Beth's Corps Experience

Profiling my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Macedonia.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Veegs Moves to Struga

In this picture Veegs is looking frightening with Bread Fangs.
Veegs Moves to Struga

The day after Christmas was kind of a bummer because my good friend Liz, another PCV moved from Gostivar to Struga.

Liz is a superstar. Last year when I was living in the village from hell and going through some really tough times she helped me survive. Throughout last winter when my hot water heater was breaking every other week I found solace (and cleanliness) in her bathtub. Every time I was on the brink of quitting (and there were a few) Liz was the one who helped me overcome my misery. She also reminded me to eat vegetables (Liz you see, is a vegan). If Liz were not the closest neighbor I had last year I sometimes wonder if I would have remained in the Peace Corps.

But things for Liz were not perfect either. An ardent environmentalist, Liz was assigned to work with an environmental NGO that didn’t really ever do any environmental activities. She found herself wasting away comforted by the thought that one day soon environmental activities would begin, but eventually she realized that this was never going to happen. Rather than spend two years only learning languages and not cultivating her professional skills and gain experience in her chosen field of environmentalism—the reasons that motivated her to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in the first place—Liz decided it was time to talk her situation over with the Peace Corps. Soon thereafter, Liz got a new site. She is now in Struga, working with another environmental NGO, but this one is active and they are working in areas Liz is highly interested in, like solid waste management and composting. Did I mention that Liz began composting on her deck last spring? When she went to visit her new organization she mentioned her project. Her new colleague told her she needed to bring the compost-in-progress to Struga! It already sounds like things are going to work out just fine.


Packing up the Kombi

Pictured here is Liz's Landlord instructing her on how to take care of her dying tomato plants.
Packing up the Kombi
We were at Liz's house as the Peace Corps mini-van (or Kombi as it is referred to in Macedonian) arrived to take her and all her belongings to Struga. She had a ton of stuff, due in part to her admirable obsession with reducing, reusing and recycling.

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas last year was tough. It fell on a weekday and since Christmas in Macedonia isn’t until January 7, we had to ask for the day off from our colleagues and in general it just kinda sucked. We didn’t cook anything, we went out for Pizza, had a horrible time communicating with the folks at the restaurant and I think in general we were all pretty homesick and bummed out.

Well…this year was much better. Christmas was on the weekend and we actually came up with a little plan ahead of time. Liz, Shaun and I (the MAK 8ers living in Gostivar) decided to cook a little mini-Christmas feast and we did a darn good job. Liz made the stuffing (she is a vegan so she had a good recipe for stuffing she could eat) and I made mashed potatoes (out of a box, sorry to say) and green beans, all of which was vegan friendly, yippee! Shaun was in charge of the poultry for the day—since there are many non-pork eating Muslims in Gostivar, rotisserie chicken is pretty popular and Shaun bought one for us meat eaters to share. Yum.

In this picture Shaun is excited about our feast and Veegs is freaked out by the greasy bird.


Mmmm, Christmas Dinner.

Mmmm, Christmas Dinner.

This is a picture of the delicious feast Liz, Shaun and I concocted together; absolutely an improvement over last year (please note the presence of the sparkling Christmas tree my sister Maggie sent me last year for the holidays).


Thursday, December 23, 2004

AID contractors Party It Up!

AID contractors Party It Up!

LandO’Lakes was asked to host the annual USAID contractor Christmas party and because I work with the association and the LOL office (and because I’m a total Land O’Lakes-wannabe) I was invited to attend. The party was a lot of fun—tons of dancing and merry making.

Pictured here are some of the gals who work in the LOL office (LtoR): Natasha, Emilija, Sonja and Ana.


Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Congratulations Mr. Reshad!

Congratulations Mr. Reshad!

The anniversary celebrating the establishment of the municipality of Gostivar was last week. To commemorate the day, the municipality annually awards citizens who have made a significant contribution to the community. This year one of our association members, Mr. Reshad, (one of my favorite sheep breeders) was awarded best livestock farmer of the year.

In this photo (LtoR) is Luli (my colleague) me, the Mayor and Mr. Reshad


Sunday, December 19, 2004

Clothing in Macedonia

Clothing in Macedonia

Fashion in Macedonia is one of the things for which I have yet to acquire a taste. In general short skirts, ridiculously tight pants and what my friend Liz calls "pizza slice" shaped shoes and boots are what's hot. Needless to say, my loose fitting pants, conservative length skirts and clod hopper over-sized square toed shoes are not the envy of every woman on the street.

