EVS in Kocani

EVS IN KOCANI

NO. 5

DECEMBER 2013

Let’s go on Seminar and Training Course!

Let’s learn with the non-formal education and having great experience on the way!

Tatjana Stamenkovska What is seminar?

It is an event that last for few days, most often organized by a non-governmental organization, but there are exceptions when can be organized by governmental institution what are working on educational programs for her employees or society.

The main purpose is gathering together participants from all around the world to learn, discuss and work on a given topic. To attend a seminar you can have basic work experience or you are personally influent by the topic of the seminar.

What is training course?

If the main goal of the seminar is to give you a knowledge on a certain topic through intensive lecturing the training course is going one step further, so not only is empowering you with the knowledge but required an interactive component from the participants. With one word the training course by making you not only listen and think but actually doing it through exercises is improving your skills.

Why to take chance and go on seminar course? * You are older than 18 years old * You want to learn together with the non-formal education on topics that you find them interesting or simple sounds challenging to you working in group with people from all around the world. * The really good part it is all the expenses are covered, you pay just 30 % from the traveling costs.

If you find yourself in this simple requirements than this is the thing you!

Last but not least please share your experience with your friends as now I will share it with you.

My first seminar experience under the European Commission was in Durres Albania, lasted for 8 days from 1-8 of October 2013 and was

under the title : EVS Challenges, Improvements and Trends. This seminar gather together 35 representatives from Europe and the Caucasus region and created great environment for teaching us what means the European Voluntary Service from his basic to the future trends and ways of improvement.

We are not only playing games, but through tem-building games we learning how to work as part of a team.

Next one was the training course in Coka-Vojvodina, Serbia. Coka is small town in the north part of Serbia and it is very good example of multicultural society between Serbs and Hungarians who work and live together on a very harmonic way. The topic of this seminar was Cross border project collaboration between two or more neighboring countries. This training course lasted for 7 days and provided us with the opportunity to visit Coka municipality and speak with their mayor and representatives. As well we visited Vojvodina Municipality what is located in Novi Sad where was presented our training course and the Municipality representative spoke about their international experience.

The third seminar and last one what I attended was organized by the Macedonian national agency for European educational programmes and mobility and lasted for 5 days. This was their traditional 4th time how they organize this training course with a working title : “The Real Deal- Partnership Building Activity �PBA. The place of the training course was organized in the small town in the south part of Macedonia named Krusevo and hosted 34 participants from 15 different countries. The main objective was building partnership between the participants organizations and creating good examples for future projects development. On this TC as well was explained the new Erasmus plus educational program and the process how to organize good youth exchange starting from the idea.

Presentation of the model of the public institutions accessibility in Kocani Tatjana Stamenkovska The association “Pavel Satev” together with the association of people with walking disabilities “Mobility” during November and December month join their forces to make a model what will show the accessibility of the public institutions in Kocani. The idea initially came from the two volunteers from Portugal Maria Luis and Paulo (Luis )???. Both of them are volunteers who have valuable volunteering experience in their home country. They decided to share it here with us their creativity and innovation by coming on idea for making a model of the institutions accessibility.

In their work helped them the local Volunteers from the “Mobility” association, the pupils from the high school Goso Vikentiev and the other EVS volunteers from the association “Pavel Satev”: Halid Ceylan, Baki Celik, Gertrud Koima, Mari Poldma together with the coordinator Blagoj Ristov.

The presentation of the ready model was made at the restaurant “Kaj Stole” on 3 of December what is consider for “International day of the people with hendikep”. On this event attended all the members and volunteers of the association “Mobility” together with the members and volunteers from the association “Pavel Satev".

This project was successfully finished thanks to the unselfishly contribution and help of many people. Because of this reason the president of the association “Mobility” gave gratitude certificate to all of them.

