necessary and beautiful things

I know that I don't need much things. Basically, nothing except air, food, water, some heating or warm clothes. But there are things that make me feel good. Today I finally gave up and bought a normal pan and also an iron. If I can afford it and it makes my life easier and more pleasant, maybe it is necessary... You can have an ugly, old sweater and it satisfies the basic need, but it makes you feel uncomfortable and stress. Then I guess it is necessary to get a sweater which you feel comfortable in. Luxurious necessities, I guess that's the name.
Actually I went to the big Bit Pazar market to buy some more of the dark blue knitting thread. It was not a very smart idea because today is the day after the small Bajram (Muslim Christmas) and most of the shops in the market were closed. I did find the same knitting thread, but not in the color I need. I found also a shop in the center, which sells knitting threads, but again not my color. Clearly not my day.
But in the meantime, I visited the fortress finally. From Charshija it is not a big climb. I was walking and suddenly I was already there... There were some couples, it was sunny and really beautiful :) Some pics for you too, but as you know photography never shows the truth. Ugly things always look beautiful, but beautiful things don't look even close to how beautiful they are in reality. Sorry for nonsense text maybe because there are people around and we are talking all the time and I cannot concentrate on my sentence :P

50 cent for 5 euro

Tikai tagad nesmejieties - es vakar biju uz 50 cent koncertu Prištinā. Tas ir tāds diezgan populārs melnais reperis no ASV...hands up, shake that ass, pull those pants up and down a little bit (tiem, kam nav ne jausmas, par ko es te runāju).
Jā, un viņa tūres ietvaros, dīvainā kārtā vienīgais koncerts vispār tuvākajā apkārtnē ir tieši Prištinas pussabrukušajā stadionā. Uz biļetēm, plakātiem un ekrāniem fifticents ir saķēris savu melno galvu un rūpēs saraucis pieri. Vietējie jokoja: kur es esmu nokļuvis, kāpēc es piekritu, kāpēc es nepieprasīju vairāk naudas, vairāk litru viskija un vairāk skaistāko meiteņu (par atlīdzību tika baumots sākot no 300 tūkstošiem līdz 1,5 miljoniem dolāru, raiderī it kā esot 200 litri viskija un 200 litri šampanieša, un katrā tūres pilsētā viņam vajag arī skaistākās meitenes...skaitu gan īsti neatceros).
Izskaidrojams šim neizskaidrojamajam faktam ir diezgan vienkāršs - nenormālie slovēņi un viņu mārketinga metodes. IPKO šādā veidā penetrē tirgu. Līdz šim Vala 900 bija vienīgais mobilo sakaru operators Kosovā (piedāvājot numurus ar Monako starptautisko kodu). Tagad slovēņu uzņēmums IPKO, kas līdz šim piedāvāja interneta sakarus, ieiet tirgū ar nedaudz lētākiem mobilo sakaru pakalpojumiem un SIM kartēm ar Slovēnijas starptautisko kodu. Biļetes uz koncertu varēja iegādāties vienīgi, iegādājoties SIM karti. Par 1 SIM karti par 5 eiro varēja dabūt 1 biļeti. Par 5 SIM karšu paku (numuri pēc kārtas un lētākas sarunas starp šiem numuriem) par 20 eiro varēja dabūt 3 biļetes. Kopumā ļoti ātri šādā veidā tika izpārdotas 20 000 biļetes Kosovā un 15 000 ārpus Kosovas, kur dzīvo albāņi. Tātad vismaz 35 000 SIM karšu.
Par pašu koncertu. Ir bijušas lielas zvaigznes, kā Džeimss Blānts un Meraija Kerija, Kosovā, bet viņas pārsvarā uzstājās amerikāņu vai angļu bāzēs, nevis vietējai publikai. Tā nu šis bija pirmais lielais koncerts ar starptautiska mēroga zvaigzni un, protams, visi, kam nebija slinkums izstāvēt kvartāla apkārtmēra rindu, bija tur. Bija gan bērni, gan lieli mužiki spīdīgos kažokos, gan laucinieki, gan ar kruķiem... Iekšā spiešanās bija biedējošākā manā mužā, burzmā nebija saredzama metāla reliņu štanga un vienā brīdī mani uz to vienkārši uznesa un bija kaut kā jārāpjas pāri. Labi, ka zābaki man tādi lēti, jo bija nomīdīti it kā būtu nez kādus dubļus bridusi. Sargu un biļešu pārbaudītāju acīs bija skaidra panika. Stumšanās un grūstīšanās gāja vaļā arī koncerta laikā un tā gaitā nejauši nonācām gandrīz vai pašā priekšā.
Iesildītāji bija kaut kāds sviests. Vietējie reperi, kuru dažas dziesmas pat tā kā zinu, bet dzīvajā kaut kā pavisam neskanēja. Varbūt arī tāpēc, ka tikai neilgi pirms 50 centiem, vienam tehniķim izdevās piekonektēt tumbas. Ārā bija ap mīnus 10, balts sniegs (perfekta, skaista ziema, par kuru Jūs Latvijā tikai sapņojat). Seksīgā dziedātāja Nora Istrefi tik un tā demonstrēja savas silikona krūtis un krūštura aizdari uz kailās, brūnās muguras. Protams, vairāk kā 2 dziesmas viņa nevarēja izturēt. Arī citiem reperiem laikam sala un maksimāli pēc 2-3 dziesmām viņi aiztinās, pirms tam nokaitinājuši pūli, samainot dziesmu tekstus un ieliekot beibju un zaķu vietā māti, kas visiem albāņiem ir svētā cieņā. Tā vismaz viņiem izdevās pacelt gaisā pūļa rokas (tikai tagad ar zināmu pirkstu kombināciju), jo uz Hands Up neviens neatsaucās. Viena grupa tika pavadīta ar šķiltavu sniegavētru.
Beigās palika tikai viens džekiņš, kas bija uz skatuves visu izpildītāju uzstāšanās laikā, un dīdžejs. Dīdžejs lika populārus klubu hitus un džekiņš vēl mēģināja saukt Hands Up, bet pūlis palika neiekustināms.
Tomēr drīz pēc tam, kad tobrīd jau cietajam pūlim cauri izspraucās amerikāņu karavīri ar automātiskajiem ierociem un pavisam neiederīgiem tuksneša krāsu aizsargtērpiem (aizgulējās vai?), uz skatuves uznāca 50 cent un sniedza diezgan pieklājīgas kvalitātes un kvantitātes koncertu. Pūlis arī iesila vienā sekundē un, jāsaka, diezgan labi pārzināja repertuāru. Pēc koncerta puiši man blakus gan jokoja, ka izskatījās, ka 50 cents ne vella nesaprata, kur viņš nokļuvis, jo Prištinas vai Kosovas vārds ne reizi ne tika pieminēts. Varbūt viņam neteica, kur viņu ved, bet varbūt vienkārši aizmirsa. Kāda gan tur starpība, ja var iztikt ar Here, In This Place un galu galā Hands Up!
Koncerts beidzās ar tiešām kolosālu uguņošanu! Varbūt vienīgi Rīgas 800 gadi var ar to sacensties manā atmiņu bagāžā. Tā bija arī ne tikai skaista, bet arī iespaidīgi gara. Puiši man blakus atkal jokoja, ka tā tiek noturēts pūlis, kamēr pa klusu aiztransportē 50 centu drošākā vietā. Pēc uguņošanas pagaidījām, kamēr pūlis aizplūst. Līdz ar aizplūšanu atklājās diezgan iespaidīga nozaudēto vai norauto mantu kolekcija. Es arī izvēlējos vienu šalli par piemiņu no šī pasākuma.

