Thanksgiving "Peace Corps Style"

As some of you  may recall, last year on Thanksgiving I became an official volunteer. They do the same thing every year.  All the new trainees became volunteers and after the ceremony, they have a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner with turkeys that the Peace Corps has flown in from America.  It's buffet style, but being in Macedonia there are no lines. So everyone is pushing and cutting in to get food.  This year myself and a few other volunteers did not want to spend the 6 hours on a bus to go and fight a baba (grandmother) over a turkey leg so we decided to have our own smaller Thanksgiving a little closer to home.  We decided to have it in Ohrid, because the volunteer there has a nice big place that would hold everyone (aka no one slept on the floor).  But the one thing about Peace Corps volunteer housing is that not everyone has a full stove/oven.  Must of us, myself included, have what we call "easy bake ovens".  They are small enough to sit on top of a counter and have an oven big enough to put one thing inside and it has 2 burners on the top.  That was what we had to use to cook our Thanksgiving dinner.  I am lucky enough to have a crock-pot (the $l00 crock pot that my mom sent me -- $20 for the crock pot and $80 for shipping -- Thanks Mom!!!) so I decided that instead of taking up the whole oven that I would try and cook the "turkey" in the crock-pot.

Task #1- Finding a turkey in either Resen or Bitola that would fit into the 4qt crock-pot.
Not an easy task.
I went to my grocery store, where they did have turkeys in the frozen section  Go Resen!!, and to the big grocery store in Bitola and I measured, yes you heard me right, .........measured, with a measuring tape each turkey looking to see if I could find one small enough  to fit in the crock-pot.  No luck.  So instead I settled on a chicken. I see no difference in chicken and turkey and since there were only four of us going to this small Thanksgiving and one is a vegetarian, I saw no point in trying to cook a 12 lb turkey for only three people.

Task #2- Getting the chicken and the crock-pot to Ohrid.
Again NOT an easy task.
As you all know, my only form of transportation over here is by bus. So I packed up the chicken, put it in the crock-pot, put the crock-pot in a bag, packed up my other cooking materials in a plastic bag, packed up my backpack and had my purse and walked to the bus station.  When I arrived, there was no bus......it was a combi (aka van).  If you read the previous story, about my trip to Sofia, you already know that I do not have very good luck with combis.  And this one, like the last one was full. I got the last seat.  I had to put all of my things (this includes the crock-pot and the chicken) in the front next to the driver where the passenger seat would be. I was sitting two rows back and was by the window, because the lady already sitting there would not move over and let me have the aisle so I could hold on to all my things.  As we are driving though Resen, my backpack falls to the floor. The lady sitting the front row was nice enough to pick it up and put it in front of her, next to the driver.  The trip to Ohrid, which normally, by bus, takes an hour and  a half, took us 45 minutes!!!  Also, this trip is not straight, it is up the mountain, down the mountain, twisting and turning on winding roads. During the ride, my heart and stomach where in my throat because I was terrified that the crock-pot was going to tip over and the chicken fall out and start rolling all around the combi. The people on the combi already thought I was the crazy American when they saw me trying to get all my bags on the combi. The last thing I needed was the chicken to start rolling around on the floor. Forty-five minutes later we arrived in Ohrid.  I looked as if I had aged and had gained about 10 white hairs. An "only in the Peace Corps" experience.

Task #3- Cooking the chicken, aka Fred.
The easiest task and this is coming from someone who has never cooked a whole chicken before and someone who has never cooked Thanksgiving dinner before.

Thanksgiving morning. Getting Fred all ready for his day in the sauna (aka crock-pot).

All "spiced" up and no where to go.

We did Thanksgiving pot luck style, but I did the main Thanksgiving parts -- meat (Fred), stuffing (vegetarian stuffing muffins, which were delicious if I do say so myself), Nana's deviled eggs as an appetizer, gravy (curtsy of Fred).  Dina made green beans and a salad, Phebe made a cheesecake, and Christine made mac and cheese.

Phebe and I cooking in the kitchen.

My stuffing muffins ready to go in the oven.

Looking good Fred!!!!!

Our Thanksgiving feast!!!!  Not bad for only having an easy bake oven and a crock-pot.

The girls ready to dig in.

