Numbers. My Peace Corps experience keeps getting represented on paper by numbers. It has been 50 years since I had the initial desire to join the Peace Corps. I summarized those years very briefly in the About section of this blog and also more extensively in my previous blog about my application experiences (http://www.palew.blogspot.com/). Anyway, back to the numbers. It has been 19 months since my most recent application, 7 months since I received a formal invitation to serve, almost 4 months since arriving at Staging, a few days more than 1 month since swearing in and 1 week since moving into my own apartment in Negotino, Macedonia.
So, why am I writing about goodbye (again)? Because I thought that once I got past the rough part of saying goodbye to family and frientds he States, I would be doing nothing except looking ahead; looking to completing PST (Pre Service Training), being sworn in, moving to my assigned site, becoming acquainted with new Macedonian colleagues and neighbors and getting settled into my new living arrangements. I quickly became aware that the process is not only one of looking forward, but also one full of seemingly endless goodbyes. Goodbye to PST comrades, goodbye to my host family who had truly become like family, goodbye to the best home cooking I could imagine outside of my home in the States, goodbye to a family and neighbors who helped me experience and understand many aspects of their wonderful culture, goodbye to a small warm and welcoming town and goodbye to a newly established comfort level in which I knew many people and knew my way around.
My host family's home where I lived during PST.
Family meals were always warm, happy times.
The bags I have been living out of ready to leave the room I have been living in for 10 weeks.
Kratovo, the lovely little town I had just gotten to know and now had to leave.
I relocated to my assigned site, but I could not move into an apartment of my own quite yet because the one I would live in was still occupied by a PCV who was extending stay in order to complete a project. I was once again living with a host family.
Negotino, my new city / home
The center of my new city
I was still living out of my bags which I had packed 4 months ago. I was still living in a room in someone else’s house, sharing a freezing bathroom, not allowed in the kitchen and generally unable to get my new life started.
My home stay house in Negotino.
Last Friday, I was finally able to move into my own apartment. The past week has been full of many new experiences and I have come to realize that while I have longed for this experience through many years, I never appreciated that I would encounter continued goodbyes. I now have a second host family that have said goodbye to and miss in addition to my host family during PST. I now have another set of memories full of wonderful home cooking and amusing faux pas attempts to communicate in Macedonian. I have to once again say goodbye to homemade ајвар (Ivar) that I have grown to truly enjoy eating with practically every meal.
My wonderful, secong home stray family, who knew not one English word and gave me amazing acceptance as I stumbled with my limited Macedonian.
My living space in my 2nd home stay home. The sofa I sat on to read opened into the bed I slept on.
The trade off for all of those goodbyes is that I now have my own privacy in a terrific apartment located in the center of a nice, small city and within a 20 minute walk to my work assignment.
My apartment is the one with the lights on near the top. (L -R: balcony, living room and bedroom)
Living room on the day I moved in.
The good and the bad of the delay in getting my own apartment has been that I moved in to it on the day before Christmas Eve. I was truly alone and it was Christmas. I had no provisions and also needed many things that settling into a new living situation always necessitates (light bulbs, kitchen utensils, electrical adapters, food & kitchen pantry staples, cleaning supplies, etc.). Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are on a weekend this year and I was in a new city where I had limited language capabilities to communicate and therefore I was unable to arrange any Internet service. I had exhausted the time on my cell phone and there are no Internet cafes in this city, so I was unable to send my daughter whose birthday is on Christmas Eve, Happy Birthday wishes. I found many ways to feel sorry for myself at that point.
Well, the holiday season in Macedonia is one of little commercialism and much camaraderie, so with the experiences at work, as well as everywhere I went in this City, I quickly regained enthusiasm to continue going forward and get past the goodbyes.
This is the New Years weekend and I have much to reflect upon and even more to anticipate with renewed enthusiasm. I won’t go another month before posting again, but rather will start the New Year with another post very soon to cover my Macedonian holiday experiences.
