Some days in the life

It's been a crazy month - well, a crazy year for me so far. The Sheepbreeder's Ass'n is pretty quiet in the winter, so I frontloaded a lot of my vacation time. Besides my Africa trip, I flew to NYC for a 4 day weekend to celebrate my daughter turning 30! Yep, hard to believe, Kacy is now 30. But more about that later - first, Macedonia.
The picture above is of my friend Nicola above the village she lives in, Istabanje. I visited for a weekend and had a great time. As you can see, Istabanje is both small and located in a beautiful spot. I am really enjoying wandering around Macedonia and seeing a variety of places. Eastern Macedonia is quite different than Western Macedonia. It's almost entirely ethnic Macedonian and Macedonian Orthodox, so there is no call to prayer to measure your day by. It looks less prosperous and while hilly, does not have the towering mountains we have in the Polog valley. But it's beautiful in its own way and nice to visit.

It's an interesting time to be in Macedonia. The political scene is heating up - there have been multiple protests and rallies, and the government has been forced to call snap elections. The political gamesmanship is on! According to the Framework agreement signed after the uprising in 2001, the majority Macedonian party must form a coalition with the majority Albanian party. Political parties here are huge - in a country where official unemployment hovers around 40%, many, many jobs are political appointments, from the principals at schools, to all government workers, to professors at colleges. When one party loses and another wins, there is a terrific turnover as old party members are swept out and new appointments come in. If you don't belong to a party, it is difficult to find a job. So everyone is marshaling their troops and trying to get undeclared people into their party by offering incentives. VMRO, the party in power, won by a huge majority last time and tried to capitalize on its current strength by calling immediate snap elections. SDSM, the main opposition, countered by having the head of the elections committee resign and by walking out of parliament, which meant that nothing could happen. The dates haven't been set yet for the elections, but they will undoubtedly happen sometime this summer. From what I hear, VMRO and DUI, the main Macedonian and Albanian parties, will probably be elected again (wouldn't you vote for your job?), but people are hoping that they will have a smaller majority so they can't ride roughshod over everyone else. We'll see.

The picture above is Kacy and Chris on the Highline Trail in NYC. It's one of my favorite places. They converted an old elevated train track into a park, and people love it. It's a great place to go for a walk. You definitely get a different view of the city from above - you notice all the old facades and decorations on buildings, and it has a great view across the Hudson River and down to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. And, this being NYC, it's also famous for a hotel that straddles the park where people like to show themselves off in the buff! Kacy's party was fabulous. Udi had found a wonderful bar that gave us the space in the back and served delicious hors d'ouerves. Lots of Kacy's friends came and it was great to visit with them. The best of all, though, was the sweet speech Udi made to toast Kacy. I was so glad I was there.

A day after I returned from NY, I headed down to Thessaloniki on a business trip to Perrotis College, a part of the American Farm School. The people there were fantastically gracious and hospitable. We stayed on campus in a very luxurious new dorm and ate at the student cafeteria. You know you're in Greece when a cafeteria serves calamari to the students! One afternoon my friend Tracy and I took the bus to downtown Thessaloniki and ate at a cafe on the waterfront. That's a real Greek salad above. I had that and moussaka - absolutely delicious. The weather was gorgeous and Mt. Olympus shone snow-covered as a backdrop. What can you say? Magical. Friday morning we went out to a farm to meet one of the graduates. He has started an agro-business producing grape leaves for dolma, as well as making dolma and other goodies. They make something with every part of the grape plant - it was wonderful to hear about successful, thoughtful, and sustainable entrepreneurship. When we left he gave us a big pan of freshly made dolma. On the way back Luli and I stopped at the Popova Kula winery, enjoyed a glass of wine, and stuffed ourselves on dolma. It is a good life!

Hardest thing about being a Peace Corps Volunteer

Right now we're compiling a list of the difficult things about being a Peace Corps volunteer in Macedonia. Mostly they're a reflection of the funny things that are different here that we have to deal with every day, but for me the most difficult thing is none of those that are listed. The most difficult thing for me is being so far away from my parents. In some ways, I'm lucky. Both my parents are still alive at 92 and 89, but since I've been in Macedonia they've declined precipitously and for the most part I can only watch from a distance and call them every week or two to talk. I know it wouldn't be much different if I were still in the States, but being so far away makes me feel extra helpless as I watch these two wonderful people disappear.