I can truly say that it was the most memorable Thanksgiving I have ever had and one that I am glad I will not have to repeat next year.  From now on the crock-pot is staying OFF the bus!!!!!

Happy Holidays!!!!!!!

Mini vacation in Sofia, Bulgaria

Sorry it has taken awhile to put this up. I got back from Sofia on Monday and the week got away from me.  It is true what they say, your second year in the Peace Corps is busier and will fly by faster than your first year.

So last weekend, myself and 3 other volunteers decided that after only a few months into school that we needed a vacation.  We decided to go to Sofia, (the capital of Bulgaria) since its close and we could do it in a weekend.  We left on Friday and our first stop was Kriva Palanka. We planned on taking the 10:30am bus from Skopje (a city in Macedoniia); but as we were standing outside waiting for it, I noticed that a bus driver was waving me over.  My first thought was "this is going to be good, he is calling the American over".  He asked if that was the 10:30 bus and I said yes and then he said something else very quickly and the only word that I could catch was "policia."  I go back and tell the others and we finally learn that that was the 10:30 bus and there was something wrong with it and he had to take it to the stop.  Nothing like the elaborate story we came up with: that the bus driver was running away from the police and even though he could not stop to pick us up he was still nice enough to tell us that the police were after him.  True customer service.

So we had to waste more time in Skopje; and the Macedonian way to waste time is to drink coffee. Making that my 2nd cup of the day.  We had to wait for the 1pm bus and 15 mins before 1:00 we decide to go out and get seats on the bus, because we thought it would fill up since the earlier bus never came.  We got out there and it was not a bus, but a combi (aka a van) and there were only 3 seats left.  Guess who did not get a seat?...............you got it. ME!!! I stood in the back and could not believe it but more people were trying to get on the combi.  By the time we left the station the combi was full (seats, standing room, laps, everything).  But the best part was as we were driving out of Skopje the bus driver continued to stop and "try" to pick people up.  The joke of the ride was how many more people can we cram into this combi.  Two and a half  hours later we arrived in Kriva Palanka. Yes, I stood the entire time. Except for the last 5 mins when the combi finally started to clear out.  As we were driving though Kriva Palanka people were getting off and finally it was just the 4 poor Peace Corps volunteers left. The bus driver turns around and looks at us and says "What are you doing? Get out!"  We were all expecting for the combi to go to the bus station, but this was the last stop instead of the middle of town. Just another day using Macedonian public transportation.

We all stayed at a fellow volunteer's house and she took us up to a famous monastery before it got dark.

The weary travelers in front of the monastery.

As we were walking back down to town, a little kitten that we found up at the monastery and that I played with followed us all the way.  She was a very determined little thing and thought that we were going to keep her.  We gave her a box with a blanket and some food and water expecting that during the night she would leave.  But the next morning she was still there and excited to see us.

Isn't she soooo cute!!!!  We asked other volunteers if they wanted her, because she was so lovable, but no one took her. So we brought her back up to the monastery found her a warm place and gave her some food before we headed off to Sofia.

We stayed at a nice hostel in the center of Sofia, Hostel Mostel.  We had a 4 person private room which was about a 5 minute walk from the main hostel building.  Our room was in its own apartment, along with 2 other rooms, a living room, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen.  All for the low low price of 10 euros a person.  Comfort and Class on a budget.

 In front of the main building.  This price of our room also included breakfast and a pasta dinner.

 The living room in the separate apartment.

 Kitchen

Our room, the 4th bed was to the right was mine.

Our first stop in Sofia was SUBWAY!!!!

The gentlemen in the window were laughing at us when we were getting our picture taken. We walked around and explored Sofia.  Took a trip to the Mall of Sofia and considered seeing a movie. But all the ones in English we had already seen online or had no interest in seeing.

The next day we did a free walking tour of Sofia and saw all the sights.

 The Russian church.

 Picture with the guards in front of the presidents office.

 Drinking warm water from the old hot baths.

After the tour, we went to a Chinese restaurant and ran into a Bulgarian Peace Corps volunteer!!  She lives in a village of 800 people and is close to the Turkish border.  She sat and talked to us for a few minutes before she had to go to a meeting. It was nice to hear about the similarities and differences about being a PCvolunteer and living Macedonia and living in Bulgaria (small world!!).

