The Week Between Travel Part 2

I’ve been titling these the posts “The week between” but really they are more like the two weeks and a weekend between travel.  The weeks are standard- work at an NGO, work on new TFA stuff, read, try to get too much done, etc.

On Saturday April 21, Florozon (the NGO I am working with one day a week) along with the US Embassy sponsored a “Keep Vodno Beautiful” preservation hike. Now I had never heard of a preservation hike, but I was all for picking up some trash. This country is literally littered with trash. Almost everywhere you turn there is something there. People just don’t seem to care that much about putting stuff in trash bins. Surprisingly enough Vodno was pretty clean on the path, so there wasn’t a lot to clean up. But if you went off the trail at all it was covered, but off the trail was steep drop offs and thorns and scary looking stuff. I went up with Cecelia (from IWA) to start off the day. There was a really great showing of people, both American and Macedonian.

 The Ambassador and 2^nd in command came out, as (I think) did the Mayor of Skopje. They handed out shirts, hats, gloves, water and apples to people. We, of course, started about 30 minutes later than stated. I got separated from the main group almost right away (I was still with people, just not the main group). When I realized there wasn’t a lot of trash, I just started putting it in other peoples bags so we didn’t make MORE trash for the environment. The Ambassador and a few people got really into it and were so running off into the side of the hills through the brambles and everything. (since I had not been feeling well, and didn’t wear pants that were capable of doing so, I just stayed on the path and tried to find trash to pick up. Then it started raining, I stuck it out for about 30 more minutes before the others who had turned around were coming back and caught up with us. They did collect a lot of trash though! Wow!

two of the three people that I work with at the NGO.

On Sunday, April 22 the American Corner was doing an Earth Day event at the zoo. Since I hadn’t ever been to the zoo here, I decided to go. (This was on my list for a while, so I was super excited to have an excuse to go!) Nevenka had also asked me to take a bunch of pictures for them, because their camera was going to die. (I took over 300 some odd photos, by the way!)

They had it set up so kids could go from continent to continent to learn about the different animal species that were endangered on those continents. Then there was a zoo tour. Then a prize drawing! I went around and looked at a lot of the tables, but since it was all in MK, also wandered around the area and looked at the nearby animals.

like a guina pig exhibit. like at a zoo?

Then they offered a tour of the zoo. I figured I would go on it even though it was in Macedonian because I might understand a bit and would get to see more things at the zoo!

they even had the press there!

 They have some cool animals there, and some famous one. The zoo didn’t used to be in good condition, but they have seriously shaped up over the past few years! But people still like to feed the animals things they shouldn’t- like chips and bad for you stuff. After part of the tour, well most of it, Gordona and I snuck back to meet Nevenka and grab a bite to eat. I din’t think I’ve ever drank a ½ liter of water that fast, I was so thirsty! It was super hot that day and I even got sunburned! When the kids got back, they had the prize drawing with a secret surprise at the end- the last three kids drawn got to go into the lemur cage and feed them!

(and I got to tag along so I could take pictures!) When we first got in there, they weren’t having any of that fruit stuff, so the keep went and got a package of raisons and they went crazy for the raisons. I think we were in there for about 15 minutes or so? Towards the end, as I was taking a picture, I felt this little scampering up my back and froze.

All of a sudden I had a lemur on my shoulder, just chillin’. After the event was over, we went a looked around the rest of the zoo before heading home to just relax. It was a long day!

the scraf was more "too little too late sun protection" than actual cold because it was still really hot!

On Tuesday, April 24, I was invited to go to a mime event by Marissa. Since I had never been to a mime performance, I decided to go. (I mean how many times do you ever get invited to a mime performance?) We met up for dinner at Kaj Marshalot, where I had been wanting to go. It was supposed to be decked out in old communist memorabilia and they were supposed to be dressed as pioneers. (they weren’t and it wasn’t) but the food was still yummy! We ended up having front row seats at the performance and little did I know, that didn’t bode well for me! (or it boded extremely well, it just depends on how you look at it…) Marissa knew the guy who was preforming, he comes from the same small island in Maine that she lived on before joining the State Dept. We saw Avner the Eccentric preform. And he was AMAZING! Oh my gosh, it was so much fun! If he is coming to a town near you, go see him.