Pictured here is one pair of pizza shoes in white (way after Labor day!) and another black slice 'o shoe sneakin' in. I don't understand how women can even stand up in those things!


Friday, December 17, 2004

Interkitchenal Exchange

Interkitchenal Exchange

I moved to Gostivar a little over a month ago and things are great. One thing I love about my new place is my landlord and his family. 2 weeks ago my landlordess, Slavica (or is it new host mom?) and I made Peanut butter cookies. She and her daughter were fascinated by how simple the recipe was...and by the existence (and use) of Peanut butter (like most European countries, nutella-type hazelnut butter is far more popular than peanut butter). Here in Macedonia the desserts consist primarily of cakes made from "biscuits" which are like graham crackers, and variations of philo dough treats, like baklava.

My Landlordess really wants to learn English so we have been combining the baking sessions with some English instruction. She understands quite a bit of English and she knows how to write pretty well, but she just needs help speaking so when we bake she tells me everything she is doing in English. It's very cute.

Last week we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies using my recipe from the Peace Corps "Jadi! Jadi!" Cookbook (Jadi! is the imperative command to "Eat!" in Macedonian. We all experienced the extreme pressure from our host families to "Eat! Eat!" during our home-stays). After we made the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies Slavica showed me how she makes a wonderful (yet simple) apple pie.

In this picture we are starting to mix in the oats.


Thursday, December 16, 2004

All the Work Was Done!

All the Work Was Done!

A Mexican Feast...(and we didn't help!) Two MAK 9 volunteers came to Gostivar for a visit last weekend! Andrea from Debar and Kaitlin from Kicevo (both those towns are in the Western part of Macedonia). They were visiting with our new MAK 9 Gostivar site-mate Meg, and it was great having the chance to get to know them a little better. Their zeal to cook the food they miss from the states is strong, which was fortuitous for me, Liz, and Shaun. They prepared a wonderful Mexican feast, complete with home made Tortillas and Salsa! Shaun, Liz and I wanted to help but almost all of the work was already done when we arrived (how convenient).


We Watched Kaitlin Cut Onions...

We Watched Kaitlin Cut Onions...

We did get there in time to watch Kaitlin cut onions though...


Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Novi Dobravolci!

Congratulations to the new group of Peace Corps volunteers in Macedonia, MAK 9! These guys were sworn in on December 6 and it was an exciting day! There group of 37 volunteers is larger than my group (MAK 8 currently has 25) and they are equally divided into the three sectors PCVs work in here in Macedonia, Environmental Education and Management, English Education and Municipal and NGO development. There are a lot of highly educated folks with a lot of interesting experience and they seem like a pretty fun bunch. Can’t wait to get to know 'em!

A Photo of the MAK 9s!

A Photo of the MAK 9s!

Here they are!


Monday, December 13, 2004

All About Equal Representation...

All About Equal Representation...

I had to post this one too. It's only fair...

Saturday, December 11, 2004

I make pretty posters!

I make pretty posters!

For sure, one of my best contributions to the event was the BEAUTIFUL Posters. We had them in Macedonian, English and Albanian languages. Shown here are the signs in Macedonian and English. I feel like I really need to post the Albanian language one too...for equal representation.


Friday, December 10, 2004

Mr. Jan Robbrecht

Mr. Jan Robbrecht

This was the Belgian expert who spoke with our local associations about how to form cooperatives. He enjoyed Macedonia's famous beer, Skopsko.


Wednesday, December 01, 2004

"Planning for Cooperatives" Training

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We hosted a training seminar on "How to Form Cooperatives" which in Macedonia we must refer to as "Shareholder companies" because of the negative image of cooperatives throughout the communist regime of Tito. This project was financed in part by Land O'Lakes, GTZ (a German international aid organization) and InWent (also German, pronounced InVent) an agribusiness consulting firm.

In this photo my counterpart Luli (in the foreground) and Lazar (the sheep sector field agent for the Eastern part of Macedonia) are working on listing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats we discussed with our Sheep breeders at the SWOT Analysis workshop which was held the week before.