Emerging and Developing

Jori's kitchen sink, a moment of water

I have chosen this moment in time, way past my bedtime, to write, let's call it motivation and move away from insanity and regret.

Over the past two weeks I have been fleetingly thinking of the term "third world country". Is it still a relevant word? Does Macedonia really fit into that category and if not where does it go? I decided tonight to do some preliminary research. According to the dreaded research agent, Wikipedia, Macedonia is an Emerging and Developing Country, check the IMF for more information. In another place on Wikipedia, I did a quick average of Macedonia from three different tables and it comes out as number 117 of 196 countries in the world. So there's your information for the night. I feel slightly more informed.

My motivation for such thoughts was spurred on by the recent lack of water that has been occurring in the city. It first started due to extreme cold weather and pipes freezing, but long after that could no longer be the reason, water was still not restored to some parts of town and for a day the whole city was without water. Yes, there are other countries that function without consistent or limited water, but what I think makes it difficult for an emerging country is that time in between. Certain public services are offered and the community begins to build infrastructure based on the provision of those services, but then factor in the fact that those services can be inconsistent and so the infrastructure that was developed based on those services leaves the community vulnerable in a way that they were not before. According to various sources the water outage is due to either someone not paying the right bill or political posturing or both. Who knows, but the fact is life can be difficult without water, even for a day.

Though the weather has warmed significantly, February was mostly a month of snow. I am extremely thankful that most of it has melted by now.

during this time I moved into the kitchen which is
warmer and smaller, making it easier to heat

Some things I read today:
One story of those aging in the prison system
Scheming in unlikely places

Something I watched:
Award craziness

What I listened to:
Andrew Bird, 2012

My favorite line that jumped out at me, “You would go mistaking the clouds for the mountains". To me this says, people often turn things into bigger problems than they really are and sometimes you cannot see that until it passes. You look back and say to yourself, it wasn't really as bad as I made it out to be. Bird makes a good album, he diversified his sound. Take a listen.

меша: mix

mixing, Macedonian pancakes, which is what the French call crepes

My mom has encouraged me to write here more frequently without feeling I have to write a whole lot. I think I will attempt to intersperse longer thought-out stories and shorter drops-ins, where I just mention what I am doing at the moment - to mix things up. Right now it's late morning and there is yet another dusting of snow, making it almost two weeks of constant snow cover and temperatures in the negative Celsius here, while all you Staters that I know are running around with limited clothing.

I am not at the "office" because I am working on a fact sheet for the Federation of Russia for a project here called Model UN that I am helping to facilitate here in Kumanovo and eventually this Spring throughout the whole of Macedonia. I'll head into work later where we are beginning to work on our own little grant.

my street with snow

my host brother's five year old birthday party

Feel free to give Sharon Van Etten a listen...I just did

Chocolate Cake

this is a fish, not chocolate cake

I know, this is a picture of a fish, but before I get to him I want to tell a short story about chocolate cake and Macedonian hospitality.

In this country, treating your guest with the utmost care is priority number one and I was reminded of this fact over the weekend. I was a guest in someones home, actually for two days, and was treated like royalty. Macedonians will continually offer you food and what ever you may desire to drink, coffee being it's own event and separate from other forms of refreshment. The first night of my stay I was hit with an extreme desire for chocolate cake at about 11:45 at night and after interrogating my host I was devastated to find out that there were no cake facilities open at that hour. As the evening past the thought of cake left my mind and was no where to been seen the next morning. Continuing with Macedonian customs, I was required to stay until I ate with my hosts since they woke early to prepare a meal for their visitors. After lunching on пастрмајлија, for the first time, the hostess brought out none other but large pieces of chocolate cake, made just for me because of a craving that I had at midnight! I am pretty sure that most homes in America would not go this far, would not offer whatever whim their guest may entertain, even when the guest was not completely serious. I am still learning to watch what I say around Macedonians because ultimately I'll get what I ask for, though I am told this is what makes Macedonian females happy, to please their guests, it still makes me feel some what guilty the length that a hostess will go to for their guests.