I talked to my mother the other day. She's being engulfed by paranoid delusions, where everyone is trying to take everything from her, including her money, clothes, husband, respect, and even her children, and in a way, age is taking all those away. Usually there is a part of her that can be present and at least for awhile talk about reality, but our last conversation had no connection at all. She couldn't hear anything I said, and so translated it all into her delusions. I doubt that there is a heaven or hell after we die, but I can tell you for certain that there is a hell possible while we live, and my mother is currently in it. This bright, capable, vain, headstrong woman is living a life of fear. She's surrounded by caregivers but feels unsafe constantly. Whether it is the result of overuse of medication or a natural deterioration of the brain, it is terrifying to watch.

My father, while in the throes of dementia, at least seems more content. While he doesn't ever really know where either of us are, it doesn't seem to upset him greatly. He knows who I am and that we love each other, and that seems enough. When he was young he wanted to be a hero. He joined the Air Force before WWII because he knew it was coming and became a pilot, but while his brother flew bombers in impossible raids, he trained other pilots. But he was a hero in so many other ways. He saved his brother's life when his brother was getting into trouble - not that he told us, but our cousin did. He saved my life when I was little. He taught me all I know about good leadership. But being a hero is costly - you have to be right, you have to be in control, you have to be a man, and you can't be emotional. I always loved my father, but in many ways I liked him better as he aged and gave up his hero status. It is how I know he wants to be remembered, though, like the picture he had hung in the house for so many years of him standing, dressed in his flight suit and holding his helmet, beside the fighter he had just flown. And he will always be my hero.

I love them both and miss them.

дуф

Gordana, my friend and Macedonia tutor, took me up to the mountain village, Duf, that her father's family came from. Duf is high in the mountains of Macedonia, about 2000 meters up. Like many mountain villages, no one lives in Duf year round any more, but people have maintained or newly built some homes and come up for celebrations, weekends, and when it's hot down in the valley. Gordana's house is to the right - and to my surprise it wasn't primitive, but had gas, electricity, heat, and creature comforts! We took a short hike out to the viewpoint above. It was so good to be walking out in the woods and the views were spectacular. The Albanian name for Albania means eagle's nest, and that's what Duf reminded me of - being on top of the world looking down. People probably initially moved up there during a war to avoid the marauding armies tramping through the valleys, and they were able to scratch out a challenging living in that high isolation. They must have been in fantastic shape hiking up and down the mountain to get into town for anything! Although no one lives in mountain villages like Duf any longer, it retains a strong hold on family hearts, and they maintain the ownership of their land. Gordana, too, loves it, although she was born in Gostivar and never lived there on a permanent basis. With many young people leaving the country or moving to Skopje to try to find work, I wonder how long that attachment can be maintained.

We're also getting the first hints of spring - the early crocuses were all over. I saw snowdrops blooming, their heads bent over glancing at their home soil. Home is a powerful draw, and soon I will be back in NYC for Kacy's 30th birthday. It will be good to see them.

After returning from Africa I went to our mid-service conference. If I don't extend, I would only have 9 months left to serve. It is hard to believe that the time has passed so quickly. I may extend, though, and spend one more year here. There is still much to do and see. But for now, I am eagerly anticipating the beauty of the Macedonian spring, and all the fresh fruits and vegetables that will soon be in the pazars. Yummmmmm, fresh and local, succulent and ripe when you buy them, not a week or so afterward!

Out of Africa

Africa - what can I say? I can only try to synthesize all that happened to give you a taste of my experience, so here goes:

Traveling: We rode on the back of a big truck with the sides rolled up down rutted dirt roads and tracks. We bounced unmercifully (I went totally airborne a few times), were windblown and caked with African dust. We went to bed early and were often up before dawn, packing up our tents, getting dressed, and having breakfast in the dark and early dawn. Most showers were cold dribbles - the occasional hot one a luxury - and toilets were often squats with no toilet paper unless you brought your own. The food budget was $4 a day for breakfast and dinner combined, we shopped in local supermarkets, cooked over a 2 burner gas stove or charcoal wood fire for 15 people with unknown ingredients and seasonings and cleaned up after ourselves. In short, it was glorious.

