Field Day

Learning the culture and traditions of our adopted countries is only one aspect of service. Following in the footsteps of an individual or a group by repeating an event or some actions can give rise to traditions.  Here in Macedonia an annual event named Field Day has become a poignant MAK tradition.

This event takes place in October, usually 6 weeks after the arrival of the new group of Peace Corps trainees. Within another six weeks all the volunteers completing their 27 months of service will have left Macedonia as RPCV’s (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers).

On the one hand there is the hope-filled energy and excitement brought by the new group who are learning about Macedonian culture and traditions, its’ aspirations to join the EU, the different cities and villages where they may be assigned after the completion of training.  They learn about the different ethnicities that don’t call themselves Macedonians, but Albanians, Roma, Vlach, Bosniaks and Turks, even though they have lived through 4 or 5 generations on this land. 

On the other hand there is talk of plans to travel through other regions of the world, what graduate school options await them or just waiting to go back to the States and chill out. There are those volunteers who have formally extended their service for another year and must take one month off from site.  Other volunteers, who have delayed their COS (close of service date), as there is some unfinished work at their sites and they will leave in a few months.

All during this time, my peers and I are busy organizing “getting to know each other games”, setting up the pot-luck picnic lunch and selling souvenir calendar and t-shirts.  We also manage the rummage sale of bits and pieces of paraphernalia, such as waffle makers, blenders, irons, extension cords, musical instruments, stationary bikes, clothes, shoes, handbags, etc., that the departing volunteers no longer need and that would be useful for the incoming volunteers. We nod our heads, listen, smile as all these conflicting emotions flow around us, thinking that it was just the other day we were the newbies’ and didn’t have a clue of where we were going to live and what it would entail.

Time is a very elusive concept for a volunteer! Time goes incredibly slowly when we are throwing out ideas at site hoping one will stick.  We wait for things to happen for days at a time and nothing happens – so we start a hobby, learn to cook, read an incredible amount of books, learn about new internet sites to watch free movies and TV shows, maintain a blog and/or multiple facebook pages, take an incredible amount of pictures of everything dreaming of turning it into an album, a photo exhibit, etc. 

Then a project sticks and there are not enough hours in the day to fine-tune the details and get things off the ground – designing, scanning, printing, are not the quick trip to Kinko’s at midnight, but can take a few days to load everything on a flash drive, go to the nearest city in a combe (minibus) get things printed and come back to find your flash drive has picked up a virus. Things start happening and you are soaring on the top of the world, feeling that you have arrived.  Some projects work and others don’t and sometimes the unexpected happens and the project disappears from our grasp. You learn how to function in a simultaneously structured and unstructured environment! A place where time flies by and doesn’t move at all!

Field Day takes place in Skopje – the capital city rapidly growing into an international destination as development money has opened up Macedonia to international tourism. I can go to the movie theater, a Bob Dylan concert and attend a weeklong jazz festival. I can buy butter (not in my town), peanut butter and avocado.  I can shop in an upscale international mall or walk along the river on a wide river walk and eat at restaurants offering more than Macedonian foods.

Then reality sets in when I call my combe bus driver and he asks me to wait for him at 5:00pm and he doesn’t arrive till 6:00pm.  I am not complaining, as I know he will not leave me stranded and he will pick me up from the street corner most convenient for me in the big city.  This is, after all, only one example of the cultural experiences that I had volunteered for.