The Portuguese volunteers prepared a video from the starting point how they came to this initiative through the working process and completion of this project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqhcw3ackFY&feature=youtu.be As well there was the local TV station “Kanal 8” who made a reportage for this event: http://kanal8.mk/index.php/1004-maketa-so-nepristapni-javni-objekti-za-denot-

Holidays & Stress Gertrud K천ima Christmas and New Years Eve are one of the most beautiful holidays. They are known as peacful time full of pleasures, dreams and heartwarmness. Celebrations at home and work, giving and receiving presents, meeting with friends and traditional songs are nice part of holidays. For many people this is not the reality. Many people experience lack of happiness and sometimes even depression, especially the time before it brings us a lot of stress. Holidays require a lot of time and also spending more money than usually.

There are many reasons why people have holiday stress. Some of them experience that big present hunting, many parties where they suppose to be attending and give their best to show that they are in a great holiday spirit.

Also the pressure to spend a lot of money on big and fancy presents, this pressure can be coming from the inside and also from the outside influence. People have to meet with their families, friends and co-workers, who they actually do not want to spend time with. Holidays can make people to think about their lives and compare that to others and then realize it is not so awesome as they have been thinking, but also it is not that bad, because they are overthinking it. This kind of comparing is like a circle, once you start to think that way it is hard to stop and people are going into depression.

At Christmas time people are thinking about their loved ones and also of them who are dead. Usually the sadness and difficult situations make people stress more.

One of the ways how to not get depressed is charity. Donate, but not money, like give help by doing something good. When you love animals go to a shelter and spend time with cats or dogs. If you really love children, help to organize a chrstmas party for them, take one or some of them to the cinema or something else. Also it is nice to make your own Christmas presents. Firstly, it is a good way to spend time and it does not get you depressed. Secondly, the gift receiver sees that you have spend time for just them and it gives more happiness than expensive presents. When you are doing presents by yourself then you can choose how much you want to spend, like you can give sweets.

Holidays are not meant to be stressful so take it easy and do not worry about it.

Celebration of 5th of December - The International Volunteers Day Tatjana Stamenkovska

This years the International Volunteers day what is celebrate traditional on 5th of December our members were invited by the Red Cross representatives to be their guests as part of the gathering of all volunteers in our city to commemorate this date. The event happened at the local municipality hall during which the Red Cross president awarded gratitude’s to all the volunteers who gave contribution to their work. After that was organized small cocktail party what was great chance all the volunteers to speak and share their ideas.

For more info of this event please visit the link bellow: http://kanal8.mk/index.php/1025-odbelezan-denot-na-volonterite

My vacation in Estonia Mari Põldma

I had been a volunteer for 4 months in December and I got an opportunity to go visit my family in Estonia. Even though 4 months is not very long time to be away from home I was so exited to see my family and my dogs.

My trip began on 9th of December from Kocani to Skopje, where I had a flight to Stockholm. There I had to pick up my visa and then went to the harbor to get on a ship and ship off to Estonia. YAY! Finally on the 11th of December my foot touched Estonian ground. One more thing to do. Go to the bus station and getting on the bus which took me to my hometown Tartu! And after 2 hours I was finally In Tartu.

My mom and my sister picked me up from the bus station and then we drove to my father’s work and then I said hello to him also and then went home. HOME! My family has 2 dogs and my sister’s dog also was at our place and when I opened the door all 3 dogs just covered me like a carpet. They were so happy to see me and I was happy to see them. First thing I did was just lay on the couch for hours. Just enjoying to be home. In the evening I went to my friends to surprise her. She didn’t know that I was supposed to come to Estonia.

I had some help by the front door with our mutual friend and then I got in to the house. I just walked in to her room and stood there. My friend just stared at me.

She didn’t understand why I was standing there. She was shocked. That was exactly what I was expecting. A little later I called one more friend and then we just spend the night with 4 girls.

