Thanksgiving and Swearing In!

I heart random deep conversations with strangers.  I heart life, and the growth process that is internally visible daily.  I heart genuine people, and genuine friendships, and the honesty that creates them.  I appreciate being proven wrong when you are given a negative first impression, and don’t appreciate being given a good first impression only to be proven wrong later.  Especially when it comes to the character of a fellow human.  I love all types of relationships and the dynamic that they bring to your self-awareness, and I love being called out on the good and bad aspects of how I convey myself, as that only increases self-awareness, thus benefitting everyone involved.   I wish those that needed to adjust their self-awareness the most could actually handle being called out on it and wouldn’t pretend otherwise. 

I love finding the conditions that make your soul feel at home, and I love leaving that comfort zone to stretch yourself as well as validate and strengthen your appreciation for the latter.  I love music that puts you in a place that you weren’t expecting to go, and what you can sometimes find in that place.  Adversely, I love knowing the place you want to go, and the exact music to listen to to get you there.  I love getting butterflies in my chest because it’s even better than butterflies in your stomach.  I love dreaming and then watching my life unfold into said dream.  I love the smell of Thanksgiving, the smell of Christmas, the scent of the air right before the first snow, right before it rains, and in Montana at dusk in the middle of summer. 

I love this epically beautiful journey called life and seeing the endless ways that each individual chooses to spend it.  Especially when it is for something bigger than themselves.  This brings me to today.  Today was Thanksgiving, as well as our official Swearing In as Peace Corps Volunteers. We have been through 3 months of training, madness, emotional rollercoaster rides, ups and downs, a million meetings, language classes, interviews, piles of paperwork, na gostis, presentations, skits, panels, briefings, pining for mail and packages, bathroom adventures, and myriad other things depending on the individual.  We have gained more than I thought possible in three months; books, weight, paper, new families, new friends, new language skills, information and knowledge, and most importantly individual experience.  We have been reminded that: things take time, our way is definitely not the only way, there is always someone with a bigger cross to bear than your own, food=love, you can never have too many families, sometimes stress can make people meaner than whiskey or tequila, and sometimes a freezing cold shower is just what you needed that day. 

I actually remember being about 12 years old and hearing about the Peace Corps and instantly knowing that I would do that one day.  And then I shoved it to the back of my mind for 13 years as a pipe dream and went about my life, unknowingly setting myself up to be here in this exact moment and place with every step.  Now that I’m living it, it doesn’t seem lofty and pipe dream-ish at all, it seems completely natural and obvious… while still being exciting, fantastic and utterly unbelievable.  Today, we had our ceremony at a beautiful restaurant in Kumanovo.   After a few addresses from the Ambassador, the Minister of Education and our Country Director, we took an oath from the Ambassador, that of which I believe to be the first ‘official oath’ I have ever taken.  It was a very surreal moment, yet again was very natural. We were then officially Peace Corps Volunteers.  We sang both national anthems, danced, and feasted on the most ridiculously amazing Thanksgiving smorgasbord I have ever seen.  We were warned that the buffet line does not exist here, and oh man were they right.  Many of our fathers proceeded to pour the rakija and wine as we all enjoyed the 20 turkeys and 100 accompaniments.  I must say that I never thought in a million years that I would be spending Thanksgiving being sworn in as a PCV surrounded by 200+ people in Macedonia.  After the feast, each training community performed their ‘Thank You’ presentations to our families and communities, and then we proceeded back home to spend our last nights with our families before moving to our sites in the morning.  Props to our families, who provided by far the best cheering section during our presentation! The bus ride home also included a bottle of homemade wine being passed around courtesy of my host tatko (dad).  We topped the night off at Talisman with some rakija courtesy of Linda, and said bye to our Kratovo friends that we have spent many a chill moment with and who have provided us with a magnificent venue and fabulous music to relax our racing minds. 

