Other news that has not exactly happened yet is that the washing machine comes on Monday. YAY!!!! My landlord and I went to pick it out on Saturday and they will deliver it on Monday. So that means that the big pile of clothes that I have will start getting smaller soon. I have needed to do laundry but knowing that the washing machine would be coming I wanted to wait and save my arms the work. Not having a washing machine has made me realize the things that I used to take for granted.
Another one is not having a dishwasher and now I am the dishwasher. I never knew how many dishes I went through and how many dishes you get dirty cooking one meal. Just to make breakfast this morning I had the frying pan (that I cooked eggs in), a bowl (to mix the eggs), a fork (to do the mixing), a wooden spoon (to cook the eggs), a mug (for coffee), the coffee pot (to boil the water), a spoon (to stir the coffee and add sugar and milk), a grater (to add cheese to my eggs) and a plate and fork (to eat it all with). The total was 10 items that I had to wash just after making a simple meal like eggs. Take that times 3 meals and snacks (mostly fruit that has to be chopped). I spend most of my time in the kitchen washing dishes and missing a dishwasher.
I have also noticed that I have been tired lately. It caught me by surprise because I have been eating right, taking my vitamins, and do not feel sick. I learned this weekend that previous volunteers experienced the same thing and that it was from drinking the water. Other volunteers have water distillers since in some areas the water is not good to drink from the tap. I was told that Resen's water is safe. What I forgot was that the water here has a lot of calcium in it and that was what was making the other volunteers tired, along with a few other symptoms, and that might be what is making me feel this way. I emailed the doctors and hopefully I will get a water distiller this week or I might just have to take a trip up to Skopje to pick it up. Until then its bottled water for me.
On Friday, when the doors were getting removed I noticed a lady in the school that I had never seen before. She seemed to know all the teachers. I started to think of the people that typically work at a school and noticed that I had not yet seen a school nurse. It seems typical to have a nurse in a school, at least in the states. When I asked Irena if our school had a nurse it seemed to her to be a a silly question, but I am still learning and am curious. She told me no. I asked what happened if a students gets hurt; is there any medical supplies and what happens if a students gets really hurt at school. She said that the younger grade teachers have supplies and if a child is really hurt there is a doctors office or a small hospital right across the street and someone would just take the child over there. Another thing that came to mind is what if the child got sick at school, which tends to happen often, at least at the schools that I have been at. Since everything is so close and that all the students live walking distance to school if a child does become ill at school they would just walk home. Here they do not need the parents to come and sign the child out of school, the students are responsible for themselves. Its small things that I have become so used to that it seems strange when I do not see them here. Some days living in Macedonia does not seem any different than living in the states, but then these moments come up when small things that I used to take for granted aren't here and I realize how different life here really is. That's it until next week.
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