On the 13th of December I had my first event. Our basketball club’s fan club. We had a Christmas party. It was so good to see them again. Since in the summer there is no basketball season I hadn’t seen these people since spring. It was good. Had lots of fun. The next day, Saturday the 14th I went out with my friends. At first we sat at my place and had some drinks. After a while we decided that it was time to go to the club. That night we visited 2 nightclubs and both I missed a lot. In Kocani the nightclubs don’t have a dance floor. And I LOVE to dance so I enjoyed the evening.

The next day I had a basketball practice with the fan club. I have gone there for like 3 or 4 years with my father who is also in the fan club. This time one of my friends joined us also. It was good to do that after a while.

Monday, the 16th of December was my birthday. It started as a usual day. Nothing special. After 12.00 the phone calls and the text messages started. With a friend I arranged plans to go to the movies in the evening. But first I had to go to practice in a sport club. After practice which I enjoyed a lot I went home to get ready. A good movie + a good friend = great time.

On the 18th I found out that my favorite basketball team is playing in another city.

Took a 3 hour long bus drive and I was there. I enjoyed that evening also. I had my friends there and I got to see my favorite team playing after a long time.

3 days later in my home town was a basketball Estonian Cup Final Four tournament.

In the first day my favorite team Tartu Rock won against Rakvere Tarvas.

That was expected and Tartu was in the final. The other game was between P채rnu and BC Kalev Cramo ( who by the way was playing in Skopje in 6th of November ). As expected Kalev Cramo won and now the 2 rivals are again against each other. After a really close came and very nervous ending Tartu Rock won with 2 points. The final 5.6 seconds you can see here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poW8QrirM6s After the game we went to the pub and celebrated the victory.

And then it was Christmas. All family together and having a good time. It is a tradition to visit graveyard and light candles for your loved ones.

This year was different because we had to light a candle for my father sided grandmother who we lost this year. She was a big part of my growing up so it was sad to light a candle for her this year. After the graveyard visit we went home and brought the hot food to table and started to eat. After eating it was time to open the presents. The rest of the night we just enjoyed the evening. The next day, the 25th of December we went to my mother’s parents place. We do this every year. First night at home and the next at grandparents place. There are also my aunt and uncle with their families. But before we got there we went to a Aqva Spa, what has a great water park. 2 and a half hours of water fun and it was time to go. We all were very tired and we just rested. After a while it was time to have dinner. I reallllllly enjoyed my grandmothers food. It is so delicious. After getting presents we played a table game called “Saboteur”. At first when we read the rules it was so confusing but later it was really fun.

After few games we decided to end it and just relax and a little after that is was bed time. Everyone was really tired and we just went to sleep. In the morning as usual there is breakfast and after that we pack our things and we head back home.

That night we had a guest. My sister’s new boyfriend came to our place to meet the family. We had a great time getting to know each other and fun. The next day was my last day in Tartu, my home town. That day was good. First I was just laying on the couch enjoying the last moments of that. Afterwards me, my sister and her boyfriend went to the cinema to see a comedy movie. Next to me sat a 14-15 year old boy who was really strange. When a funny part came and everybody was laughing the boy instead of laughing he just said exactly this : “hahhaha, LOL”. For those who don’t know what does LOL mean it is a capital letter of words “laugh out loud” which basically mean laughter. And when he eat popcorn usually there are left some seeds ( the round things which you don’t eat ) and when he accidentally put those in his mount instead of just taking them out of your mouth using your hands and a napkin he just spit those out. Some of them hit a person’s head in front of him. So for me the boy was very very rude and silly. After the cinema we went home and had dinner. After dinner I got a call from my friend who I still hadn’t seen and he wanted to do something. So we just made plans for the night and he came and picked me up. We went to the store to buy things we need and after that we sat down at a friend’s place and we started to play Monopoly. Just 3 people. It was really fun. We played it quite a while and finally it was time to go say good-bye and head home.

