4 cities in 4 days

The beginning of the week was slow but confusing.  Schedules were getting changed and there was some miscommunication on when the English classes were being offered.  It was because of two things: first sometime in March people from the ministry will be coming and looking over the administrative paper work.  I believe this happens every year, or every other, it is not something out of the blue.  The teachers have been trying to get all their paperwork together; and also making sure that each teacher has the same things because if one teacher has something that another doesn't the ministry will expect all the teachers to have it.  So that has gotten many of the teachers flustered and messed-up schedules because they have been trying to get it all completed.

The ministry also told the teachers, all the teachers, that this year they need a specific number of classes for each subject that need sto be completed by the end of the school year.  In the past, they had given the teachers a range, but this year the want a specific number; so that means schedules need to be moved around to accommodate the missed classes in order to reach the specific number.  For English, I think the number of classes needed is 92, or somewhere in the 90s.  So Irena, Maria, and Snesha have to make sure that each of their English classes have received 92 classes by the end of the school year.  Sounds simple, but when you have your year planned out and the ministry did not eliminate the days for national or religious holidays, so those classes need to be made up, now they have to go back and make sure that they have enough.

The second reason why things have been confusing, is because all of the teachers have to go to the doctor once a year to get a physical and what not, and this week is the time for the teachers in my school to go.  Today, there were 15 teachers that were out because they were at the doctor.  This is something that the government requires for all employees.  When I first came for the weekend to check out Resen, Irena was telling me that her mother had to work on Saturday because the government was requiring their employees to get physicals.  When her mom finally came home, she said that she saw around 72 people that day.  She said the line seemed to never end.  Irena's mom is not a doctor, I believe that she is either a nurse or administers some kind of test in a doctor's office in Bitola.  They do not have appointments, they just go on the day they are told and wait in line to be seen, so it can take the whole day.  They also do not have substitutes or a substitute system set up here in Macedonia; so because there were 15 teachers out,  they only had 3 classes.  I taught Maria's classes today because she was in Skopje getting her certificate for teaching; we had talked about this earlier and she had given me everything for the lessons. The kindergarten classes went well and smoothly; but then I heard about the change in schedule and that today there would only be 3 classes, so I had both 2nd grade classes at one time, in one room, around 30-40 kids, in order for them to both have the class, so Maria won't have to make it up and so that the students could go home on time and not miss their kombies (like a small bus that brings in the students that live in the surrounding villages).  It was a mess.

Now the reason for the title of this blog was because of the end of last week I had a lot of traveling to do for different reasons.  I have provided you all with a map so you can see my travels.  I have also color coded the travel for each day (yes I know I am a dork -- Jennifer -- my sister -- always calls me that).

It all started on Thursday (the red lines). I had a GLOW meeting in Gostivar, a city located on the west side of the country.  I had never traveled up the west side so it was new adventure for me.  From Resen, I had to take a bus to Ohrid and then catch a bus there that goes up the west side and they always end in Skopje.  When I got to Ohrid I found out that not all of the buses go into Gostivar and Tetovo, they normally drop people off on the highway outside of the city.  There are some buses that go into those cities, but the bus I was waiting for did not and the next bus that did go into Gostivar was not for 5 more hours and I would have missed my meeting, so outside of the city worked for me.  When I left Resen that morning it was cold and that was all.  But when traveling up the west side of Macedonia through the mountains that border Albania and Macedonia there was snow.  LOTS OF SNOW!!!!  It was pretty to look at but it was coming down pretty hard as well.  Did I forget to mention that these are windy mountains.  The bus drivers in Macedonia are very good, they know the roads like the back of their hands, because they drive on them everyday and normally the same route.  So I just dropped my head and let the bus driver do his thing in the intensely falling snow.  As we got closer to Gostivar, I was not sure were to get off.  I saw the signs for the exit and luckily there was someone else getting off at Gostivar too, so she and the bus driver helped me out.  I followed her into the city, we literally walked up the off ramp from the highway into the city.  She did not know English so we tried to have a conversation in Macedonia.  It would have gone well, but she was asking specific questions that I really did not have the answers too, like "why are you are going to the bus station?" (because that was were I was going to meet the GLOW girls, since I had not been to the city before and did not know were the coffee shop was), "who are you meeting?" (I said the names, but obviously she is not going to know the Americans that I am meeting and I did not know the last names of the Macedonians I was meeting).  She was very nice and trying to be helpful, in her head I believe she must have been thinking "crazy American" but I made my way through the city to the other side where the bus station was.  I met up with the GLOW girls and we had our meeting.  We were working on the camp manual that was used last year and we are updating it, since there were a lot of lessons that needed to be changed and some that were repetitive.  I was surprised at how much we got accomplished in 3 hours.  That evening I slept at a fellow volunteer's place that lived in Gostivar.  Friday morning,  the girl I am shadowing at GLOW and myself went to another volunteer's place for pancakes with real maple syrup and Dunkin Donuts coffee.  It was delicious!!!!!

