Winding Down

Two years from now, these first few weeks in Macedonia may just be a blip in our memories, as the focus changes from learning coping skills, including language, cultural nuances, family and community building, etc. This afternoon we had our formal oral language assessment and the next three working days will be filled with typical end of year time filling activities.

Before arriving here I had vague notions of what was to be expected of me and what was it that I will contribute. This acclimatization period accomplished far more and in greater depth than one would imagine, while at the same time meeting two of the three goals of the Peace Corps. One, bringing about an understanding of what an American is, divorced from the image presented on television and two, bringing about an understanding of Macedonian family life that I have shared with you. Learning to speak the language, which is really a reflection of the culture of the people is one of the more important ways in my opinion, to learn a culture. Certain words and the structure of sentences show indirectly of the evolution of the society and on which emotions and nouns it puts its emphasis.

I had written about Slava in an earlier post, but this weekend most of the families in our community have been preparing special dishes and getting ready for the most popular Slava this evening weekend -starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. Helping my family make some of the ‘sweet table’ dishes brings with it a sense of belonging and loss. Over the course of 9 weeks, we have established a functional comfortable rhythm in our daily movements. This time next week, living in my own space will be a loss of this rhythm and an opportunity to create a new one.