In 7 in the morning we took off to Tallinn, the capital, to my sister’s place. After 2 hour ride we finally got to my sister’s place. We were eating a little and then we went to a exhibition about Titanic. It was reallllly great. We all got a boarding pass to go enter the exhibition. There was a name on the boarding pass, what class I was in ( 1st, 2nd or 3rd class ) and more little info about the passenger which is actually true. It was not made up. They were real names and info. When we got in there was not just like pictures and stuff but there was real things from Titanic, real names of the passengers and more awesome things. If you have seen the movie Titanic you know the big stairs and the famous clock where Jack and Rose kissed in the end. The exhibition had remodeled the stairs and a hallway.

Also there was a small model of Titanic the boat itself which was really good done. In the last room there was a big board with all the names who had been on the ship seperated with classes ( 1st, 2nd or 3rd class ) and the classes were also separated by groups who survived and who didn’t. the boarding passes my family got all those people survived. YAY! After the exhibition we went to the store and bought some food and headed back to my sister’s place. The others in the evening went to a concert about ABBA’s music and I stayed home and packed the last things to my bag. And this was my last night in Estonia.

At 4.45 in the morning I woke up to eat and get dressed. At 6.00 there was supposed to go from Tallinn to Riga a bus which I had to go with. But somehow the bus never came. It was 7.00 when another woman who waited the bus decided to go to Riga with a car. After 7.00 the passengers got a text message that the bus will be delayed until 8.00 at least. We couldn’t wait that long and I got to go with that woman to Riga. Thank god, otherwise I would have missed my flight to Stockholm.

When I arrived to Stockholm I headed to the hostel to go in my room and rest. But unfortunately I couldn’t get it. I didn’t have a PIN code to do it. I knocked on every door and window. After 2 hours finally someone let me in to the lobby but I still couldn’t get my room key. After another few hours some girl game in and had the code to access the keys. I finally got my key and got to the room and went to sleep immediately. In the morning I went to the airport and after few hours I was on the plane to Skopje. I arrived at Skopje and took a bus from airport to bus station and from there I took a bus to Kocani, HOME! And this was my little vacation in Estonia.

On the next page I will show you some more pictures I wanted to share.

Father of Turks School in Macedonia Halid Caylan

His Life He was born in 1881 (probably in the spring) in Salonica, then an Ottoman city, now in Greece. His father Ali Riza, a customs official turned lumber merchant, died when Mustafa was still a boy. His mother Zubeyde, a devout and strong-willed woman, raised him and his sister. First enrolled in a traditional religious school, he soon switched to a modern school. In 1893, he entered a military high school where his mathematics teacher gave him the second name Kemal (meaning perfection) in recognition of .young Mustafa's superior achievement. He was thereafter known as Mustafa Kemal In 1905, Mustafa Kemal graduated from the War Academy in Istanbul with the rank of Staff Captain. Posted in Damascus, he started with several colleagues, a clandestine society called "Homeland and Freedom" to fight against the Sultan's despotism. In 1908 he helped the group of officers who toppled the Sultan. Mustafa Kemal's career flourished as he won his heroism in the far corners of the Ottoman Empire, including Albania and Tripoli. He also briefly served as a staff officer in Salonica and Istanbul and as a military attache in Sofia.

In 1915, when Dardanelles campaign was launched, Colonel Mustafa Kemal became a national hero by winning successive victories and finally repelling the invaders.

Promoted to general in 1916, at age 35, he liberated two major provinces in eastern Turkey that year. In the next two years, he served as commander of several Ottoman armies in Palestine, Aleppo, and elsewhere, achieving another major victory by stopping the enemy advance at Aleppo.

On May 19, 1919, Mustafa Kemal Pasha landed in the Black Sea port of Samsun to start the War of Independence. In defiance of the Sultan's government, he rallied a liberation army in Anatolia and convened the Congress of Erzurum and Sivas which established the basis for the new national effort under his leadership. On April 23, 1920, the Grand National Assembly was inaugurated. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was elected to its Presidency.