Last night was spent with my family at my baba’s house celebrating the christening of the newest baby in the family as well as a marriage. The feast and celebration that came along with this could be compared to a combination of Thanksgiving and New Years in the states, yet all crammed into a single dining room.  When I arrived I was starving, so proceeded to gorge myself on three (small) plates of the incredible spread laid before us.  The family members around me kept slyly putting more food on my plate even though I expressed that if I ate more I may need to head to the bolenitza (hospital).  They laughed, I moaned in pain, and then came the topper.  Baba sprung from behind me like the fairy godmother, bearing a (large) plate heaping with what was actually dinner.  Turns out everything I had just gorged myself on was simply the appetizer (or stretch your stomach in preparation for the real thing) round.  I nearly cried.  Rice, mushrooms, tomatoes, chicken, beef, pork (yes all three on one plate) lay before me in a mound made for a medieval king.  The cousin to my left proceeded to slice all of my meat for me while claiming that his grandfather was a butcher.  With his other hand, he managed to magically fill my glass with wine (turns out I’ve consumed a few things that I shouldn’t in the last couple of days… for the sake of new babies, Thanksgiving, PST commencing, and for love of my family. I have not regretted this…)

For my family’s thank you gift, I decided to do a painting of Kratovo as seen from their kitchen window.  I don’t feel that any gift I could give them would be able to convey the love and gratitude I have for everything they have shared with me in the past three months.  They have opened their home to me, instantly treated me as family, fed me, loved me, worried about me, taken care of me, gifted me, taught me, helped me, and done so with hugs, smiles and joy every day.  Today my mama gave me a single setting of dishes and silverware, two jars of precious ajvar, and a bag of fresh apples, oranges and mandarins, knowing that otherwise I may starve to death this weekend while I’m moving into my new apartment.  I truly hope that they visit often, so I can try to be a fraction of the host that my amazing host mama is. 

On a logistical note, I am moving to Negotino at 10 am tomorrow and don’t know when I’ll have internet going in my apartment.  Until then, Happy Thanksgiving…so much love and so much to be thankful for…

EM

Time

My time in Kratovo is drawing to a close, and whoa, what a ride this first three months has been.  Since the day we got to Macedonia, Peace Corps has inundated us with training after training, class after class, session after session, meeting after meeting in order to prepare us for our first three months at site.  Though we all pretty much still speak the language at the level of a 5^th grader, I feel otherwise 'prepared' in all other departments. 

The other night, as I sat on the deck with my host mama star gazing and talking about the differences in the celebrations of Christmas and New Year’s between our cultures, I thought, “Why haven’t I done this more often?” It was beautiful out.  I didn’t need a coat. The stars were in quite good force, the moon was lighting every roof on the mountain, and the fog was thinly rolling over the hillsides.  I could actually hear the wind whipping up the crevasses in the mountain because there was absolutely no other sound to take its place.  I wish I could remember more than 20% of my astronomy education from 8^th grade.  There have been a few moments that have reminded me of home since I’ve been here, and this was one of them.  I told my mama about Montana and how beautiful it is, and what about Kratovo reminds me of home.  I always think about the moment that I was in NYC when I was in high school and realized I had not yet seen one clean body of water or one star in the sky, and knew that I would never under appreciate my home and place of origin for the rest of my life.  I may love the city and everything it has to offer, but my soul requires nature, and lots of it. And I would gladly trade the sounds of human chaos for the sounds that the earth makes on its own.  Here is where I could go off on a hippie-like-tree-hugging rage against greedy humans and corporate destruction, but I think most of you that read this hear enough of that from me on a regular basis.

I’m now down to two weeks in Kratovo, and I’m trying to prepare for the tears that will flow when I leave my family and the lovely town that was my first home in Macedonia.  They warn us at the beginning about how wonderful the homestay experience can be and how emotional some volunteers and their families are after swearing in and the volunteers have to move to site.  While I know I would have been fine, I now can’t imagine having gone through this experience without my family, especially my mama and my little Mila.  I have been taken care of so wonderfully and lovingly, and I promise that I will pay forward the love and kindness that I have been shown somehow in my life.  While I’m definitely sad to leave my new loved ones in Kratovo, I know the relationships will endure, and we are already talking about the visits they will make to Negotino in spring to go fishing in Tikves Lake. 

