Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving only a few days past I think it's an opportune time to reflect on our experience celebrating this year. The Peace Corps organized a Thanksgiving party and dinner for all current volunteers, all PC staff, and all of us trainees, who were each allowed to invite two people. Thus the dinner was huge. The Peace Corps flew in $500 worth of turkeys from America, but the rest of the food was provided by those attending the dinner.

By request we brought "Flee," a traditional Albanian dish made of flour, water, and salt. A fire is started and a cement-type-lid is placed on the fire. Strips of the batter are poured into a large dish - perhaps 2 feet in diameter and 4 to 5 inches deep. The lid is then transferred from the fire to the top of the dish where it cooks the batter from the top. Once the strips are cooked the lid is returned to the fire and another round of strips are poured. The whole process takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours with the end result being somewhat similar to a stack of very thin pancakes -- everyone here loves the dish.

The celebration began with a speech by the Country Director and was followed by a speech and Thank You written by a fellow volunteer. The speech was translated into both Macedonian and Albanian and was delivered in sections. The first section was read in English, then in Macedonian, and then in Albanian. Kacey was selected to read the Albanian. The girl reading the Macedonian did a pretty good job. However, when Kacey read the first Albanian section she flew through it stunning the audience. Once she was finished the crowed burst into cheers in recognition of what she'd done!

After dinner each training group presented skits or a slide show. Our group presented a slide show set to music. Highlights included a group dressed as Turkeys who would each dance onto stage one turkey at a time to choreographed music and proclaim "I am a Turkey." The first turkey spoke in English, the second in Macedonian, followed by Albanian, and finally the fourth turkey in Turkish, proclaiming "I'm a turkey from Turkey, beat that!" Another group had an elaborate Thanksgiving skit performed in Macedonian complete with Trainees in their underwear. We have been left to ponder what our families now think of Americans. After the skits everyone danced - first traditional Macedonian dances, and then modern pop culture dances, e.g. the electric slide.

All details aside, it was an incredible experience that brought home the meaning of Thanksgiving as we'd never experienced before. Traditionally the holiday is celebrated as the occasion the Pilgrims, foreigners newly arrived in a strange land, took time to celebrate what they had to be thankful for. They survived and prospered because of the generosity of those already living in that new land. The willingness of those people to help the Pilgrims was integral and essential to their survival. In theory we've always known this story. Yet we've never really felt, as in felt deep down in our bones, that same level of thankfulness or the same level of meaning that the dinner must have had for those first pilgrims. Until this year. Here we are, strangers in a new and different land far from all we've known, incapable of prospering on our own, lacking the skills and knowledge we need. We've been taken in by complete strangers, and have survived, grown, and learned because of these strangers' generosity and willingness to help. Without the help and support of so many people here in Macedonia we would be like those first Pilgrims had they lacked the help of the Native Americans. Instead, we are like those first Pilgrims, and in the same tradition, offered a dinner and celebration to thank those who have helped us, to celebrate with our friends, and reflect on all we have to be thankful for.

The physical distance of our separation from America has also provided an opportunity to reflect on all we have to be thankful for, and has provided a lens through which to see America in a different and fuller light. It brings home just how lucky we are to have the families and friends we do. It also provides an opportunity to realize, truly, that despite whatever failings and flaws America has, it is an incredible place and is uniquely set apart from other countries, representing hope and the possibility of something better.

Well, enough sentimental rambling. We just want to let you all know how thankful we are for you. We love getting your emails, so please keep writing! (we apologize if we can't always find the time to respond to everyone as in depth as we should -- hopefully that will change if we get Internet at our own place -- less than two weeks!) Happy Thanksgiving, Conor and Kacey

Meet the Fleanstones

Every other Friday all 34 trainees gather in Kumanavo for day-long, whole-group Hub Day training. This year one of the Hub day trainings happened to fall on Halloween. So Thursday Kacey and I found material at a shop in Kumanavo. We brought it home and Hava (our host mother) was going to help us sew our costumes. It also happened to be Agim’s (our host father) birthday. While we were eating desert to celebrate, the power went out. We waited and waited to be able to use the sewing machine. The power didn’t come back on however, so we colored my outfit by candlelight. We went to bed with the understanding Hava would wake Kacey up if the Power came back on or would wake-up early to sew.

Well, at a quarter to six Hava was knocking on our door to show Kacey that the power was still out. She then pantomimed that she was going to sew by hand. Kacey went up stairs with her and a minute later an aunt who lives next door walked in just out of bed; Hava had gone and woken the aunt to help her sew. Thus Hava and her sister-in-law sewed our costumes at six in the morning by hand! When all was said and done, an hour and half later, Kacey and I had incredible Flintstone costumes! Our family got the biggest kick out of the fact I was wearing a dress.

Along with Anna, who made a mask, and Amanda who made bat wings, we visited the local elementary school where Amanda’s host father works. The kids all sat staring, jaws dropped – they don’t celebrate Halloween here, and few, if any, kids or adults for that matter, know what Halloween, or the Flintstones are.

