February Update

Hey everyone, so it has been a really busy month. I was talking with some friends and I realized that I do have a lot to update you with.

I was able to go to my first legit Peace Corps festivities, as I have been staying sitebound quite a bit lately. I have been super comfortable with my life here which is surely because I am constantly busy with my friends and site mates Lizzy and Dan as well as my host family. I went to a place called Kavadarci which is in one of the Wine regions of Macedonia. We were able to celebrate the birthday of a fellow volunteer as well as a Macedonian holiday called Sveti Trifun. This holiday also happens to be on the same day as Valentine's Day. We went to a very nice wine tour of Tikves and then followed up with a nice little Macedonian party.  

Julie (whose birthday it was), Me, Sitemates Dan and Lizzy with an array of wine behind us

All of us after the Wine Tasting at Tikves

 I began the undertaking my Spelling Bee project  that basically is just a local spelling bee for 5th grade through senior year high school that will be the starter point for the students who will then, assuming they can spell twelve words, go to the capital city Skopje for nationals. We haven't hosted it yet, but with the help of my language tutor and friend Maja, speaking with many of the school directors and teachers has become a lot easier. I will surely make an update about how it goes once we finish it.

My other project, the letter writing project is officially a Peace Corps World Wise School project. I was able to match up with a teacher in Washington, DC who responded to a post I had made on Reddit requesting a match. Many of my 6th graders chose to write letters to several students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade and are excitedly awaiting the responses. 

I recently made friends with a little puppy here on my street. In the period of several weeks, I began bonding with three strays and a litter of about 10 puppies. Soon, one by one, the puppies disappeared and found new homes, as I suspect after spotting several children with all of the puppies in a box in a parking lot and playing with them. Eventually, there was only 1 puppy left. I spent time feeding this one, and we became close. Sadly, today as I was walking home from school. I saw this little puppy lying on the side of the road. I guess that it got hit by a car. I am sad to lose my little friend to not have any little cute thing to chat with as I stop and say hello on my way to and from work every day.


It is officially Election season and things are definitely completely politically focused here as far as conversation. I try to listen but it is very hard to not participate in the conversations as we are definitely reminded that we aren't supposed have a political view, and I can see why. Everyone's lives are surrounded by politics, as far as work and schooling are concerned. We will see how much it does change post-election.

On a more personal note...

It is hard to believe it has been about 5 months in country. Some days it feels like a lot longer, and some days it feels like a lot shorter, but I often feel like time is going by very quickly. 5 months... That is a long time, especially since it seems so recently that I was having spring break from school like most of my peers in Florida now. I'd like to think that I have made some accomplishments here, but things are slow. In a country where many things move slowly, you have to focus on the little steps towards a difference. I do think that I may not expect many of those empirical changes I had at one time believed that I would see... like we all imagine or picture as the fantasy. All of those changes for the most part are now just within myself. I feel my concepts changing, my hopes changing, and really now it is just a simple satisfaction of not knowing what is really going on and not being 5 steps ahead or prepared. I think this often fits well with many PCV's who do live off of the randomness of life, but it throws me off.. and now I am getting used to it. I thought I didn't have a plan, but now I see what it really means to have absolutely no idea.

Nobody ever told me that Peace Corps was easy, and for anyone planning on joining Peace Corps reading this blog, let me reiterate that it isn't necessarily easy. That being said, the challenges that you are confronted with are pretty much nothing you can expect. The struggles you have are the ones that appear after going through the experience, and nearly all of the struggles are inward, things you you will learn about yourself. There is a sense of solitude about this place, and I imagine any place you may be sent. And within this solitude, you not only begin to appreciate yourself, you will begin to argue with yourself, tear yourself apart, and put the pieces back together, because we are all here to survive and keep a sense of sanity. I am sure within my next 22 months, I will see many many more struggles that I cannot share at this point. I know that, now, I will forever be an expat and there is no going back.

- Emma