Fighting on many fronts, he led his forces to victory against rebels and invading armies.

Following the Turkish triumph at the two major battles at Inonu in Western Turkey, the Grand National Assembly conferred on Mustafa Kemal Pasha the title of Commanderin-Chief with the rank of Marshal. At the end of August 1922, the Turkish armies won their ultimate victory. Within a few weeks, the Turkish mainland was completely .liberated, the armistice signed, and the rule of the Ottoman dynasty abolished In July 1923, the national government signed the Lausanne Treaty with Great Britain, France, Greece, Italy, and others. In mid-October, Ankara became the capital of the new Turkish State. On October 29, the Republic was proclaimed and Mustafa Kemal .Pasha was unanimously elected President of the Republic

The account of Atatürk's fifteen year Presidency is a saga of dramatic modernization.

With indefatigable determination, he created a new political and legal system, abolished the Caliphate and made both government and education secular, gave equal rights to women, changed the alphabet and the attire, and advanced the arts and the sciences, agriculture and industry.

In 1934, when the surname law was adopted, the national parliament gave him the. .)name "Atatürk" (Father of the Turks On November 10, 1938, following an illness of a few months, the national liberator and the Father of modern Turkey died. But his legacy to his people and to the world endures.

Love Story of Atatürk and Eleni in Bitola The story of unfulfilled love between Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and a beautiful girl from Bitola Eleni Karinte, called Balkan Romeo and Juliet by many, happened at the end of XIX century but still attracts attention and is an inevitable tourist attraction in Bitola.

Tourists from Turkey travel thousands of kilometers to visit the Memorial Room of Ataturk in Bitola Museum, take photos under Karinte’s balcony where this huge love saga took place, and read the letter she wrote to Ataturk.

Legend or truth...

Young cadet Mustafa came from Thessaloniki to Bitola in 1896 to study at the Military Academy. He often went strolling down Sirok Sokak, so one afternoon, just before Easter in 1897, he noticed beautiful Eleni sitting on the balcony of her father’s house, the rich merchant Eftim Karinte. Their house still stands on the corner of the street opposite Epinal Hotel. The young girl, his peer, was not indifferent and she looked upon the tall, handsome, blue-eyed cadet. Mustafa went past their house every day and young Eleni waited for him on the balcony. They were burning with strong, yet forbidden love. One day Eleni ran away from the house through the basement and they left Bitola together but her father, Eftim, found them and locked the girl in the house. Later he bought another house in Lerin (Florina), took her there by force and was determined to marry her to another man Eleni never married. She lived well into old age and every year she received several cheques from abroad until the end of her life. She died at the age of 80 in Lerin.

Eleni's Letter to Atatürk Somewhere, sometime .Many years have passed, I am still waiting to hear from you If you ever receive my letter, remember me, see my tears on the paper. Years and events .pass, there are many things said about you If you love another woman when you read my letter, tear it up and ask her if she believes that one Eleni Karinte from Bitola wasted all her life waiting for a man with whom she only spent a day. If you love that woman as much as I love you, don’t tell her anything, I wish her to be happy as you are. But if you remember the girl on the

balcony, and don’t love any other woman, I want you to know that I am waiting for you .and will wait until the end of my life. I know that you won’t forget me and will be back It has been a year since my father grabbed me from you, locked me in the house and wouldn’t let me out for a whole month. I didn’t cry because I knew that all those locks and prison are in vain.

I saw the man he wants me to marry only once and he asked if I could love him. I said no, I can only love my first love. I haven’t seen him since then. My father hasn’t forgiven me and I haven’t forgiven him either.

Your Eleni Karinte who will always love you and wait for you forever.

Dedo Mraz, Santa Claus, St. Nikolas, St. Vasilij, Who are those guys ?