Yesterday we headed to Skopje to meet with all sorts of European and Macedonian Governmental agencies as well as USAID, the American Corner, the main Peace Corps office and the US Embassy. It was a crazy day, and included a herd of sheep (actual sheep, not us) being marched through downtown Skopje. The entertainment never ends. Meanwhile, I continue to scratch the bites all over me that were left by the mysterious friend in my bed that I cannot find, and hope that I destroyed his existence with the bashing of bedding in the sun today.  I spent the weekend working on a big drawing/painting of the fabulous view of Kratovo out my family’s kitchen window as a going away/thank you gift for them, and am definitely excited to get to spend the next two years in a community so chock full of artists as Negotino is.  I’m not even there yet and I already have amazing creative support for beginning to teach an art class as well as exhibit and participate in artistic events.  Its going to be frickin’ dandy. 

Also on my mind has been getting a second Masters once I get back to the states.  I’ve been weighing the possibilities and options for a long time, and though I know I could change my mind a few more times while I’m here, I’m currently leaning in the Journalism direction.  At this very moment, the thought of going through grad school again gives me the heebies, but I know I’m not done racking up degrees and will want to do it eventually.  And with the post-service education benefits that PC provides, I would be silly not to.  Also, I have somehow slipped through without having to take my GRE’s yet for reasons I do not fully understand, and the programs I’m looking at require these silly assessments, so I suppose I can study for those in my spare time in the next two years as well.  Any prep tips on these, anyone? Thanks.  

Just finished reading Monkey Dancing by Daniel Glick, super fabulous, and have embarked on the journey that is said to be Guns, Germs and Steel, which has been on my list for awhile.   SOON I will have Skype again! Joy! :) 

Peace, love and gratitude as always,

Em

BOO T-Mobile

This blog entry is dedicated to the suckiness of T-Mobile.  

Dear T-Mobile.  I have been a happy and dedicated customer for the past 5 years of my life. I have never made a late payment, and I have even defended you to various disapprovers of T-Mobile. When I was preparing to leave for Peace Corps, I was even sad that I would not be able to use my phone that had still been kicking ass after those entire 5 years even after full submersion in a glass of beer in year 2 of its life, as well as multiple high-impact encounters with concrete and various other hard surfaces.  And then one fateful day in June of this year, that lovely phone finally stopped taking a charge and I knew it was about to die for good.  In order for me to get a cheap phone to use for my remaining 2 months in the country, you forced me to renew my contract.  I was resistant; as I knew I was leaving and would have to cancel.  You reassured me that I would not be charged a cancellation fee because I was leaving for the PC and there was an exception for that.  So I brought in ALL the paperwork you requested of me… my staging instructions, my invitation letter, my flight itinerary, everything.  I also talked to at least 6 of your employees, as well as 3 in person who took copies of my paperwork to make sure that I would not be charged the $200+$40 tax cancellation fee.  I left the country on September 11^th feeling comfortable that all would be well.  

TODAY, I check my bank account and lo and behold, a $263 charge has been deducted from my bank account on November 2^nd. “WTF” I scream at the computer screen as my vision blurs with anger… How many more people did I have to talk to to make sure that this was taken care of? Is T-Mobile staffed by 3^rd graders? Having no way to call them, and being that they don’t have an email address on the website, I choose the live chat option to tell them what idiots they are and to put my money back in my account immediately.  “I see ma’am that you were charged the cancellation fee.” No SHIT. “I also see that you provided the paperwork and weren’t supposed to be charged.” AWESOME. “I will put in a request for your money to be credited to your T-Mobile account. Then you can contact us and we will credit it back to your bank account.” Wait a minute.  I have to contact you AGAIN to get you to give me the money you stole directly out of my bank account when all you have to do is click a button? And when am I ‘allowed’ to contact you again to remind you how stupid you are and to give me my money? “December 8^th.” DECEMBER 8^TH? That is absurd I say, as I remind her of the ease with which she extracted the money from my account even though it said ALL OVER my account that I wasn’t to be charged this insanely high non-justifiable fee.  “I’m sorry ma’am, these things take time to process.” Yet you can snatch my money in under 3 seconds. What if I had closed that bank account and wasn’t even monitoring it, I ask, now that it is nearly drained anyway...  My credit slowly deteriorates without my knowledge for the next two years because I trusted a corporate group of f*@ktards to handle a seemingly CLEAR business transaction? BEAUTIFUL.  Oh wait, the transaction wasn’t benefitting THEM, I understand now! Thank you mysterious web-chat-help lady, please note in my account that I will not be returning to T-Mobile when I return to the states, and that I’ll be telling as many people as I possibly can about what bumbling idiots staff your company.  I could also insert a line about my hatred for the corporate world, but I will refrain for the sake of my already pulsing eyeballs.  