salsa nights in skopje

Yesterday was my 2nd time in Van Gogh on salsa Wednesdays. In the beginning I could not get the salsa mood and salsa steps, it is really a dance to feel in your hips, in your body. If i just repeat the steps, it feels and looks stupid (actually it is true for all the dances, but salsa and other sexy Latino dances is the most stupid). People came late last night, only half past 10 it was getting full. And it is closing at 12 as all normal bars in Skopje. So for 1 hour it was hot in there and I was really getting the salsa moves! It was actually nice :)
I was talking to one guy (Macedonian by origin, but Swedish by... everything else). He is 1 month here only. He was saying that his friends were surprised that there are salsa parties in Skopje and not just turbofolk. And we agreed that salsa is not really our thing, but we have ended up here already not the 1st time. And we have not been to any real Yugoslav party and also we need to find some rock cafes.
One guy stuck to me in the toilet of Van Gogh and was telling many times how beautiful I am and asking how he can meet me again. I clearly sent him to hell, but he was not giving up and actually with a sense of humor. I liked his friend more, who was not so clearly asking for sex but had an intelligent look of neurosurgeon (what he actually is). VCS (Volunterski Centar Skopje) people were in Sektor last night, there were some alternative short movie shows and one guy of VCS had also his movie(s) shown there. Sticky guy and neurosurgeon offered to take us there by car, which was actually good because we would have never found this place ourselves (or it would have taken a considerable amount of time). Sticky guy had a really nice car with intelligence system (hello, doors are open! bye...lala) and light leather seats. They paid us the entrance to the place and I got one more beer for free. I had quite an interesting talk with both guys... Gosh, what happens with these intelligent, good looking males after 40? It is actually sad. But I am never fucking out of sympathy. And I am taken, almost married. Zafatena. Točka

gloves

My new gloves - a result of a bit calmer weekend :)
COLD, YOU CAN COME NOW!

