Macedonian Christmas

          After having our Peace Corps Christmas, we celebrated NYE and next was Macedonian Christmas.  Here the religious calendar is based on Eastern Orthodoxy and that's why Christmas is celebrated on January 7th not December 25th.  Also, Santa Claus is considered a weird thing and most of my students don't really care about him.  There also wasn't a lot of Christmas build up like there is back home.  For example, Christmas music starts in mid-November at some places, much to my annoyance. Here that didn't happen until about two weeks before January 7th. I think that's because there are so many cultural gatherings that people are together for weeks before Christmas, so it doesn't have the same feeling it does to us. 

          The day of, we got up and went to church.  In my village, the church is central and isn't just a place of worship but is also a social gathering.  Now you might be thinking that the service would be a traditional hour long service that was highly ritualized.  You're right on the latter but not on the former.  Check it out for yourself.

Heading in with half the village already there.

Everyone gets a candle and lights one while saying a small prayer. 

You go into the church where the woman stand on the left and the men on the right.

          We stayed there for a good 20 minutes then we went outside to greet other people coming in to the church.  Some guys were handing out топло ракиа, hot rakia, since it was about 15degrees.

See the pot of rakia?

          Here's a funny tidbit half the village knew who I was but for people just meeting me they thought I was Daniella's brother visiting from Australia.  How else could they explain my strange accent and limited Macedonian?

          Later that day, around 9pm, we went to a friends nameday celebration.  A nameday celebration is when a person's name is the same as the Saint in the calendar.  So if your name is Christian then you have a nameday in honor of Christ. Same goes for Petar, Peter, Michael, Mikael etc.  Now when we went to the nameday I actually recognized everyone there.  The past month I'd been going to every slava, nameday and na gosti with my family so I was able to put names to faces.  I said hello, small talked for a minute then went to chat with the host's son, Christian, since he knows English. 

          We talked and then some more people came in, including Daniella's mother and father.  I know them both and they're great people.  They sat down with Christian and I on the couches we said hello and then Daniella's mom turned to me and yelled right into my ear, "KAKO CE, DOBRO?" Translated, "How are you, good?" Everyone just stared but I managed to not laugh and responded, "Dobro baba jac razbiram ti."  "Good, I understand you." I then added in English "I'm not deaf." while pointing to my ear.  Everyone laughed, she laughed I gave her a hug and now she teaches me a little about her cooking for a bit every time I see her.

          A couple of minutes after that we headed to another nameday but this was unlike any I'd been to yet.  Everyone there was in their mid 40's and under, there was a lot of modern Macedonian music and decorations.  It was more of what I would consider to be a Christmas party than a nameday.  I loved it. 

Every host always has a full spread.

Turned out the host was one of Goce's best friends from school. So things loosened up pretty quickly.

Especially after a little vino.

          Later on, I told the hosts, their grandmother and Goce and Daniella about what had happened at the previous nameday.  By the end of the story everyone was crying from laughing so hard.  It was a great feeling just being able to share an experience in Macedonian with everyone, even for a moment. 

Winter, Without Power & NYE

          Well the holiday season has come and gone for everyone and mine is just getting started.  I did have a nice Christmas hanging out with my fellow Ohrid PCV's.  For most of last week I was without power because of a snowstorm that turned into an ice storm.  I finally got power on NYE, which was a good thing because no one wants to dance with a smelly man. 

          First, take a look at the snowstorm, it's beauty and what I did without power.  Honestly, it was really refreshing to not have power, a connection to the internet and TV.  I read several books, played dominoes, cards and chess with my family and cooked on a wood fire stove.  Almost all of my family back in TN has a fireplace or wood fire stove so I was quite comfortable working with one.

This was the Christmas Eve sunset.

The snow started Sunday afternoon and didn't quit until Monday.  It's quite rare for Ohrid to get snow so this was a surprise for the whole town.

Shoveling the driveway before the temperature dropped to -10 C, 14 F, was a great idea. It didn't get above freezing until a week later. 

"Оган" or fire.

It was clear, gorgeous and cold.

This picture was taken just before the snowstorm started since we'd had a little bit of snow Saturday night. The castle in the background is Samuil's Castle that overlooks Ohrid.

My host father and I threw down on some chess. 

Since it was -18 to -20 degrees C, or 0 degree F, the crowds were a bit smaller for NYE in Ohrid than normal.  Also, the roads here were shut down for most of the week so traveling was difficult. 

Still there were plenty of people out and about.

Victoria, Alex and I 

No that's not a ponytail that's a foot long rat tail behind Alex.

Yeah they're dancing on the tables. I dug it.

          

I made some friends. 

We took full advantage of my returned electricity, made guac, nachos and watched college football. It was a great feeling seeing UT whoop up on Iowa.  Butch knows how to take great talent and make them work to be better.

          Now NYE was a lot of fun but I did feel two things.  First, I finally had culture shock.  I haven't really felt it yet because everything looks, feels and smells so similar to home.  It was when I was out talking to Serbians, Bulgarians, Croatians and the locals that I realized how culturally different we are from one another.  I would speak in Macedonian for a few sentences and everyone would answer in English because they knew I was foreign and probably American.  Second, I've got to find a soccer club or some sort of athletic club to meet some local people.  After not playing anything for months I'm ready to get on a field again and make some friends that way.

