Thanksgiving & Swearing-In

What a whirlwind these last few days have been. Thursday was Thanksgiving. We spent the morning at home with our host family cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. Jarred made baked spinach, and I made dressing. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the other trainees in Veles at a local restaurant. We arranged for the restaurant to prepare the three turkeys the Peace Corps provided. The restaurant allowed us to bring our own food, in exchange for us purchasing our beverages from them. All of the trainees brought a dish and their host families. 

The Thanksgiving spread.

Our host family at their first Thanksgiving.

Jarred and Vlatko breaking the wishbone.

For many of the Macedonians, this was their first Thanksgiving experience. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, apple pie, and many other tasty dishes. 

The Veles trainees at Thanksgiving.

Katie, fellow volunteer and great friend, even made a large paper turkey for people to write on the feathers what they were thankful for. By the end of the night, the turkey was covered in expressions of gratitude in English and Macedonian.

Katie with her turkey.

The next day, we traveled to Skopje for our Swearing-In Ceremony. We are the 19^th group of volunteers to be sworn-in in Macedonia, which is why we are called MAK19s. It was a swanky event. There was a trio playing live music, everyone was dressed in their best, and there were over 200 people in attendance. Our training director, Peace Corps country director, the president of Macedonia, and two fellow volunteers gave speeches. 

With our host after the ceremony.

President of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, speaking at the ceremony.*

 

 

The U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Paul Wohlers, administered the Oath of Service to us all. It is the same oath U.S. ambassadors and other diplomats take when they are sworn-in. After the ceremony, there was a reception. This was the last time for all of the MAK19s to be together in one place for a while. Since September, we have all seen each other every week or every day, and shared the experience of Pre-Service Training, so there were a lot of mixed emotions about taking the next step as volunteers.

MAK19s with the president and U.S. ambassador.*

Peace Corps Volunteers

Our language class as new volunteers.

The next day, we carried all of our belongings to the bus station and boarded a bus for Delcevo. Our Veles host family saw us off, and made us promise to come back and visit them. It was harder to say goodbye to them than we anticipated. However, the excitement of starting our lives in Delcevo overpowered any sadness.

 

Family ручек after the swearing-in ceremony.

Our new host and my counterpart met us at the bus station in Delcevo. We all had dinner together. Then, Jarred and I began unpacking and settling in to our new home.

-Andreya  

*Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152541127191158.1073742591.84922261157&type=1