Blagoj Ristov Every time when one old man with white beard, big stomach, dressed in red clothes , start to appears on the main squares in the towns, in TV commercials, in news papers, on post cards and everywhere around us, we know that some holidays are coming. For some nations this man is symbol only for New Year but for other nations he is symbol of Christmas and New Year.

In Macedonia we call this man Dedo Mraz. In our culture there is no tradition to celebrate this man. We have no folk songs about him, no stories or legends among ordinary people about this man and his mission in the world. As an Orthodox country we celebrate Christmas on 7th of January because our official Macedonian Orthodox Church is respecting Julian calendar. In comparison some Orthodox and all of the Catholic countries are celebrating Christmas on 25th of December because they respect Gregorian calendar. Also as Orthodox Christians we celebrate New Year on 14th of January and on that day we celebrate Saint Vasilij. St. Vasilij for Orthodox Christians has almost the same meaning as St. Nicholas for Catholic Christians.

There are stories and legends that those saints helped a lot to pour people giving them money or golden coins. There is legend about St. Nicolas saying that he put some golden coins in socks and throw them through the window in the house where one father was living with his three daughters, and he was in need of money to merry his daughters. Because of this legend Catholics are putting big socks during Christmas with wish St. Nicolas to give them a present. Legend about St. Vasilij says that he was putting golden coins in the middle of the bread and was shearing those breads with pour people. Because of this legend Orthodox people have tradition to prepare bread with coin inside and to share that bread with members of the family. We believe that the person which will receive peace of the bread where the coin is, he/she will have a lot of luck in the New Year.

There are a lot of songs, stories and legends in Macedonia about Christmas (Badnik, Kolede) or New Year (Stara Nova Godina, Vasilica). We have songs that we are singing on those holidays even from Byzantium time (600 - 1000 years old songs). Usually on those days early in the morning youngsters are going from house to house singing songs, and the house owners were giving them money, sweets or some vegetables and fruits. You can find one of those songs here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQPUOdDyMZI During communist times in SSSR, Joseph Stalin decide to create one character that will be different than Saints in which people believed. He decide to give him a name Ded Moroz. In the same time in USA another character was created that will unite all believes about different saints from different nations, this character was Santa Claus. Stalin created Ded Moroz (in Macedonian Dedo Mraz) as a character which will give presents to the children on New Year but not on Christmas. Stalin ordered to the syndical leaders to buy presents for New Year to the children's of their workers. This way of celebrating New Year with Dedo Mraz started in Macedonia after Second World War and it continue till today. After democratization of ex communist countries some of them started to revive local characters as: Dedo Kolede in Bulgaria or Djed Bozicnjak in Croatia. In Macedonia we still didnt start debate to change the communist name of our fat old man in red clothes from communist into native Macedonian.

The American Santa Clause become very popular during his publicity in Coca Cola TV commercials.

His outlook was created by Coca Cola company in 1920s. So he is product of globalization and willing for profit of Coca Cola company or other American companies that are using his popularity for making money. There is no tradition or legends and educational stories for little children behind this character as there is tradition behind St. Nikolas and St. Vasilij. Santa Claus is nothing else but fashion product of globalization.

If you ask me as conservative person I would like Macedonians to believe in St. Vasilij, to sing Macedonian old songs that are special for this holidays. But I think it is not possible because Macedonia is part of globalization and Jingle Bells is more popular than traditional songs, old fat man with white beard dressed in red clothes is more famous than St. Vasilij. Even if we accept to have this man in our new way of celebration of New Year and Christmas it will be very hard to change his communist name Dedo Mraz in something more Macedonian. In Macedonia we still say New Year tree and New year presents but not Christmas Tree or Christmas presents. But that is another topic for my future article.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you who celebrate it, with wish for good health to you and your families, big amount of luck and happiness and lot of love ... ho ho ho.

The magazine was created in cooperation with EVS volunteers in Assiciation Pavel Satev Kocani.

Association Pavel Satev Kocani Karl Marks 64 Kocani 2300 Macedonia