Introduction
The article below is the first one from a series of articles about my experience as a volunteer in Bitola, North Macedonia in an non-governmental organization Sfera international. The total length of the mission was 8 months. I stayed there only for 4 months due to communication problems between me and the boss of the organization, Milcho Duli, bureaucratic obstacles when processing a visa and their hidden interests which we’ll be discussing in the series.
The volunteer mission was organized via a program European Solidarity Corps (ESC). The program is funded by the European Union.
The company I worked for a year ago terminated my job position as there was no need for the position and ended my employment contract. I was thinking about what to do with my life at that time. I worked as a business manager and the job didn’t fulfil me. I always got satisfaction from giving advice to other people and to help them and enlighten them.
I attended an interview for a secondary school teacher in Brno. In the end, they decided to hand over the taught subjects to their current colleagues instead of hiring a new teacher. I am happy for it today. The experience as a teacher in North Macedonia gave me an insight how demanding creating contents of school subjects is. If I had made it and had got the job, I wouldn’t have been able to fulfil my job duties. I didn’t have enough hard knowledge of the subjects they offered me to teach.
I decided for another choice. I chose to go abroad as a volunteer – teacher. I took it on as a trial of my character if I can be a teacher.
After looking for opportunities for a short time, I attended one interview where I was the only candidate. I decided to participate in an ESC mission with a name: “Digital Competencies 4 All”. The ESC mission was organized by a non-governmental organization Sfera international.
The original description of the mission was to teach disadvantaged children digital competencies at local schools. The mission was for two volunteers. One of them would teach creative skills as Canva.com and/or Adobe Publisher. The second one would be teaching Microsoft Office and basic computer skills.
I picked the creative specialization. I take photographs and I found the topic closer to me.
More official information is here.
Arrival and the first week
I arrived on 1st of August 2021. Somebody from Sfera was supposed to pick me up at a bus station, but nobody came over. After a couple of hours of sending messages via Fb and LinkedIn, somebody replied me. His name was Kristian. He came to pick me up. While I was waiting at the bus station I came to a reasoning that if nobody had come, I would have started looking for a hostel.
Kristian took me a to flat at Solunska 105, gave me the keys and left. Next morning I set off to the office, but nobody was there. I met with Evgenija, an employee of Sfera, in the afternoon. We went to a coffee bar together. She told me I didn’t have to do anything for the rest of the week and that I should get acclimatised instead.
First meeting with the big boss
My first meeting with a new boss, Milcho Duli (Milcho), was at the office either on Friday the first week or on Monday the following week. I also got acquainted with Kate Popovska (Kate). She was subordinate of him.
I was sitting at my desk which I pushed backwards a few centimetres from a wall. I also adjusted an LCD so it suited me. While I was at the toilet, Milcho began moving the desk back to its former position. I told him to leave it as it was because it suited me. He replied that he had thought that a cleaning lady had done it. Then, while I was sitting at the desk, he started adjusting the LCD with an explanation how it was ideal for me. I stopped him and told him to leave it onto me. He was caught off guard.
It dawned on me that heavy patriarchy rules the organization.
Creation of an educational plan what I’ll teach
At first I had two meetings with Kate. She explained me what the project was about. She told me that I should start working on a class plan. She also said that it was the first time the program runs and that it had not been done before.
During an implementation it turned out that the courses of Digital Competencies 4 all hadn’t been agreed with any schools. The project was written only on paper.
I asked her what a timetable for the classes should be and how many subjects and a frequency per week I should choose. I didn’t get a proper answer and was confused about it.
I picked three subjects for lessons:
- Computer graphics in Canva.com
- Photo adjustments in Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop
- Creating websites in WordPress
Each subject consisted of 18 classes. Each class had 90 minutes. Every third to fourth class was about revising, giving a feedback and finishing an unfinished work. The frequency of classes was once per week. The first class was an introductory one. There was enough information and practice included so students could play with the tools at home (Canva, Adobe, WordPress). The last class was about presenting a final course project. A choice of project themes was presented to the students at the first class. There were 32 places in total. 8 students per class. The WordPress class had two repetitions per week.
Visa troubles
I hadn’t submitted a visa application before I left the Czech republic. I missed some crucial documents to do so. I sent a criminal record via the Czech post to North Macedonia. The criminal record got there after I had arrived. The criminal record was necessary in order to get specific documents to apply for the visa at the Embassy of the Republic of North Macedonia in the Czech Republic.
