Merry MAKs-mess!

Adding to the list of things MAK does better than the US must include winter holidays.  In the US, kids get out of school and max out their parents credit cards, then return to school a short while later.

In MAK, there are a LOT more moving parts.  For example, kids are out of school mid December and do not restart until late January. This allows plenty of time for the 6 events during this season to be thoroughly prosecuted. Here is the seasonal hit parade:

1.  Christmas. Santa is here too, but only as a minor retail prop. Santa here seems quite shy and frequently has smoke breaks. He is properly suspicious of children and dogs. December 25 is a non-event and not even the shy Santas get a break as they work on this day and for a week after.
2.  New Year.  On this day the shy Santa gets his time as he has delivered small presents to kids.  People that want to go out get their finest sequined clothes on and go to a bar.  It is a long night and the streets are littered with lost sequins and the remnants of fireworks.

 3. Boshik... It starts with a family meal with no meat.  Before the meal begins, everyone takes some food outside and God is invited in.  Fish, salads, bread, wine is served. The bread has a coin baked into it and whoever gets it is lucky for the year but the payback is they have to throw a party next year. This is January 5, 6 and 7.  On the 5th, you go to a bonfire and drink wine and listen to music.   There are  fireworks and singing.  The next day you return the earlier favor to God and go to his house for church service.  This is a 3 hour deal as conversations with Him are not brief.  Also, God is not in the furniture business so there are no chairs in an Orthodox church, so you stand.  It is really quite beautiful as the mass is sung.
4.  Old New Year.  This is on January 13 on the old Gregorian calendar.  On this night kids put on masks and go around to houses and sing. You then give them a couple sausages. We gave out candy as yes, we had no sausages.  People use up whatever left over fireworks they may have, fuelled apparently, by sausages.
5.  Name Day.  January 14 is a big name day. This the day when a Saint died. Apparently the 14th claimed a lot as many Saints have this day.  If you are named after a name-day Saint, this is your day too so you must think Saintly thoughts and give out candy which I think is in the Old Testament.
6.  Epiphany.  This is on January 19th.  On this day the priest blesses the river, and throws in a cross.  People must be quite taken with this as the men leap into the river to try and find it.  If you find the cross you get a lot of luck plus bragging rights.  I suspect the river bottom is riddled with crucifixes and those less lucky. The Vardar river is big, fast and cold.

Everyone is now cold, exhausted, sugared up or sick of sausages so school resumes on January 21st.  I believe this is a much better way to spend the holidays. A lot more food and far less time returning stuff you don't want. And, if you're feeling lucky, you can try the river!
Al

Cafe Society

L

"Let's take a coffee!"  When you hear your MAK friends say this, the only answer is "yes".  In Macedonia, coffee is serious business as well as dang good. They have been brewing coffee well before Starbucks came along and ruined it for us. It came with the Turks about 600 years ago. 

The traditional way to make coffee is the Turkish (or Makedonski) style. Here you take a small pot, like one of the old pots below and boil water. Then add some finely ground coffee, this is almost like powder.  Add this to the hot but not boiling water, stir. Do not let this boil or it will look like one of those coke and Mentos experiments from elementary school!  Add sugar and stir while having a very serious look on your face. The pour it all into a cup. Milk is for sissies.  It is quite good.  The important part comes now. You must talk about things, anything, but not about work. Work is for sissies and can be discussed later when you are not doing important stuff like drinking coffee.  If you have not finished your discussions the only option is another cup of coffee, maybe with a cake. Not a sweet cake, that is for sissies. Maybe a cake with dark chocolate. 

Soon you will finish your important work because if you take 3 coffees you will be crazy and do no work at all. That is ok, because you did the important thing by taking coffee with your colleagues. I think America needs important coffee like this and less frou-frou coffee like Starbucks. 

If you are frou-frou like I am sometimes you can get a cappuccino like the one above. Excellent as well but mostly for tourists or the feeble. When you visit you must take a coffee with me and tell me how you have been. We have time!

Al

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Merry Christmas, World...

As I head to bed on this Christmas Eve, I'm reminded of Christmas Eves of the past..
Snowy white Christmases in New Hampshire, walking home from midnight mass and watching smoke curl up from the chimneys into the starry night...


Climbing beloved Badger under a full moon with friends, knowing more friends and wine were waiting for us at home at the bottom of the hill...

Pulling white hairs from our poor dogs to leave evidence for the kiddos that yes, indeed, Santa did eat those cookies...

Listening to the ululations of the singers in the church in Africa as they danced down the aisle...

Wrangling lots of excited and exhausted babies to bed so that Santa could arrive sometime before midnight..

But tonight was one to add to the memories list..there is no Christmas here on the 25th of December because Macedonia is Orthodox Christian and celebrates Christmas here in January...but Allan and I were invited by students at my school to attend their Macedonian traditional dancing performance, and what a night of dancing it was...and how lucky we are to be have been able to witness the energy and excitement as these kids continue traditions hundreds of years old....and to realize that Christmas isn't just a day, it's a composite of memories and friends, the future and family..and so I wish you all, my dear friends and family, a peaceful and happy Christmas...

