This is my multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-national folk group: Los Kratovskis Chicanos Fantasticos. It was comprised of a Macedonian music teacher, a Roma student, a Macedonian student, and myself, a Mexican-American. We were practicing...
In this picture I am dancing the Macedonian traditional dance, the Oro, for the first time with my host father. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but thankfully he was able to tell me the dance steps. Too bad I didnt understand enough...
This photo was taken in the village of Dihovo where all of PC Macedonia teamed up to help with a trash cleanup. We cleaned for 2 days and picked up over 30 tons of trash from the river and its banks! We pulled everything imaginable out of this...
This photo was taken on Mother's Day (May 9, 2010) in Macedonia. On the far left is my host-sister, next to her is my mother from America, and to the right of her is my host-mom. The closest holiday to Mother's Day in Macedonia is Women's Day on...
This photo was taken on my Host Mother's 47th Birthday in Macedonia. Present in the picture are members of my nucleus host family. Birthdays are not hugely celebrated or not as big of a deal --for adults, as Name days (Imenden) are in Macedonia....
My host dad and I gettin' down with our bad selves during Swearing In, November 2009. Dancing is something that we both love to do, so it was part of our daily routine. We danced the night away every evening in the kitchen while my host mom...
I took this photo during my pre-service training in the fall of 2005 in Veles, Macedonia. My host father took me with him to a small orchard and showed me his homemade wine. The photo shows my host father stirring the barrel full of fermenting...
A traditional Macedonian wedding takes place in several different places, so its necessary to have transportation between the locations. Often times, the leading car which usually holds the wedding party, will fly the national flag out the window....
A traditional part of a Macedonian wedding ceremony involves breaking a "bread of health" over the bride's head. They hold a cloth in between the bride's head and the bread so that no bread ends up in her hair! My girlfriends, both Macedonian and...
Dancing is a big part of Macedonian weddings. Everyone knows the traditional dances and dances them all night long. Even as an American, I was expected to not only know these dances, but expected to lead them as I was the bride!
My host mom took this photo on September 18, 2009 on the final day of orientation week in Macedonia. We had just met our host parents for the first time, and in an effort to "break the ice" volunteers and their host families danced the oro.
This photo was taken on the day I swore in as a volunteer, or better known as Thanksgiving Day 2009. The photo is of me and my host mother in honor of Mother's Day. She always has a smile and embraced me with open arms. I can't thank her enough!
This is my host mother, Lenche, and me on November 26, 2009 in front of her home (and my home during the previous 3 months) in Macedonia. This was a bittersweet day for us both because it marked a great milestone in my service as a Volunteer but it...
this is a photo taken on April 25, 2010 in Macedonia. There are students from the local high school that volunteered their time on a weekend to help pick up trash in a local park in honor of Earth day.