People: This was not a discrete tour, but part of a continuous tour where people blended in and out. But it became family. When people left we mourned their loss, and then quickly bonded with the new folks that came. The accents were broad and varied, ages all over the place, but we worked together, helped each other and celebrated together. Everyone we traveled with will remain as an important part of the total experience - yea for Facebook and staying in touch (and having places to stay when traveling!!!)

Animals and Birds: Michael and I went on 5 different safaris in our two weeks, each different with its own pleasures. People in Africa talk about seeing the big 5 - lions, elephants, leopards, rhinos and giraffes - and they were exciting to see, especially the leopards, which are the hardest to spot. But what excited me the most was just seeing all that life in action. We watched a tawny eagle and a jackal have a standoff over who was going to get to eat the big insect nest they found. The eagle eventually won because as we moved closer the jackal slunk off (but not too far - he returned when we left). The eagle stayed though we were only a few feet from it and was rewarded with some big tasty something. We watched hyenas hunting a baby wildebeest - the herd circled around it but the baby was freaked and ran. It was successful - it outran the hyenas, but it was doomed anyway, because it had left the herd and the herd moved on. We watched a pride eat a wildebeest, then moved around and watched the male come up and over a hill to go down to water, blood streaked along its mouth. We saw a leopard with its kill hauled up in a tree to keep it safe, and its cubs in the distance, and another who stretched out on a dead tree cleaning itself leisurely. The matriarch elephant of a large herd mock charged us twice warning us not to get any closer. We had a close-up view of lions mating. The female is in heat for 5 days and they mate every 15 minutes - suddenly it made sense why the females do all the hunting and the male just lays around - he must be exhausted! They would mate, then the female would fall over and sleep while the male waited and watched over her. I saw her dreaming - her lips smacking and jaws working while she dreamed of a buffalo dinner - and after about 15 minutes she would stretch, roll over, tap the male, get up, they would mate, and bang, she would fall over back into a deep sleep while he stood by. It was mind-boggling to witness first hand the many adaptations in the wild. The wart hog, who eats on bended knee because he has such an ungainly body, runs with its tail straight up in the air so his fellow hogs can see where he's going in the high grass. A leopard is almost unseeable in a tree because it is so well camouflaged. And the herd mentality - the group is more important than the individual. A lot of baby elephants are orphaned because they fall into water holes and cannot get out. The mother tries to help, but when the matriarch says it is time to move on, she leaves with the herd. The baby wildebeest's mother did not go after it, but stayed with the herd. To do otherwise meant death. Everywhere the wonders of evolution and survival of the species were on display. It was thrilling.

Favorites: Since I've returned, people have asked what my favorite thing was. It's hard to say, because I loved it all. But two things stand out. The first was when we hiked to the green lake crater. Before we went up the crater, we hiked around the nature preserve. Instead of watching the animals from the truck or Landrover, we were in the forest with them. This was a small preserve, and there were no lions, hyenas, and the cape buffalo we saw were distant. But we were with gazelles, zebras, giraffes, elands, wart hogs, and dik diks. Dik diks were favorites, because they were shy and would bound away quickly. They almost always were in pairs. They mate for life and if their mate dies, they usually die soon afterward - perhaps from sorrow? It felt so good to be with the animals instead of just watching them, and the crater and lake were beautiful. My other favorite was the Ngorangora crater. We came up the side of the crater out of a sere, desert landscape. As we climbed, it changed into rich farmland, and as we entered the park, into jungle. The crater itself was amazing - a large plain with a couple of lakes for water and steep sides. The walls of the crater keep the animals inside where there is enough food and water. About 12,000 wildbeests and 6,000 zebras, along with lions, a lot of hyenas, a variety of hoofed creatures, a few elephants, and assorted other critters live in this constricted area, so everywhere you look, you see thousands of animals. The sheer numbers are almost overwhelming.