So- a mime performance, what exactly is that? Well, I’m sure youtube can help, but, basically they preform wordless comedy. They do tricks, they make a fool of themselves, and they let you relax.  He kept making faces to me, because I happened to be sitting on the aisle and was a girl I think. But it was fun! I even got pulled up on stage once! And there is video to prove it. No pictures though.

After the performance, we hung out at the reception before heading to our respective homes.

On Wednesday, April 25, two fun things happened. I got to give a presentation of my research findings and go drink Macedonian wine! I had been approached by the Center for Research and Policy Making in Skopje to give a talk about my research. It was great! I had a wonderful presentation (click here to see a picture and a short article about it) and great conversation with the participants there. I got to talk about the ways I think the government should be more involved in non-governmental organizations in Macedonia.  I mentioned how more money should be spent, but if they can’t spend more money, they should be more active. The actual politicians should set an example and be more active in organizations that they care about. They will be able to lead by doing, which is so important in a culture that doesn’t seem to really volunteer.

Then it was off to the International women’s Association annual Wine and Cheese tasting event. For 500 MKD (about $10) you could drink all the wine and eat all the cheese from around Macedonia that you wanted! So worth it! Lizzie, Justin, Erin, Aryn and I went over there. We ended up meeting up with Angjie who was working the event and got to enjoy a lot of yummy (and a few not so great) wines. We had a blast and ended up staying until it was over. When we got back to the center, they wanted to grab a bite to eat, so we tried to go find an open place. But those places that say they stay open until one am? Well they close their kitchen at 11pm, go figure jerks. So no food. But sleep!

See you around the globe!

First Few Weeks Of March

On 3/5, the American Corner had an “in-reach” where they had a local middle school come in. I did the “Big Cities in America” presentation again. It was a bit hectic and rushed and I thought I had 30 minutes, but when I got there they told me I only had 10, but I needed to include everything. So I probably spoke too fast and they probably didn’t get any real information. Kids here are hard to read. They just stare and don’t really respond to your questions…But then they took a quiz about the state capitals and put together a puzzle. See pictures here.

On 3/7, at the American Corner, there was an event for International Women’s Day, where two Macedonian women and an US Embassy worker talked about being women in their professions. I can honestly never say I have felt a stronger need to discuss what feminism and women’s rights mean and how much that is truly needed in Macedonia. I had visited a few different NGOs that were discussing women’s rights, but I never know how much of the common woman’s views were similar to what they were like in the US in the early 1950s. Many of the women there thought is was normal and good for women to stay home and be mothers. And that, that was all they were supposed to want. And that there was nothing wrong with that. Or that when a woman CEO was treated as if she was only there to get coffee for the men, that she was just supposed to accept that and no one protested that she had been placed in a degraded position. Other women were talking about how they should always be a mother or a wife before they pursue their other goals. Also, all feminist are man hating people who only want women to rule the world. (By the way- this is totally wrong. Feminism is fighting for human rights and the idea that everyone should be equal regardless of sex, ethnicity, skin color, sexual orientation, or any other potential discriminatory quality. Feminists don’t all want only women to rule the world, although some do, but so do some men. Feminist generally just want everyone to be treated equal in the shortest definition of the word.) I left there totally saddened and enraged over the injustice that these women will face, and wondering how I could make a difference. I wish the American Corner wasn’t moving this year, so that I could do a workshop on what feminism and women’s rights is actually all about. You can see pictures here.