When I called to the embassy, a guy told me over the phone: “You must come over in person, you can’t send it via the post.” Then I arrived to the embassy physically and Mr Ambassador asked me: “Why didn’t you send the document via the post?” It carried on this way during any communication with them. After some time I began confirming everything by e-mail because they kept forgetting what we agreed on.
Being a delivery boy instead of a teacher
There was another problem between me and Milcho. He gave me tasks which were out of a scope of my responsibilities. They were: working on various administrative tasks or buying beer for his personal use. These activities were disrupting the courses preparation.
After a couple of days I was dealing with a problem at our flat when Milcho called me. He asked me if I had a driver’s licence. I felt uncomfortable at that point. I got stuck and asked him what he had wanted. He replied he wanted me to drive somebody to Prilep. I lost my patience. I told him I couldn’t do it for him at that moment and that I would like to have a discussion about the matter at the office.
At the office I told him nervously that I couldn’t do activities which weren’t related to the job duties and that these activities were disrupting the preparation of the course. He replied he had thought he could ask me for anything. It surprised me.
After a while I found out it was not only about telling him but to insist on our agreement and enforce it. Therefore giving unrelated tasks repeated multiple times. It lessened and disappeared with insistence.
Support from Sfera
I asked Milcho and Kate for support. The support encompassed equipment for classes, a place where the courses would take place, printing posters etc. Kate gave me shocking advice. She said I should start propagating the courses even though we didn’t know where the courses would be physically. Kate thought the courses would take place at a secondary school which is right next to the Sfera office. We went there but they didn’t want to hear about it. The bureaucratic and hierarchical wall between me and the director of the school was so huge I could see it. It happened at the beginning of September.
I asked them to have the posters printed and to buy supplies and equipment. Everything ended with broken promises. After repeating what we agreed on, Milcho was staring at me like a cat in a strange garret with his permanent smile. He couldn’t do anything else but to smile.
I felt awkward and I didn’t understand why they couldn’t fulfil what they had promised. They wrote the project and were given money by the European union for it.
After negotiating with the secondary school which didn’t bring any results, I decided that the only option was to organize them at the Sfera office. Time passed and it was necessary to solve this problem as quickly as possible.
I also needed more laptops, increase their power and a hosting for students. However it all ended in promises again and nothing was done.
Fierce Balkan quarrel
It was the middle of September. It was morning and I asked Kate to give me a food processor and a laptop which she had promised me. When I asked her, she seemed nervous. She handed over the food processor and the laptop and had a long speech towards me. She claimed that I had put pressure on her and that she argued with her mother about it. The laptop was a personal laptop of her mother. I realized one of the characteristics of Macedonians then. They always try to please people regardless of their own interests. I replied it was her decision to comply with my request or not. Concurrently I was angry about Milcho not fulfilling his promises.
Then Milcho came over to my desk and announce there would be a common weekly meeting. The time period between the chat with Kate and the common meeting gave me time to ponder. Kate did what she promised predominantly and I was directing my frustration at the wrong person. So I wrote down on a piece of paper what bothered me, what occasions it happened and how I would like the issues to be rectified. I wanted to share it with Milcho in front of others, especially Kate.
The meeting began and I said what bothered my soul. Suddenly the meeting turned into a 45-minute fierce Balkan quarrel madness. Incredible statements flew through the air.
There were among them from Milcho: “I will enter the flat where you live whenever I want to because I’ve rent it,” or “I will send you anywhere I want to and when I want to and you will do it.”
There was a complaint from Kate’s side. It was about me not being present at a local youth activity: “We want you to be a member of our team and participate at our events.” I was preparing a lecture about the Czech Republic including a variety of Czech dishes and drinks at the same time and I didn’t have time to do anything else. I told her in a question: ”Who will do the preparation instead of me? Who will tell them that I didn’t prepare? You?” Then there was silence. It gave me a notion that she didn’t think about it from this point of view.
After a quality dramatic theatrical play as from Shakespeare, I came to understanding of the dynamics of the situation. Sometimes I was aware from a tone of Kate’s voice that she was annoyed by the same things as I was. Yet she decided to guard the organization itself and her position in it regardless of the facts. The row ended as usual with these two magical sentences: “You can ask us for help whenever you need to. You can trust us.”
The two aforementioned sentences are true up to the point when people feel threatened. During a fight over a territory and a position one can use any available dirty communication techniques (blaming; changing statements; denying; getting rid of responsibility; personal attacks etc.). Some people use words to reach their targets, some of them use threatening and in some countries people shoot each other.
What was next? Words, threatening or shooting?
To be continued in the part two…
