Now the question to ask is, 'what does a Peace Corps Volunteer have to do in these last few days of summer while everyone is returning back to their homes?' Youth exchanges! Our organization, Together Macedonia, has been fortunate enough to hold two youth exchanges in the past month; one in the beginning of September and one at the end.
Those of you who are non-European Union citizens may probably be wondering, 'what is a youth exchange?' Well, a youth exchange is an excellent program funded by the Youth in Action project and the European Commission. It is designed to combine workshops with cultural immersion on a variety of different topics. For example, our first exchange lasted for eight days, in the lakeside community of Gradiste, Macedonia. The topic of this exchange was 'I Know my Rights,' and focused mainly on human rights involving migration, marriage equality and global issues such as human trafficking and modern day slavery. For the project, I got to lead the Macedonian team as group leader, which means I was responsible for the well-being of all my participants. Being from the hosting organization, I was also responsible for all the logistical support, organizing people to and from airports and bus stations, as well as leading a tour in the UNESCO protected old town of Ohrid.
Here are some of the best photo's from the exchange:
This was the sunset from our little villa on the shores of Ohrid. The mountains across the water are in Albania. Very rarely in my life have I been blessed with any site more beautiful than this every evening. The only rain was on the final day when the participants all left back to their home countries; as if Macedonia was lamenting our departure.
Visiting the Ohrid Opstina as a part of our tour. Here we have a traditional band playing while our participants dance in anticipation for the tour ahead of them.
The 'Museum on the Water', one of the key tourist attractions in Gradiste. They refused to believe I was a student and charged me a full 100 denars ($2) to enter. I was furious...
...But I found my future house! I convinced a nice family from Negotino to help me take this picture to send to the gf, who ironically, has the exact same picture of herself. It was almost like somebody planned it!
The King and Queen of Gradiste in their royal attire (complete with Ray Bans) and fitted crowns made of leaves. This was an awesome training exercise known as the 'Royal Debate' where the King and Queen chose participants and made them debate moral and ethical questions about European Union and human rights.
Our group (and only Ivan's head) on the night of our bye bye party. What a tremendous group of talented young people. The members from this exchange came from Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Czech Republic and the UK.
Continuing on in the month of September, Together Macedonia held a second exchange, this time located in Bitola rather than along the lake. Unlike the first exchange, the topic of this session was about sports and social inclusion within the European Union. Unfortunately I arrived on the third day after the exchange had already started due to the fact that I was in Sweden on a na gosti (visit) to Uppsala University. (P.S. a full report on the Swedish Adventure is to follow in the coming days).
However, I jumped right into the project as soon as I returned, although due to several delays and poor management by Wizzair, that return was postponed many many hours. Fortunately, all the participants on the exchange were friendly and easy going. While the topic was not as interesting to me as human rights and political freedom, the exchange was still a good time. There were many physical activities included, such as an exhausted trek up the mountain to the lodge of Neolica, a day at the local technical school to use their gym and climbing wall facilities, and of course, another day trip to Ohrid.
However, I jumped right into the project as soon as I returned, although due to several delays and poor management by Wizzair, that return was postponed many many hours. Fortunately, all the participants on the exchange were friendly and easy going. While the topic was not as interesting to me as human rights and political freedom, the exchange was still a good time. There were many physical activities included, such as an exhausted trek up the mountain to the lodge of Neolica, a day at the local technical school to use their gym and climbing wall facilities, and of course, another day trip to Ohrid.
Check out some more photos from the second exchange here:
Half of our group after an exciting morning visiting the local Opstina in Bitola. We have participants from Serbia, Albania, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Macedonia.
The weathered and beaten testaments to communism that still reside in various places in Macedonia are my favorite thing about this country. Here we have an awesome old monument commemorating the Partizan's defeating the fascists. The text says „Народ за доен со борбата за слобода, никогаш не умира“ or in English, 'People who nurse with the fight for freedom, can never die.' I dig it.
Polish participant Daniel, races to the Fico out of sheer excitement. Above, the beautiful skies smile down on such a testament to Yugoslavian craftsmanship.
The view from Neolica is fabulous. This is about halfway up to the top of the mountain, not the big mountain by the way, the smaller mountain. Still the view is stunning.
Final night on the exchange, so why not learn some Macedonian oro? Here we have the group (trying to) learn the steps to 'Makedonsko Devojche', the most classic oro in all of the country.
These exchanges took a total of three weeks from my life, but they made the month of September just fly by; completely unlike the time spent waiting in the airport to return to Macedonia from Malmo. However, that's a story for a future day.
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