PST Placements

A quick update as we are packing and meeting host families in half an hour. We just got our PST placements and I am very excited.

First, my training group is amazing- Kenzie, Morgan, Claire, Shannon, Julie, Amy, Andreas, Anna, and I. We are very well matched as a group. And, we have awesome LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators).

Second, we are going to a small village near Veles. Veles is in the center of the country. We are not supposed to publicly disclose our exact location for safety reasons, but if you really want to know, send me a Facebook message. We will meet our families soon and we have to read a sentence in Macedonian to them. Our sentence tells us something about our family. Mine sentence sentence says Ќепката на Томе се вика Бојана. Which you would pronounce Kyepkata na Tome say vika Boy-ana. It means: Томе has a daughter who is called Бојана.

Hopefully more info soon. Because I will be in a small village, we do not have an internet cafe, but we were told the school where we will be studying has free wireless. We just received Macedonian cell phones, but they are pay as you go and its not exactly cheap, so I don't really plan on using it outside of my Macedonian/Peace Corps friends.

Macedonia is playing Spain in EuroBasket today at 4:30 our time, you should check out the game (or at least the results as I can't imagine it will be a highly publicized game in the US).

Ciao!

Здраво oд Македонија!

So I know I posted last night and not a whole lot to update on. However, I will have internet today, tomorrow, and then I may not. It all depends on my home stay family and their accommodations. We find out who are families are on Friday, which is very exciting.

A few highlights/things I haven't mentioned yet.

• If you come visit, do not flush the toilet paper. Only the most soiled piece may be flushed. The pluming infrastructure here is not able to handle toilet paper, so every bathroom has a small garbage can next to the toilet where you place your used paper.
• Pictures are to come. I am still investigating what is the best option to share photos.
• Macedonians and Americans have some very different body language sometimes. In language class today, the whole group of Americans thought we were being taught how to say, "I am not good" when asked "How are you?" because our language instructor swung her fist and was not smiling. She intended it to be a happy gesture, however, we all misunderstood.
• Macedonia plays Lithuania tonight in the EuroBasket Final Round tonight. It is a huge deal here and everyone is super excited to see if they move on. Needless to say, many of us will be venturing from the hotel outside of Kumanovo into town to enjoy some скопско, a Macedonian beer brewed just a few miles away in Skopje, and cheer on Macedonia. We were even taught the cheer to use- "Go Bo Go" for the most popular player, Bo McCalebb.
• We met with the US Ambassador to Macedonia, Ambassador Paul Wohlers, the sixth U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia. He was sworn in on August 11th of this year by Hillary Clinton.

Македонија!

I have arrived in Macedonia (or Македонија in Macedonian). It has been a great experience so far. We were the first group ever to arrive in the new Alexander the Great Airport (opened only days before we landed) in the capital of Skopje and there were lots of current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) and Peace Corps Staff there to meet us. Our luggage was loaded into a semi-truck and the 36 weary travelers onto a school bus and driven to our first training site, approximately half an hour from the capital. We are staying at a hotel here in Kumanovo until Friday when we leave for our training communities and our host families.

We have had trainings on medical (same diseases as USA), safety and security (stay away from the dogs and don't pet them and stay vigilant), language (I can now introduce myself in Macedonian), and ethnically diverse Macedonia (home to Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Roma as the main groups) to name just a little of what we have learned thus far.

My fellow MAK-16ers are amazing. Everyone comes from a different background and brings lots of unique skills and experiences to the table. Our group has people from Washington, Kansas, Washington D.C., Georgia, Texas, California, Maryland, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon, New York, and many other states. We collectively speak 13 different languages (or around that number). We have top business executives who quit their jobs and people fresh from college. The age of our group ranges from 21 to people in their 60s. However, we all are here with three common goals (and they happen to be the Peace Corps goals): 1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, 2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and 3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

One of the girls in our group has been creating a series of short videos about life in Macedonia so far. There is one video from the airport and one from the first few days in Kumanovo. For some of the new followers, there is an awesome YouTube video that was created by a former volunteer, but its content has excited many of us.