Little school in the celo

 I spend my Wednesdays at a small village ( celo) school...and it's a lot like being the teacher in Little House on the Prairie..only without handsome, problem solving Pa...

The school in Marzentzi, Macedonia is about three miles and another world from where I ordinarily teach. There are two classrooms, with students from first through fifth grade, all eleven of them..total!! I love it there!

I walk into the small hallway, where little heads are poking out the door to see the teachers who only come once a week...and one all the way from America!  We two visiting teachers chat in the tiny teacher's room with the two other teachers who work there every day..one teacher teaches first and third grade, at the same time in the same classroom; the other teacher teaches second, fourth and fifth grade. Now remember..eleven students total...so like fourth grade has one student and fifth grade has one student! Luckily, they are both girls and seem to get along swimmingly well.

I then walk into my classroom, where the sun is shining and with any luck the wood stove is cranking out some heat..this is a cold, cold, uninsulated building. The kids are so excited to see us, and I gather up my first class and head out the door to practice our English.

This is my entire first grade class! Now, before you think I've got it too easy, my next class has five second graders so send me some sympathy, folks! Marzentzi is a village famous(around here) for all the leeks they grow, and the leek field come right up to the play area, which consists of a small concrete pad, except on the side where the chickens have their homes. As you can see, my girls have animals I made and a barn Allan made, and we are working on naming animals po angliski. It's a wonderful place to learn our words, because, as you can also see, we have lots of living examples wandering through the school yard!

These sheep go by every time I've been there..no idea where they are headed...or why in the bottom picture the chicken is headed into the main door of the school, but I appreciate them because we get to yell "Hello,chicken!" or   " Bye bye,sheep!". And we get to yell it nice and loud, because 1) there's no one around to bother, )2 the animals appreciate our efforts and 3) we all know we can be better understood in any language as long as we are loud!

I wish you could all come experience this...it makes me giggle just to think about it and I'd love to share it with you!

Sweaty Tree Fun!!

 You may think that February 14 is Valentine's Day.  In MAK this day is Saint Trefun' s Day, pronounced kind of like "sevetty tree fun" -- and it is fun!  On this day you go out to your small vineyard with family and invoke St. Trefun to give a good harvest.  You start with bread made by your Baba.  This is special bread.  Note that she is also holding rakija.  All rakija is special in my opinion and a sure-fire way to get into the good graces with Trefun.

 You then go into your beautiful vineyard and pour wine on the ground in the shape of a cross.  I am not sure if Trefun likes this part as it seems to me to be hard to drink served like that.

But no matter, there is still work to be done.










The special bread is then broken and served.  The rakija also comes out. I am sure at this point that you have Trefun' s attention, I know they had mine.  The barbies are fired up and tables are set up in the vinyard

 Now for the fun part.  The eating sequence is rakija/vegetables/bread/more bread/much more rakija/stuffed cabbage rolls/bread/switch to wine/cheese and then the real meal is served.  The grills are cooking sausages, ribs and chicken. This is served with beer and at this point I had a direct line to Trefun and was begging for mercy.  After the meat, you guessed it, the baked potatoes were ready.  This is followed by dessert (honey cake), which, shockingly, goes very well with wine.

Finally, Trefun must have heard me as the food torrent ceased.  We wandered about, me still speaking to Trefun, and the others admiring the vineyard and other vegetables which grow here year-around.  We then packed up and after 5 hours of fun headed back into town.  I think Trefun is a fine Saint and apparently a great admirer of the grilled meat.  For this, I thank him mightily.  We also thank mightily the Popova family for the honor of including us in this tradition.  Trefun  surely appreciates this fine day and their hospitality.  I know that I do.
Al