Fish Heads

Last week was a cooking adventure for me. Not only was I cooking something new, but I also had to purchase my unusual, to me, food item in Macedonian. The trick is to make sure you get what you want and get good quality. I cooked fish, whole fish - guts, heads, scales and tails. I had already been directed to a quality place to purchase said fish, but when Thursday came around I was worried that I would not achieve my goal due to language barriers. I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Of course the lady behind the counter asked what she could help me with and I began to stumble through telling her I need fish, that I could cook in a pan. I think she started to move to the live ones and I shook my head no and pointed to the counter, to the pile that had already passed on to the other side. I knew I needed to be friendly, so I began to engage in small talk, I was an American, volunteering here and living nearby for the next two years. That seemed to impress her and she smiled as we exchanged names. She pointed to the fish she thought would be the best and I told her to give me a kilo. As she was weighing them out she asked if I wanted her to cook them. I told her no proudly that I was going to cook them. She eyed me with slight concern but I ignored her. Then she asked if I knew how to clean them, and I faltered for a second before I said yes. I mean I wanted to do all parts on my own, even if I've never cleaned a fish before. She eyed me again, skeptical that I could perform such a task, and she asked if she could show me how to do it, just in case, so I obliged. I am so thankful that I agreed to such a thing because as I watched I realized she was a professional and I was not. After the first one I asked her if she could clean all the others for me and she smiled as she got to work.

The rest of the adventure went without a hitch. I cooked all four fish in my pan after coating them with flour and salting and peppering the inside cavity and stuff it with lemons. They cooked perfectly and quickly and tasted wonderful. Here in Macedonia if you want fish you'll be eating a whole fish with a little face that will watch you the whole time and a skeleton of bones to maneuver around. When I tell people that in America fish is served without bones they look at me like I am crazy, which they should, right? Fish has bones, who on earth would do the work to take the bones out ahead of time?

the aftermath

statue in Kumanovo

this is an article I wrote for the Macedonian Peace Corps newspaper

Big City Living

I live in Kumanovo, which if you didn’t already know, is one of the larger municipalities in Macedonia. Now it’s all big city living for me, the high life all the way. We have more restaurants than you can count, a city pool, a Slovenian market, and an ice skating rink. I know, you’re jealous; I would be too, except I live in this wonderful city. Really though, I can count the restaurants, there are about eight or so that people regularly go to and the city pool’s existence is up for debate. Tus, the market chain from Slovenia, has been known to rip people off and the skating rink is temporary, located on what is normally a tennis court. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful that I have more than one option for coffee and groceries, I mean heck I have a place I can go, some of you don’t even have that option.

Generally living in a big city gives you options that you don’t get in other smaller places. It also affords me the flexibility to blend in and make somewhat of a life that has elements of familiarity to a life I once had in America. For example, I have more freedom and space to run, which others cannot speak of, especially if you are female. Though, in the morning I may still get strange looks, I have a river and a paved walk-way I can run along and sometimes I am not the only one out there running. In villages, the road might not even be longer than a mile and running often can be difficult (I know I lived in a village for training).

All that aside, I am thankful that I live in Kumanovo, partially because I am in a larger city and also because there are three other volunteers that live here. Though I had no choice in the matter, I would most certainly pick to live in Kumanovo. It has a large city feel, with stores, cafes, and restaurants, but it still is small. When I go out I often run into some one I know, whether it is my coworkers or friends, and it’s great to take a moment out of my day to stop and say hi and see how someone is doing. Here, no matter what your agenda may be, even if you are running late, there is always time to stop and say hello. And when I am out with friends, Macedonian or American, they always see someone else they know, and often my circle of friends grows upon such occasions.

People are curious about meeting the American; they want to know who I am and why on earth I chose to spend two years of my life here in Macedonia. Since moving to site, well really to Macedonia, after the initial information is exchanged, I’ve come to learn that people are the same here as they are in America, or really anywhere else. Though growing up here can be different than being raised in America, people are people, with dreams, preferences, and responsibilities, just like anyone else in the world. I just hope a year from now I can say I have friendships that have grown and blossomed and that I can call Kumanovo home and its people my community, where we learn and grow together.

Travels thus far

my first ever basketball game happens to have been Macedonian

Per-Service Training will be coming to an end in two weeks and after swearing in I will be an official Peace Corps volunteer, ready to live and work in Macedonia for two years. Recently I have had time to visit my workplace and get to know my fellow colleagues. One of them happens to date a Macedonian basketball player, so lo and behold I went to my first ever basketball game which happened to be quite a rowdy affair! I believe there will be more games in my future. Also, I got to tour my apartment and it is quite large for one person, which will be great for visits from other volunteers and Americans from afar.