So here’s to you, T-Mobile. I’ll let you imagine the picture yourself.

Site Visits!

Let me start by giving enormous props to the PC placement staff.  I feel like I got the best placement I possibly could have given my interests, personality, work style, tastes… everything.  The last couple of days were a whirlwind of fantasticalness.  My counterpart is amazing, energetic, motivated, incredibly kind and helpful.  All the young ladies I’m going to be working with are just as fabulous as well.  I met nearly every other staff member at the municipality and was greeted with enthusiastic smiles and happiness in every department.  There seems to be a great energy there, and they have a TON of project work going on, which brings me much joy…I’m really looking forward to getting to work in a few weeks. 

The town itself is beautiful, and was much warmer than I packed for.  I was told it gets to be up to 104 F in the summer.  Holy crap.  Bonus? There is a giant pool that is open in the summer, which turns into a pool party at night until 5am.  There is a ton of art going on in Negotino as well, and I met a ridiculous amount of artists in the short time I was there.  The volunteer that is there already is working with an old crafts org, whose members do beautiful wood carvings and various other things.  Wednesday night we went and sat in for part of their workshop as they were beginning some clay bust sculptures.  My counterpart was enthusiastic about my painting, and is very excited about me teaching art in my spare time and is already working on organizing a group.  I also got approached about teaching English to a group of adults, but of course won’t be doing that until I have a little more Macedonian under my belt. 

There is a small organic grocery store, a large supermarket, a gym, an esthetician, tons of art, live music, sun, a pool, and pretty much all the little not-necessary-but-highly-appreciated extras that bring me joy.  Not to mention it’s silly close to Greece, and I have some amazing fellow volunteers at my site as well as in the neighboring towns.  I got a lovely private tour of the museum, and nearly busted a tear of joy and appreciation for simply being in a place with such an active art community and being put into a position in which I get to do things that I love to do everyday, help people, do my small part to make the world better, all while in a place full of kindness, generosity and natural beauty.  My life continues to amaze me more and more everyday.  Am I so blessed because I recognize and appreciate everything that I have and it continues to come because the positive energy manifests it? Or is it because I wrote this plan for my soul before coming here and it is just panning out as it is supposed to? I would like to think its both, constantly cycling and feeding into each other… but some days I just can’t help but think its all too good to be true and it scares me. 

During the three days I had so much more going through my head, and now that I have time to sit down and write about it I feel like I can’t think of enough to say to describe how happy and excited I am about my next two years here.  The only thing missing is brown rice and wheat pasta, so if you feel the need to send me a care package, you can fill it with those two things and I would be forever grateful.  I’ll have my address at the end of November, and I LOVE mail! So even if you want to just send me a postcard with a love note that would make my whole week, trust me :) My address now is:

Peace Corps Macedonia

c/o Emily Enger

Oslo 6

1000 Skopje

The internet situation in Kratovo is still dim, so I won’t be posting anymore pictures until I get to my site and get internet to my laptop again.  Did I mention we stood the entire 2 hours on the bus from Kratovo to Skopje, as well as from Skopje to Kratovo? It was quite interesting, and am looking forward to not doing that for awhile…  for now I’m going to unpack and head to bed, I’m a tired little biatch. Life is GOOD.

With gratitude,

Emily Jo