It's Official - I am a Peace Corps Volunteer

Well I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). We were sworn in on November 29th by the US Ambassador to Macedonia (See the youtube link below - it is in Albanian). It was a great day, but a sad one as I was leaving my family in Kratovo and headed to Jance to the unknown. My counterpart in Jance and his wife were at the ceremony and had the opportunity to meet with Mone and Lile - they wanted to be sure I was being put in good hands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sFZwbQeNo4&feature=player_embedded

I didn't get a lot of great pictures as we were not allowed to bring our cameras to the ceremony, so the ones I have other people gave me.

I left right after the ceremony for Janace, the other volunteers left Kratovo the following morning. It was best for me as I had a lot of baggage and saved on the bus fare. The ride to my new home was interesting trying to communicate with my Tutto and his wife. But we got by. I am now settled and beginning my work of putting together a project to increase tourism in the Mavrovo National Park. The idea is to create a "Cheese Trail" where tourists can go from village to village and watch sheep cheese being made as well as sample and buy. My role is to put the whole thing together, look for grant money to finance the project, create the marketing and encourage the sheep farmers to participate. If this doesn't improve my language skills nothing will. Did I mention no one in the village were I am staying speaks English, I find I can understand a lot but can't speak much.

My other project is being sponsored by USAID and is to create a collection center and organize the collection of medicinal herbs, teas, vegetables and fungi (mushrooms) for sale to a local exporter. This will entail recruiting pickers, developing picking maps and educating the pickers on what, how and where to find the product. Should be fun.

We have had over 3 feet of snow thus far and it has been as cold as -20c. Heating homes is not a priority as it is expensive and in most cases is done by wood. So we wear a lot of clothes all of the time, as well as to bed, no heat in bedrooms. There is one of the best ski areas in the Balkans about 15 min away, so am looking forward to getting back on the 'ol boards. Looks like everyone wears helmets here, not sure what that means, but I guess I will have to get one.

OK, enough for now. Here are some pictures for your to enjoy. I hope everyone has a great and safe holiday. We will be celebrating Christmas January 5th through the 7th. I miss you guys and love you lots. Merry Christmas!

The Peace Corps Cake

Patrick and Katlin

My language class and LCF Ana

The PCVs from Kratovo with our LCFs

From the hotel

Looking up from my house

Snow happened

My village - Jance

Village across the road from me

ANother village close to me

Woke up to him checking things out

My wood stove - the only heat

My bedroom