During training we are allowed to take day and night trips during certain weekends and I have taken advantage of the freedom to travel around the country. I have been to Kratavo, Kriva Palanka, and Skopje.

My first excursion was a day trip to Kratovo which happens to be another volunteer training community. After a coffee break, there was a visit to the Rock Art Centre to see local, handmade crafts and pick up some postcards. To our surprise we were soon invited to drink coffee and eat слатко while learning a bit more about the shop. And before you knew it we were being led on a tour of Kratovo, all in Macedonian. Most of the tour was lost on me but I made sure I was encouraging by sending our wonderful tour guide positive reinforcement. He took us to an old house and a museum, offered us a shot of ракија, and also took us by a friend's house for coffee. This has been one of the many wonderful, hospitable experiences I have had while I have been in this country. Our tour guide also took us into the local church for a look around and of course the place was beautiful. The day was finished up with a bite at a local restaurant and a hike to see the town from afar.

scenes from Kratovo

I also have spent an afternoon in Скопје with the rest of the volunteers for Field Day, a volunteer sponsored event where we get to know each other and eat food. After the scheduled event we were allowed to walk and explore the city. There is a lot of ancient structures and also newer monuments. You can easily just walk around and look at stuff and not even actually go into a museum, though I do plan on doing that another day. The area I enjoyed the most was the old city, which is beautiful, with cobbled streets and buildings close together and walkways that twist and turn. Skopje is also the location of Mother Teresa's brithhome. I need to actually go into the museum when it's open. My host father made it very clear that I must get a picture in front of the new and very large state of Alexander the Great.

from Skopje - bridge, park, me with Alexander

Mother Teresa's House, bathhouse, Old City, sunset

My most recent adventure was a visit to Крива Паланка to see the city, but more specifically to view the monastery of Saint Joachim Osogovski. It was a perfect day and so the walk out of town and up the hill to the attraction hardly seemed like work. Everything about this place is beautiful - the architecture, landscape, and the frescoes. At the end of the day, it was peaceful just to sit in the cafe, overlooking the valley, and feel the sun warm my face as we ate lunch.

Kriva Palanka - Saint Osogovski

This coming weekend I hope to visit one of the many wineries, if the weather holds out. I have been excited to seize every opportunity I can to see other cities in this country. The only difficulty is that I still lack the language to fully understand everything about where I am going or to ask questions about what I see. Maybe there will be time one day to go back to these places and learn more about what makes them special.

Skopje at night

Medley of thoughts

There are some things I will never learn, like how to properly operate a computer. I had typed about two paragraphs for this entry the day before and due to my ineptness those words are lost forever. And so I move on.

This week my peers are finding out their site assignments, which in Peace Corps lingo means that their communities and their workplaces for the next two years are being revealed to them. I have known where I will be living and working since the first week that I was in Macedonia. I am fortunate enough to be living only 10 minutes from where I am currently in training. So, at the end of November I will move to Kumanovo for two years. I am super excited to know that I will not be far from my host family and that I will have an opportunity to go back and visit them often.

Kumanovo is the third largest city in Macedonia and the largest municipality in the country. I will be about thirty minutes away from the capital in the northeastern part of the country. A fellow volunteer from my training community will also be moving into the city along with me and currently there are already two volunteers serving as English teachers there. Again, I think I lucked out by having a pretty vast (in comparison to others) support system in my community.

While I am living there I will be working for Poraka Nasa – Regional Center for People with Intellectual Disability. Poraka Nasa works toward establishing equal treatment for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. The organization achieves this through respecting basic human rights, involvement of individuals in society and everyday activities, promotion of independent living and usage of community services, economic, social and legal protection, and societal integration and inclusion. It always amazes me how this part of my life keeps making a repeat appreance and I continually wonder why I am granted the opportunity to work with individuals with learning disabilities when in fact I have no formal traning but only experiencial training. These next two years will just be another example to me. I am curious to observe the differences between America and Macedonia when it comes perceptions and support of this community of people. Leave a comment for me if there is anything in particular that you would like me to make note of.