Most trainees, and a number of PC staff were in costume for Hub day. The other dual language group went as the breakfast club. One group all had Devo hats and performed a song and dance number. Two groups made matching tee-shirts. Jordan, the only African-American in our group went as Mike Tyson. The other married couple came in matching Macedonian jogging outfits they bought. The title of the scariest costume was easily awarded to the current volunteer and trainer who came dressed as Sarah Palin.

After training almost everyone went to the Irish Pub in Kumanavo. Most of the training groups had to leave at 8:00 to return to their sights, but since we are so close we were able to stay. A ton of current Volunteers from around the country also congregated at the Irish Pub in costume. At midnight the pub had a costume contest. We were called downstairs through the packed house to calls from the band, “Fred eend Vilma!” Voting was done by cheering, and in the end we elicited the loudest cheer, along with chants of Fleanstones, Fleanstones, Fleanstones – and we won the prize for best costumes! The prize money covered the cost of our costumes, dinner at the pub, all of our drinks for the night, plus a little extra – so it was a great night, and probably the greatest costumes we’ll ever have.

Language

During orientation week we were presented with the opportunity to apply for the dual language program here in Macedonia. Whereas most volunteers in MK learn Macedonian, some volunteers learn both Macedonian and Albanian and subsequently live in mixed or predominately Albanian communities within Macedonia. Kacey was chomping at the bit to apply while I was a bit more hesitant. After talking to Colin and Jackie (current volunteers) I was convinced, we applied, and we were accepted. As a result Kacey and I are two of nine trainees learning both Macedonian and Albanian.

For these 11 weeks of training we are living with a Muslim family in a small Albanian village, Cherkeze, outside of Kumanavo. There are seven communities around Macedonia hosting groups for training. Five groups are learning strictly Macedonian while two groups are learning both. We are lucky that every group but ours has five people while we only have four. We are here in Cherkeze with two other Trainees, Amanda and Anna.

Mondays and Tuesdays we attend Macedonian class and Wednesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday we learn Albanian. Classes are four to four and half hours long and always seem to fly by. It’s a little bit insane trying to learn two completely different languages simultaneously. Complicating things further is the fact that languages are highly localized in Macedonia. Therefore the Albanian we learn in class is different from the dialect we speak with our homestay family, and both are different from the dialect we’ll speak in Tetovo. The same pattern holds true for Macedonian. In Kumanavo the Macedonian is mixed with Serbian and is a different dialect than Macedonian spoken elsewhere.

Macedonian is a Slavic language and it uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which was actually developed here in Macedonia. It is similar to Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian and is highly phonetic. Albanian is also pretty phonetic, but has more sounds we don’t have in English. Albanian uses a derivative of the Latin alphabet but has 36 characters. Albanian is far more grammatical than Macedonian and is much harder. There are almost no similarities between the two languages and every town and village is called one thing in Macedonian and another in Albanian. Most Albanians can speak at least some Macedonian, but very few Macedonians speak any Albanian.

The most difficult part of the dual language program is trying to compartmentalize the two and keep them straight. Switching back and forth, especially for class is difficult. Our teachers are incredible, especially for not being full-time PC employees. The are only hired on four and a half month contracts. Lidija is our Macedonian teacher and she is the head teacher; she helps coordinate and instruct the other teachers. This is her sixth year working with the Peace Corps and she just celebrated her 36^th birthday. Vahide is 25 and is our Albanian teacher. This is her 3^rd year working for the Peace Corps. She is the only Albanian teacher, so she works with the other dual language group Monday and Tuesday and with us the rest of the week.

Regardless of the challenge and the insanity it is still a blast and a ton of fun!

Hello -- Finally!

So we arrived in Macedonia over a month ago! It has been a whirlwind and we have much to share. Our hope is to be able to post a series of shorter entries on more specific topics, rather than one extremely long and rambling post in order to bring everything up to date. Briefly however, we are two of 34 trainees in MAK 13 -- the 13th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in Macedonia. We have an extremely diverse group in a number of regards, including age; our oldest volunteer is 78 and our youngest is 21. We spent the first five days together in a hotel in Kumanavo for orientation. At the end of that first week we were whisked away to homestay communities with our homestay family.

For these 10 weeks of training we are living with an Albanian family in an Albanian village, Cherkeze, outside of Kumanavo. They have two girls, 12 and 10, a boy 7, and many, many extended family members living close (some next door). There are two other volunteers in our village and we have four to four and half hours of language class together each day. Mondays and Tuesdays we learn Macedonian and Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays we learn Albanian. We'll post more on language shortly, but needless to say, its somewhat insane trying to learn two languages simultaneously!

We will swear in as actual PC Volunteers on 12 December at which time Kacey and I are off to Tetovo in the Northwest corner of Macedonia. Kacey will be working as an english teacher in a small village, Teartse, outside Tetovo and I will be working for and NGO stationed in Tetovo.

It's great to finally have the adventure underway and we have so much to share. Hopefully we'll get that info posted shortly, but please don't hesitate to email us!

Conor and Kacey