After our bellies were all full, we went on a field trip to the "amazing" cheese store in Gostivar (someone else 's words, not mine).  In Macedonia, you can get 2 kinds of cheese: kashkaval (yellow cheese) and cirenje (white cheese).  Occasionally and at the larger supermarkets you can find Gouda, but normally its just kashkavl and cirenje.  This "amazing" cheese store in Gostivar has fresh mozzarella, ricotta, a spicy cheese kind of like a pepper jack, one with truffles in it, and pekareno.  Real cheese.  I did not buy any, even though I was tempted, since I knew I still had a lot of traveling ahead of me and would be leaving for Greece next week.  Not enough time to eat all the cheese I wanted to buy; but I will be going back to Gostivar for more GLOW meetings over the next 2 years, so plenty of time to have some really good amazing cheese.

After the field trip, I got on a bus to Skopje (the blue line on the map). I needed to go to the PCorps office to get a water filter and I got one!!!   You can see why I needed one.  Delicious isn't it?

I have been filtering water all day and after each time this is what I find, white stuff.  It was clean and silver when I started, now it has a chalky and clumpy layer.  I have been told it is calcium and sediments.  So from now on only filtered water for me.

After getting the filter from the PCorps office, I met up with 3 other volunteers, Jenny, Debbie, and Karen, at the Chinese restaurant. I was still full from the big American breakfast I had so I waited for them.  After that we traveled down to Veles and stayed the night at Karen's.

Saturday, Debbie made us pancakes for breakfast, 2 days in a row, I was a happy girl.  This time no real maple syrup, but honey and powdered sugar tasted just as good.  Later that afternoon it was off to Shtip (green line on the map) for a fellow volunteer's birthday.  It was special celebration since his birthday falls on Leap year and on Tuesday  the Peace Corps will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary and Peace Corps Macedonia will be celebrating their 15th Anniversary.  Sunday, after a big breakfast at the Irish Pub in Shtip -- because all cities need an Irish Pub - even the cities in Macedonia,  I made my way home, back to Resen to my nice warm and cozy apartment after a long, fun, and accomplished 4 cities in 4 days trip.  That is it for now, next week I will be writing from Greece!!!!  I leave Friday to meet mom, dad, and Jenny in Athens for 8 days.  I'm excited!!!!  But have a lot to do in order to get ready: laundry, exchange money, etc.

Looks like a slooooow week

I am sorry to say that I really do not have much to report, some weeks are just slow.  At school there was nothing exciting to report.  Irena and I were asked to look up information to get grant money for our school.  Since we received the new doors, the director asked us to find money to paint the hallways, since they are looking a bit shabby.  Irena also had the idea of creating an English Library in the school.  There is a room on the 3rd floor that use to be a library, still has some old books on the bookcases; and we are going to see if the director and the school would be interested in turning that into a place were students can get and read English books.  This is a project that other volunteers have done in their schools; and it would be a good addition to our school as well.

