Remembering home

One evening, around 6 pm I headed towards the fields east of the village for my walk. I met many villagers’ working in the field or herding sheep home. I went east, and then turned north to link up to a farm road I had been on. I had to cut across some fields in order to do that. Meanwhile it had became dark and though I made my way home, it became a source of concern to those who had spotted me that I did not return back the same way! The next day I tried the opposite direction in the afternoon, in broad daylight. The hill to the west is much higher and one can see about 4 villages in the distance. If I was a painter I would like to capture this vista on a canvas with the red tiled roofs seen at a distance and the rough stony farm road at my feet.  I think I will make this my daily route.  I wish I could send you a picture but a photograph with my amateur camera will not capture the essence of the place.

There are four trainees in our CD group, with one living with a family in another village. I am fortunate that my partner is in this village, so in addition to reviewing our homework assignment made available to us in electronic form, we were able to spend a few minutes Saturday morning preparing for our practicum; site visits to two different organizations on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. Our assignment is to focus on the physical & human resources, as well as the sustainability and funding aspects of the organization. After each team visits each of the 2 ngo’s and one municipality twice, a total of 6 site visits, we will be able to put all the information we have gathered together for a written a case study featuring these 3 organizations. The case study is to be presented to the big group mid way through training. My surmise is that this practical experience is designed not only to dispel some anxiety of actually working with an organization after the conclusion of training, but also to expose us to the culture of these three organizations, which in the future may be selected as a PCV site based on the information collected.

Back to my Macedonian adventure! Today my breakfast (loosely translated as poyadok) consisted of boiled fresh quail & chicken eggs, diced tomatoes picked just before serving and bread and marmalade (made on Monday with apples, pears, peaches and plums) with some coffee. If only this could continue…….it will change when I’m in an apartment, so I am making the most of it.  Lunch, which sounds like ‘rucheck’ in Macedonian is often was a meal of Maedonian peppers cooked with eggs (a ratio of about 10 peppers to one egg), white cheese and sliced tomatoes.  Dinner is usually fruit, currently grapes are in season, and bread with aivar. Cold cuts and yellow cheese is always set out, but is optional. Last night they served honeydew and a locally grown watermelon from the farm of one of the relatives!

The local bus service between the village and the city appears to be private, as there is no uniformity among the buses. Neither are the buses painted with firm name nor are there signs at bus stops. A single wooden bench or a wave of the hand along the route will stop the bus. The price though is fixed at 20 denari’s from this village to the city center, a distance of approximately 5 km. These buses are called “combi’s. They are extended minivans with most of them having 3 rows of seats. One combi owner had modified a sliding door in a garage type operation to hinge it adjacent to the front door. One could see the work of the mechanic, as no attempt had been made to finish it for cosmetic reasons. 

I went with the family in the combi to the city over the weekend.  This is the same place where we will be having our site visits.   As wew are expected to use public transportation or the combi for travels during our training, I now know the pick up and drop off points, as well as an orientation to the city center from the village. The hotel we stayed at last week was northeast to the city center, while the village is more south, southwest. Going to the center was like going to a familiar place. Visiting the green market, reminded me of a flea market, with open stalls. There did not appear to be any bargaining being done, as many vendors had rough had written signs on stiff brown cardboard atop the vegetables. I spotted, cucumbers, carrots, eggplant, leeks, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage and dill pickles along with the staples, like potatoes, onions, garlic as well as the dried white bean. Flat leaf parsley was the only spice. I remembered the fennel growing by the wayside and in some home gardens near the hotel, but there was none at the market, neither did I see any basil, though in one of the gardens in the village, the family has planted a couple of basil plants. From this, I venture to guess salt, parsley and peppers are the common flavorings used. We ventured in a regular grocery store to pick up butter and yogurt – along with the usual meats and cheese that my family favors.

The feeling of being far away from home is settling in my gut as I am unsettled by constantly reaching for my dictionary or notes to compose simple sentences!