"Osogovo Style"

Добар Ден, yall. The final days of the Kratovo life are coming to an end. Its hard to believe that in 10 days I  will swear in and become an official Peace Corps Volunteer. After that is off to Bitola to work with the organization for two (hopefully) wonderful years. So what does a trainee do in their community the last couple weeks before leaving their families and going off to actually begin work? They go on mini-vacations of course. A group of us this past weekend were fortunate enough to have some time to get out of Kratovo and visit a nearby town, Kriva Palanka, and stay the night at an old monastery, and drink delicious wine on our Na Gosti with the current volunteers. What follows is a 'picture blog' entry of our descent into madness at the beautiful Monastery of St. Joachim of Osogovo.

So this here is the building we stayed in. The rooms were housing for monks back when this was an actually functioning monastery. Now its a nice place for tourists, especially us PCVs because its inexpensive and there is a bar/restaurant attached. Also, interesting fact, the mountains in the farther background are in Serbia. 3 more months and I will be able to travel there if I wish!

Here is our happy group of MAK 17 Trainees, all gathering to pose in front of the actual church itself. The scenery in this part of the country is absolutely beautiful. It is almost worth living here and dealing with the -20 degree temperatures in the winter time.

 Lots of the rocks are painted with religious icons, which makes a very awesome photograph. This image was on the rock face near the room we stayed in. 

The monastery was founded in the 12th century, though there are no remains of the original monastery. The smaller church in today's monastery complex got its present look in the 14th century, while the larger one was built in the 19th century. Currently, the monastery is home to approximately 23,249 cats, all of whom seem to thinks is a great place to wander about with the tourists because they feed them. This one was kind enough to let me take its picture. Meeetz!

So the church itself has many awesome frescos that are painted on almost every possible surface. This one is a happy Orthodox version of Jesus, and some nice fellow cutting off someones head. There is a slow process of actively restoring the frescos but this one has not been redone yet. 

Since the Jesus crowd was being represented, I felt that the other side also should have some press coverage in this blog. Don't ask me why, but apparently they felt the need to restore the depiction of Satan before the one of Jesus. So things don't need to make sense I guess.

The live music in Osogovo was excellent as well. This man is playing a traditional istrument beside one of the religious frescos. It was an excellent day, despite the small hangover.

Hopefully the next post in this blog will be from my own internet, in my own apartment, with my the comfort of having heat while I type away on the keyboard. Currently I would trade anything for that but it will be very distressing to move away from the great family and be on my own, in a new city, when it gets dark around 3:45 pm everyday. If I am already complaining about the winter now, I am worried to see how it is going to be in late January.

"Fall in Love, not in Line"

Greetings all! While it has been merely a week since my last post to this illustrious blog, many new developments have occurred that are ‘blog-worthy’ to write about. This past week, all the volunteer trainees in Macedonia were sent on a 3 day field trip known as ‘site visit.’ This visit is a prime opportunity to visit with the schools and organizations, see the town or village, and potentially learn where you will be living for the next two years. For myself, I was fortunately able to experience all of these, and they are greater than words can describe.

First, on Monday, I began the agonizingly long trip that is Kratovo – Skopje – Bitola. Overall, it took approximately six and a half hours to make it to the final destination. Upon arrival at the bus terminal in Bitola, I was greeted by my new counterpart and immediately knew that I would be having a good experience and an easy time integrating into the organization. The organization I will be working for, Together Macedonia is part of a larger network of the ‘Together’ Organization that functions in several European countries, and is currently branching out to Central America and China. Our organization in Bitola is small, only 4 full-time staff, but there is a brigade of youth volunteers from Bitola who help to work on the projects. Projects include activities such as organizing cultural events in Bitola, working with youth to promote democracy and learning, teaching English to adults, and working with the partner networks of Together on projects across borders. We are funded primarily through the European Commission which is very helpful in working on cross-border projects.

The most interesting thing about working with the new organization is presence of EVS volunteers. EVS is, in a way, like a European version of the Peace Corps, except the amenities are much greater and the time is much shorter. EVS stands for European Voluntary Service and is an adjustable time commitment (between one month and one year) that places European youth (18-30), in another country and puts them with an organization where they volunteer in the community. It is a really great tool for helping expand intercultural awareness and to meet some great people. Currently our organization is working with two volunteers from Turkey, and one from France; however, by the time I officially start working with the organization in December, we will have two new volunteers from someplace new.

The office is in an absolutely amazing location, right in the heart of the city center of Bitola. We will be working on the second floor of the House of Culture, with a nice lovely window and a view of the main shopping street where all of the cafes are. I do not think my office for my Peace Corps service could be in any better a location, even if it was on a white, sandy beach in Vanuatu. Everything about this city makes me feel like a truly privileged, and mildly spoiled, volunteer.

The city itself is great also! As the second largest city in Macedonia, there are many modern amenities that most PCVs would be extremely jealous to have. For example, near my office and apartment building is a Vero. Vero is grocery store in Macedonia that is essentially like a Home Plus in Korea, or a Super Target in the United States. This store has everything anyone could ever need, especially when compared to the local stores in the smaller towns and villages. I can even buy hot sauce and peanut butter! Two luxury goods I was sure I would be required to live without are now merely within an 8 minute walking distance from my apartment.

Speaking of my apartment, I do not think it would be possibly to be living in a better location, anywhere in Macedonia. The apartment, which was found by a fellow PCV, is a mere block from the main street of Bitola, the Широк Сокок, and is on the 5th floor of an older, but very nice building. I have two balconies, one which looks to the center of the city, and the other which looks out over Mount Pelister, and the national park. Also from my balcony, I can see the major park in Bitola, as well as the football stadium, where I will hopefully make many friends with the local Bitolians by being a loud and nationalistic supporter of Pelister. As a side note, the crazed fans of Pelister are called ‘Chkembari’ (Чкембари), which translates to ‘beer gut’ in English or ‘sul bae’ in Korean. I am sure you can imagine, I’ve already beginning my search to find a flag and a scarf to wear to the matches.

Coming back to Kratovo, it is difficult too contain my excitement over my situation that I will be moving into within the next month. I have an excellent and well functioning organization, a beautiful city with great food and coffee bars, and an apartment that is at least as nice as my apartment in Oklahoma (and probably the same size, if not bigger). My only concerns are going to be heating in the winter, and what I will do with my life once I have internet again! Internet right now is an earned luxury that requires a very cold afternoon sitting at an outdoor café in Kratovo, and drinking hot tea. Only three weeks left until the Swearing In and site move, and time is moving slowly. The best thing now to do is enjoy all the time with my host family in Kratovo, because they have been fantastic hosts, and to make copious amounts of lists for the things I will need to buy when December comes.

Ah yes, and the final word, related to the title of this post. Bitola has some excellent street artists, which is extremely refreshing to see after the only graffiti we have in Kratovo is stick letters, all hailing the BMPO political group (there is an insane amount of political graffiti in Macedonia). In Bitola however, there are great murals and walls thrown up by artists with real talent. One of my favorite tags that I read while in the city was on the side of an apartment, saying: “fall in love, not in line,” and it made me a very happy little anarchist to see such sentiments. In fact there is another tag across from my apartment that proclaims “stop police brutality!” which also makes me smile every time I read it. I discussed this art potential in the city with my workmates and they informed me that they have projects with local artists where they donate walls for murals. My ship has landed at last! I have a good feeling that I will be fitting in extremely well with my organization and community as a whole.

Also, I apologize that I have no photos to offer you all for reading this long and potentially boring blog entry, but as soon as I move to site, I will be sure to take some to post!