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Farewell from a Mak-7
By Jan O'Neil, Mak-7, Gevgelija
Bottom line,
though, it's been a
phenomenal
experience and I
wouldn't trade it
for anything!
Wow! I can't believe we've
really made it to the end of
more than two years here in
Macedonia. It's not easy to
sum up that much experience
in one article. Over the
course of my time here, I've
written 50 l-o-n-g newslettertype emails to the people
back home, and even then, I
couldn't get it all recounted.
However, I'll do my best to
touch on the most important
parts, the people.
First off, I want to say thanks
to all 19 other members of
the original Mak-7. I couldn't
have asked to be a part of a
better group of people. Everyone was unique, and our
differences were not only
accepted, they were appreciated. I'm looking forward to
our first reunion. (Lisa, are
you planning that one?)
Being a part of the "Final
Four" is significant to me in
that each of the others played
a big role in my three stages
of service. Elena was the first
Mak-7 I met back in Washington, DC. She was my
roommate all through Staging
and those first five days in
Macedonia at Hotel Park,
before we went of to our
homestay families. It was
from Elena that I learned the
tricks of the trade of those
Turkish toilets.
During Homestay, Matt was
one of my fellow Peptowners. We also did our
practicum at the same school
in Negotino. My first New
Year's Eve in Macedonia was
spent with Matt at both my
house and his. His Homestay
mother even made pizza with
pineapple on it for us that
night. To this day, Matt is
still very popular with my
Homestay family. I think he
visited them even more often
than I did!
After Pepeliste, I moved on
to Gevgelija, where for two
years Travis has been my
closest Volunteer neighbor.
We've spent many a rucek at
the local pizza and skara
joints - not to mention the
hundreds of hours spent at
Felix, the internet cafe. I
loved taking Travis na gosti
with me because everyone
got a kick out of his knowledge of the various Macedonian dialects.
In thinking about the people
here who have meant the
most to me, of course the
entire staff at the PC office in
Skopje comes to mind, not to
mention the 10 to 15 people
who worked with us all during training. To mention only
a few names, and not everyone, would not be fair because everyone helped me
out during my time here. To
all of you, thank you!
My Homestay family in
Pepeliste was so great in so
many ways. As much as I
love them all, I don't think it's
ever been a secret that my
favorite person there is my
baba. At a time when I barely
knew any Macedonian, she
and I still managed to understand each other. I'll miss her
greatly.
Ljupco, my Homestay father,
helped me to understand
many of the Macedonians I
met. For some reason, I could
understand him better than
other people. I have to laugh
when I think about how
Ljupco would interpret other
people's Macedonian for
me...in Macedonian!
I was very fortunate in my
placement in Gevgelija. Tatjana and Ceca were excellent
counterparts and are now
good friends. They both have
wonderful families and I will
always remember them with
fondness. Tatjana recently
asked me what it was like
knowing I was leaving Gevgelija forever. For me, I am
not leaving it forever. I have
every intention of returning
to visit and am planning to
remain in contact with many
of the people there.
As for my experiences here,
they are myriad and I won't
even attempt to boil them
down into this article. Some
were utterly awesome and
others I could have done
without. Bottom line, though,
it's been a phenomenal experience and I wouldn't trade
it for anything!