Danger: My doctor in Macedonia kept telling me not to pet the animals, and Darko, I didn't, except for a baby elephant or two at the elephant orphanage. I never felt in danger, though we did have to be careful. The last two campsites we stayed in were not fenced, and we had to lock our food and anything that had a good smell, like toiletries, in the car. We were warned that if we had to pee in the middle of the night, to take two steps away from our tent and go there - walking across camp to the toilets were dangerous after dark. In the Serengeti I got up before dawn, and did see a hyena slink away. In Ngorangora we had elephants at the camp, zebras, buffaloes, bush hogs, and who knows what else in our campground. One lunchtime I had a kite (like a hawk) swoop down from behind and take food from my hand without leaving a scratch - their eyesight and aim are amazing! But despite the huffing and hoots and noises that were often outside the tents at night, I slept like a lamb and never felt in any particular danger.

Enough. Pictures are posted on Facebook, more to come. It was a trip of a lifetime.

I wish that somehow I could transport the sensory experience of Africa to you all - words will never do it justice. There are the rhythmic acacia trees dancing across the valley, the Masai standing ramrod straight swathed in red guarding their cows and/or goats, and people everywhere walking, standing, talking. I saw a woman yesterday with a 5 gallon carboy on her head walking. I don't think I could lift one, much less put it on my head and walk.

We left Karen and drove to an escarpment overlooking the Rift Valley. I was surprised by my emotions looking over the womb of humankind. How improbable it is that I am alive. How many generations had to defy the odds and live long enough to reproduce to start the genetic pool that I am part of? Which of the 7 original mothers can I trace back to? The valley is beautiful stretching out before us- it must have taken significant events to drive the first migrants out of the valley and onto their wanderings.

On the way to the first two nights' campground, we stopped briefly in a town. Immediately we had salesmen at the side of the truck. "Look, mama, look at what I have. Isn't it beautiful? Do you want to hold it?" One man asked me where I was from. When I said America, he said, "So we are family, now. Obama." Our guide told me that the change in attitude toward Americans in all of East Africa is unbelievable since the election. Overnight the pictures of Osama Bin Laden that were pasted on buses and cars disappeared. Now we are family.

To reach the campground, we turned off on one dirt road, onto another and another and another until we reached it at the end of the road. It was in the middle of nowhere, guarded and surrounded by 15 strands of electric wire to keep the hyenas out. The owner is a young Kenyan who was delightful, and the campground itself was nice if plain - it had a bar and a bathroom with toilets and showers where sometimes after 5 you could actually get a hot shower. We met the rest of our traveling companions there: a young British couple, 19 and 25, who had been traveling for 10 weeks, an 18 year old Aussie woman, a 50ish American man who remodels houses in Albequerque, and a 30 something British woman. Our group was a 29 year old British microbiologist, a 40 or 50 something German chemist, a young Welshman just out of University, and Michael and me. Most of the others were travelers- they worked long enough to get money for their next trip, and stayed on the road for months. It's an interesting fraternity, welcoming and enjoyable. And when I say campsite, that's what I mean. We put up our own tents and sleep on the ground. Mostly we rotate who cooks dinner and who washes the dishes. Breakfast is spartan = I usually have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. The first night my body protested sleeping on the ground (and listening to the hyenas) but since then I've slept at least as good as I do at home. And there is a bonhomie that is wonderful that is developed among all of us.

I'll only tell now about our first day there. We arose early and went to the Nakuma Park which is famous for its birds. And although we saw white and black rhino, lions, giraffes, every manner of gazelles, elands, and other hoofed animals, wart hogs, a parade of baboons and monkeys, my favorites were the birds - 3 types of eagles, a yellow billed stork, a red throated stork, rollers, hoepoes, flamingos by the hundreds, ibises, etc. My favorite was the African Pelican. They would fish in V formations, bobbing their heads in time, until all of a sudden, in one movement, their heads would go down into the water to get fingerlings.

Enough for now. I've had other adventures and fun, but I don't want to be at the cafe for too long. I'm well, having a wonderful time, and wish you were all here with me.

