Favorites Part 2...

I started reading this great book, The Artist's Way, in June after my dear friend, Vanessa, visited the Balkans. I was at a tough spot in Peace Corps, questioning how I would ever convey the layers of my service to those I love. I remember the slow blossoming of Macedonian stories on our hikes. Overwhelmed by what felt like a series of sacrifices and still a sense of bewilderment about returning to site,  I found myself challenging a lot of her personal journey choices because I was jealous of the freedom I heard in her words about US life.

Paradoxically, Vanessa brought me this book that has helped me discover and anchor my creative flow again, AND our conversations invited me to reconsider why I made THIS Peace Corps choice currently in my self-discovery, world-discovery (whatever you call it). The following quote from Andre Gide in The Artist's Way reminds me, yet again, to trust blessed, timely serendipity.

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

I actually reference these past sentiments because they starkly differ from the last two weeks of my service. With classes in session and a shared placement at both the Primary and High School, a project to activate youth in my community, singing in the choir, new friends from teaching yoga and Body Jam and the gym (теретана), I am flying. Walking down the street, smile after smile with warm "Здраво"s and "Hello"s, I bask in this experience for what it is at this moment.

I love going to Gijavoto, a village school about 3km from my site. I travel in a taxi that takes person's with disabilities to a daily center in city a bit farther, Gevgelia. It is humbling and a fun connection to ride with daily center people in the morning. 

Gijavoto is the picturesque village school, with flowers lining the entrance steps and a forest-lined basketball court tucked behind the school. My counterpart, Nina, and I teach one to three grades simultaneously in one tiny room. The kids are SWEET, appreciative, and earnest. I have four turkish students. By law they should study in their native language until 6th grade, however, only Macedonian teachers come to the school. Figuring out how to support these students in our English classes without any Macedonian base and practically no Turkish knowledge has been the kind of teaching challenge I anticipated and love tackling.

Here are some shots of my first graders... TOO CUTE! When they sing and look at me with those big eyes, oh boy! I added a couple of my second graders too :)

Macedonia production mixes inconvenient yet reliable technology with many hands in a social context. It is fascinating. Fall is the season for production. Every family is picking figs, prunes, grapes, peppers, and egg plants, preparing food for the winter. Below that is a photo of my counterparts father grinding the grapes in barrels where they ferment.

Here is a picture of my host dad and the Rakija (home-made brandy) contraption. 

I love working at the schools, however, I have another EXTREMELY fruitful and fulfilling work relationship with Dejan and Nadica of Polymat 13. They were my two first English Speaking friends in Bogdanci. As community leaders, diligently assessing needs and seeking funds for projects to meet them, these two are an oasis for interesting conversation. We have applied for youth development projects and are currently also planning monthly events- like World Food Day and International Women's Day- to engage the Bogdanci community. They listen to me and support me. Hearing about the NGO networks, trainings, and local ideas with which they are working is always inspiring. 

Many volunteers echo a similar sentiment about beginning their second and sometimes last year of service. "There is only a year left! There is so much I want to do!" You have a foundation which you can use for leverage to inch towards dreams you have for your friends, family, and community. Everyday new ideas flood my mind. I look at empty, abandoned properties and dream of projects that could validate an upgrade of the space for community benefit. I enamor the idea of extending. 

At the same time, I wonder about the impermanence of this experience, and that also invigorates my desire to BE PRESENT. I worked so hard to get to this point of connection and understanding. I want to make the most of it by ENJOYING it, not just trying to employ it. So, look for more favorites posts to come.

Favorites...

It is about ONE YEAR since I arrived in Macedonia. And while it feels like I exercised more resistance to my immediate environment and made more cultural and social missteps in the last year than ever before, I surrendered to this Peace Corps Macedonia service in September. It is starting to feel quite homey. (како дома)

As one of my favorite authors, Eckhart Tolle writes, “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” I feel like my anthem for this month is to remember to live in AWE! Now that more makes sense to me, it is easy to grow weary about or emphasize what I may never adapt to, never understand, or never learn to appreciate. It is easy to focus on what I don't have time to attempt or finish. HOWEVER, amidst my on-going and new projects, I want to welcome what is peculiar and what evokes my curiosity in the present moment. 

AND SO, I give you, a month of images of what I LOVE here. (Not necessarily a top 10, 20, or 30, but certainly a tribute to what helps me live in the present here.) 

Baba Canka, my neighbor, is just one of MANY Baba's (grannies) in my life. Baba Siova is my Home Baba, my Baba of Baba's, however, this phenomena of older women inviting me to coffee, telling me their mini-life story, is just too precious. One day, a few fellow volunteers and I were in a park waiting for a bus. This Baba with the CUTEST giggle invited us over for coffee, a typical custom here. We couldn't go because we had to leave for the bus, but it is this level of curiosity, generosity, and hospitality that makes Babas a super score in Macedonia.

I really like the balance of working in the Primary and High School this year. While I love my high schoolers, who will be featured later in these entries, the Primary School students in my Creative English Camp this summer gave me lots of laughs and a new confidence to teach with the active methods I have employed for years.

Also, I introduced them to Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham! We did a Reader's Theater of this book, which was totally new to them, and it was a blast. Yes, the story is as funny to me as it was when I was four, and yes it was as funny to nine- and ten-year-olds as it is to four-year-olds.

New routines, new habits, a new outlook! I started hiking on Sunday mornings with a friend from Oro (traditional dance, also to be featured later) and Yoga. We speak in Macedonian about life, like therapy, like enlightenment. Afterwards I go to the market (на пазар) and meet up with a vendor who befriended the volunteer in my community before me. Again, we talk about life, cultural exchange, being a better person through choice and self-study. It is a rich Sunday morning routine. This is a picture of a hike to the windmills behind Bogdanci. Breathtaking and humbling. 

 My host mom is my rock here. She listens. She advises. She cooks, cleans, and cares. She is a tough cookie with a soft inside. Magdalena, my mom (мајка ми) laughs heartily.

Of course we need a discussion of GLOW and the amazing young, female leaders I am meeting as a mentor and counselor to GLOW Camp and Clubs. Seeing the Macedonian female youth plan and implement meetings, play and connect socially, and work to express themselves in English (maybe their second, third, or fourth language) gives me hope for the future of the world, even beyond Macedonia!

This anniversary marks a year of things I have given up in combination with things I have gained. Again, quoting Eckhart Tolle, “You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are,” I am reminded to BE and not to DO so much as a means of BEING. This life long lesson patiently nudges me, even when I kick and scream and beg for former examples of my self definition based on DOING. Yet, I see and feel the growth from the void of activities, and I welcome the blessing of open time to discover the essence underneath the "business," or better yet busy-ness.