TAKSIRAT WAS THE BEST!

I think I really needed a change of music. It was GREAT, COOL, AMAZING, MAGNIFICENT, FANTASTIC, AWESOME, SIMPLY THE BEST!
Count another fan of Dubioza and Laibach! And I want to see those guys from Kumanovo again.

last week (busy as always)

Monday,
I took the bus at 11:30 from Prishtina. At 15:00 in the children village. Viki had planned to make the Activity game (guessing words by showing them or drawing them), but was not working out very well with the small kids. They wanted to draw. There were some guys from a marketing agency who were making Christmas cards with kids before. Kids are really kept busy these last weeks before Xmas because there are many businesses who want to promote themselves in this way...


In the evening was dancing again. We were learning Ciganchica. Maybe people were tired, maybe the dance was really harder than the previous ones, maybe the teacher is not really good at teaching...probably it all together, but it was not going very well this time. The guy is definately better at making steps simple and explaining them so that people understand. This girl is just showing and want us to repeat.
After the dance, we went to Alberts flat for a meeting about the International Volunteer's Day on Wednesday. It was Dominique's birthday, so most of the time we were talking nonsense and eating a cake. I would have boycotted this late meeting, but I had to wait for Ljubo to come with me to the police and register me. We went to police almost at 1 am and then I could finally go to bed..

Tuesday,
Business Incubator in the morning. At 15 I was meeting Natasha from Slovenia whom I met first in Prishtina the previous weekend. We walked a bit around Charshija, went to the old train station and then I showed her the way to the bus station and went to the language class.

Wednesday,
The International Volunteer's day. There was even a short story in the newspaper next to a story about Brad Pitt. First we went to the Kisela Voda office, folded some flyers. Then went to the square, next to the European Information Centre. It was a very windy day and nothing wanted to stand on the table, so laptop was mainly used to hold the flyers. We got some red and yellow balloons


and went on distributing flyers. I met Jeremy from CS. After the work we went to Sagafredo Zanetti cafe again to have some drinks. Here is my roommate with Nicolas having some fun:

The new local volunteers for Voices seem really nice. Jeremy was mostly talking to Dominique. Then I took him home, made some dinner and had to go to the center again to meet Natasha because she agreed to take me to the dentist. The dentist was a really cool, old guy who has fixed teeth of many NATO guys of different nationalities. I was his first Latvian, though. His clinic was in a private appartment, interior was quite retro, but anestesia was available and plombs were modern. Alex and Natasha took me home by car and inspected my appartment:)
In the evening we went to Kisela Voda again, had a nice party with candles, bambus and sweppes&white wine drink with fruit pieces, and version of the mafia game with werewolves.

Thursday,
In the morning we went to Bit Pazar to buy materials for the jewelry and christmas decorations workshop in Detsko Selo on Friday. I bought new very pink bedsheets because I wanted to change the finally and wash them. I bought them from a very nice muslim girl. It is not an uncommon sight to see these girls with headscarfs working. Especially in Bit Pazar or center of Struga. And they do look very nice.
After shopping I went for a bit to the YES BI. And then was the time go to the test in Macedonian language. It was not hard, but it was my mess day: misswrote things, skipped some letters, confused latin and cyrilic letters. So we have finished the first level and we will get a certificate.
In the evening we went to Albert's flat again for a St. Nikola celebration. They have made a lot of food but we had just eaten. At midnight I went to the center to meet 2 guys and go to Terry Francis night in Colosseum nightclub. I was doubting it while sitting in the flat because I was falling asleep and nobody wanted to join me. But I still wanted to see what a real house electronic party looks like in Skopje. Though, it is not my stuff at all, it was nice. It was strange that many girls and also guys looked more like coming to opera or theatre... but people were dancing and appearantly having fun. I also went to the weird VIP balcony this time, though as always it took some negotiation. And they don't sell any Skopsko on the VIP balcony, only Heineken because of some special agreement. Skopsko costs 100 in Colosseum, Heineken is 140. So, I took Gin&Tonic because it was just 10 denars more - 150. And it was good, finally not too much alcohol. Too much alcohol is a very comon problem for cocktails in Skopje. Generous bartenders. Yuck!

