went and talked about the run and handed
out posters.
The next morning we made an
emergency trip into Skopje to give the booth
company some money, met Luli’s friend who
is the head of the Farmers Organization and
went to the wholesale fruit and vegetable
market to pick up a crate of donated apples
for the runners. When we returned to Gostivar, there was a crowd of students waiting in
front of the registration center.
Peace Corps
volunteers, all 23 of them, started arriving
to offer help.
Plans were altered at the last
minute and everything felt like bedlam, but
the next day, with everyone’s help, the race
went off and the festival happened. We had
129 runners cross the finish line. Some of the
little kids hadn’t run the entire race, but they
ran part of it and felt like winners, which was
what mattered.
Phil Lampron came and took great pictures,
some of which are now being used by local
kids as Facebook profile pictures.
Speeches
were given, some farmers and agribusinesses
handed out things from their booths, and
we had two wonderful folk groups perform.
One from Cegrani put on a demonstration
of traditional crafts.
The t-shirts were hot
items, and, even though everything didn’t
quite go the way we had envisioned it, people
went home happy.
We’re already talking about expanding for
next year. Luli wants the 5K run and a parade
to happen on Saturday with the Festival, expanded of course, with activities for kids, live
sheep, and more demonstrations, on Sunday.
Book that first weekend in October for Gostivar!
Wait, you can’t pass!
The Making of American
Sports Club Bitola
By Katie Kalinowski, MAK 14, Bitola
Fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Ashley and I
thought we covered everything but once in
play, we realized we had omitted a few key
instructions: such as that there is no passing the runner on base ahead of you, that
batting order is not negotiable every inning,
and that players on the bench may not interfere with tagging out a runner headed for
home plate.
Luckily the kids participating in
Bitola’s
American
Sports
Club
(ASC-Bitola)
pick up on “new” rules quickly. The sport in
question was kickball, a variation on baseball;
but since none of the kids had ever played
baseball, we had to cover all the basics from
the order of the bases, and what fouls, strikes
and outs are.
Ashley described the rules in
English and a club member translated everything into Macedonian.
Although explaining
how to play is important, the emphasis is on
running around and having fun. Typically we
are having such good a time slipping around
our muddy field that we forget to keep score.
The ASC was formed by Bitola teens who attended the Young Men’s Leadership Project (YMLP) summer camp, joined by a Girls
Leading Our World camper. Once a month,
the club meets to learn a new sport invented