My only out day was to Bitola at the American Corner for Game Night.  It was my first time doing this event and it went well.  Over 22 kids showed up to socialize and play games, more than normal, it might have had something to do with it being a nice night and some of the parents see it as an hour of free babysitting.  But as long as the kids have fun and there are plenty of games to go around....the more the merrier.  I have been keeping it local lately since the next 2 weeks are packed full with travel- one big trip for GLOW and the other to Greece to meet the family.

Things with GLOW are starting to pick up.  This weekend I was reading over last year's manual because changes need to be made in some areas and Sarah, the Programming Coordinator (the one I am shadowing this year and the position I will have next year) wants everyone to come to the meeting with ideas.  So this weekend I have been doing my research in preparation to participate at the meeting.  One main component that she would like to add to this year's camp curriculum is adding more critical thinking.  It is evident in the classrooms.  I had to watch one of the 5th grade classes awhile ago and I had them do an exercise "writing a letter to a student in the states."  I wrote some topics on the board that I wanted them to address in their letters (based on the vocabulary they had been learning).  I bullet-pointed these items and halfway through the class I noticed that most of the students had just copied down what I had wrote and put their answers beside it.  There was no letter format at all.  I knew that the students had understood the directions because I had said "write a letter" to them in both English and Macedonian; and I had one of the students that understood what I had said in English, and repeat all of the directions in Macedonian.  But even then, they still just copied everything down from the board and thought that was it.  I have seen it before in other classes too, the students just copy down what the teacher writes and that is it.  They do not take it a step further and they do not think outside of the box.  So even though critical thinking skills are sometimes hard to incorporate into American lessons, they still need to be added; even if it's just one exercise, into Macedonian lessons. Otherwise these students will not be able to fully think for themselves, they will stay in their own little box.

Next weekend is my GLOW meeting; and then the following Thursday I leave for Greece to see Mom, Dad and Jen.  I'll be in touch when I can!!! 

"Nastavnichki Nastavnichki!"

In Macedonian it would be "Hаставнички -  Hаставнички!" In English it means "teacher -  teacher!".  This is what I hear everyday.  When I walk into school "Good morning teacher."  Leaving school "Good-bye teacher." And in the classroom "teacher -  teacher - teacher."   Some of the older students say "teacher" but all the younger students say "Hаставнички."  I am starting to feel at home in my school.  All of the students and other teachers are very nice.  I only wish that I still did not have the huge language barrier separating us so that I could get to know all of them better and they could get to know me better.  But the English classes are going well and I feel good when I leave school at the end of the day.

On Monday, Irena and I sat down and planned out the week.  We are taking it slow, going with the topics in the book and then over the summer we will start coming up with new ideas for activities to replace the book activities with.  It was nice to sit down and plan it out because then I came into class knowing what we were would doing; and if something came up, I knew what was going on and could continue on with the class.  It was helpful this week because there were a few times that Irena got called out of a class to help with something and I was able to continue on with the lesson so that one class would not fall behind the other.  In one case I had to teach one of the 1st grade classes by myself.  It always comes down to me teaching the little ones by myself.  Again, I was a little nervous teaching it, with the younger students again there is a language barrier. Also in this class there is Nikola.

Nikola is a boy and he lives in one of the villages around Resen where there aren't that many children his age.  So when he comes to school he lets ALL of his energy out...and he has A LOT of energy!!!! Nikola loves attention and loves to talk.  Irena is always saying his name during lessons because he is always doing something he is not suppose to.  On Tuesday he was really acting up while Irena was teaching so I took a chair and sat down right next to him.  He smiled and laughed a little but when he realized that I was helping him follow along with the book he quieted down and started paying attention.  At the end of class I told him "добро ден" which literally translated means "good day."  What I was telling him was that he did good today and that I was very proud of him and he gave me a high 5.  After what happened on Tuesday with little Nikola,  I was curious how he would act when it was just me teaching the class by myself on Thursday.  I walked in and there was Nikola, smiling and talking loudly like he normally does. Their regular teacher left and I started passing out their books and practicing the phrases that they had learned the week before.  Me saying - " Here you are."  They responding -  "Thank you".  Basic stuff right?  But it shows them how they can use that phrase in real life and not just sing out it repeatedly like they had been doing. I started teaching what Irena and I had talked about and reviewing what they had been learning.  We took it slow and I was surprised on how much English these little 6-7 year olds could understand and I was very impressed.  They understood the directions I was giving and they wanted to help me translate with the other students that did not understand.  Now I did not forget about Nikola!!  He was perfect for me!!!   I did not have to say his name once!!!  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this coming week he will be the same.