Went to sleep at 3 am because the guys had to get up early as well.

Friday,
I got up at 6 to say good-bye to Jeremy and went back to bed. At 10 in Detsko Selo. Inese and Nicolas also came as journalists. Kids enjoyed making jewelry, I and Anja were enjoying making Christmas tree decorations. Everybody made a big mess with fliters. The problem was that kids kept all the things and only my christmas tree decorations went for the Christmas market.
After Detsko Selo we went with Anja to Albert's appartment to finish yesterday's food. Viki went to the center first to meet some Hungarian woman. I with Anja were coming to Ramstore at 15, but we got so carried away in converstations that came more than half an hour late. We walked to the German embassy which is quite far away, hidden against the slope of Vodno. There was a German Weinnachtsmarkt.





We drank some Gluhwein with a good addition of rum. Carsten came later and boughth some really tasty cookies. It was packed with internationals and little kids. So naturally all our talks were about pregnancy and giving birth. We left Carsten and went to hunt for a taxi. It was not so easy but finally we got into the warmth of Ramstore supermarket, bought tickets for Taksirat festival (which is tonight) and went for a coffee at Doctor's.
Back in Avtokomanda, I still went to Anja to finish the leftovers and then almost straight to bed.

Today,
Slept nicely till half past nine. I hate the heating here! I thing that is the thing that does not make me recover completely and after each night I feel my throat again. In the evening it is warm, then somewhere at the night they turn off the heating at all to turn it back at morning around 7... do they think I will not notice that? The windows are not isolated well and I feel every change.
Anyways, I won't give up and went to run finally again. Drank my tea but my throat is still feeling weird. Here I am longing for a calm day at home with a book, tea, knitting maybe. But tonight need to go out again...Sigh

Moments of Magic

Life is ART. Sometimes I look at something and it goes straight to me, hits me actually. And the time stops.
I just crossed the border of Kosovo. It is raining. It is dark. There was a huge white dog on the border. It was running away, actually limping: jumping hard on his front legs and kind of pulling himself out from the roofed customs into the rain and darkness. A bright spotlight was shining onto him. He was some fifty meters away from me, but I could clearly see the rain drops on his fur and his heavy, steamy breath. Like it was amplified. A moment of Art. A moment of Magic

a good day

I am still wearing the red ribbon of the International AIDS day. Kids liked to make them and they look really nice. HIV/AIDS workshop went better than we expected. Marian was the greatest, smartest and he was helping with translation in Macedonian. Naum and Gjoko were making the biggest mess and noise, but they were in minority. Marija and Nikolja were also behaving nice and grown up (I am just writing it for myself to remember their names and what they were like).
In the beginning we made a name game and added their age, so to find out how old they actually are because Anja was scared that they are such kids when we entered the hall. However, they were all 12-13. Though Angela, Ana and Naum look for me like 7-8...
Then we showed the posters we accidentally got yesterday in ГТЦ while walking back from the language class. I told what is the difference between HIV and AIDS, how one can get HIV and how not. Sex is still a tabu topic here it seems. When I asked how you can get HIV, Marian said by blood. Yes, it is true. That is the most straightest way. But many people have it without mixing their blood. I noticed it also yesterday on Wikipedia in the Macedonian language - they mentioned only blood transfusion... Anyways they know about sex, too. Or know now.
The game with YES and NO on both sides of the room was working quite nice. Anja had translated the sentences from English in Macedonian and kids enjoyed walking and running from YES to NO and back.
In last 3 min we made the red ribbons and they left with the ribbons to school. Probably took them off before entering but that does not really matter.
The small kids were huggish and crazy as always. I got sick and sweaty running after them and twisting them around me while only holding their hands, and also pulling them by hands on the floor - cleaning it :)
They were drawing cards for Дедо Мраз/Dedo Mraz (Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas...Salatēvs, Дед Мороз) and writing what they would like from him (basketball ball, make-up, tetris...). When we were leaving (Anja took all their wishes and chards with her), one boy seriously asked what we are going to do with them and if we are going to give them to Dedo Mraz and if he will bring them these presents they wished for... They really do believe in this guy...
One of the small girls, she is a bit older really wanted me to explain what are those ribbons for (we made them also for the small kids because they also wanted such nice red ribbons). I told her that Anja can explain it better in Macedonian, but she did not want to hear it form Anja, but from me. So as good as I could I tried to explain that it is a disease many people have in the world and you can die from it, and you can get it from blood to blood or while having sex. I am not sure she got the sex part, but anyways... just raising awareness. First question when she saw the poster and us with the ribbons, and I told it is a disease, she asked if we have this disease.
Ok, must finish now and pack my back. I am taking the 17:00 bus to Prishtina.

