Some of you know that our daughter, Heather, is embarking on a new phase in her life. This past Friday she flew out bright and early (way too early) to begin 27 months of service with the Peace Corps . She is now in Macedonia starting 3 months of training. She is part of a group of 39 volunteers – about half are teachers, the other half will be working in various community development areas. Heather will be serving as a Primary School English Resource Teacher.

While Macedonian history goes back some 3,000 years, it has only been a country since 1991. It has evolved a number of times over those years, most recently being a part of Yugoslavia. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. For you history buffs, Alexander the Great was a Macedonian. The country is fairly small, about the size of Vermont.

This week the entire group is together beginning training. In a week or so, the group should split into smaller groups of maybe 8-10 in a community. They will be living with a local host family. For the first 3 months they will be undergoing lots of training – learning about local cultures and customs, personal health and safety among other topics. And, of course, they will be taking an intensive course in Macedonian. If she were to be assigned to the northwest part of the country, near Albania, she would also have to study Albanian. Not sure at what point she will learn where she will be assigned for the remaining 24 months of service.

Heather arrived in Macedonia about 0630 our time Sunday morning (1230 local Macedonian time). She was able to call us yesterday evening using her Skype voice connection. Although tired from a whirlwind long weekend, she was very upbeat about beginning her service. This evening she talked with her aunt, telling her she had a busy day in school and had homework she had to finish up.

Her mother and I are very proud of Heather and her decision to spend 2+ years with the Peace Corps helping in a developing country. She is excited about her service, as are we. We know that she will do well and are hoping we will be able to work out a visit sometime during her service.

BTW, the reason Paul didn’t say much about their anniversary dinner is that he and Sue came up to join us at a farewell dinner for Heather. We appreciated Paul and Sue making the decision to spend their anniversary with us while wishing Heather well on her new endeavor.

Dave,

The very best to your daughter, Heather. I hope she totally enjoys her time.

Bob

Dave, Best wishes for Heather while in Macedonia. Hopefully you can fill us in from time to time on her experiences over the next 27 months.

Dave,

How exciting! Hope the adventure is a rewarding experience. Please let us know how she doing from time to time.

How exciting! Give Heather our best wishes. What a great adventure, and it will be wonderful resume experience to relate in the future.

Good luck to the parents who now have to contend with a real empty nest.

Bob & MaryAnn

Big time committment, but a great thing to do for mankind!

Bob

Proud you should be! Good luck to Heather and also the rest of the family. I know there will be some anxious times for Mom and Dad while she's away, but that's what parents do.
Sounds like you've done very well by her!

Wow, that must be hard. So far away. I wish all of you - all the best.

Dave...this sounds like an exciting time in Heather's life. Even though you and Susan will miss her she will be gaining a lifetime of new experiences.

Tell her she has lots of people wishing her well and waiting to hear about her time spent in Macedonia.

Wow, what a great experience for Heather! Tell her Mombo says hi and good luck. And thanks for the history lesson too Dave.

No matter where we might travel our kids always seem to go farther!

WAY TO GO, Heather!! Two thumbs up!

Dave, I know you will miss her. I will be praying for her.

Kudos to the parents--you've raised a remarkable young lady. I'm passing along a request to my Higher Power to keep her safe.

Sandy

P.S. Gerry Kuhlman (Fred's daughter-in-law) mentioned that one of her sons is headed to the Peace Corps in February--wouldn't that be something if he and Heather happened to cross paths. . . .

All the best to Heather. She is a remarkable young lady to be going into the Peace Corps. I am sure she will do well and repesent the USA and her parents very well.

Bob

Quick update on Heather. Have generally talked with her at least once a week - internet not readily available in the village she is in now. Got spoiled the first week when she had good internet access at the hotel they were in.

Heather is in total immersion language training - the family she lives with doesn't speak English, and she is just learning Macedonian (and a little Albanian). From her blog posts and our conversations, she has generally been enjoying the food, especially the quality of the fresh fruits and vegetables.

Living conditions are somewhat different than we have, but it sounds as if she is adapting. The most difficult one is that most homes have heat in only one room so it gets a bit cool - and they're not even into winter yet! She does enjoy the family she is living with, so that is good.

Living in the same village she is, there are a total of 8 Peace Corps volunteers. Some teachers, some community development. She has to walk everywhere she goes in the village, and is learning to use the Combi's to go to get to Kumanovo where she and one of the other teachers have been going for practicums in local classrooms.

Since she volunteered to go to a multi-lingual or multi-cultural community she was given her assignment early on. Unfortunately, this has changed since where she was to be housed became unavailable. She is kind of bummed about that as the village was 80% Turkish, 10% Macedonian and 10% Albanian which she felt would be an interesting setting. (Since I lived in Turkey for 2 years I think she was really interested in the assignment.) When I spoke with her today she indicated she will probably be given her new placement location sometime next week.

This weekend she is going to a field day of some sort. She said that most all of the Peace Corps volunteerotal s in the country should be there (about 100 tin country) so I'm sure it will be an interesting outing.

Thanks for giving us an update on Heather's adventure. Sounds like she'll have a new appreciation when she comes home as well as a understanding of what goes on in 3rd world countries. She's getting as much as she's giving during this unique experience.

Wow !!! Sounds like she is having a great adventure so far !!!

Wow. Kudos to Heather for being so adventurous!

I didn't have that kind of a free spirit at that age, in fact at ANY age!

Great for Heather!

MW

Dave,
Sorry I missed this during my most recent hospital stay!!
Way to go, Heather! You'll do well I'm sure and have a great adventure! It'll be a great experience! Sis had a cousin who spent 2 years in Burkina Faso as a math teacher and just loved it!
I'll be looking for the reports of her experiences!
Rick & Sis

Glad to hear that Heather is doing well, Dave. Joing the Peace Corp used to be a partial payoff of college loans. Don't know whether that's still the case?