let me take this opportunity to thank again Dianne, Amanda, Sarah, Kerry, Jen, Lauren, Kaylee, Phebe, Lync, and Mike for being water testers extraordinaire!

Holidaze

Three holidays in the span of one week still leaves me somewhat dazed. First there was New Years Eve, with the celebrations in Bitola drawing a crowd of about 15 Peace Corps volunteers.

We watched the fireworks in the city center and then danced to the live music, which garnered us some spectators as dancing anything but the oro here "implies something about you," as I have been told.

The guests staying at my house were treated to some Thai chicken soup, which I was told rivals "the" Thai restaurant in Macedonia, and in the morning, we taught our French friend Astrid how to make breakfast burritos.

January 5th was Kolede and like last year, I joined my neighbors (along with my sitemates Helene and Lauren) for our neighborhood bonfire.


With a drink in one hand and a fork in the other, we ate sausages and chatted, watching to make sure the cute little boy didn't careen in excitement into the bonfire.


My tutor Bile was kind enough to invite me to join her family for Christmas dinner on January 7th.


Her sweet grandparents hosted and in addition to being Christmas it was her grandfather Risto's name day. A name day is the day that recognizes the saint that a person is named after and usually close friends and family will be invited by a person to celebrate his or her name day. After a wonderful filling meal, the guests started singing traditional songs. I still find it remarkable how people here will spontaneously break into song and almost everyone takes part. Click here to watch a clip that I filmed at Christmas dinner.

More photos from the holidaze are up on Picasa.

Signs of the Season

As mentioned in my last post, with Macedonia celebrating Christmas in January it hasn't seemed so Christmasy. But that's not to say that there aren't signs of the season...

Dashing Through The Snow
The weekend before last, fellow volunteer Candy and I were in Skopje for a meeting and then traveling on to help conduct a spelling bee where volunteers Ellen and Mere live. Thinking 30 minutes would be plenty of time to get ourselves to the bus station, we sadly discovered that snow + rush hour = no taxis. The time was ticking down towards 5:00 PM and the last van to our destination, Debar. At 4:50, Candy found a taxi, we jump in, and implore him to get us to the station. En route, we are calling Mere and asking her to call the bus company to hold the van. 200 yards from the station and stopped at a light, I jump out of the taxi and sprint as best one can on snowy sidewalks into the bus station. My phone starts to ring and it's the van driver, but he can't understand me and I can't understand him. I ask at the ticket window if I can still get tickets to Debar--no, and the driver has hung up on me. Candy comes in and I call the driver again. We start walking towards the area the buses drive out of and a van whips out. I hustle up the street to see if it's our van and as it stops at the light, I can see it is. Now I'm gesticulating at the driver, pointing at myself, my cell phone, and the van. He opens the door and I yell, "CANDY! CANDY!" down the street. Candy scurries up, we hop in, and we are on our way. The journey was made that much more interesting when, as discussing the merits of different breads, the guy next to us says, "I love Irish Soda Bread." As it turns out, he's born and bred in Brooklyn to Albanian parents and on his way to visit relatives in Debar. It's not everyday that I get to hear someone saying things like "youse guys."

The Grinch
Ellen and Mere did an excellent job of planning their regional spelling bee (pics of this and more on Picasa), which featured the champs from the bees they held in the local schools. Also, the kids were amazing spellers, to the point that the third graders exhausted the entire list made for the competition. At that point, the judges (as in the posted rules) tried to switch to words the students had in class but hadn't been on the bee prep list. This led to outcries from the audience and to make a long story short, the next boy eliminated finished in 4th place and his father decided to interrupt the whole bee in protest. We managed to continue but he carried on with his complaints afterwards, which raised my ire and elicited some snarky replies like, "I'll remember that next time I'm volunteering on a Saturday." This man could not be convinced by our platitudes about how well his son did and how proud he should be of his 4th place finish and that's why he's the Grinch who stole the spelling bee.

Christmas Letters
I got a Christmas letter of sorts from my counterpart at the park, the one who I'd been trying to track down for two weeks. According to her email, she will be in Australia until February. Well then...

Red and Green
Curry, that is. I went to the city of Prilep for Christmas, where I got my fix of curry and pad thai. We had a fun party on Christmas eve, including a 50 denari ($1) gift exchange and playing Uno until the wee hours. The plethora of cookies also helped it seem more like Christmas. I spent all last week making 4 types of cookies so I could pass them out to local friends in Bitola and I guess it was worth the effort, they got rave reviews.

Fala lala la
One of the first words we learn in Macedonian is thanks or fala, referencing the song "Deck the Halls." Fala for your interest in my blog and everyone who has offered words of encouragement. Happy New Year / Среќна нова година!

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!