International AIDS Day

December 1 is the international AIDS Day. I decided to talk to the older kids at Detsko Selo about HIV and AIDS tomorrow, during our Health Workshop: what it is, how to prevent, how it is not possible to get infected. But I am a bit scared how much they actually now about sex and such things...anyways I think it is worth risking

Skopje Fair/СКОПЈЕ САЕМ and ProCredit day

Yesterday I went first to Detsko Selo at 10. Viktoria had to go to doctor again. All volunteers are having some health problems here. This time we had to go to the other room because in the big room first Irena had a meeting with aunts (Children Village's "moms") and then there was ProCredit coming with their donations. I liked the small room actually better because it is smaller, warmer and cozier. First I was trying to teach them how to practice multiplication and make their own unique pattern using their birth date. Then we were doing a small funny dictation in English, then spelling of fruit and vegetable names in English. I like it because it makes me revise the names in Macedonian. A bit later Karen came, she had got lost or something. She is actually a really nice girl, but having a hard time with English and now also Macedonian.
After big kids left, we went to the big hall to see Irena. There were many children and aunts and people from ProCredit bank who were first promoting their ideology and then giving sets of knitted hats, scarfs and gloves to kids. By kids faces you could tell that they were quite boring gifts, still they were very polite and happy for them.



Then I went home, bought a burek (it was excellent this time, I am going to the same place again). Rested a bit and went to the Skopje fair to meet Elena from the incubator and see how it looks like. Elena was working together with her friend Marija. Really nice girls. I did not like to stay at the stand too much because visitors of the fair usually caught my eyes and came up to me to ask what we (Business Incubator) are doing. Then Elena jumped in and I just stood there and smiled like a stupid decoration girl or hostess how they call them. Actually they had really beautiful hostesses, especially some IT companies with ugly guys need to hire some beautiful girls for the fair to promote their stand. The other thing which caught my attention in this fair in Skopje was that almost in each stand there is kind of cafeteria area where people are sitting smoking, drinking coffee, eating cakes, sandwiches, candies...




I was explained by Elena that these areas are for the big clients. I was laughing back that in Latvia in such fairs you just take the business card of the big client to be and type him an email afterwards.
The fair was not really big and and also not so many people. It is free for pensioners (old retired people), so they usually come to these fairs to collect pens and colorful brochures, and/or just to have a talk
While walking around the 2nd time I was caught by the promotional movie of ProCredit bank. They showed a movie about their branches all over the world. I started with Nicaragua, then it moved to Mozambique, then to Ghana... While I was standing there, they offered to sit down. After Ghana I was already starting to feel uncomfortable - it was more than half an hour I was sitting there. But when I was leaving I was stopped by one ProCredit girl who offered me juice and asked to sit a bit more because the next was Macedonia. So I sit down again and watched Macedonia, Serbia and a bit of the main training center in Germany. It was an interesting movie.. thumbs up for ProCredit. I started to appreciate them more. And I found out, for example, that they are driving on the left side in Mozambique. The capital of Nicaragua Managua was destroyed in a big earthquake in the 1972. Ghana was the biggest "exporter" of slaves, but now one of the most stable and peaceful countries in Africa... Portuguese colonial rule finished really late in Mozambique, only in 1975. And after that they had a destructive civil war.
After the language class, I wanted to have a peaceful evening and go to sleep early. I did have a peaceful evening cooking and learning Macedonian, but went to sleep anyways at 1 am... Getting up today at 7 am did not feel very good. I will try to go to sleep earlier tonight.

