Macedonia: Day Six

Josh and Daniel's school

the tree on the lower left was Becca's artwork way back from when she was in school here. Many of the mosaic tiles have fallen off.

these are tobacco planters. They poke a hole with it, put in the seedling and then poke a hole next to the seedling to collapse the dirt into the hole.

the Macedonians cook in these clay pots for many of their dishes

lots of yummies at Yule and Atsa's home. 

English as a second language class with Manuela

We went to the corner market this morning to get a few more things after starting a load of laundry. It takes two hours to wash a load with their washing machine and then everything has to be placed on a rack or hung on a line to dry. This morning, Kyle was hoping to meet with the director of the school that their boys attend and invited us to come along. We met Kyle at the school around 10:15, but the director was not there this morning. Instead, we met up with Josh at his break and took a peek into his Physics class. This is the last year that Josh will have at this school as he will attend boarding school in the fall. We were impressed that the teachers are all dressed very professionally and the school was very clean. We drove from there back to Kyle’s house to have coffee with he and Jackie. Jackie makes the best iced coffee! The skies were threatening rain today so we drove to our next coffee visit, this time with Dime. Dime makes jewelry for a living, selling his jewelry in what we would say were craft fairs or craft booths. His work is truly little pieces of art and he had us sit down and watch him create some earrings. He talked about his craft as if it is an easy thing to do, but the creativity required is more than any of us could imagine. He said he thinks about what to make all day and in his sleep! Like a true artist, he also is always trying to find other things to create like baskets and paintings. He finds tutorials on the internet and gives them a try. He also likes to look for natural stones in the surrounding areas like smoky quartz and rubies and then attempts to polish them himself and makes jewelry from them. He can see the beauty hidden inside of a dirty rock, amazing! I also like rocks and once he knew that, he filled my hand with some of his Macedonian findings. It was a fun visit and another opportunity to share about faith in Christ! We went to lunch with Kyle at a pizza place, but did not have any pizza. Instead we had two traditional dishes usually served as appetizers. Once was melted cheeses over a sauce that tastes a little like lasagna but without noodles. The other was egg, cheese, and ham and tomatoes which was kind of like a casserole. Both were served with sesame pita bread and was delicious and enough to fill us up. After lunch, Kyle took us to our apartment as he had a call to make at home. We hung up the laundry and Danny checked his email before Jackie came to pick us up and take us for another coffee visit. This time we were visiting with Jule and Atsa. They are members of the church and Jule was a great hostess. Atsa shared his testimony of faith in Christ with us. Poor Jackie had to do all of the interpreting for them which is very taxing to the brain! Kyle came in late as he had to finish his phone call. Before we left, their daughter Maria asked Danny to sing 10,000 reasons so we all sang it together after we prayed together. From there we went to English class at Izgrev. This is “English as a second language” class and is a free opportunity for people to practice speaking in English. I worked with one young lady, Manuela, and basically asked questions that she would answer in English. We had to get Jackie to help us some as she didn’t understand all that I said but for the most part it worked out great. I also had her ask me some of the same questions so that I could answer her back. We had such a good time that she asked if Jackie, Amy, and I would come for coffee tomorrow, so that is now on the agenda for tomorrow. I will have to go on a no cookie diet when I get home as I have eaten plenty of wonderful cookies and other snacks at our home visits. Until tomorrow…