HELLO, my name is Mud!
Здраво! (Z-Drah-voh) - Hello!
I kid you not, in Macedonian my name translates into the word for mud. From here, there is nowhere to go but up. That is also a good frame of reference for my still dormant language acquisition talents. леле! ("lay-lay" meaning "Oh my!")
Of the many challenges of living and working in Macedonia, learning to read, speak and understand Macedonian is easily the most difficult. Starting with the alphabet, it's Cyrillic so:
A = А
Б = B
Ц = TS (as in caTS)
Д = D
С = S
В = V
З = Z
and so on!
Got it? Me neither! Actually, I do have the alphabet and sounds pretty well down and, thankfully, the numbers are the same if you ignore that 3 is both a letter and a number!
The Peace Corps approach to language instruction is a "deep end of the pool" toss. In the very first week of pre-training, we received daily language lessons. Then, for nearly the entire three month training period, we had 5-6 hours of classroom instruction and 2-3 hours of homework every weekday. It was pretty intense but it gave all of the volunteers a running start at understanding, speaking and reading Macedonian. The goal is to be able to communicate and I've found that a combination of Macedonian, English, arm waving, a sense of humor and smiling goes a long way. As in other countries, native speakers appreciate our sincere attempts to tackle their language. For perspective, the Foreign Services Institute provides a good graphic showing the degree of difficulty for various languages. It indicates that Macedonian is a Category IV "more difficult" language requiring 44 weeks of study to reach speaking and reading proficiency.
On the weather front, we've experienced a dramatic shift in seasons. Not long ago, we bundled up in many layers to go outside and, at night, we hunkered under a pile of blankets. Now the daily temperature climbs to the high 70ºs and even into the 80ºs. There is still time for one or two more chilly days but the promise of triple-digit summer days looms larger every day.
As you'll seen in photos below, I took a few days break to make a first-time visit to Greece. It's beautiful there, full of fascinating history, delicious food and very friendly people. It was good to have a bit of down-time for relaxing and recharging my batteries.
In my work, we have begun an outreach initiative where we are visiting neighborhoods where there are high concentrations of Roma families. We provide them with information about how to get proper identification documents and social assistance. As you'll see in the photos below, the conditions that many families live in can be quite dire. The improvised houses are nearly identical to the ones I saw in impoverished Tijuana, Mexico neighborhoods previously. Though their lives are difficult, you can see the pride they have in their children and in their humble homes. It's hard not to think about how different their lives might be were they born into different circumstances and didn't have to fight both poverty and discrimination. As I'm sure you already do, count your lucky stars.
I hope this note finds you in good health and enjoying nature's fresh coat of spring.
Peace,
Cal
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