French gheto

yesterday after the language class i was very hungry because I ran straight from the business incubator to the language class. i was late anyways because there was a big traffic jam on the bridge. the tur towards the government building was blocked by a police car with flashlights on. there was a huge crowd of people, probably protesting... still have not checked why, but one guess was that those are albanians asking for state holidays on nov 28-29 because they are Albania's independence and liberation days. Kosovars(-ans) have these 2 days off.
Anyways after the language class I joined 4 Frenchmen (Karen, Pierre, Antoine and Dominique - excentric French woman in her 50ies(?) and in red) to Dominique's favorite restaurant. All her friends hang out there and she knows the owner and everybody there. The meal was really delicious - perfect sharska pleskavica with kajmak, but the place was rather cold and also not extremely cheap (I have a tendency now to compare all the prices with Kaj Zlate). Then we walked and Antoine biked on Dominique's funny little bike towards Smala Stanica (that is the interactive art galery and cafe where also the erotic art exhibition was). Inese and Carsten were waiting for us already there. We told them to take some places to sit, but there were none. Luckily Carsten now some people and a waitress from one French party at some French woman's house and they sat with them. So when we came, we were completely surrounded by French. Finally they could really enjoy French ruling over English. I met a Macedonian guy who was studying French oral interpretation, 2 French girls who are doing internship at the French embassy, one Chinese looking French girl and another 2 girls... did not manage to talk to them because after one Skopsko I left. Music was getting on my nerves, too loud and not very good Jazz (if it can be called so, some crazy improvisation). Also the smoke and French language.
Yeah, actually the event was called НОЌИ НА РАДИО РАВЕЛ И ПРИЈАТЕЛИТЕ (nights of Ravel radio and its friends). There will be several such nights at Smala Stanica and the live music will be broadcasted live on Ravel radio station.
I walked home, quite a long walk, but walking is good. Tonight I want to go to sleep a bit earlier because I am finally getting work that starts before 12...dog days are over (for a while at least).

First post in Macedonian

Јас се викам Даце. Имам дваесет и пет години. Сум од Латвија. Сега живеам во Скопје и ќе останувам тука девет месаци. Работам како волунтерка во СОС Детско Село и во една невладинска младинска организација. Зборувам малку македонски.

YES Business Incubator

Today is my first working day at YES Business Incubator
First impression is really positive, people are very nice to me, got pizza, coffees, pepsi, Macedonian version of Belgian chocolate shells (btw, not bad at all - it is called ATLANTIS). I am just exploring, getting to know the people from the start-up companies here, reading about the incubator, searching the web for other incubators and associations and chambers of commerce of ICT companies in the Baltic States and Scandinavia. If you have a good idea for funding opportunities, matchmaking of these little Macedonian baby companies with bigger European companies, seminars, conferences, forums on Entrepreneurship and Business Incubators, feel free to post here or write me a private email to dsaltane[at]gmail
Tomorrow I am going to SOS Detsko Selo at 10 and after that at 14 to INFOCOM 2007 at the Skopje Fair.
The weather is very nice today, sunny, blue blue sky :)

Le Petit Cafe

I have been sitting in Le Petit Cafe for more than 2 hours already. I don't live in the center of Skopje and it is so cool we have such a cool cafe in our suburb. If you sit here, you really get a feeling you must be in the center. No way you would find such a nice place somewhere in Purvciems or Zolitude. And there is wireless internet here.
I have been working hard with adding some pics here. It is always better to see it once than read about it 100 times (old smart probably not Latvian saying). Sorry, I don't have my camera with me now, I will show you Le Petit Cafe another time.

oh my god, I don't want (20) kids!

today was crazy at the children village (SOS Detsko Selo). viktoria did not come today because she felt ill. I went alone. More and more kids came this time and at the peak I had close to 20 screaming, singing, fighting with each other, fighting for my attention and my drawings little monsters. they were playing with my hair, holding my hand, holding to my clothes, kissing me, begging to draw princesses, fish, balerinas, strawberries...
later Albert came with Karen, the volunteer from France (sorry don't know how to spell her name). they were just watching all the craziness what was going on. we tried to organize some games but they were shouting, jumping on their hands, making saltos, bridges backwards... when we finally got the rules clear always one half was cheating the rules... gosh, how can people choose this work

cat day

today I satisfied my hunger for caressing nice, warm, lazy, soft, sweet home cats. we visited natasha at her home and now she has got 2 of them: Toshe and Marko.
Natasha is not feeling well (everybody is getting ill, really) and her mom was diagnosed with cancer again, metastasis :( she is done with chemitherapy now. you could imagine to meet a murky mood at their home, but it is so cozy, warm, happy and nice. we had to eat a lot (of course)
not completely ripe Japanese apple (hurma, persimmon) is really yuckie. it is a challenge to eat it because you can choke with it.

