I Want

I want to be the sun
to shine during the day,
I want to be a star over the sky
to show the road to unknown man.

I want to be angle
with God to discuss. (talk)
I want to be a bird
in freedom to fly.

I want children in peace to live.
I want happiness
everyone to share.

I LOVE you Bitola very muchhhhhhhhhhhh . . .

Urim

Pelister

Before I came to Pelister I expected to meet new friends, new games, new language, new places. In Bitola I heard Macedonian language for the first time. The children were very good. We played new games every day. But the day after I felt sad because I have left my village and my family. Anyway, day passed very quickly and I didn't feel sad anymore. Now I am happy. My first impression is that the national park is very good and modern. I also liked nature very much.

Blagoje

My Days in Camp

When I went out from bus I have seen a new world of which I have been discovering the next week. He looked very different form what I have experienced. That for me was very strange. For me there was new town, new school in which I have to learn new language with new teachers. I found new house where the rules were different. I found new friends too they were very different form friends which I have home. I met new teachers who looked very different from me: Almir, Jovana, Faruk, Ayla, Michael, Molly, Tara, Juliet and Jeanine. But days were going and I felt take down.

The second day I went up a big mountain "Pelister," of which I hold up and I see the town how looked. I hiked up and we too pictures on high rock. After we too pictures on tree who was 200 years old. When we back to the hotel we had a free time and after a class of English. The third day we visit a town where we visit a lot of shops, place and we took a picture. When we back we have a dinner and we play "Capture the Flag!" Next day I stand up breakfast and I was preparing for swimming pool. After we came back at the hotel we had an Engish class. On Friday we had a last class of English and at the night made a fire, sat near the fire and we told stories. The next day we left at the Ohrid on beach where we were swimmoing, walking but when Sunday came we left our houses.

In this camp we spend a very nice moments a long way from our families and the other. It was very interestig it was a lot of fun. I met English language and good teachers of which I was all day. I'm glad to come here and change my life for one week. If we will see again that will be very interesting and very funny like this week. Who was gone and who we will remember of everything what was here. Thank you for everything!!

Omar

English Camp in Bitola

When I heard about this camp I was very happy. Michael and Molly came to my school to choose children for the camp. They chose me. I believed that this camp will be nice and useful. I felt excitement before coming to this camp. Because it was in the mountains in Bitola, I thought that this mountain was so high. Goals of the camp were to learn English language and to communicate with others. Because we met a lot of new people. I liked Egzon the most. He's from Rahovec. We told a lot of jokes with him. He became a friend to me who lives in Rahovec. I was impressed of the nature in Pelister. it was full of pine trees. I can't forget the good relations we had. The nature and sight of Ohrid were also wonderful. I enjoyed the lake, swam and dived into the water, was fun. This is a good experience of mu lofe. I won't forget the good relations we had with friends, teachers and counselors.

Eren K.

Stars

STARS!! The stars are an important part of nature for me. I like them because they have slightly different colors. Sometimes when I look at the stars I think to myself, "Is there any life among them?" I think about stars like I think about people. But the stars connot disappoint you, as people can. I also like them because they shine over me. I feel peaceful and I can think about anything. There are so many reasons to liek the stars. Remember the stars seemvery simple when you look of them but in reality they are complicated! Everybody finds them deeper when they look at longer The stars are just one part of my time in Bitola. We also played some games and learned English. We played a new game, "Capture the Flag." It was a very exciting game. One of the best days that we had was our visit to Bitola. It impressed me very much and so did the camp. I think I will never forget the time I spend there and the friends.

Enisa

English, Marshmallows and Capture the Flag

I said a Boom-chicka-boom!
I said a Boom-chicka-boom!
I said a Boom-chicka-rocka-chick-rocka-chicka-BOOM!!!

Friday night, day 6 of my camp in Bitola, Macedonia, night of the campfire. The American camp songs came out along with marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars. Those songs might be ringing through my head for a while. A lot of the past week will be going through my head and I hope it's for a while.

