We learned where the sites of service are going to be, though we still don’t know who’s going where.
(For those new here, I’m one of several community development Peace Corps trainees who recently arrived along with English education trainees to serve in North Macedonia.)
For community development, all but one of us will serve in an Albanian-speaking community. Unless I get the one Macedonian-speaking community, I’ll probably learn to speak Albanian much better than Macedonian since I’ll get practice in Albanian.
The one Macedonian-speaking community where I could work is part of Skopje. The community development volunteer working there will be the only Peace Corps volunteer at that site.
Two other possible work sites are also in Skopje. One is in an outlying area that’s technically part of Skopje but is far from the city center. That’s also a solo site. The other is a part of Skopje, where one community development person will work as well as one English education person.
Then there are three community development people who are to work in Albanian-speaking communities in the northwestern part of the country. Both of these are in cities of significant size; each has well over 40,000 people. One community development person is to be at a solo site; another site has two community development people and one English education person.
The English education folks, who make up the majority of our cohort, are mostly in Macedonian-speaking communities, some of which are in the central and eastern parts of the country. Some are in small, remote villages. Most will be teaching in elementary schools.
We should learn who’s going to what site after lunch on Thursday, Oct. 6.