Априлили!!!

The title of this blog entry is the name of the holiday celebrated on April 1st in Macedonia. Like April Fools' Day in America, people try to say things that trick their friends and family but Aprilili is even better because there are kids in costumes too. I doubt I will ever see so many Spidermans (Spidermen?) in the same place again. Popular costumes included other non-Spiderman superheroes, princesses, pirates, cowboys, and witches. The photos on this page (plus more here) are mostly from the kids participating in a costume catwalk in Bitola's city center. Personal favorites of mine were the Indians, Harry Potter, Orthodox priest with a broken arm, the tiny Turk, and Uncle Sam.

Project Czar

Every year, Lake Superior State University puts together a list of words that should be banished due to "mis-use, over-use, and general uselessness"; if I were to banish a word right now, it would be project. In Macedonia, everybody likes to talk about "making a project." Correctly said, they want to do a project and by that they mean figure out some way they can get money, write that idea on paper, and then try to get somebody to hand over the cash.

Some of these projects are legitimately good ideas related to an organization's mission and should be funded, but all too often it's a way for them to pay for something entirely unrelated to the stated project. Or an organization that works on a topic like healthcare will apply to do something entirely outside their stated mission, like homeland security, just because there is project money available.

Lately I have been helping people write projects. It is my sincere hope that they will use the pointers that I offer for genuinely needed projects and so far, that seems to be the case. I collaborated on grant applications with two Peace Corps volunteers to renovate a firehouse and to build a language library in a school, valuable additions to their respective communities. With local teen girls who take part in the Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) clubs, I gave guidance on designing successful projects, meaning projects that are truly valuable and then thinking about how to get resources needed to do the projects. I know I say it over and over, but the kids here are amazing. I thought I was an all-star in high school but I wasn't spending my Saturday in grant writing workshops conducted in a foreign language.

The systemic problem with projects is that they imply something short lived--we are handing out fish*, not teaching people to fish. But teaching fishing is hard--you have to find people who want to learn, gather rods and bait, find a place stocked with fish, etc. As Peace Corps volunteers, we are fishing instructors but sometimes you give somebody a fish so the have the energy to keep learning to catch one themselves.

*In Macedonia, the fish carp is (transliterating the Macedonian) called "crap." This makes me smile every time I see it on a menu.

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?

When the Saints Drive In

They were joking about being treated like saints but it did seem like they had performed a miracle, getting a slew of equipment for firefighting and lifesaving across Europe to Macedonia. By "they" I mean Bruce and his colleague (far right and left in the photo above) who are members of a group named Operation Florian, which provides training and equipment for improving firefighting worldwide. These guys drove literally for days, including 15 hours in Serbian customs, from England with gear for fire departments throughout Macedonia. Happily, they also managed to bring 5 CPR dummies for Red Cross Bitola!

Red Cross Bitola met with me a few months ago about their need for new CPR dummies to do trainings on CPR and first aid in the local schools. Their dummies were broken and Red Cross is essentially the only CPR trainer in the area, so the students had no opportunity to learn and practice this important skill. I wanted to know that the Red Cross was serious about this project, so I asked them to write a proposal outlining their needs and their plans for trainings and I was pleasantly surprised when they did so. After a little polishing, I sent the proposal on to Bruce.

Bruce and I first crossed paths in Sveti Nikole as he worked with the firefighters there and I had language classes above the firehouse. Then we were both at the young men's leadership camp last summer, where instead of fire equipment he brought young Brits who shared camping with the guys. Knowing of his work with Operation Florian, I thought Bruce might have ideas about how to fulfill Red Cross' need. He didn't make any promises but it seems there was divine intervention that made the dummies materialize.

Red Cross was ecstatic about the new dummies and their gratitude is what made Bruce say he was going to be named a saint. Giving so much of his time and energy to supporting the people of Macedonia, I would say he's well on his way to sainthood.

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?

Two Saints, One Day

February 14th is Valentine's Day...or is it? The whole Saint Valentine thing has not really caught on in Macedonia, in part because it is already another holiday, Sveti Trifon, celebrating patron saint of wine growers. Last year I traveled to wine country and went with Macedonian tradition, standing in a city center with a couple hundred other people consuming wine at 9 AM, but this year I opted to stay closer to home for a more Valentine holiday.

At the American Corner, I told a group of 8th graders about Valentine's Day while we played a game and made a poster.
We talked about the candy hearts with messages on them and the kids made their own clever Conversation Hearts.




The Corner also provided apple cake because, I think, it's an American dessert. We Americans tried to explain that it's not traditional for Valentine's Day but they went with it anyway and hey, it was tasty nevertheless.

In addition, I got to play cupid to my sitemate Lauren by delivering a surprise bouquet from her boyfriend in America. He requested my help to get flowers to her and we'd been conspiring over Facebook. Seeing her initial shock and subsequent teary happiness was lovely. I may not have had a Valentine, but it was a sweet day.

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