Day 37 - 10/19/11 Tuesday

Miredita miqte!  (good day friends!)

Conversation group brought 3 today!  This time I got to meet 3 female students from campus that I had not met before- pretty great stuff.  It is really great getting to sit down with people, getting to hear their life experiences and opinions.  I do have to admit, sometimes conversation can be difficult to start, especially when I am a bit removed from the college life scene. 

The photo shop where we took our pictures!

In a new process with the Embassy, we as Fulbright grant recipients are going to receive temporary residence in Macedonia.  This means we will have a card stating we are residents in place of a Visa. To do this, we had to go have our pictures taken.  After asking around, Vesna helped us know where to go and have them taken.  Here is a picture of the little shop.  The man was very helpful and kind, we actually got 6 pictures out of the deal!  I am really excited about the fact that we are getting this card. I am hoping this will mean no more having to register with the police upon entering and leaving the country.  It is not that it is bad, it is just labor intensive, especially when you are living on a campus and don't have a person that is considered your landlord to take you.... but such is life. Cross your fingers that all turns out with the card!

Tonight Cassidy and I went to visit Loja a Non-Governmental Organization here in Tetovo. This NGO was created during the Kosovo war in 1999. A group of actors were trying to bring joy, and relief to refugee children from Kosovo.  After the struggle, the group decided they wanted to make continue the same kind of effort of giving back to their own country and people of Macedonia.  Loja was formed.  Today it is a group of people working to bridge the gap of understanding between the different ethnic groups that call Macedonia home.  It is a self sustaining group, that has not once received money from the Macedonian government. Despite their lack of support from the MK government, the people seem to be more receptive. Here is a great video about what Loja does:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3muc80-Poo

The door to Loja

The city/government refuses to pick up the garbage outside, even when events have been planned. At the time of the festival, the people of Loja covered it with a black tarp.

 

After talking with the director of the NGO, we decided to do to Delfin, a restaurant near the center, for some dinner before we went back for the film festival. I have to give a bit of background knowledge prior to this next part.  When packing, I had a difficult time deciding what to bring and what I was going to need, as you know from my posts here during the beginning of September.  For the most part I did a pretty good job, but now as I am using what I had packed, I do see some holes in the wardrobe.  One of those holes was light weight gloves. I have the heavy gloves for a 

GLOVES!

snowball fight... but not gloves for days when your hands are just chilly/cold.  So Cassidy and I had been looking for some of the light weight gloves. To our dismay, they were not as easy to find as they are in America, at the grocery store, Walgreens, Walmart, the gas station... so it has been a search.  Well walking out of Loja and to dinner, there was a table set up near the center. A man and his two sons were working the table.  We could see hats and socks, and thought, maybe just maybe...  we walked to the table, and there in front of us were 2 pairs of light weight gloves!  We asked how much they were, and the man asked us if we spoke German (this isn't the first time I have been asked that) and when we said no, the younger one said, English? When we said yes the older son, maybe 9 years old, said, Hello, and that father patted him on the back and said, he speak English.  The gloves were 100 denar, which is about 2.50 usd... we shared with them that we were Fulbright students and here to help people learn English, the little boy said, "Thank you for helping us learn English".  It was such an amazing moment!  What a sweet little boy!!!

After dinner it was back to Loja for the film festival. The event started with a man from the German Embassy welcoming everyone, followed by the translations of what he said in both Macedonian and Albanian (picture below).  Seeing this really reminds me of how one-dimensional many of us are as Americans, no where do we go regularly that what is being said is in several languages, or translated into headphones you can wear.  It is pretty cool!  The movie then started it was in German (obviously since it was a German film festival).  Across the top of the screen were the subtitles in Albanian, and then across the bottom were English... only they were covered up by the Macedonian :).  Luckily from time to time the English would pop up before the Macedonian, or stay longer than the Macedonian, so I could pick up a few words here or there.  It wasn't hard to watch and understand most of what was going on, but I am sure I missed a lot of the moral of the story!  It was still a lot of fun!

The man from the German embassy and the Loja translators in both Macedonian and Albanian

Lesson: Living in harmony with one another takes more than just words, it is actions too!