It was a great weekend trip with a great group of people.  I am already looking into my next weekend getaway.  Check back next weekend to see how we do Thanksgiving -- Peace Corps style!!!!

English Classes for Adults

Last year I was asked if I could teach English to five people who worked at the Crisis Management Center in the municipality (town hall).  My main focus was on my school last year; so I did not have any time to start teaching adult English lessons.  Then when the school year started in September, we were working on getting the library up and running. Then October came and here in Resen October is taken over by apples so I knew I could not start teaching then.  But now it is November, and I have finally gotten the adult English classes started. I had my first lesson last week.  There are 5 people (4 gentlemen and 1 lady) and they all have different levels of English. One gentleman lived in Ohio until he was in 2nd grade.  He can speak very well, but does not remember how to write.  Another gentleman has taken seminars and classes. Another gentleman, the one who approached me to start teaching these lessons,  lived in Australia until he was 4 or 5.  He said that then he just knew English and did not know any Macedonian; and then his family moved to Macedonia and he lost all the English he once knew.  It is also funny because he is married to one of the English teachers at the other primary school in Resen.  And the other gentleman and lady do not know much if any English.  In school they all learned French, because that was the main language they needed to know back then, but now they realize that English is more useful to know than French.

Our classes are once a week for an hour. Peace Corps has a manual on how to teach English to adults; and they also have a workbook to go along with it.  When I walked in the room, all of my "good "students were ready to learn with their workbooks.  I try to speak only English or mostly English during our classes. Last week we started with the basics: hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, and good bye.  After they learned the greetings, we started with the alphabet and then went on to personal pronouns and the verb "to be" (I am, you are, he is, etc.).  By the time I got through those ,I started to notice that they, just like children, were getting a little restless. So we ended the class there. This week we will pick up where we left off and start learning "where are you from?" and the names of some other countries.  We had a good time and I am excited to continue it. 

Halloween

The past two days have been full of Halloween activities.  Halloween is an American holiday; so it is not celebrated in Macedonia but the kids know about it.  They do similar things on other holidays. For example, the day before their Christmas, Jan 6th, the kids go around to houses and collect candy; and on April 1 the kids dress up in costumes; but there is no holiday where they carve pumpkins. Irena and I taught all of her classes about Halloween.

Irena and I with our pumpkins!!!  They were the only two orange pumpkins that we could find at the pazar, or farmer's market, last weekend.  I walked up every aisle looking for an orange pumpkin, they had green, greyish-green, and yellow pumpkins.  All for eating, but then I saw 1 small orange pumpkin.  It only cost me 30 denars, less than $1, and the lady even asked if I wanted the other small one because she said it was not enough for eating and not as sweet. But I told her no thank you, I wanted the small orange one.

In the 1st grade class, Maria, the talented artist, drew pictures of Halloween items and we taught the kids the vocabulary words. Then they copied them into their notebooks, because they love to draw, while I played some Halloween music.

In Irena's kindergarten and 2nd grade classes we taught them Halloween vocabulary using flash cards, they made their own pumpkins, and we showed them the pumpkins we carved.  The kids loved to see the faces on the pumpkins all lit up.  We sang the "5 Little Pumpkin" song and listened to Halloween tunes. They all knew the Addams family and Casper the friendly ghost.

In the 5th and 6th grades we read "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow."  I tried to do it in my scary voice, but we all just ended up laughing instead.

At the American Corner in Bitola they had a Halloween party full of costumes, games, a costume contest, and candy.

The ladies that work at the corner were dressed as witches and a pirate. The four PCVolunteers came as the Four Seasons.  I was Spring, Lauren was Summer, Helen was Fall, and Katie was winter.

 Pin the wart on the witch!!!!!
The kids that came to the party did a great job with their costumes.

 This one was the best!!! A rubics cube!!!! After I took the picture I asked him why he did not smile. He said it was because he was "not solved" lol.

 The cutest!!! Uncle Sam!!!

 This is one of the interns that helped out at the corner.  He did a great job on his costume.

The kids had a great time at the American Corner's Halloween Party.

Today Irena and my 6th grade students wanted to carve their own pumpkin.  One of my students, Philip, his family has a farm and he said he had tons of pumpkins; so he brought one in for everyone to carve.

They wanted me to cut it open.

 Getting all the seeds out. It was a very sweet pumpkin.  By the time we were done the room was full of the sweet smell of pumpkin.

