Going to take on a volunteering experience in North Macedonia – a sentence neither my friends nor I really understood in the beginning. If I’m being honest, before pressing “apply,” I had no idea where this country existed, what the Balkans were, or what had been going on in North Macedonia in general. Deciding to come to this country was almost like a coin toss for me. I typed “North Macedonia” into Google, and what I saw was a flag with a huge, nice sun on it—my mind was made. Since I feel close contact with the sun, I didn’t need any other signs that this opportunity was right for me. I also really liked what the project was about; since so many EVS opportunities are concentrated on working in kindergartens and youth centers, I felt like finding my project in the EVS vacancy Facebook group was meant to be and literally written for me.

So my project is called “Clean up your mess 2.0,”  originally written for three people to come and help change the mentalities kids have on the topic of the environment. How it goes is that we go to different schools every week and instruct workshops for pupils aged 9–11 on the topic of upcycling. If we are not in schools, then you could probably find us in the SFERA office looking at endless videos about easy DIY crafts for kids. You would think that there are so many, but if you really get into it, you see how hard it actually is to find proper and easy crafts that are suitable for everyone. So far, it has been lots of fun. The kids are behaving nicely and taking part in everything, and most of the time they are even more creative than we ask for or expect from them. They are also excited to practice their English with us, and to my surprise, their pronunciation and vocabulary are at least as good as mine, if not better.

I have now been living in the south of North Macedonia in a city called Bitola for over 3 months, and I can honestly say that it has been a roller coaster and a truly different experience. Coming from Estonia, there are so many things that work completely differently here. I think it took me about two months to drop the need to know everything, to learn how not to always be concrete, that punctuality is not valued everywhere – basically all these (now I can say) very northern qualities. Needless to say, the people are also very different. Starting from the aggressiveness that you can hear in their tone, even though they might be talking about what to eat later; always saying how they are in a hurry and have no time, but at the same time they find time to sit down on the main pedestrian street, Sirok Sokak, to have coffee (which might easily take three hours); never being on time; constant hugging when you see someone you know. But even with all that, Macedonians are very kind, loving, and funny people, and I’m happy that I’ve had the experience of being inside a totally different reality. Sometimes, when I talk to my friends back home, I even find myself thinking about how Estonian seem now.

During these three months, I feel like I have really learned a lot about myself, how to handle situations, how to stay calm, and how to be around all sorts of people. The amount of intercultural information that I’ve gained is also massive. During this time I have encountered a lot of volunteers and others from different countries and cultures; with all this information I have gotten from others about worldviews, norms, etc., I have started to construct a bigger picture in my head, like small puzzle pieces that I’m matching to my previous understanding of Europe and differences inside it. We even got to take a Macedonian baby kitten into our lives and apartment, so I now officially know how to meow in Macedonian. And he, Sin, can of course meow in multiple languages now.

Whether it has been giving my own workshops, taking part in others, or just helping the organization with some additional things, I can’t wait to see what these next two months will bring. Life in Bitola is constantly changing, regarding my own thoughts, the people around me, and new events and ideas that the wind somehow blows into my life. I’m open to taking on new experiences and enjoying the differences, even when times are sometimes hard, but in the end, I’m very grateful for everything, because how many people really have the opportunity of taking half a year of their lives and living in and experiencing a totally new country and culture, especially in a hidden gem such as North Macedonia.