Engrish

This photo circulated the Peace Corps Network and was titled: Peace Corps Fail

So the Engrish here isn’t quite as prevalent as the English found at Daiso stores (Japanese dollar stores), it still can be found here- mostly on clothing and much of the clothing is imported from Turkey or China. Here are some of my favourite phrases I have observed on children’s clothing.

“Wild Valley Adventure Discovering Challenger” (Why not mix various tenses of English?)

“Crazy Shoes” (There are a surprisingly high number of shirts that feature pictures of tennis shoes)

"Boys Mans: Hip Hop Music" (Its music only for boys....and mans)

"Extrm Shirt" (Not to be confused with lame pants)

“CHAMPS: Experio Rimano: G. Washington: Coffee Sales” (George Washington, coffee, and a picture of an eagle)

"Frestybe Sk8barding" (I am assuming it was supposed to say: Freestyle Skateboarding)

"WDS: Wild Dolphin Sports: Phlic, Peas, Pective" (Love my dolphin sports to have some Pective)

"Batman: The Man in the Red Hood" (Wait did Batman and Little Red Riding Hood birth a child?)

My All-time Favourite: 

“Poker Knight: I Think My Pain Will Make You Flush”

(This was on a pink flowery track jacket worn by a 5-year-old. The only way I could interpret this where it could possibly make sense is if the “pain” was food poisoning and putting your children in clothing about food poisoning is just wrong.)

And for your future reading pleasure, check out Engrish.com for some more of everyone's favourite language!

Compound Words

Back in PST, when we had an English compound word that we didn't know in Macedonian, we would make up our own using the two parts (e.g. Snowman- Снегмаж snow- снег man- маж). One of our favourites was мажwich (more a hybrid of English and Macedonia meaning man-wich). On Friday, my 4th graders were learning some more food words and they had the word- hotdog, which is хајт дог in Macedonian, but they called it жешко куче (жешко- hot куче- dog) and I just had to laugh because they were doing the same thing we did. I guess it sometimes doesn't matter if you are 10 or 24, you learn the same way!

Along the hot dog note, I like that the plural for hot dogs in Macedonian is хајт дога (hot doga).

A HUGE Thank You to my Neighbours

If you ever loose your faith in humanity, come to Macedonia and I can guarantee it will be restored. I don’t think I have ever met such a welcoming and hospitable group of people as I have met here. They truly open not just their homes, but also their entire lives to you. I had the fortune today of two such instances.

Example 1:

 I was walking home from school and there was a baba (grandma) sitting outside her house getting wood for her fire. I had seen her before, usually on my way to school and she always said hi. Immediately, she said hi once again and then made me go into her house for coffee. She made me coffee, poured me a glass of the female fruity rakija, and placed a plate of sweets in front of me. We talked for the next hour or so while drinking and eating. She kept telling me how beautiful and nice and sweet I am and that she is going to cook me a special Macedonian specialty just because she likes me. She has a daughter who lives in Germany but is coming home in two weeks and said I have to come visit then (this is what I mean about their lives- she doesn’t just want me to meet her, but her daughter as well). As I was leaving, she packaged up some cookies for me to bring home.

Example 2:

Setting: Sara has been running low on wood. Her landlady said they would bring her more wood, over two weeks ago. Despite Sara reminding them, there has always been an excuse as to why it can’t happen that day (“It’s too cold today”, “Looks like snow”, “Its 5 degrees Celsius, not 6 degrees”, “It’s Thursday”, etc.). Sara has just gotten home from school and is gathering wood to start her fire for the day.

Enter Neighbour lady (NL)

NL: Здраво Сара. Како си? (Hello Sara. How are you?)

Sara: Добро. А вие? (Good. And you?)

NL: Супер. Што правиш? (Great. What are you doing?)

Sara: Јас треба да правам оген сега. (I need to build a fire now.)

NL: Ладно ли? (It’s cold, isn’t it?)

Sara: Да, Денис е многу ладно. (Yes. Today is very cold).

NL: Има тенки дрво? (Do you have starter firewood?)

Sara: Малку. (A little. Real translation: I haven’t had any for days but I am not going to just come knock on your door and say make me some wood despite you telling me to do so, so I have been digging around finding stuff that just barely gets my fire started)

NL: Сакаш уште сега? (Would you like more now? Or this is what I think she says.)

Sara: Да (Yes)

NL: Добро (Good)

Neighbour lady disappears. Sara starts collecting wood from her sad, sad woodpile and hauls one load around the house and up the stairs to outside her front door. When Sara turns around (literally a minute and a half later) two boys are standing in the yard next door looking at her.

Sara: Здраво (Hello)

Boys: Здраво (Hello)

Sara: Како си? (How are you?)

