Monday brought my first meeting with a group of individuals in Skopje regarding Special Education and Service Learning. A grant has been awarded for Service Learning for Persons with Disabilities to a group here in Macedonia. It is a very prestigious grant so they are very excited about getting started. The project is going to be for university students to start making changes for persons with disabilities through service learning projects in their university classes. The project starts now, and will go through at least September next year. I am excited to get to be a part of the process.
After the meeting it was back to Tetovo from a long week of traveling. I went to the store when I arrived to get makings for another batch of chili, and then it was to unpacking and the start of laundry. I have always disliked the process of unpacking... but knowing I was goign to be washing all the clothes by hand too was a bit overwhelming- needless to say I only did some items to start- the others can wait :)
Tuesday brought the first day back to work at SEE-U. Nothing too eventful really... just getting back into the swing of being at work :)
However the evening was much more eventful! Vesna's family was celebrating Slava (an orthodox tradition), and she had invited both Cassidy and I. Cassidy made the trip from Skopje to come along! Slava is a celebration of the patron Saint of a family, this we knew. We also knew that it was polite to bring a gift to the home when you attended the open house. It was recommended to bring wine or flowers, but sine we did not know if her family drank wine, and flowers were out of season.. we got creative! We made flowers out of napkins (we couldn't find tissue paper), we used straws as the stems, and then taped 3 chocolate bars together to make the vase :) We were pretty proud of our creativity, even if it was a bit of an odd gift. Vesna picked us up around 7pm and took us to her home. There was an amazing table of food set up (including the baked goods we had made the weekend before!). Traditionally family and friends of the family celebrating Slava, come throughout the evening, stay for a while and eat food, drink Rakia or wine, and talk. As people leave, the table is restocked with food and plates for the next group that arrives... It was so special to be a part of this celebration!!!
Lesson: Although traditions of different cultures may be called different things, and be celebrated in different ways, the heart of the tradition is the same- being with friends and family, that is universal!
After the meeting it was back to Tetovo from a long week of traveling. I went to the store when I arrived to get makings for another batch of chili, and then it was to unpacking and the start of laundry. I have always disliked the process of unpacking... but knowing I was goign to be washing all the clothes by hand too was a bit overwhelming- needless to say I only did some items to start- the others can wait :)
Tuesday brought the first day back to work at SEE-U. Nothing too eventful really... just getting back into the swing of being at work :)
However the evening was much more eventful! Vesna's family was celebrating Slava (an orthodox tradition), and she had invited both Cassidy and I. Cassidy made the trip from Skopje to come along! Slava is a celebration of the patron Saint of a family, this we knew. We also knew that it was polite to bring a gift to the home when you attended the open house. It was recommended to bring wine or flowers, but sine we did not know if her family drank wine, and flowers were out of season.. we got creative! We made flowers out of napkins (we couldn't find tissue paper), we used straws as the stems, and then taped 3 chocolate bars together to make the vase :) We were pretty proud of our creativity, even if it was a bit of an odd gift. Vesna picked us up around 7pm and took us to her home. There was an amazing table of food set up (including the baked goods we had made the weekend before!). Traditionally family and friends of the family celebrating Slava, come throughout the evening, stay for a while and eat food, drink Rakia or wine, and talk. As people leave, the table is restocked with food and plates for the next group that arrives... It was so special to be a part of this celebration!!! |
| The table of AMAZING FOOD! |
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| Cassidy, Vesna and I |
Lesson: Although traditions of different cultures may be called different things, and be celebrated in different ways, the heart of the tradition is the same- being with friends and family, that is universal!
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