On 3/8, there was another event at the American Corner: “Dreams for My Daughter, Dreams for My Mother.” It was supposed to be a mother/daughter thing, but they invited me along to contribute to the conversation even though my mom was half way around the world. We had a good conversation. Julia, the US Ambassador’s daughter who is living here was supposed to come but she was super sick, so she wrote a letter to her mom. It almost made us all cry she is such a good writer!  See pictures here. (Have I mentioned how I like the fact that the American Corner takes a million pictures and posts them online so I don’t have to?)

On 3/14, I had an International Women’s Association meeting. These meetings have two components: a social hour and an actual meeting. At the social hour, sometimes we have someone selling stuff (like make-up this time), or we play a game. And then there is a meeting where they tell us about the upcoming events that they have going on. After the meeting we usually go to lunch. This week’s lunch was at Shanghai, one of two Chinese restaurants in town. Neither restaurant is good, actually both are pretty bad and have no good food. But they are nice people. Then I went over to the Opera and Ballet to buy tickets to Swan Lake. After that successful outing, Cecelia and I went to her house, where I met her kitty that I agreed to house sit this past weekend. The kitty kind of reminded me of Koshka, a little skittish (she did warm up by the end of the weekend).

Like this past week (3/12 to 3/16) all I did was lay around and recover from being sick the week before. And other than that, I basically laid in bed or sat on the couch recuperating and trying not to get sicker. I did go work at the new NGO, but that is part of what made me feel worse and stay in on Friday!

See you around the globe!

December 12: Kumanovo on strictly business- so no sight-seeing. Must go back later! If nothing else for the seasoned fries at the Irish pub!

 December 14^th: Taught a class on Advanced English learners at the university so they could hear a native speaker. Mira Beaker, a former Fulbrighter to the US, had met up with us a few weeks ago and asked me to present a topic to her class. We met on Monday to discuss the topic, and the I prepared to teach. I was kinda terrified, to be perfectly honest. But it all went smoothly.  I literally followed the examples in the book and had them do a popcorn reading of the text they were supposed to read. Jen would be a better resource than I am, but college is really different in MK than in the US. Classes are a lot easier, they have almost no concept of homework or outside preparation. But, they only have one or two exams in the class and if you don’t pass that you get two more chances. If you don’t pass by then, you have to take the course over again.

Dec 16^th: I met with an NGO contact in the morning. Then I went to an American Corner event: A Christmas workshop where we attempted to make German Christmas stars. I failed at the workshop, but it was a huge turnout and that was awesome! It was more than anyone expected! Then Nicola (sp?) the Peace Corps volunteer that taught the workshop stayed at my apartment overnight. But before that, we and another Peace Corps Volunteer (Lillian, who is leaving Dec 24^th) went out to eat at Mecho’s. I had been told it was a pizza joint, but it isn’t! It is traditional Macedonian food. Lillian ordered frog legs, while Nicola and I ordered Tavche Grache. Yup, frog legs. Apparently they are a specialty in Eastern MK. Nicola and I enjoyed hanging out and trying the stars again at my apartment later that night. It was refreshing to talk to a Peace Corps Volunteer that doesn’t hate the country and want to leave ASAP!

Dec 18^th: First train ride in MK! I went to Bitola, because I had two appointments with NGOs on the 19^st.  The train was pretty crowded, but cheap! I got a student discount that made the price 150 MKD or $3.17 USD. Yup for a 3.5-4 hour ride across a country. I met his really nice lady that helped me figure out which train to get on, and where to go. The train pretty much emptied out after Prilep, and I figured that the next stop would be Bitola. Well the next stop where most people got off (p.s. it was). Some pictures of Bitola decorated for Christmas!