Boys: Добро (Good)

Sara continues back down her stairs and around the corner. Suddenly she hears neighbour lady order the boys to go to my yard from out a window.

NL: Сара, мојот син ќе сече дрво за тебе. (Sara, my son will cut you wood.)

Sara: Фала (Thank you)

Clearly Neighbour lady went into the house and told her son something along the lines of, “The poor helpless British girl (everyone always thinks I am from England) next door doesn’t have any more wood. You are going to go cut her some now.”

Boys, with axe in hand walk around and into Sara’s yard and start chopping wood. They chop a few pieces and then realize the wood left in Sara’s woodpile is junk. The boy who lives next door walks home and comes back with a few pieces of wood that is поубав (more beautiful). In the process, Neighbour lady’s son alerts his father, Neighbour man, about the state of my woodpile. Neighbour man appears and shakes his head. He starts barking orders at the two boys. An hour later, I had a box full of starter wood, a wood shelter filled with wood that was dug out from under the junk my landlord had dumped on top of usable wood, a sore back from all the work, and the mission to bake the best chocolate chip cookies ever just to start to thank you to the neighbours for saving me from becoming a popsicle.

First Care Package of 2012

Care package from my St. Peter family!

I have been fortunate enough to have amazing parents who are willing to send me care packages, despite the kind of ridiculous cost. However, yesterday, I received what may have been the best care package yet (sorry Mom and Dad) from some amazing friends of mine. I decided as a small thank you, to film the opening of said package and the result is below. I can't say it enough, thank you, thank you, thank you to my St. Peter family! If you want to come visit, you know you're always welcome!

Amazing art project made for me by the coolest 2nd grader I know!

A Day to Forget...Well Parts of It

If I had internet, this would have been my blog post for yesterday (Wednesday).

It snowed. A lot. It is supposed to continue snowing. A lot.

I went to the gradinka (Preschool/Kindergarten) for the first time today. Kids were full of energy and didn’t listen very well.

Hung out at coffee bar with Macedonian males for first time. Talked a lot of economics and politics.

Got puked on by a kid. Landlady washed clothes.

Discovered my Discovery Channel is back. All is good again.

However, lucky for you I didn’t have internet because that would have been kind of a downer of a post. Instead, I will say the same thing only I will stretch my thoughts/sentences, which will make it, in the words of Andres, “podobro”.

Everything I said about no snow, forget it. I have snow, lots of snow. It started Tuesday night and is still going strong now. It is supposed to continue snowing with big, heavy, flakes until Friday morning. The total for today was about a foot and it made walking up and down my hill to my house a little tricky. This morning I wasn’t sure if it would be icy so I pulled out the lovely Yak-Traks Peace Corps gave me after they saw my walk. I was laughed at my one lady because I looked funny wearing snow boots with Yak-Traks, my coat, hat, scarf, and gloves (I should point out that if I had been in Minnesota, I would have fit right in, no one would have noticed me wearing anything out of the ordinary. The Macedonians here don’t prepare for the outdoors quite the same).

Today was my first day at the Gradinka (Preschool/Kindergarten). I will be there once a week working with the lady who teaches English to some of the children there. It was fun to see the kids because they remind me of my preschoolers back in St. Peter. Most of the kids didn’t really listen today and just sort of ran about not paying attention to anything. My counterpart was flustered by their squirreliness. I told her kids are the same everywhere and I have had many days where my little ones just wouldn’t listen, especially when you factor in today was their third day back since the holidays and it was snowing like crazy. Those two factors, plus the fact there was a visitor are a recipe for disaster. 

After our classes at the Gradinka, my counterpart asked me if I would like to go to one of the coffee bars with her, her boyfriend, and one of his friends. I said sure as I had nothing going on and here was a chance to hang out with people my own age. On the way we stopped to pick up a little girl who has private English lessons with my counterpart. She is 6 and is really shy, but she was pretty cute. We get to the coffee bar, sit down, order drinks and about two minutes after our drinks come, the little girl gets sick. She starts coughing and then puking and I quick scoot my chair out of the way so the teacher can get her to the bathroom. Nope, the teacher asks for napkins and the kid keeps puking. Sweet. After getting her somewhat cleaned up, they leave (thank goodness). I am left with the boyfriend and his friend. Luckily the boyfriend speaks pretty good English (despite saying he doesn’t) and the friend understands everything I say even if he can’t speak much back. This was the first time since Lozovo I have actually hung out with Macedonian males and I didn’t have to worry about them thinking it was anything more than just having coffee (or actually tea and juice as no coffee was ordered). We talked a lot about politics (kind of a taboo subject for PCVs to get involved in, however I did very little of the talking and made it clear I can not express my opinion on anything related to Macedonian politics- Peace Corps rules). Hopefully I will be able to hang out more with them and their friends because it was nice being around people my own age.

