Shayne's Crazy Makdo Life

Camp-o-rama

This will probably be the only time I can send out an update for the next month, and I definitely wanted to get one out, so here it is. Summer is officially here- the weather is hot (we've had a few 100 degree days, although we're back in the low 90s now), there are people eating ice cream everywhere you turn, there is tons of yummy fruits available, and of course my favorite....water restrictions!! During the summer, my village gets put on a water restriction schedule- we go 1 day with water, then 2 days without. This was the absolute bane of my existance last summer, but this summer I'm ready to face it. I've got about 15 bottles of backup water ready to go every time, and a huge bucket full of water to bathe with. It's actually not that big of a deal, and in all actuality, it makes me feel better for living in such a posh Peace Corps country (internet in my apartment, TV, cell phones). I'm sure we're the butt of many jokes in Peace Corps Africa- "Oh boo hoo, no water for 2 days. Try bathing in a river for 2 years!"

The one and only thing going on in my life right now is Camp GLOW. It's in less than 2 weeks, so it's time to bear down and get a lot of stuff done. I've been thrown a few curveballs, but things have all been working out in the end so far. I'm trying to stay ahead of the game, expecting the unexpected, just to not be caught unprepared. The camp will be from July 17-23 in Bitola, on Mt. Pelister. The entire staff (4 coordinators, 10 counselors and 10 jr counselors) will be meeting on the 16 to plan everything. I'll probably go to Bitola around the 13, just to start organizing everything. I just found out that the organizaiton sponsoring us (OSCE) is going to have journalists come down as well, which is quite exciting- this is the real deal!

Really, I can't think of anything past July 16, but after that I do have another short 3 day English camp for a small group of high schoolers. It won't be very difficult at all- there's another organization who's planning all of the logistics, meaning we just have to show up and teach English. So, compared to GLOW, this will be cake.

Happy belated 4th to everyone, too! It was definitely just any other day here, which is unfortunate, because I loves me some fireworks. But, on the 3rd, we had a little get together at Marilyn's (a volunteer who lives near me), which was lots of fun. We had lots of American-like salads, but instead of barbecuing (no grill), we had Mexican food instead, which I'm sure is close enough, right? Anyways, it was lots of fun just hanging with a small group of volunteer friends (too many volunteers = total chaos), and we had lots and lots of great food, which is definitely what the 4th is all about, right? :)

Oh, and I have official (well, almost official) vacation plans! As fate would have it, I met a Peace Corps Volunteer from Bulgaria last week as she was traveling through Macedonia on vacation. She was super cool and just happened to live on the Black Sea in one of the largest cities in Bulgaria. AND, she's a vegetarian! Score! So, she was nice enough to offer me a place to crash if I wanted to visit, which I quickly agreed to. So, along with 2 other PCV friends here, I'm headed to Burgas, Bulgaria somewhere around the 8th of August for a week of doing nothing else but laying on the beach. I cannot wait. Last year's trip to Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia was lots of fun, and I learned a lot, but we were going non-stop for about 10 days straight, which got tiring. So, I'm looking forward to a very relaxing vacation this summer.

There's also some other big changes on the horizon regarding my position here, although it's not confirmed yet, so I hesitate to go into it. Let's just say that I could be playing a much larger role in the trianing of the new group of volunteers (coming to a Macedonian village near you (or not near you) this September). But, it's still not confirmed, so that's all you get for now. Actually, this is all you get for now total. Like I said, this will probably be my only post for a while- at least until GLOW and my other English camp is over, and quite possibly until after my trip to Bulgaria. So, I hope this satisfies all my dedicated readers for a few weeks. The next update you'll get will hopefully be full of fantastic camp stories. Wish me luck!


This is Jennifer, Marilyn, me and Leanne at Marilyn's 3rd of July party.

posted by Shayne @ 12:31 AM