I arrived at site in mid December and was invited to an office Christmas Lunch. I accepted the invitation but the "lunch" was really a dinner and a huge party at a local restaurant. The night included dancing and singing by all. As I know now as...
This photo was taken on September 12, 2009, as our group of MAK-14 trainees were on our way to Skopje, Macedonia and there were connecting flight delays.
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...
This elderly brother and sister lived alone, miles away from a village or city in the foothills of the Baba Mountain range near Bitola, Macedonia. They had so little for themselves, and yet when I was hiking through with a Macedonian friend in...
This photo was taken on June 9, 2007 in Bansko, Macedonia when the Little League baseball team from the village of Novo Selo traveled to play a game with the team from Bansko. The teams were coached by two Volunteers who wished to introduce the...
This photo was taken on September 27, 2008 in Koleshino, Macedonia at the First Annual NovoFest. The local municipality of Novo Selo wished to develop their tourist industry during my Peace Corps assignment in their local economic development...
I took this photo on January 12, 2010, one month after arriving at site. I started teaching a one-hour long English class everyday during working hours, splitting the group into two sections. Each group met twice a week for a total of 2 hours per...
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...
About mid-way through pre-service training was Halloween. A lot of people in our group really loved the holiday, and we knew we wanted to celebrate it with Macedonians in country. We decided to each go as a US holiday, including: Valentines Day,...
This photo was taken on August 4th, 2011 at the grand opening of the newly renovated firehouse which facilitated the creation of fire safety and prevention program for my town Macedonia. The cake displays the logo of the fire department and the 3...
Built in an extinct volcano on the western banks of the Osogovo mountains, Kratovo was originally Roman and was built up by the Ottomans as a way station and mining town. It became famous for precious metal crafting, and hosted Turkish families...
Near Zeleznica in the foothills of the Osogovo Mountains in Eastern Macedonia, a woman on the road to Kratovo walks her goat and mule. I took this during a walk outside my site, Kratovo, in March 2003. The woman is from a village and going to town...
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...
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....
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!
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...