I noticed a little kid puke on my pants and boots and wasn’t sure if she had gotten any on my coat or anywhere else. It was only a little, but those of you who know me, know I don’t do puke in any shape, form, etc. However, since I was with new people I had to keep my freak out on the inside. *Side note, as soon as I got home I ripped off my clothes in my doorway, threw them in a bag, and brought them down to my landlady to wash in her machine. There was no way I was hand washing those puppies. Oh and because I feel like someone (i.e. my father) would make a joke here if I don’t specify, I did put on other clothing before going down to my landlady’s, no worries there.

At least the night ended on a good note. When I came home from Vevchani/Veles, I noticed I had lost my Discovery Channel on TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV here, in fact, you might be thinking, wait you’re a PCV and you have a TV? I have two actually and my landlord pays for the TV service, and was so confused when I hadn’t used the TVs within the first month, so I tried it out one night and discovered I had Discovery Channel- Its good background noise when I am cooking or just need an English break. However, without Discovery Channel, I have had to resort to old fishing shows or shows about WWII (while WWII is interesting, you can only watch so much about Hitler and Mengele before getting kind of depressed). I also feel the need to mention that I have maybe 20 channels and within those, I have channels in Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbian, German, Italian, and English, so if I get sick of one language, I can switch to another. Best part is Discovery Channel came back today and Wednesday nights are when my current favourite show, Border Security, is on. There are two versions, Australia and USA and it features the many different agencies that control the borders of the two countries. Yes, it is kinda trashy TV and there definitely are some rather racist moments in each episode, but its still better than the soap operas that are popular here, right? Debatable I know. However, the episode tonight featured Roseau, Minnesota (pronounced on the show as Row-so) and the people who sneak between the U.S./ Canada border during the winter when the lakes are frozen.  Ah, the accents- it makes me feel at home! Clearly that is a sign I was meant to watch this show instead of na gosti-ing the neighbours tonight.

Did You Know…. About 400 semi-trucks full of garbage come in from Canada to Michigan every day and some border control agents have the job of searching through the garbage.

Vevchani 2012

Twas the weekend of Old New Year and all through the country, PCVs headed to Vevchani to see all the fun-try. 

Some wore masks, the others noses, we took many pictures with hundreds of poses. 

Anna and Lync

Amy, Lync, Misi, Jorgi, Claire, and Andres

Thousands were there to see such a sight, the US Ambassador even came in for the night.

The parade began with quite a big bang, there would be plenty of time to see the whole gang.

Cody and Stephen

Cameras came out and snapped a few shots, we managed to capture quite a lot. 

Austin was brave enough to let Slave up onto his shoulders.

The costumes were wild and some a little crude, one might even say some were a bit lewd. 

Cody made a new friend

We saw cacti and walruses, Hitler and Honest Abe, there were men dressed as women and one special babe.

Dead animals were flung along with some poop, despite the chaos the PCVs stayed a group.

Obama appeared and let out a yell, to Phebe he called, “my wife Michelle”! 

Thomas Jefferson strolled around and apples waddled by, there were warriors and fake blood and I can’t forget the eye. 

The parade may have ended, but the night was still young, there was oro to dance and songs to be sung.

Julie was lost, but only for a bit, she had wandered off to find somewhere to sit.

We danced and we laughed, we had Chris's game to play, the night ended with cupcakes and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Claire, Andres, Shannon, and Anna

Cupcakes for Claire's Birthday

Kapa and Klep

We awoke in the morning to much snow and ice, another day  in Vevchani sure would be nice. 

  

While wandering the village a snowball fight was had, against the local children the PCVs beat them bad.

Our fingers and toes were growing cold, but along came a table and sat down in the road. 

A topla rakija to drink then off we go, we follow the locals to where we don’t know.

The trees beckoned to us to follow them quick, we didn’t fall down despite the ground being slick. 

Rob and Morgan

The Trees had to help push a car up the road when it got stuck.

We were invited in by the local residents, we sat down and ate with our former presidents. 

We posed for a picture with a double, of our Country Director let’s hope we don’t get in trouble. 

This man shared some similarities to our Country Director here, so we had to take a picture!

After much food and drink we headed uphill, to the center we went to see the new thrill.

Not sure what these men were dressed up as, but Amy and I got a picture with them.

My new friend

The costumes were burning but the fire was low, people were focused on dancing the Oro. 

Dancing the Oro with our friends, the trees.

Team Lozovo escaped for an afternoon walk, we went up the hill to have a family talk.

Amy, Anders, Sara, Claire

We took family photos and watched children sled, we grew hungry and tired and wanted a bed. 

Claire, Sara, Andres, Amy, Anna, Shannon

As typical, we had to take a few entertaining photos too.

