Global Youth Service Day!

April 15-17 was Global Youth Service Day (or as we sometimes call it, Sticky Mouse day).

GYSD is a 3-day period sponsored in part by the Disney corp. Shaun and I applied for a grant to do a project in January and our project was selected! We were among 3 (or was is 4?) projects implemented in Macedonia over the 15-17.

Here in Gostivar we organized an environmental workshop and a park clean up. We were pleasantly surprised at how well everything went! We have had some experience in the past which made us doubt how well it would go, particularly the part about working with youth (since neither Shaun or I have much experience with the youngins...) and all hell tends to break loose when T-shirts are involved.

Anyway...we wanted the activity to be inter-ethnic (with both Macedonian and Albanian kids and facilitators) and it worked really well. The first part began with a game in which the kids would chose what corner of the rooms to go to based on what they thought the correct answer to a question was (for example, the north corner would be one answer to a multiple choice questions, the west corner another choice, etc.) The kids responnded really well and we were surprised at their knowledge of environmental information.

The next portion of the day was a couple skits where we demonstrated a few ways in which you could reduce the amount of waste--for example, not taking a plastic bag when going to the store (it is crazy how all store owners almost DEMAND that you take a bag when purchsing even the smallest of products). The last portion was creative...we asked the kids to draw posters which would illustrate 4 things they would do to make Gostivar cleaner and greener. Pictured above is one of the little girls who participated. The kids were great, very enthusiastic and inspiring.

I think the thing that for me was the most poignant, was what happened when the kids were presenting their posters. We had done the first session (with the questions and answers in the corners of the room) in both the Macedonian and Albanian language. Once the kids were done with their posters we asked them to present them to the big group, and without even asking they presented the posters in both languages. I was surprised, and very impressed.

Then we proceeded to the park clean-up. Gostivar is not the cleanest of places in Macedonia. Apparently before independence in the early 1990s the park and streets were very clean, thanks in part to a centralized (and well financed) public enterprise that took care of the garbage. Since independence things have sort of detiorated and now the garbage is not regularly picked up and people seem to have forgotten when garbage actually goes. Not everyone has forgotten, but certainly MANY people have. I cannot count how many people I have personally witnessed throwing a cigarette package, a gum wrapper, a chips baggie, a hamburger wrapper on the ground. Its really pretty sad. Anyway, we cleaned up both sides of the park (on two sides of the river Vardar) and it looked better. For how long it will last I cannot speculate, but rest assured there will be a need for a similar project next year.

Until both people remember that their little pieces of little have a big impact, and the local government can come up with a better way to deal with solid waste, the garbage situation will continue to have a negative impact on the community...but maybe a few more clean ups can at least make us feel better about the situation.