After our last language lesson at the hotel each volunteer was given a sentence or phrase in Macedonian. We were each going to have to say the phrase at the Home Stay Ceremony that afternoon. This was the “password” to let the host families know if I was their volunteer or not.
So around 2o’clock that afternoon all 38 of us were sent upstairs to the 2nd floor of the hotel to wait since the families were starting to arrive and they did not want them to see us yet. While we were all anxiously waiting we had the opportunity to take a few last minute pictures to remind us of all the good times we had as a whole group. Around 2:30 we were given the signal that all the host families had arrived and it was now time to go down stairs to meet them.
When I walked into the hall there were 5 long tables set up, one for each of the towns that the volunteers would be staying at. The last table on the left was for Losovo. All of the families were there waiting to hear us say the “password” phrase to let them know that we were their volunteer. I first approached a young man and a middle aged woman standing together. I started to said my phrase in Macedonian “Melanie is the niece of Lydia”. I had only gotten the first word out when the young man shook his head. But the middle aged woman ran up to me and gave me a big hug, it was Lydia. She was all excited and started rambling on in Macedonian. I sat down at the table next to her and started waiting the other volunteers meet their families. One of my language teachers came over and translated for a while so that Lydia and I could get to know each other a little bit. I learned that she lived with her son, Kiki (23), his wife, Tete (19), and that their daughter was Melanie (2). Also, Lydia’s mother-in-law lived with them too. Lydia’s husband works and stays in the big town near Losovo and is a cab driver. She also mentioned something about he was going to Italy to harvest apples soon.
Now here is a little lesson about Macedonian culture, the family always stays together. When a family has a son, they build a second story onto their house for the son to live with his wife. You will see a lot of houses have started building second floors onto their houses, it is not because they want a bigger house, it is because they have a son and that is where he will live with his family. This is why Lydia’s mother-in-law lives here and also why the son and his family lives here.
After we had all sat down, they started the Home Stay Ceremony. Our programming trainer, Evelina, said a few words, both in English and Macedonian, and then she translated for the Peace Corps director, Steven.
There was a dance group from Kumanovo who came and performed for us and then the last thing was that everyone got up and danced. Everyone holds hand and you dance around in a circle. Step, step, step, kick your right foot, kick your left foot, ect. The circle got smaller and smaller as we all danced around and worked our way into a spiral formation.
After the dancing all of the volunteers and their families got our luggage and we were on our way home. Luckily for me, and the rest of the volunteers going to Losovo, our families had all come on a big bus so we all got to drive their together; there was definitely no awkward silence on that bus.
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