Who wouldn't want to go sledding when they have bright pink hair!

With our stomachs grumbling with hunger that night, we set out to find a food delight.

Everything was closed all around town, my smile quickly turned into a frown.

A nice man emerged from a slava party, he opened his shop to cook us something hearty.

Full and happy we went to the hotel to bed, with visions of Vevchani stuck in our head.

In the morning we woke to hear some news, a tale of a victim now with Vevchani blues. 

There were devils and skulls, burning caskets and trees, but one mighty man was brought to his knees. 

With one wrong step on the ice it was easy to slip, down Lync went, it was more than a rip.

A ride to Skopje, a prognosis made, to America Lync went with Boris to aid.

So ends our tale of Vevchani dear, next year we shall go back with only ice to fear.

Brrr....

The cold has set in. Now being a Minnesota girl, I should be used to cold, but as I may have said before, this is a completely different kind of cold. You not only have the cold outside, you have it inside and sometimes the inside cold is worse than the outside cold. You are cold when you wake up, cold when you go to work, cold when you shower, cold when you cook, cold when you go to sleep, you’re just cold 24/7. I have become very familiar with the site of seeing my breath inside my house on a regular basis. Earlier this week I stayed at another volunteer’s house and everyone kept asking why I would dare stay at Jason’s because its so cold (his place is too open so he doesn’t even attempt to heat it because his heater would do nothing- I hopped around his house in my sleeping bag). While there, I was definitely cold and told him I think his place beat mine out for coldness. However, I got home, after being gone for almost a week, and changed my statement. I came home to frozen pipes in my entire house and my toilet bowl being filled with solid ice, despite my landlady having come and built a fire at least once. I called my landlady to fix the situation because I was going to have to get creative about my bathroom needs if the problem wasn’t solved. She came with a few friends and in an hour they had it unfrozen. The process involved jamming a stick around in the toilet,  boiling water and dumping it in the toilet, placing a heater on a plastic basket with the extension cord running through a pool of water on the floor and telling me to leave it on all night, and then telling me to leave the water running in my place all night, flush the toilet every half hour or so, and keep switching the pots of hot water from under my kitchen sink (those pipes were still frozen when they left and the solution was try to heat them with steam from the water below). Yet another interesting experience in this country. And don’t worry, I didn’t leave that heater running as it was all night, or running at all for that matter. As soon as they left, that situation was resolved because I didn’t feel like the solution to frozen pipes was starting a fire in my house. The pipes have frozen outside of my house a few times since then; I have water, then I suddenly don’t. I believe the question “Am I going to have to pee in my yard facing my neighbours?” has crossed my mind about 6 or 7 times since Tuesday.

The ice sitting at the bottom of my frozen toilet.

Yup, can't use this right now.

I start my fire every morning and it burns all day. Theoretically the room its in should be warm, however when I got to bed in there, I wear about 8 layers on top, two on the bottom, three pairs on socks- 2 pairs SmartWool, my hat, and I curl up in my “warm to 20-degrees” down sleeping bag with a thick blanket doubled up on top and, you guessed it, I am still cold. My landlady told me yesterday the weather will be like this until the end of April probably. You better believe that made me excited. I guess I can’t complain too much since this weekend was the first time I have had snow and ice in my town. The temperature has been hovering around -13 Fahrenheit at night the last few nights. We were supposed to start school back up from the break this Friday (tomorrow), however, due to the cold, the Ministry of Education cancelled school and we will start on Monday, which probably makes more sense because as every teacher knows, not a lot would be accomplished on Friday. Now this isn’t an “Arkansas got a ½ centimeter of snow we need to cancel school” situation- I can see their point in that the schools haven’t really been heated since the end of December and it would take a whole lot of wood to get them even slightly warm just for one day- it doesn’t really make sense.

The cold/snow/ice even took one of our PCVs this past weekend in Vevchani (another post for another time). Vevchani is a village built on a hill. We were all slipping and sliding around because of the ice, and many of us took minor tumbles (the bump on the back of my head is almost gone!). However, while trying to escape the craziness and head back to Prilep, one of the volunteers, Lync, slipped and didn’t end up quite so lucky. He ended up in a taxi headed to the hospital in Skopje where he found out his humorous bone was split completely in two and sometimes he could, “feel them [the two pieces] dancing with each other”. After a few days in the hospital, he was medivaced on a flight with one of the Peace Corps drivers bound for Washington D.C. for surgery and rehab before hopefully coming back to finish out his service. He has 45 days to get better or else he is medically separated, however, knowing Lync, he will be back in no time. If the pictures below don’t give you an idea of what kind of character Lync is, one of the things Lync commented on most was the fact that in the shuffle of the weekend, he lost his toothbrush.

Before

After