On Wednesday, I arrived at school and Irena found me.  She said there was a man there and he wanted to talk to me.  I followed her into the director's office and he was there talking to the director.  He worked at a Crisis Management Agency in Resen.  There are other Crisis Agencies throughout Macedonia and he had heard from them that Peace Corps volunteers can teach English classes for Adults.  When he found out that there was a volunteer in Resen, he came looking for me.  He wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching the 5 people that work at the agency.  He said he understood if I could not, but that they would be honored to have me.  They were flexible and would love any time that I had available.   Looking at my calendar I think I will start teaching them in March, 2x a week for 1-1.5 hours each time, until the end of the school year; and then depending on schedules, keep going in the summer or take a break for a few months. When I got to site I first had to go looking for things to do, but now they are coming to me.

On Thursday, I went with Marija to a village outside of Resen, down by Prespia Lake.  We were checking out a camp/vacation site there for the GLOW summer camp.  It was my first time driving along the lake and I saw many sandy beaches that I want to check out further this summer.  The Lake is about 15-20km from Resen and there are many public beaches along it.  This vacation site was called Auto-Camp Krani.  It has a combination of privatly-owned homes and bungalows that people can rent out.  The owners walked us around and I took pictures while Marija talked to them and asked all the questions.  I found it interesting to see where Macedonians and Europeans in general would go on a summer vacation.  It was very different from where my family goes when we go to the beach for summer vacation.

 These were the bungalows that we were looking at.  This is where the girls would stay for camp. Each bungalow has 2 bedrooms (each with 2 beds), a bathroom, and a small kitchen (burners, sink, and some cabinets).

 The view from the bungalows. You can see the path down to the beach, the lake and the mountains in the distance.  It was a nice sunny day when we went and the water looked so tempting.  It would be too tempting to the girls; and we would not be able to go and use the lake because there are no lifeguards and that would be required if we did camp things at the lake.

This was the surprising part.  Right next to the bungalows were these trailers.  These are the privately owned property.  Each one was tiny and probably could only fit 2 people.  They stay there all year long and each one has its own personal touches, porches, places to sit, grills, a frame build around the whole thing to make the whole thing covered, and some even had what looked like bathrooms built next to them.  This would be equivalent to owning a beach house at a popular beach vacation spot.  I am not sure if their owners just come down for the weekend or spend the whole summer living there.  It reminded me of camping instead of beaching it.

Yesterday, I was in Bitola for a GLOW workshop.  Myself and Katie, another volunteer, presented a workshop to 7 girls and 1 guy on Computer Skills and Blogging.  It went well, they enjoyed the information and the activities that went along with it.  Afterwards, I grabbed a bite to eat with Ashley and Lauren, walked around for awhile and then headed back home. I was exhausted afterwards; it was a 9 hour day.  So that is why I spent today resting, made some banana bread, cleaned, and did some laundry with my new washing machine!!!  I have been washing everything, today I started on the rugs, but I can only do a few loads because then my drying rack is full and I can't hang things anywhere else.  That is it for this week!!!

Things that I use to take for granted

This week as I look at my calendar the upcoming weeks are slow.  The only news from this week was that on Friday after school the parents and teachers were there to help take out the old doors because we were getting new ones from USAID this weekend.  I will see the new ones on Monday.  I went just because I wanted to see.  I knew I would not be much help and when I got there it was a typical social interaction.  The woman were sitting, talking and drinking coffee and the men were taking out the doors.

 They took out everything, even the frame.  These men were like machines.  In an hour that had done 2 floors, 12 rooms, and were working on the 3rd floor.

 Carrying the frame out and smoking a cigarette the same time..... now that is talent.

The end result... the art classroom.

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.