Tearce's Got Talent

Kacey put together "Tearce's Got Talent," a talent show for students from her school. They had auditions (although everyone "made it") the week prior to the final. It was modeled on Britain's Got Talent. I was a judge along with another PCV and a Fulbright scholar. Links to the news story are below. On the first link drag the button over until the time reads 4:23 -- It was pretty funny. There were 17 entries and we selected 3 finalists who then performed again. It just worked out that the three finalists were a group of older Albanian girls, a group of three younger Turkish girls, and a Roma Macedonian boy. The boy won with a great rendition of Celion Dion. It was great, the whole school was cheering and they hoisted him up and were carrying him around chanting his name.

http://www.moevideo.idividi.com.mk/WatchVideos.aspx?videoid=2134

http://www.kiss.com.mk/mak/novosti1.asp?id=9990

Also check out this link for pictures of the final

***Videos will be posted soon, so check back!!***

School Activities

I decided it's about time for an update of my school activities. I apologize that this is such a long time coming. Things are continuing to go well and I love the kids I work with. I teach all grades - 1st through 8th - with all six English teachers, to all four ethnicities. For the younger grades (1-4) I accompany the English teachers to their normal classes and team teach, however this year we decided to try something new for the older grades, which we have found to be very effective. Fifth through eighth graders attend optional classes after school to improve their English and the teachers stay after to assist with the classes and learn new ideas and teaching methods. We play a lot of games and do interactive activities to get the students to talk in English and communicate with one another. These classes are also mixed ethnically and for most of them provide the only opportunity to interact with a peer of a different ethnicity than their own. The students love coming and often arrive over an hour early in anticipation of that day's class. I am asked daily, "Kacey, do we have the course today?", even though they know the schedule by heart. Their English has improved dramatically and their creativity has blossomed. Although the year has been filled with all sorts of projects and activities, I will highlight a few major, successful ones.

One of the biggest projects the teachers and I took on was the designing and writing of a Small Project Assistance grant sponsored by the Peace Corps and USAID. These grants can be written for up to $3000 and must involve capacity building and sustainability. The English teachers and I saw a need for the enhancement the students' overall English skills, in reading, writing, listening and speaking and we identified the need for a school library and the attainment of English language books as the students only had access to English print from their text books. We developed the idea of books on CD to provide students the opportunity to hear native English speakers read books and give the students pictures to support the text as they listened. Our application was a success and we were awarded the full amount asked. Through this we were able to purchase bookshelves, CD players, CDs, a digital recording device, books, library software, and much more. The school also provided to the project through the creation of a new room (by dividing a room formerly used as a cafeteria), paint, brand new chairs and tables. Almost all the books have been read by myself, Conor and other Peace Corps Volunteers and have been burnt to CDs that were placed in the back of the books. Students now daily have the opportunity to improve their English through the "English Language Resource Center". We hope to continue building upon this project by attaining more books and other English language teaching and learning materials such as music, computer programs and classroom visuals.

Fourth graders listening to books on tape

After school classes with 6th graders

Another activity we are just finishing up is the "World Map Project". This was a project first started by Barbara Jo White, a PCV in the Dominican Republic, '87 - '89. Peace Corps Volunteers work with students or other host country nationals to paint maps on the walls of schools, culture centers or other public buildings. The World Map Project encourages students to expand their world view, to become aware of and learn about geography, and to foster curiosity of other places, countries, peoples and cultures. The art teachers in our school have been a huge help in this project and I'm very grateful for them! Our map will hopefully soon be surrounded by flags from different countries across the globe. I'll post a picture of the final product.

Our 'almost' finished project

Another PCV here in Macedonia had the great idea of organizing a national spelling bee, which will take place next Saturday. Prior to this however communities had to have 'regional qualifiers'. I organized one in Tearce as well as Tetovo and nine students in each bee passed and will compete next week. They studied words for almost a month in preparation and it was almost possible to touch the anxiety and tension in the room as the students waited for their names to be called. The best moment of the day came when a fifth grader (the youngest age) spelled her last word correctly and hugged me without letting go for several minutes, repeating "thank you" over and over. She's the smallest girl in her class and I smile now every time I see her, thinking of her reaction to "Congratulations...you spelled all your words correct!"

I have many more activities to report on but will save that for another day. To end, I will leave you with a few more pictures of just a fun day...

Conor joined us one day for basketball after school. The kids were pretty impressed with his skills!!

Keagan and Miranda visit!!

I woke up a couple Fridays ago to Conor saying, "Wow, the volcano in Iceland is causing major problems in flight travel! Almost every European airport has canceled its flights until further notice." Normally this wouldn't have affected us much personally, so my initial reaction was not much more than "bummer for vacationers"....until a second later when I realized on that particular Friday my brother and his wife -- Keagan and Miranda -- were supposed to depart the US to visit us. We haven't had too many visitors from home, so the possibility of them not making it was quite disappointing.