IT'S A DOG'S LIFE

DOGS LIFE
MAK knows how to build a tough dog. There are several kinds of dogs. There are guard dogs, street dogs, car dogs, working dogs and even a few house dogs.  At the top of the dog pyramid is the guard dog. These are refrigerator-sized dogs that are specific to this region and are to be given wide, wide berth.  They guard farm animals and property and can probably be seen from the moon. I do not like the guard dog.
Street dogs come in two sub-sets, the tagged and untagged. They are both strays of all breeds. The tagged group are those that have been rounded up, given some shots ,then turned loose again. The non-taggers are just plain strays. They are all pretty calm and stay out of your way and understand traffic. They have their own territories so you can say hello to your particular mutt every day in the same place. I'd say we see about 20 dogs in our daily walk to school.
Car dogs are a special set of dogs. Theses curs ride in barely running cars and wildly announce the car's presence and trajectory. Some ride in a box bolted to the back of the car.  The boxes have no holes or apparent opening. The only reason you know it is for a dog is due to the wild barking. When car dogs drive through town the street dogs go crazy, apparently due to jealousy but in reality the street dogs probably have it better.
Then there are the working dogs. This group includes house guard dogs and hunting dogs and these are kept outside at all times and either bark at car dogs, or at anything at all. No slight is too small to anger a working house dog.
The last group is the smallest and elite group - the house dog. These are small and fuzzy and are just like your dog except they probably eat worse food. This group is looked down upon by all other MAK dogs,  So, if you need a dog, swing by any MAK town and make your selection. I'd advise against the guard unless you really hate your neighbor. Let me know soon as the selections seems to change often.
Al

Negotino Smog, Dogs, and Blogs

Remember, priateli, anything written here is not Peace Corps policy....and also, do forgive me if you are getting this blog multiple times...it's still a bit of a mystery to me how to send this out! But I will say Allan is writing about a favorite subject after me so do read that one!

Reflection...We are leaving our home in negotino on Saturday for our new home in Gevgelia and lots to think about!

Both Allan and I passed out Macedonian language test...such a great feeling! We have worked hard, generally about six or seven hours a day and it feels good to have been successful in our test! It was not easy....you sit in a room with the tester for about half hour while she asks questions and since you don't know what the questions will be you have to be ready to talk about anything from food to family, hobbies to travel, shopping to shoes!! But we did it..yeah US!!

Time to say goodbye to our negotino priateli...all ten of us will disperse around Macedonia...we've had fun together! We also will need to make our farewells to slavitza and kocho....this will be hard! We love them! If we have been happy, well fed and well taken care of it's because of them! And a lot of language success is due to the fact that they speak no English and by golly we had a lot to talk about so Allan and I had to learn Macedonian and slavitza was pretty determined we were going to be able to communicate!! 

Time to say goodbye to Cafe Tina...the tiny store where we drink coffee during our school break and where the kids skipping school can blow smoke rings...goodbye to my fruit lady who always gives me an apple for free...to the lady who waits by her window for the Americanskis and comes out to talk to us when we pass...to the old,old man who walks past us and tells us what the day of the week is..goodbye to old tractors and young street dogs...to my students here who are so shy and so excited to say"Hello,Keti"..in ENGLISH!!...and just to this small, tough little town that had been so good to us!

We become official Peace Corps volunteers on Friday..swearing in, lots of officials, excitement, emotion...and our real service begins! Thanks for being part of our journey!!

Blog- odaram

So blagodaram is thank you in Macedonian, so the title of this little missive is a play on that...because we are definitely saying thank you to everyone for our new home...Gevgelia!

Allan and I are just now returning from a three day visit to our new town. Gevgelia is smack dab on the border with Greece. It was really warm when we were there with lots of sun and palm trees...a pedestrian walking area through town,a little library, friendly people and small shops.  Allan works in, of all things,a casino! The Swedish casino owners turn some of their money back into a foundation they've started. Allan will be working with both environmental awareness issues and possibly in programs dealing with special education that this foundation advocates.  Lots of excitement and enthusiasm with this foundation!

And I have a lovely elementary school. I will be working with a teacher who teaches English language to ninth, fifth, and first graders. I taught first graders today..We covered basics such as counting to ten, naming five colors, heads, shoulders, knees and toes, and of course, sitting criss- cross applesauce!  Lots of fun, enthusiastic five and six year olds.

And our new house...We have a sunny upstairs...large living room, dining room with piano, kitchen, two bedrooms and kitchen...and three, count 'em three!!!!..outside porches! Our downstairs owners are just as nice as can be, have already enjoyed a meal with them, had lots of nice visits, and looking forward to many more...

We are indeed happy, blessed, excited and rarin' to go!  Love you all, come visit us....nie ke ce vrakame vo  petti Dekembri! Priatno!

More Macedonian Musings..

It's fall here now..we've had a lovely lovely fall so far. Lots of sunshine so far and leaves on the trees are colored and starting to fall and the air is crisp..but not clean! Our dear little town has a major air pollution problem. Between two mountain ranges our cold cold air sinks right down over the town and collects all the wood smoke, yugo car exhaust and cigarette fumes..the air is pretty gray, I'm afraid. Hoping for some of that fine tri cities windiness, so tri cities friends, please send some our way!

It is cold now and houses are not insulated so it's going less comfortable.  Allan and I hit the hay early just to get warm...sometimes it's quite a bit cooler inside than out, because there is no central heat or insulation in the rooms, usually just a small wood burning stove in the kitchen..but walk out that kitchen door into the rest of the house and you'll notice that huge temperature change!

Allan and I are still in the training phase..We go to school still pretty much all day for language..and love it. It's hard work, but as we walk through town we are able to talk to people, successfully negotiate stores and bus stations and restaurants!

Next week we head to our new home in Gevgelia, just for a few day site visit. I understand it is warmer..sounds lovely to me already! Hearsay has it that it is considered part of Mediterranean Macedonia....only an hour from Thessalonika and the Aegean sea! It is also where the refugees cross the border from Greece...Allan and I are ready for the next phase of this life!

Time to head home...slavitza will have ruchek ready and I think tonight will be stuffed peppers! Yum...these Macedonians and their peppers..it's a love affair I can get behind!

Again dear friends, thanks for all your support!