devil wears prada, salep and photocopy

Just a minute, I hear the water boiling - need to run to make my salep, but will be back soon...
Back. Salep is a strange drink. Actually I don't know from what it is made, but besides salep it contains milk & spices: sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, skrob, guargam, ksantangam... They sell it only in pharmacies and it costs 30 cents a pack.
I checked Wikipedia for Salep. This is what it says: referring to both orchid as well as the salep drink. It is a flour made from grinding the dried tubers of various species of orchid, which contain a nutritious starch-like polysaccharide called bassorin. Salep is also the name of a beverage made from salep flour, whose popularity spread beyond Turkey and the Middle East to England and Germany before the rise of coffee and tea. In England, the drink was known as "saloop".
Shpetim came yesterday evening. I went to pick him up at the bus station. Albert told me that the new law (that foreigners need to register at the police the same day they arrive) is already in force and we were looking for someone with a Macedonian ID (lichna karta) to register him. Macedonians are scared of police, lazy and don't want to do more than is really required of them. Finally Albert thought of Ljubo, our office boss. Ljubo had just cut his hair and had to take a shower. But in 1 hour +10 min he was really outside our door. He is a great guy! However, at the police we were told that if he is staying less than 3 days, he does not need to register. Oh, cool. So we did not register. But I was joking that the police probably has not seen the new law yet. It is normal here - if you need something from some office, you better take the law with you. And they will probably ask you to give them the law for making a copy...
Oh, talking about the photocopy (fotokopir) places in this region, there is another funny thing. These places here are more common and more popular than bookshops. They are not only making copies, they are storing all kinds of conspectuses. If you need some university subject, you don't go to a bookshop or search internet or ask your friends - you just go to a photocopy place and they will let you choose which one you like. Of course, if you are especially interested in veterinary, it is better to go to a photocopy place near the veterinary faculty.
Today we went to Plaza de Toros in the center. I was reading USSR History in Russian with all these beautiful pictures of factory workers listening to their supervisor, komsomol girls learning to drive a tractor... all the beautiful names of decades in relation how far the socialism was built :) And then surprisingly among all the crap books I found a Devil Wears Prada in Dutch. What a pity that my Dutch has never been fluent and the book was not in English. I would be coming each day there to read... or better I would have stolen the book. Yes, and I still want to see the movie, too.

Hurrah!

We have Internet at our home!

football, first steps in roma tongue and cough

The weather is really terrible here. Plus five, rain, dark, cold... Yesterday was raining the whole day. It was really the best day to experience Shutka. I was there already 2nd time but the first time it looked quite nice. Yesterday one of our guys compared it to Vietnam. The family we were visiting this time was living deep inside the barrack house district, we had to take small flooded streets, jump on broken bricks among mud and water and old muddy, slippery blankets. When we finally reached the right house, there was a really cool, new motorbike standing outside and the guy we were visiting were taking care of it. He had just bought it. Also inside the small house was quite cozy, quite clean carpets and blankets on the floor, corner sofa, big TV. And the view from both windows was nice - to the front it went on a green football field, and to the back - just to a green field. You could not really seen the misery on the sides around the house. Quite smart.
We met lots of people and lots of kids. I did not really understood which kids belonged to whom, but what's the difference anyways. Some of them were really dark and some of them were blond with blue eyes. But what's the difference anyways. They were all very cute and really nice kids.



I learned my first few words in the local Roma tongue.
amari (stress on i) - my?, ours
tumari (stress on i again) - yours
paradi (i again) - broken
jek - one
After Shutka we went to the now dark, flooded, and empty Bit Pazar to have something to eat. We had kjebapci with shopska sallad and greesy, petrol smelling bread (from the grill) in an empty skara place with a leeking roof. I was joking that I am not from the Baltics, I am from Sweden and one guy appeared who started to talk Swedish to me. We exchanged a few words in Swedish and I explained to him that I am actually not from Sweden.
We met other volunteers in the square to go to the football match Macedonia - Croatia. We were rather late because some guys had decided to take bus instead of a taxi. The stadium was full and there was not much chance to find our seats anymore. I lost other people at the entrace and watched the first half in solitarity, sitting on the wet concrete steps, on the old towel I had taken from our place. There were a group of croatians in our tribine guarded all around by police. Some guys next to me were all the time shouting and showing signs at them. A fight in the Northern tribine where croats were sitting and one crazy croat in Block 1 in the Southern (big, Macedonian) tribine were the most exciting events of the first half.
At the end of the first half we found out that Israel had won Russia, so Croats started the second half with a lot of energy and some very good attacks. It really looked that now the real game starts and they will show who is who. But surprisingly that did not last long and soon Macedonia was winning with 2:0... I really had the feeling that this tribine can break down under thousands jumping. It was moving indeed. Hmm... and it is kind of strange watching football live. On TV because of close-ups and repeating of good moments and goals, it looks much more serious.. hard to explain. It is just different.