 Today is Macedonian's Christmas Eve.  I really don't know what to expect but I know that there's going to be a large dinner here.  

Срекна Нова Година (Happy New Years)

Christmas In Ohrid

          This past weekend I hosted a Christmas party at my place.  Because of everyone's schedule and our Macedonian work schedules here there wasn't a way for us to get together on Christmas.  So we had it a little early but it worked out perfectly.  Personally, I love the holidays and always get filled with the "Christmas spirit" and wanted to share that with my fellow PCV's.  My host family was happy to help host a large American "slava" and without them it wouldn't have been such a success.  (Nor would have there been a fireworks show)!  I also have to thank each volunteer that came, without their contributions to cooking and chipping in, the party wouldn't have been so much fun.  

As you can see we had quite the spread.

Merry Christmas y'all!

A brief speech was made since there was delicious food to eat.

Before the dance party we made Santa decorations.

There was an impromptu dance party.

Goce, my host father, joined in on the fun!

          Lastly, I want to wish each of you a happy and merry Christmas.  As I'm writing this I'm having very strong feelings of missing friends (especially the Roo's), family and Nashville. I'm fortunate to be surrounded by great people here in Macedonia and am grateful to enjoy spending time with them.  Hug your friends and family this holiday season, you never know when you'll see them again.

St. Naum (Свти Наум): The Pearl Of Macedonia

          If Ohrid is the Jewel of the Balkans, then Sveti Naum is the Pearl of Macedonia.  Sveti Naum was founded in 905 by St. Naym himself under the Bulgarian empire. He's buried in the original church but the church you'll see in the pics was built over the original in the 16th century. Here's a neat fact, it's home to a flock of peacocks, including an albino one but I couldn't find him.  Click here to see historical photos of the monastery that date to the 19th century.  It still looks very similar to what I saw.  

          Before our visit I knew that St. Naym was a huge tourist destination here in the Balkans but since it's December no one was here. Yet I was unprepared for the beauty of the site as a whole. The water was nearly perfectly clear, at one point I was watching ducks dive in the water, 300 ft on a cliff above them, and never lost them while they were underwater.  To put it into perspective imagine the scenery of the Tennessee River, the Potomac outside DC, or the Colorado River in the Rockies but without any, I mean ZERO, water, noise or air pollution. No boats were out, no cell phones constantly ringing, nothing was on the water except for the ducks. Just imagine sitting on a cliff and viewing the newest snowfall on the Smokies/Rockies/DC landscape while watching large fish swim in 20-30ft deep water and 80ft away from the shore. It was remarkable.  I hope the pictures do it justice. 

Overlooking Sarah's, girl in the glasses, village.  Yes, she lives on the water.

No it's not Walden pond but it could be.  Actually, it's the pond that feeds Ohrid Lake. 

It runs out under the dock and into the lake here. 

The peacocks were just walking around.

Look how clear the water is.

That's the hotel behind me.

This was just gorgeous. The hill in the foreground is in Macedonia and the mountains behind it are in Albania. We could've walked to Albania if we wanted to.

Sarah was deep in thought.

Another great mountain shot. 

Victoria cheesing. 

The peahen's hung out next to the monastery.

Sveti Naum.

The Ohrid group, Alex, Victoria, Sarah and I.

They're a handful.

A massive tortoise we found.  

Another, smaller, church up behind Sveti Naum. 

Imagine the dog from the movie "It" and you'll get this guy's personality.

Stunning. 

Soaking it all in before heading home. 

          After walking around and taking it all in we headed back home.  However, on the way home we passed something I missed earlier in the day and that was a guard tower built and operated by Italian troops during WWII.  This place is truly layered in blankets of history.  

End of PST Part III: Swearing-In

          After enjoying that great Thanksgiving Feast we were up bright and early to catch the bus for our Swearing-In in Skopje.  Before we left my host family surprised me by giving me a dress shirt to wear.  It matched up perfectly and they were happy to see me in it.  Swearing-In was a large event that our host families, PST staff, current volunteers, national press and the Macedonian president were all present at.

          Our country director, Kathleen Corey, US Ambassador Paul Wohlers and the Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov all gave nice speeches.  However one of the cooler things was that two of our own gave speeches in Albanian and Macedonian.  I give huge props to Bonnie Smith and Andrew Bagnato for giving them quite articulately.  

Everyone milled around catching up.

It was a well attended event. 

Bonnie giving the Albanian speech.

Andrew giving the Macedonian speech.

Everyone together, dignitaries included.

The Sveti Nikola training group.

My LCF, Tome. 

The other Sveti Nikola LCF, Volkan, rocking the bow tie.

Our country director, Corey, between Susan and I.

My host family, Igor, Blage and Chezana.

Our PST training manager, aka "Mother Hen", Evelina.  

          Now, as I was sitting there I was thinking about the speeches's content but also appreciating the moment itself.  I'd spent so many nights after a long and wearisome shift wondering if my Peace Corps goal was going to become a reality.  I'd think, "Am I wasting my time, my potential? Azerbaijan had bottomed out at the last moment would Macedonia do the same?"  Sitting there in that ceremony I realized that I hadn't wasted my time, I'd just learned how to be patient.  With that I'd learned how to stay focused on a goal and not trip along the route to it.  Nothing is earned without preparation, dedication and consistency.