My Uncertain Future in Makdo

The past two days have dramatically altered the course of my Peace Corps service. On Wednesday, I met with my Peace Corps Environmental Education and Management Program Manager and my PC-assigned coworker at my host organization in Gostivar. In short, we officially terminated my relationship with my host organization. I have been feeling rather dissatisfied with my work here, primarily because my host organization is pursuing non-environmental activities, and because of other issues. After consulting with my parents and PCV (volunteer) friends who know the whole saga, I decided that I need to start with a new organization.

So now I have two general options: Stay in Gostivar and find another organization, most likely a school, to work with on environmental education, or move to another community to an organization that has already formally applied for a PCV. I don’t really want to move, but if I can find a person/organization that is committed to the environment and that I have some chemistry with, I will consider moving. So far, the front-runner is a self-proclaimed environmental activist that is on the faculty of South-Eastern Europe (SEE) University, which is located in Tetovo, a city about a 20 minutes north of Gostivar.

Next moves: Meet with biology teachers in Gostivar to find a few that want to improve the environmental education curriculum, and meet with above-mentioned environmentalist.