Today I start a great adventure. I've always dreamed about going on a safari in Africa, and today my dream starts. There are 5 of us and we'll join 5 more on a big truck traveling across the Rift Valley, back to Nairobi, then down into Tanzania for 2 weeks. Who knows what we'll see, but it will be an adventure. My friend Michael and I arrived in Nairobi at 2:30am two nights ago. On the trip into Karen Camp, where we stayed for 1 day,there were zebras on the side of the road. My first impressions of Africa = warm, luxuriant, and well guarded - high fences and padlocked gates everywhere. It's always a treat to step away from winter into the warmth of summer. Temperatures here are in the 70's with flowers blooming everywhere. The camp we stayed at was a combination hostel, campground, and hotel. Michael and I enjoyed a room and with a bathroom. Although we may not have needed it, I slept with mosquito net over me - just seemed right. This is short - we need to go buy a couple days of lunches before we head to our first national park, but I'll try to keep you updated as I go.

The Name Game

As many of you may know, Greece has blocked Macedonia from joining NATO and the EU because it of the name Macedonia. The Greeks claim that Macedonia is a Greek name that describes a whole region, and that the Slavs of Macedonia are trying to usurp Greek history and lay claim on the part of Macedonia that is in Greece by appropriating the name. Diplomats have been meeting for years trying to work out a compromise and though every meeting promises good progress, in reality it seems like very little has been done. All of this I knew in the abstract, but last week I got to live it when I took a trip with my friend Tracy down to Thessaloniki.

As I've mentioned before, the borders of the countries in the Balkans have been fluid during the last 100 years and have changed many times. The present border between Greece and Macedonia (known formally by the name the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ((FYROM) in the UN because of the dispute) was drawn after WWII. Thousands of Slavic Macedonians were expelled from the Greek side of the line - the politics were running hot and heavy because Tito wanted to establish legitimacy for Yugoslavia and the Allies wanted to keep Greece from going over to the Communists. Even the name of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, has been changed from Saloniki to Thessaloniki to represent that it was now in Greece. So while the countries have coexisted peacefully for many, many years, there are still some tensions, and they come out over the use of the name Macedonia.

The train master above is from Negotino in Macedonia, where Tracy and I caught one of the last trains down to Thessaloniki - the run ended Jan. 1. The train was late - very common - and we had some time sitting with him in his office chatting as best we could in Macedonia. He started talking about the name issue - his name was Risto and how could anyone ask him to change his name? What right did the Greeks have asking the country to change its name? and so on. One thing Tito did was strengthen the Slavic Macedonian identity, and it worked - they are Macedonians! We then took the lovely ride down to Thessaloniki. We were to meet the people we were staying with at IKEA (yes, it's the same one) which was on the other side of town from the train station, so climbed on a bus. It was very crowded and uncomfortable for us with all our bags, so the minute we thought they announced IKEA we jumped off, even though we weren't certain it was what was said. Sure enough, it wasn't the right stop. I asked a very nice woman where IKEA was, and she told me to get back on the bus and continue a little way farther. She then asked me where I was from. "America", I said, "but I'm living now in Macedonia." "Where?" she asked, her eyebrow raising. "Macedonia," said I, in all innocence. "This is Macedonia, you are from Skopje," was her forceful reply. Oops. All throughout our visit, if we said we were from Macedonia we got strange looks and sometimes huffy responses. "We are all Macedonians - how can you take our identity?" Most of the Greeks referred to Macedonia as Skopje, which confused me for a while until I realized they weren't just talking about the town but the whole country. It was interesting to live the controversy and not just read about it.

Going to Greece was like stepping into a whole new world. The towns were gorgeous and not filled with communist functional gray buildings, and despite the economic woes it felt downright prosperous compared to Macedonia. The weather was warm and the Adriatic sparkled. Ahhhh! We stayed outside of town with a lovely, interesting couple - the other pictures above were taken on our walks around the countryside by their home. Across the valley that their home overlooked was Mt. Olympus - we were staying in the valley of the gods. It was a wonderful break from the gray, wintery glumness that had pervaded Macedonia. We met with officials from the American Farm School to talk about possible cross border collaboration - they want us to come back in March to discuss it more. By the way, as part of the Farm School, they have a college, Perrotis College, which has an exchange program with schools back in the States. College students can come, take classes on Greek civilization and culture and optional classes including the Greek Palate, hike Olympus, take a sailing trip out to an island - sounds like a wonderful opportunity. It was a great trip and we met such nice people - I hope we do return in March!