arts & cultural experiences
left to right ) Rector , Bitola professor , and PCV Joe Martin h of the American Girls School , Peggy meets with Rector niversity in Bitola exchanging information on the history tion in Macedonia , Ginny and PCV Hana Truscott ask a loistory of the neighborhood while searching for remnants of the American Girls School in Bitola , Mary of Monastir ; photos courtesy of Peggy Hanson and Ginny Eisemon
e past life and times of Macedonia
y was eight years old , she remembers meetn eighty-two year old great-aunt . But it wasn ’ t ent discovery of her aunt ’ s vivid journals , leter 300 photos , spanning a time of more than ars , that Peggy realized the magnitude of her res . Her great-aunt “ had a camera and a typeboth those devices were in their early days ... d a reporter ’ s sense of jotting down what just including details only a first-hand report could iss Matthews ’ photos ( that may have been deh help from the famous Manaki brothers of Mojournal entries bring to life the rich dynamics of ime in Macedonia .
e Martin and I accompanied Peggy and her Ginny Eisemon as they re-traced Miss Mats through present-day Bitola . Joe enjoyed obir detective skills as they searched for the site merican Girls School had been located . They ith historians , museum directors , professors , xperts in putting pieces of the puzzle together . ed the streets in search of buildings to match e nearly century-old photos . The structure of n Girls School has been demolished , but it ’ s to envision what the area was like . Miss Matserved as the head of this school , caring for 125 war orphans with a small staff ( only three
at one point during World War I ). According to Peggy , her great-aunt played a remarkable role during the time of Ottoman rule in Macedonia – that of educating girls . “ Most of the girls were of Bulgarian , Serb , Albanian , or Gypsy backgrounds , but the English immersion and solid education offered by the American school was respected by all ethnicities .” Despite the dangers , Miss Matthews insisted on staying in Monastir , taking on roles and authority normally reserved for men at a time before women had won the right to vote in the United States .
Miss Matthews ’ journal entries are a first-hand account of how the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire took place and how life went on in the most besieged European city on the southern front of World War I . Peggy reports that in these journals , her great-aunt “ counts the shells from both sides . She puts wet blankets over the basement windows to protect her little flock from poison gas . She describes how many villages were burned , and what each ethnic group did to the others when it was in control .”
Peggy Hanson is compiling her great-aunt ’ s story into a book due out in 2014 – the 150 th anniversary since her birth . Stay tuned for the publication of this intriguing story , Mary of Monastir : Missionary , War Correspondent , and Unsung Feminist , and its unique glimpse into the past life and times of our Peace Corps home , the Republic of Macedonia .
Summer 2013 – 19