Dec 19^st: Met with two different NGOs. One went really well, the other only sort of well. I ate lunch as a restaurant in the center of Bitola, but it was horrible food. The spaghetti sauce was basically sweet ketchup, ugh. I Couldn’t even finish ¼ of the food! I took the bus back to Skopje that afternoon. It was crowded, uncomfy and 450 MKD. I will try my hardest to plan around a train schedule to go back to Bitola. I do NOT want to take the bus again if I can help it. I even managed to aggravate someone. When people were getting off, I had to switch seats to let someone off, and then when people started coming back on, I went back to my original seat…but some lady thought she was supposed to sit there with her friend. Then when they realized that I didn’t speak Macedonian (it’s a great ploy even when you understand some of what they were saying). Turns out that it was ok, the girl just sat up front next to the bus driver. Then at the stop, when I tried to switch with her, the Bus driver thought I was crazy and then found me a seat somewhere up front (not next to him- apparently some one had gotten off, so there was a free seat). And the people in the front kept saying something about the Foreigner. The bus driver said something to the guy that he found the seat next to about me being English of French or something and I didn’t understand anything. I’m sorry- but I don’t understand all the social rules for riding a bus, we don’t really have that form of transportation in the US! I just keep smiling and hoping it will be ok.

More Bitola for Christmas!

Dec 20^th: First snow in Skopje!!!

Dec 21^st: I went and had coffee with the International Women’s Association (well hot chocolate). Then I went to a doctor. I will write a separate post on that soon- but the end result is I am fine, but getting over a virus. That night, I had Conversation Hour at the American Corner. We discussed Holiday Traditions (New Year and Christmas), vegetarian lifestyle (did ya’ know that children NEED meat to function?), and a few other random topics. I kind of like not having a real plan, it makes the conversation more free flowing.

Dec 22^nd: Off to Tetovo again! I seem to always catch the same combi driver. We pulled forward to a little bakery so the mom and kid also riding with us, could grab a bite to eat, and the driver turns around and goes “Sthul?” (the university that Jen works at).  Then he proceeds to ask me if I go over every day- now you know you take him combi too often! This guy is super nice and friendly however. I was going to Tetovo to see the Deputy Prime Minister of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) give a talk. Apparently SEEU had complied a book about the 10 years since OFA. The OFA ended the conflict in 2001. See this previous blog post for a summary of the OFA. The speech he gave was only about 20 minutes, but still worth going to see. He said some interesting things that I thought were poignant.

·        We should leave the OFA and the past 10 years to history and move forward to a new direction

·        The future of MK is the country of all parities with no one party better than another.

·        One of the goals was the protection of citizen’s ethnic identity and culture.

·        The implementation WAS hard (I liked how he used the past tense, implying that it had been implemented)

·        The implementation was an investment into the future of MK.

·        The OFA is a process, not just an agreement on paper. It is important for the democratization of MK. It was a goal for opening and strengthening the state institutions.

After the talk, he and the rector and editor gave a press conference while Jen and I picked up the book that they published. I have it in Albanian, Macedonian, and English. I look forward to reading it and then possibly donating it to FAU’s library. Then I went back to Jen's office and worked on my research blog while Jen went to her class that she teaches. After she got back we went to a 3:30pm linner with Vesna, who leaves for the US and her PhD program on the 28th! Linner (lunch-dinner, like brunch) was pretty good. I had pizzia because that was one of like 3 things I could order off the menu!

Dec 23^rd: I started a mini exercise program in my apartment, after realizing that I needed to get in better health and that finding a gym that wasn’t out of my price range would be hard. (I have a hard time spending over $40 for a one month membership, but maybe I will break down and do it in Feb…). I also just realized that I never told you about aqua aerobics in MK- see future blog post… I had a meeting with another NGO in the afternoon. But the guy stood me up. He thought that we hadn't confirmed the meeting, or he never recieved the email about confirmation. I also started private tutoring in Macedonian. It took this long to find a class or private tutor that I could afford. No one gave me any ideas for where to look for classes until mid-November! And then I found a wonderful lady at Lumina Lingua! She has VERY reasonable prices and is super super nice!

Settling into a Routine (kinda)

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I presented at the second English class at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. It would have been on Wednesday, but Wednesday was declared Tree Day. No really there was a national holiday for a tree. Well technically 2.2 million trees, but still. Apparently back in (a few years ago) the decided to take a day to go plant 2.2 million trees in one day to represent the people of Macedonia. And now they do it about twice a year. We want to participate next spring. So classes were rescheduled to SATURDAY!!!! Icky!