After the game we had a few drinks in Sagafredo place. Trying to make a conversation by the loud music did not do much good to my already irritated throat and today I sound like an old man who smoked too much of his self-grown tobacco. But it is healing as today it is terribly itchy and after saying a few words I need to cough for 5 min.
Today is the birthday of Latvia, called my mom and talked a bit about things here and there. I miss my cat, would like to see her now in her brand new winter fur coat.
Today was a lazy Sunday. I had the feeling that I have finally earned it. No shower, sweatpants, coffee and Russian bojevik.

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I am really tired of this silly little dog barking (vaukshkjeeshana)

fignja za sushenje

our new laundry dryer. while i was walking with it home from Bit Pazar, a couple of grannies were interested where i bought it and for how much. from their faces it seemed that we got it for a good price. The previous day in Chento we were asked 100 denars (1.70 euro) more. and the guy did not want to bargain :P
yes, and somewhere in the distance is the famous Bit Pazar

some pics from work

First days at work

Today was our second working day at SOS Children Village. On Monday we met the smaller kids and were drawing super-heroes with them. I had to draw a lot of princesses, kralicas (queens), lots of kosturs (skeletons), 1 spiderman and 1 vampire (Dracula). Today we met a bit older kids and were drawing with them winter-and-snow related things: sneshko - snowman, elki - christmastrees, snegulki (snowflakes). We were also making snegulki from paper cutting it with scissors (nozhichki)... The kids are great and so eager to learn English and teach Macedonian!
On Monday I also managed to meet Natasha finally! It was very spontaneous, but really great. We met in Ljubov, a very hidden place next to Soboren Hram.
Also on Monday we had our first dancing class, which I enjoyed a lot, too! Really having a great time this week, so many nice things to write about, hehe
I am still not completely fine, but I feel quite great (healthwise). I just wake up with stuffed nose each morning.
I had a crazy shopping day yesterday, bought lots of clothes. I did not really take any warmer winter clothes with me. And these last days it is getting really cold. It was snowing today in Skopje. And today bought a bag (looking like a real Macedonian devojche now with tight jeans, long boots, long sweater and a big bag). Yes, and many books...gonna have some food for my brain. Hurrah! But now should down with spending...
Mwaah, kiss
Mood: very positive

pics from Struga

Today is a very beautiful day, much warmer than yesterday, I can see the snow melting in the mountains. Here are some pics from today. And my new beautiful socks!

walk in snowy mountains

on Friday started to feel a bit ill, in the evening arrived in Struga for Vesnas&Kristin's goodbye-party. It was raing cats&dogs that night. And during the night the operation Planinska Bura was replaced by a real Planinska Bura with big wind, thunderstorm and snow.
Next morning I felt a bit better and decided to go to Vevchani, other people were going to Ohrid. Inese joined me. We missed the bus by 1 min and hitchhiked a car to Vevchani. The village was very quiet and empty. we went to some kind of park with springs, nice place. there was snow on the trees and inese was taking pictures. then some guy came and said that it is forbidden to take pictures here and he works for municipality as some kind of guide. he convinced us to go 5 min on the other side of the mountain to some little church with springs, very beautiful view... i was doubting because i did not like the guy and other side of the mountain looked very far. ok, but we can go for 5 min up, no problem. but then it was 5 more min and 5 more min and then it was too far to turn back. but we were going just up further in the forest, more and more snow. climbed some 3 hours at the end. up there was total winter, lots of snow, dry snow you could not make balls and real frost.
crossed the mountain river some 5 times. i got really pissed off with the guy and was almost killing him at the end and it did nto feel good at all being so far from civilization when it is getting dark and i dont see any light and village. but the biggest crisis was just 5 min walk to the village when i did not believe his 5 min at all (he wanted to make fire to warm his hands before going to the village...for me seemed stupid to do it. just 5 min away from the village where he said was a restaurant and taxis). but this time he was right, it was just 5 min away but the restaurant was not working and the village was quite deserted...
so we walked down and it was getting dark. there were some guys with a small zastava in the village and they were soon coming down but the car was full and they were driving like fools on the ice. we walked to another village and a nice lady let us in in the house and made some coffee and gave us blackberry juice. and our batteries were killed by the frost very fast. but somehow with 3 phones we managed to call the stupid guys friends who finally picked us up from there by car. first 1 km we were going slower than walking because the guy was very very afraid to drive on the icy road. but we got back to Struga and it was so great to be back! warm! safe! alive! no mechki & volki (bears & wolfs)!