Photo 1:
Typical Macedonian get together
2: The old town in Ohrid. Note the background building
3: A farmer ploughing a neighbour's field
4: Us with Darko and Bobby
5: at the 209 BC Samuil's Wall
6: One of the pigs Boris was going to slaughter for us
7: Farewell dinner at Vladko (left) and Ana's (Left)
Village life in Macedonia is not an easy one. Regardless of age, all family members work in the fields from dawn to dusk. Most cars and trucks are 40 to 50 years old as they cannot afford to replace nor maintain them. They drive them at quite slow speeds to save on fuel. Registration inspections are lax so many of these cars are very rusty, are missing headlights or rear lenses and have many dents. Those that cannot afford a car have to use horses or donkeys but sell them off over winter as they cannot afford to feed an animal that does not contribute anything.
The consequences of this is people cannot afford to spend money within their community but also move in search for a better life. There are large hotels, apartment buildings, shops, factories, villages and even schools that lay derelict because of a sheer drop in population. Those that remain, spend their waking moments working the land to survive over winter - no weekends off, holidays or sick pay just the very basics in life. Yet they are so willing to share what little they have. They love life, love to laugh and love to have fun. I have a healthy respect for them and admire their resilience and attitude to life.
Speaking with a neighbour using Vele as an interpreter, he spoke of how manual labour is so poorly paid. He can earn as much as $AU15 a day but costs $AU10 a day in diesel to run his machinery. They have a car that they never fill up - just a few dollars each time. Apparently most people can never fill up their car. It is used rarely and only for necessary trips due to the cost of fuel. It can take a years savings to go to see the lake at Orhid only 1 1/2 hours from here. He asked me how much the holiday has cost us and could not fathom that amount of money.
A lot of the roads are in a state of disrepair and police drive around in 30 year old Ladas. There is no money for infrastructure maintenance.
As I type this the neighbour's to the right are manually hoeing the grass on the neighbour's to the left. They don't get paid for this but use the grass to feed their sheep. They occasionally chat in Macedonian to me so I laugh when they laugh.
Today was voted as a budge day however I did walk to the village to explore its offerings for a final time. It's K's turn to not feel well today but a few Nurifens has got her up and going. I walked down tiny village streets where mud walls hid animals but not their sounds. As I walked I could hear behind these walls the bellowing of a cow, the snorting of pigs, roosters crowing, voices that spoke a foreign language, a stray horse trotting and neighing as it went past and the smell and avoidance of the manure of working horses on the walkway. The houses are amazing not only in looks but in the fact that people live in them. I was a stranger in their town as people starred at me. All I could say was "karcosy" meaning hello. It's one of the best hours I have spent in my life.
A person down the road offered us to film him ploughing a lady's paddock using his horse and hand plough. This wasn't some demonstration from some tourist attraction this was the real thing. The elderly lady lives alone since her husbands passing and cannot plough her field. This means she does not eat so the neighbour's do it for her.
Another person down the road has had their house up for sale for more than 10 years. This is why empty villages just fall apart - they give up on selling them and the maintenance stops. Another has a truck that has been parked in the same spot for eight months because of a lack of work. People pick camomile from the side of the road so they can make tea, they never buy milk as it comes from their own cow and use dogs to catch rabbits in the mountains. Darko, one of the children next door, has never been to Bitola. My children have visited to over 20 different countries, Darko who is 11 has not travelled the 30 minute drive to the nearest town of Bitola. His radius of geographical experience is about 5 square kilometers. He also helped with cleaning Sneza's house where he saw her toothbrush and commented on how nice it looked as his was completely ruined. As a reward for helping, Sneza bought him a new toothbrush which he thought was the best thing. It's hard not to re-evaluate ones own life after the last weeks experience.
A big day of travelling tomorrow as we head to Istanbul, Turkey.
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