After the class we went out to meet a former Fulbrighter to America, Mira, at this little cozy cafe. Turns out the cafe was reserved, but we decided to go to Ginos. Where we had yummy lunch with dessert and just talked. It was nice. I am going to talk at one of her classes in a few weeks.

I also started volunteering at my NGO. They are a lot of fun, and more will be posted on my research blog.

On Tuesday morning (at 1am) I was supposed to have a TFA meeting, but failed to set my alarm correctly. So instead of waking up 12:30 am, I woke up at 3:54 am. YIKES!!!!! I immediately emailed the person running the meeting profusely apologizing for my unprofessionalness. He emailed me back said he like my dedication for trying to wake up then and that "we would get along". Phew!

On Wednesday, I met with Naum to just chit chat and for him to give me some contacts and suggestions for dealing with cultural differences, since he is from MK originally. It was a great talk! And he helped me understand so much.

Later that day, Daniel (other Fulbrighter in Skopje) is starting a class at the American Corner about American Political Thought that will run about once a week that I decided to sit in on. We actually have homework. lol

Thursday deserves it's own special post, so check back later.

On Saturday, I helped out at the International Women's Association Christmas Bazaar. They raised about 400 Euros to donate to their charities. But they had a craft fair, bake sale, and kids bouncy house area. It was a lot of fun- and I won a free night at Casa la Kola for entering the raffle. Lots of fun expectations ahead!

Then I came over to Tetovo to hang with Jen and go to Ohrid with Vesna. See separate post coming later!

See you around the globe!

First Meeting with an NGO

 On Monday I had my first meeting with an NGO. АкцијаЗдруженск (Aktija Zdruzhenska for those who don’t read Macedonian.) They are working on strengthening the women’s movement in Macedonia and see themselves as a sort of watchdog agency for the government.

But first the story about Getting to the NGO. I realized when I was looking up the street address to give directions to the cabby and THE ADDRESS DOESN’T EXIST! No where. Not on Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, a printed city map. No where. So I send them an email requesting help and haven’t heard back from them so I called and they said just to give the taxi driver the address and he will find it. I’m all ok…you guys know the drivers better than me. So I go find a taxi (which in and of it self was hard, they weren’t in their normal spots, so I had to walk a bit to find one). And tell the guy the address. He goes, where? I repeat it and then he asks to see the address that I am reading. Well it was in Latin script and he is all, huh? So I offer to call them and see what they say and give him directions. After getting the directions from the NGO. The taxi driver starts up a conversation with me about where I am from and what I am doing in Skopje, etc. It was nice to practice my Macedonian with someone who would never care if I did it mess up or found silly. However, I was able to tell him that I was funded by the US embassy but not working for it and that I would be here studying for 9 months and that I liked it here and the people were super nice. Then we arrived.

We spent about 2 hours talking about the general situation of women in Macedonia. I have some great quotes and lots of more info about the actual situation- since most of the books a few years old, or the fact that I have just started looking into it. Then she had to leave to go actually meet with some government officials. However, they don’t have anything that I can actually do with them. Since they are more of a watch dog type organization, they don’t actually serve (in the true sense of the word by providing services) the women of Macedonia. They do it by looking out for their legal rights.

Then I took a taxi back to the apartment (had no idea where I was and then when I figured it out, there was no way I could walk!) ate lunch and went off to do research at the institute for a few hours.

I stopped by the American Corner (see link off to side) to drop off the book and movies I checked out last week and got roped into staying for the lecture about 1.5 hours later. It was interesting the 20 questions you should ask yourself before starting your own business. Given by a Peace Corps lady who had started her own tutoring business in the states.

Nevenka, Erin and I went out for coffee, well I had that melted hot chocolate and discovered that almonds and pistachios are ok (almonds more than pistachios and so not chickpeas). But then it was back to the apartment for bed rest.

See you around the globe!