After being flown to Washington D.C. only to hear they couldn't board their next flight, Keagan and Miranda just barely managed to get on a flight back home to Vermont. (Apparently Keagan charmed the woman at the Vermont counter until she got them on a plane that was supposedly "full".) We waited the next five days with our fingers crossed in hopes that their rescheduled flight would take off and make it safely across the Atlantic. Conor and I tracked their flight online and were relieved and excited to read that it had left D.C. The rest of their travel went fairly smoothly and we met them in Skopje the following day.

Although their time here was shorter than originally planned, we were happy they made it at all and enjoyed showing them our "home". After seeing Conor's work and eating some delicious Bosnian burek Friday morning, we hopped on a bus headed to Ohrid. We spent Saturday morning and afternoon exploring the sites in town and then flagged down a 'wild taxi' to follow the lake's edge down to a monastery. Peacocks call these grounds their home and they proudly showed off for us:

We followed this up with a boat ride through a small "pond" with water supplied by underground springs -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On Sunday we returned to Tetovo and explored a bit, visiting the Painted Mosque and Arabati Baba Teke (equivalent to a monastery for Sufi Islam). The next day I had a meeting in Skopje so Conor showed them around the capital and I met back up with them in the afternoon. We returned to Tetovo that evening and hiked up to the 'kale' (fortress) on the hill above town. The weather was beautiful and we took a lot of great photos before heading back down for 'skara' (BBQ -- traditional Macedonian food) with our friend Alek.

The following morning we took a 'kombi' (van) out to Tearce so Keagan and Miranda could see where I work. My good friend Vjosa and her family invited us over for coffee and showed their great Albanian hospitality. Then Vjosa accompanied us to the school. The children surrounded Keagan and Miranda, curious to see my family and ask questions. (They still all love to comment on how much Keagan and I look alike.) As you can see, they got along well:

We were sad to say goodbye late that night, but have some great memories of their visit. We're lucky to have such wonderful, supportive families and are looking forward to seeing all of you again when we return to the US. Thanks for visiting, Keagan and Miranda!!

One of many pictures of Keagan doing something crazy...

Sister-School Visit

The primary school I teach in has formed a sister-school relationship with an elementary school in Turkey. On Thursday a group from that school came to visit Tearce and sign the official papers. Our students and teachers gave them a warm welcome and showed them a bit of the culture in Macedonia through traditional dress and dance. The school I teach in is unique in that it teaches and operates in three languages: Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish. Each of these ethnicities comprises at least 20% of the population. Additionally the school has a significant Roma ("gypsy" - although this is a very derogatory term) minority. The picture below shows three of my students dressed in traditional clothes. From left to right they are: Turkish, Macedonian and Albanian:

The students below performed an Albanian "wedding" dance for the guests:

The Turkish guests thanked the teachers as well by presenting each one with a gift of a Turkish shoe magnet.

We followed this up by a cocktail and slideshow presentation of our school, then with a formal dinner in a restaurant up on the mountain above the village. The view was great, although the clouds rolled in as we ate and it even hailed for a short time -- the one day of the week without constant sunshine. The guests have returned to Turkey now but seemed to enjoy their visit. This is a great opportunity for the school to connect with students outside Macedonia, so I hope it will be active in creating projects to further expand its horizon!

Just a cute video to make you smile...

Watch my first graders in action! (And isn't that a nice looking room? It's the only one in the school with such color and storage, but hopefully more will look like this one day!!)

**Click here to see my students sing about likes and dislikes**

A Great Macedonian Birthday

Despite waking up with an awful cold, I had a great birthday here in Macedonia. Conor and my friends went out of their way to make it a special weekend, full of surprises. The morning of my birthday I had a meeting at the PC office and Conor was also in Skopje as he had been invited to be a guest lecturer on Lewis and Clark at a university there. After work we went to eat with some other Volunteers and then enjoyed the beautiful weather by listening to a Mariachi band that the US Embassy brought to Macedonia. Our good friend Benson surprised me by asking them to sing me happy birthday:

The next day I led a Kids' Club session focused on St. Patrick's Day (as you can see by the leprechaun hats) where I was surprised by a cake, juice and presents. I had a little trouble keeping a few little "leprechaun" fingers from digging into the frosting every time I turned around.

Immediately following Kids' Club I joined the high school girls for another Club GLOW session focused on the environment. There was a great turn-out and we hiked to the old fortress above the city to have a picnic. Little did I know that the girls had another idea in mind as well! Some of the girls had gone up earlier to prepare things and as the larger group reached the top they started singing to me and again surprised me with a delicious cake and gifts! I was given a cute stuffed bear and a great t-shirt that you can see below.

I'm so grateful to have such great friends - and of course Conor! - to celebrate with me. Thanks to everyone for making me feel so special!

New Yorker Essay

An essay written by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, partly in response to Nicholas Kristof's New York Times Article. Click here