Tetovo

            It's been a busy week training, having our Macedonian language lessons and getting to know one another but we were able to get out of our school and head into town.  We're near the town of Tesovo which is primarily Albanian.  However, there are plenty of Macedonians so we visited both a Mosque and an Orthodox Church.

This mosque is famous for it's age, it was founded in 1495, and that it's painted. 

It's rude to carry dirt into the mosque from your feet so you wash them first. 

It's original paint and clearly is very detailed.

Peace Corps peeps.

I have no idea what this says.

The interior was beautiful.

This part of the wall is facing towards Mecca and is where you would pray.

Max busted me on the group selfie!

            We left the mosque and went around town to the Orthodox Church.  It wasn't as old as the mosque but was very important to the people in the community.

The moment we pulled up we were swarmed by these guys.

The church was right above town and next to a natural spring. It looked and smelled fantastic.

I didn't want to get busted again so I had a real pic taken.

I couldn't get a pic without the light ruining the shot so that's why my hand is there. 

This is the altar where people pray. Like the mosque no one sat in rows or chairs. 

            I really enjoyed seeing two different places of worship right after each other.  It helped me to understand that here in Macedonia both Islam and Christianity are very, very important but do not intersect with one another.  Afterwards we were starving so we met up with a volunteer who's been here for a year and had some dinner. My wifi wasn't letting me load a picture of my "doner", basically a falafel, so I'll try to later. 

            Tomorrow we head to our training villages and meet our host families that we'll stay with for the next three months. I'll post that over the weekend but in the meantime enjoy yours!