Eight days started well and basically sustained a high plateau with a few small valleys and peaks along the way. Broken light bulb, slow English classes, teenage Macedonian skiers hitting on our Kosovo girls that probably don't get the chance to flirt back home, tooth-aches and sprained ankles were off-set by massive-all-inclusive UNO games, capture the flag, students singing Pink Floyd at a talent show, swimming in Lake Ohrid, shopping and night walks to look at the stars. Together, counselors, teachers and students created a family for a wekk that followed new rules, played, ate, worked, experienced and explored together. When it was time for it all to end there were a whole lot of crying eyes that didn't want to leave. The collective existance was inspiring.

Then there were the individual students that wil forever be engrained into my head. Enisa from Recane who gave me a dream of a five star hotel when she saw that I was about to fall over from exhaustion. Eren B from Prizren and his face that said more than any words in any language could. Marija from Velika Hocha that broke into giggles at the drop of a hat. Elmija form Rahovic, so quiet, private and thoughtful. Omar from Recane, such an accommodating and caring friend that became a leader because he listened and was so willing to follow. Valisa from Recane, so intelligent and wanting to accomplish so many things that her indepencence and confidence will no doubt lead her to. Milena from Velika Hocha who knows and loves Engish but has a 15 year-old attitude that gives her the front of someone who doesn't care about anything anyone else has to say. Underneath her tough exterior there is something that will eventually show itself and take her to great places.

I know well enough to know that most of those kids will go back to their own lives surrounded by the politics and negotiations of a country in limbo. They will go back to uncertain futures and marginal living conditions. But for one week myself, three American Peach Corps Volunteers and a Canadian gave them security, predictability and a good time. Will this experience change them, take their futures in different directions? That would be very wishful thinking, but you never know.

I wish everyone I know could know how great this week was for me. People will ask and I will tell stories, but my monologue will become a scripted resopnse and lose its meaning and imact the more it's told. I want to hang onto it for a while at least before I start telling and I want to keep this full feeling I have - literally over flowing with beautiful faces, kind hearts and wondering minds of 24 teen-agers.

Beginning the summer of camps!

Leaving Minnesota this summer after three weeks of being with family and friends was harder than it has ever been before. I see my grandparents getting older my nephews getting older and the thought of being away from them and missing time with them is really hitting me. I was able to have a whole week with Shane and Will and I couldn’t have had a more perfect time with them. Breaking the heat in the pool, checking out Sparkey the seal and the buffalo at Como Zoo, visiting with grandparents, discovering the Minnesota History Museum and checking out the big city with them allowed me to be a real aunt for the first time. We got to know each other at a time when they are changing so quickly. I think I cried spontaneously the entire 20 hours I traveled from Minneapolis to Hungary thinking about them.

When I arrived at the Teaching Tolerance Through English Camp in Balatonllele, Hungary on Lake Balaton I was worn out from 20+ hours of travel, dirty and would have liked to have been back in my comfortable bed with the people that I know best in Minnesota. Then I heard, “Molly Teacher,” turned around and the bright smiling face of Vjosa and Vlora came running toward me. They are two of the ten Kosovar Albanian students that I selected back in May to come to this camp where teachers and students from Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Kosovo and Croatia were meeting for two weeks of English and camp fun together. They had only been at the camp for two days and already they were having a fabulous time. As soon as I got unpacked, cleaned up and had some food, I looked around at the kids playing volleyball, ping-pong and listening to music together and I knew exactly why I came back here.

Taking this trip is a really big deal for the kids from Kosovo. For most of them it’s their first time on an airplane and even their first time to a McDonald’s. One class activity students were asked to draw a picture of one of their best days ever. Arber’s picture had Kosovo, an airplane and Hungary with a camp-site on it. He explained how on the day before they got on their airplane they didn’t even know if they were going to have the visa required for them to go. But finding out that everything worked out and that he would be able to make this trip was the happiest day of his life. In Kosovo these kids, being Albanian, are the majority. Here among students form the EU, they are a sort of sheltered minority experiencing for the first time many things all of the other students have access to daily. Being here they are experiencing a global perspective . . . something outside of the Kosovo they have been confined to their entire lives. Heck, that is the first Big Mac Vlora and Vjosa have ever seen . . . seriously!!!

I am a traveling English teacher. Every time I leave my family my heart breaks and I wonder if it’s the right thing for me to do. Then I get to where I’m going with the students I work with and the tears dry out for a while. It’s a tug of war that I’m not sure will ever end. Until it does, these museum and McDonald’s moments will continue to be the exact places I belong at the time.