 They were very creative about how they wanted to decorate their pumpkins. They had a scalloped top.

 And then we did the traditional eyes and nose and they wanted a zig-zag mouth too.

 Sara and Elena with the finished pumpkin!!!!

 6th graders with Irena and I in the resource library with their awesome pumpkin.  All the kids had a great time with our Halloween activities.  Until next time........

 Happy Halloween!!!!!

Ajvar Making 101

The days are starting to get shorter and colder, which means that winter is right around the corner.  Time to start pulling out the long underwear and finish any last minute canning that needs to be done to survive the winter.  A few weeks ago, I went with Irena's family to their summer house to help them make their ajvar.  Ajvar is a spread made out of red peppers that Macedonians eat with bread and cheese. Its a traditional dish that they tend to eat in the Fall and Winter.

Now what I am about to share with you is the famous recipe for making ajvar.  This is TOP SECRET!!!  So do not share this recipe with any big American distribution companies.  It is a family recipe.

 First you start with peppers.  Lots and lots of peppers.  Irena's dad bought 33kg = 66lbs of peppers.

And they all had to be washed.

 That was my job. I also had to make sure that there were no bruises or cuts on the peppers and that they are not soft.  You want to make sure that the peppers are hard so they will roast nicely.
Afterward, they are nicely bathed  and then they are off to roasting.

  You have to keep rotating the peppers until they start to soften up and the skins get charred.

Irena's brother was in charge of roasting the peppers on the big stove.  It is a very tiring and hot job, but he would not let anyone else do it haha.

Irena roasting peppers on the little stove.  She came up with her own system, kind of like an assembly line, the peppers would start on the top and work their way to the bottom.

Irena's sister-in-law was in charge of prepping the garlic. She loves garlic and decided that 3 heads would probably be enough; when in fact, we only ended up using one head.

And of course the "boss" aka Irena's dad is hard at work.  Last year he did the whole process by himself, it took him 2 days.  So this year he said it felt strange having everyone else doing the work and not having anything to do.

The end result.
Once the peppers are roasted and you let them steam a little bit in a covered pot; then it is time for the messy job.....

de-skinning and de-seeding all the peppers.  This is the most tiring part and it takes quite a long time.  After I struggled with my first pepper, Irena and I worked together.  I would take off the skin and she would take out the seeds.  Taking out the seeds is the hardest part, because you have to make sure that none of the seeds stay on/in the pepper and your hands get all wet from the steam and the pepper juices.  I think it took us (myself, Irena and her sister-in-law)  about 3 hours to de-skin and de-seed all of the peppers.

Working hard.

Then we took a meat grinder and ground up all of the peppers. Once the pan was full we took it over to the big pot on the stove.  Where it cooked for the next 2 hours.

The peppers need to cook like this for about 2 hours or until all of the liquid has evaporated and the peppers stay parted (like parting the red sea).  For this part ,someone has to be stirring continuously because you have to make sure the peppers do not stick to the bottom of the pan.

I was allowed to help stir for a little bit, but then Irena did all of the stirring. After the peppers get to the right consistancy, where they start to separate, then it is time to add the oil.  You have to heat up the oil before you add it to the peppers. It cannot be room temp/straight out of the bottle.  You keep stirring and stirring until it is all worked in and you can't see a layer of oil on the top (they call it frying the peppers).

Every family makes their ajvar differently.  Some stop here (peppers and oil are the basic) and others, like Irena's family, add other things.  They add vinegar, sugar, salt, minced garlic, and parsley.  I had never had garlic in my ajvar ;and now I will never eat it without garlic.  I think that the garlic and the parsley make it even  more delicious.  After everything is fully combined, then it is time to put it in the jars. 

Irena's dad had put the jars and lids in the oven to get them hot.  You cannot add hot ajvar into room temp jars. Making the jars hot helps to seal them, which is why it lasts all winter.

Irena's dad made a little "bed" for the jars to help slow down the cooling process.  This also helps it last longer.  After 9 hours, from start to finish, we made 15 jars of ajvar.  It was a long day but well worth it.

This is how Macedonian's eat their ajvar, on a piece of bread with some cirenje (white cheese, kind of like a feta) on top.  Totally worth the 9 hours of work and something I can't wait to try and recreate back home.