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…

Macedonia: Day Five

growing tobacco seedlings

finding our way to our picnic spot

a vineyard along the way

a field of poppies!

looking out over the city of Prilep

a natural spring and water source for many

unpacking the supplies for our picnic

everyone plays CornHole at a picnic right?

this egg and cheese dish that Jackie made was delicious!!

Danny gave the message at the picnic while Kyle interpreted for him

of course we would have coffee at the picnic!

discussion after the message

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these little shrines are everywhere in Macedonia

this sheep dog showed up right at the end of our meal so we threw him a few leftovers

celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary at Macedonia House with the Kirkpatricks

We had a little bit of a lazy start to our day because today was the church picnic. We walked to the corner at 10 for Kyle to pick us up in the car and bring us to meet the rest of the folks who were gathering to walk up the mountain. The church usually has a picnic on May 2, May Day, which is a Veterans holiday, but the weather was too unpredictable then and they rescheduled it to today. Noone really seemed to know exactly where they wanted to go except that they all wanted to eat on the mountain. Eventually a leader popped out of the group and off we went. We walked about one and half miles up the mountain, skirting around vineyards, orchards, vegetable and tobacco fields. We stopped at a beautiful shady area that looked out over all of Prilep and was located near a natural spring. The spring has been directed into a pipe that pours into a stone basin. While we were there, several people came by for a drink of water or to fill containers. Apparently there are springs like this all over the mountain and the locals know where they can find the fresh water while on the mountain.  We set up tables for food and also set up a game called Corn Hole, which we play back home. Everyone nibbled on a delicious egg and cheese dish made by Jackie and played and visited until it was time for Kyle to go and pick up the meat that had been ordered. We had a picnic with hamburgers, grilled chicken breast, fresh bread, tomato and cucumber salad, and cabbage salad. The ladies made the salads on site. It was all delicious! After lunch everyone gathered around to hear the bible message brought by Danny from Philippians 2:1-11. Kyle was his interpreter. Danny says it can be a challenge to speak through an interpreter, but Danny and Kyle are so like minded that they make it look easy. There was dessert after the bible message which was cake and cookies and one of the ladies even made coffee using a tiny single burner camp stove and Nescafe instant coffee! There was more discussion among some of the adults about things relating to the Bible while the kids enjoyed running around and throwing water on each other from the spring. It was a very relaxing afternoon and we packed everything up and headed back down the mountain around 4 p.m. Before we left, a herd of sheep, a sheep dog and a shepherd came near us looking for some grass and probably a cool drink of water from the spring. We showered off back at the apartment and then met the Kirkpatricks at a favorite restaurant, Macedonia House, for dinner. Danny and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary today! We have a full afternoon and evening tomorrow. Until then…