Secondary Project-A Real Peace Corps Day
The infamous secondary projects
we’ve read about and some of us have wondered about. What will I do? How will I
find it? Personally, I find secondary projects easier to find than actually having
work at my work site, but that’s another
article. For those MAK 10 volunteers who
don’t know me, I’m an NGO volunteer, not
a teacher.
I’d guess around 50, wearing a blue uniform over his clothing, “This is the man
who makes everything beautiful.” I love
that title and I believe he’s the janitor. All
attention goes to him. He walks over to me
with a huge smile showing the only two
teeth he appears to have, one upper and one
lower. He takes my hand while I balance
my coffee in the other and squeezes it so
hard that my ring is permanently indented
on my finger (ouch), and at the same time
he shakes it like he’s trying to pump water,
making my coffee slosh out of the cup.
Looking directly at me he says very slowly,
“Y o u p r e t t y w o m a n!” I’m surprised, “Fala mnogu.” Everyone has a huge
smile. As he’s leaving the room, he yells
back, “I passed!” Apparently he’s been
practicing this line for a week. Someone
wrote it for him and everyday he practiced.
They were all waiting for his performance
and I was so tickled I hardly knew what to
say. These are the moments when all the
bad days that I go through become worth it.
When someone tries so hard to make a good
impression, tries to make you feel welcome,
and a room is overflowing with laughter, a
desire for all that’s good, and an admiration
for man that makes everything beautiful.
A group of 7 of us pile out of the
van that has just delivered us to the village
school, Pu Rade Kratov?e, about 20 km
from Ko?ani, high up on the mountain. The
kids are running around trying to get a
glance of the American woman they’ve
been told was coming, but not wanting to be
noticed quite yet. The school looks pretty
much like you might expect: dilapidated,
paint peeling, broken windows, and very
stinky outdoor toilets. Nina, the woman
who’s made this happen, directs me to the
teachers lounge. It’s approximately 8’ by
8’, one wall with closets, another wall with
waist-high cupboards, a wood burning stove
for heat that is going full blast, 10 small
wood chairs and a large window that is
closed. As soon as we enter, they direct me
to the best chair in the house, but I decline
and take a chair that is
like most the others.
About 10 minEveryone settles on
utes later, two young
“Looking directly at me he
these
child-sized
children enter the room.
chairs; three teachers says very slowly, 'You pretty The first, a darling 5light up their cigayear-old girl who’s not in
rettes while another
school yet, walks up to
woman!’”
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