Random thought, which I brought up to my peers today when we were working on our group practicum project, I have always been courious as to why certain songs and then certain types of songs appel to people. What makes a pop song a pop song, what element about it is found appealing to a large mass of people? Is it the beat, melody, lyrics? Is if different for different songs? Whole genres? For me some times it’s the lyrics and sometimes it is the beat, or even the transition in a song. For pop songs I generally prefer the melody and not the lyrics. What do you think? When we talked about it we discussed the role of personal environment and also up bringing that can effect preferences in musical taste. I often think about this topic and was reminded of the universal nature of music when me and my host brother (4 year old and Macedonian) started moving to the same song at the same moment in the same way without looking at each other or talking about it at all. When I happened to glance over at him we smiled at eachother, as if to say, yes I love this part too.

Random quotes from email and readings:

“Only by knowing ourselves can we truly understand others – and knowing from where you come is an important part of knowing who you are.”

“You should focus on being more interested than interesting.”

The Blue Sweater ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

A Chickpea Leaps

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it's being boiled.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

The cook knocks it down with the ladle.

"Don't you try to jump out.
You think I'm torturing you,
I'm giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.

Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this."

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Jalal al-Din Rumi

Busy bee

I am a week away from a full month of being in Macedonia and boy has it felt longer. Next week we are planning on celebrating by having a small cookout, while we still can, before the cold weather sets in for the long haul.

Oh, by the way, let me know (aka email me) if you ever want to Skype. I’ve been able to touch base with a few people this week and it is a great thing for me. It reminds me that America is still there and makes me feel that I am just away for a little while. It helps to be able to talk to someone as if really no time has passed since I last talked to that individual. Let’s keep that rolling.

This week I feel like I am finally hitting some sort of schedule for myself, which helps me to feel grounded and makes it easier for me to focus on the tasks at hand, which really is learning the language and spending time with my family. So, I have been waking in the morning and running for various lengths of time with a longer run, about an hour, happening on Saturday or Sunday. Then it's time for class and after that home for lunch.

I normally eat what I consider breakfast and lunch alone. I am pretty sure my host parents do not eat breakfast during the week and the kids eat something in the morning after I have left for class. Lunch for me is around 12:30pm. The family does not eat at that time because the main meal in Macedonian houses does not happen till 4pm and I usually cannot wait that long. So I try to eat just a little around noon and then eat again around 4pm, though today it wasn’t until 4:50pm. Then a smaller amount of food - tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese - comes out around 8pm or so for people to munch on as they please, but I try not to eat that late.

We eat a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers. I never realized that one group of people could consume as many peppers as Macedonians do. But on the flip side, most all of the food I consume is grown on the land around the house or the farm plots near my host mother’s mom’s house, around the corner. So far I have helped the family pick grapes, apples, and peppers and have helped to make ajvar, a pepper spread that can sometimes have eggplant in it too. For the most part all the food has been good; I think I have only passed on one meal.

So, after the main meal we often go over to the host mother’s mom’s house or someone from the family may come here (like her sister, husband and the cousins). This is called на гости and really it’s just the act of going and visiting people. This is something I have always felt uncomfortable doing back home, just going to someone’s house to sit around and talk, and really to talk about nothing much all. It would always make me apprehensive cause I would think about all the other things I should or could be doing at the time, instead of just sitting around and talking. I am starting to get a little more accustomed to the practice now, though it is difficult not really being able to fully engage in the conversation, but each time there are more and more words I can pick out. Oh and an important part of these visits is having coffee, the female host always makes the coffee and serves everyone. Soda and rakija, locally brewed whiskey, is also an option, though the men are really the ones who do most of the drinking of alcohol.

Something that I really need to try to do is spend regular time with one of the Albanian families (while I still can) and listen and try to speak the language with them. The house I am in now speaks Macedonian and so I really only hear Albanian in class. So that’s a goal for the next week. This weekend is more Community Development training and the chance to see other training communities. I’m excited about getting to see more parts of the country.

Update: I went with Enid to her house today to hear Albanian in action. Though most of what I heard was way over my head, it was good just to practice hello and good-bye and say "mire" a lot. The golden moment of the visit was when he walked us over to the bee hives and pulled out a frame from the hive and gave us fresh honey from the comb. Shume mire!













making ajvar

Enid and host dad

the comb