My Students

April 1st is a special day in Macedonia. School was canceled and my students gathered in the town center. This day reminded me of Halloween with students wearing costumes and masks. They call this a "Masquerade" in the town center. Some classes organized costumes while other students dressed up as superheroes or princesses. My favorite costumes were the grapes. Being as this is the wine capital of Macedonia, it was fitting that they would be grapes! There was even a parade down the main street! The students take this day very seriously when it comes to pranks and jokes. They look forward all week to wearing their special masks and tricking people into thinking they are someone else.

The 3rd grade grapes 

The Kindergarten class

Recently was the Spelling Bee in Kavadarci. The Spelling Bee was started by the Peace Corps and continues to be the biggest secondary project in Macedonia. The Spelling Bee has been held at Kreaktiv for many years and we continued the tradition this year. However, this was a very special year because we had more students then ever before participate! Most of the students that attended were from my school.  My site mate and I went to the a few schools in the town for promotion and for 3 weeks before the Spelling Bee, I had practice everyday with each grade level. 

David and Michael, my students, were the only 2 from fifth grade that made it to Regionals!

My students were incredibly excited for the big day. Sadly only 8 total students out of 67 will move onto the Regional Bee in Veles on April 18. 6 out of the 8 students that qualified are from my school so that made me very happy. The Spelling Bee is for students in grades 5-12 and there are separate word lists for each grades. The students write the words instead of saying them out loud since this would be very confusing for them. The Macedonian letters have different names and even simply spelling their names in the Latin alphabet can be confusing! The National Spelling Bee will be in Skopje at the American school called Nova on May 9 (the day before the marathon!). I am continuing to practice the words with my students and excited to see if they will move onto Nationals! 

Anxiously listening to the instructions

Signing students in 

I have been busy co-teaching classes at my local school with my counterpart. Last week, my students practiced speaking about their typical school day. The best part of my school day is being hugged by the smiling students as soon as I arrive at school. This week I gave a presentation on Easter in America and my students were appalled after hearing about carrot cake. I tried to convince them of how delicious it is but they weren't having any part of the idea. They absolutely loved the idea of Easter egg hunts though and wanted to have one here. My dream would be to have a school wide Easter egg hunt but I know that's a pipe line dream. They also loved seeing pictures of chocolate bunnies and peeps!

A student writes today's lesson in her notebook.

I ask students in the class about their typical day at school. "What time do you arrive at school?" "Do you eat lunch at school?"

 A student scans the text so that he can answer my question about the lesson.

A student follows along in her book as I read aloud a text about a typical school day for a boy living in Australia 

If I had to sum up my Peace Corps experience over these past 6 months, it would be moments like these that remind me of my purpose here and bring a joy that I have never felt anywhere else

Although Peace Corps has very tough moments, that make you question if you are making a difference or what your purpose is, I just have to look at the joy in my students' eyes and in their smiles as they greet me each day in school. Sometimes we don't realize the impact we have on people from the "normal" things we do each day. At times it can feel like I am gaining more then I am giving but I have to remember that the small things can make a difference in the eyes of someone else. I may never fully understand the impact I have on my students but I am slowly beginning to realize the impact that they are having on my life.