Last Day In Kumanovo...

Here we are, It´s my last day in Kumanovo. I´m going to be spending this day with closest friends in Kumanovo. I came 27 days ago, novermber 3rd. Stayed here and learnt alot about culture,people and life in this place. At first i thought it would be just a holiday for me but then I realized that this people are more than just a friends... They took me as I was one of them. They showed me respect and love, gave me the friendship which every human being could wish for. Now I feel that Macedonians are my people, I feel like I belong in here. I love the people,place,culture,life and flag! Every Macedonian should be proud of its own country!
 And now I´m willing to change this place into better place to live. I´m going to apply for Long Term EVS. I want to come back for 11 months and some interesting activities with people from different cultures and countries.  I just hope that the project will be approved.Anyway - "CID"-"Multi-Kulti" and Kumanovo I´ll be missing you alot and i hope to see you again in near future...I will not say bye to you.. I´ll just be back...

<3

The post card i made

“Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different.”

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.”

Sarajevo! Salto-Youth.

Well we finally arrived to the Hollywood Hotel Sarajevo 4 stars.
It was a long journey for us. It took 15 hours by bus. We have crossed 4 borders. Each border was around 1 hour. They had to check every passport and asked me and jón who are we.
Some one called us students. And it was all good.
There are many volunteers in this hotel. Ireland,Portugal,Czech Republic and more countries.
Tonight we will have our first meeting, get to know each other, eat a dinner and enjoy our selves. Get some Rest.
Hotel we are staying is fine! It has 4 stars. People are friendly. Double room , free swimming pool and internet in lobby ! muahahah!!
I finished my first post card on the way here. I didnt have to pay for it! How sweet. Ill try to upload it on blog. But im not sure because its in PDF.

alright guys take care im out for some rest! Kumanovo i miss you!

ps cards are ready!



Ívar Yan Cherkasov & Jón Heiðar  Ásgeirsson

Night Life and Clubs.

November 18th 2010. FInd out about the night life , clubs and interview people.
Night life stats on Thursday. People go out for cup of coffee of bottle of beer. Maybe two,three or four.
We started out day with taken pictures of Macedonia clubs, Kafanas and Albanian coffee houses.
In Garnizon we found lots of clubs and coffee shops. We had a little accident we took a picture of Albanian Café and the owned would just come out and ask us questions. Why, Where you from what are you doing here?". But at the end it was alright.After that we interviewed the owner of Cube Bar.
What he told us is that music is very different from Macedonian pubs and Albanian. And mostly that it´s the religion that separates them. Anyway Cube works all week long. From Mondays until Thursdays its open from 12pm until 1am. Friday-Sundays until 10 am until 1 am. After the Cube people would go to the other clubs like Linka. It´s a nice club for youth and grown ups. It´s open until 4 or 5 in the morning.
It was fine day.
Albanian clubs have different music, they listen to country, folk and rock music. Many Macedonians do listen to rock and folk music. But you don´t usually see Macedonians in Albanian clubs. And same thing about Albanians.

There are many Café houses in Kumanovo. Really nice ones. Zafir and Corso are my favorite ones
I thought it would be a big problem for us to find Albanian clubs but thing is, that names of Albanian clubs are spelled with latin letters(most of them). But Macedonian clubs and café houses spelled on cyrillic.
So far i love the night life in Kumanovo. But i hate it when people don´t dance on the dance floor!

yes you! Me and Jon at corso

Nama!!!

i forgot the name of the club damn it!

Club Versaj



Ívar Yan Cherkasov & Jón Heiðar  Ásgeirsson

Sport opportunities

Today we will be talking about Sport life in Kumanovo and opportunities you get.

We had to interview some people and ask them about sport life in here.

It was a rainy day and i would of appreciated an umbrella very much. We walked to the "Gradski Stadium"-City Stadium. This stadium was originally home stadium of FK Milano Kumanovo 10 years ago. 

City Stadium.

As you see it´s in very bad condition and i´m not sure whether it will be used again. On our way to the new stadium of FK Milano Kumanovo we met an interesting person. He is a sport teacher in other town.

Jamal was his name. He took us for some coffee and explained us the situation about sport life in Kumanovo.Its not so many opportunities but there are some football players from Macedonia or Kumanovo which are playing in 1st football league in Kosovo and 2nd league in Greece. As for himself he played 6 years in team called "Besa" in 2nd division in Macedonia. 

While we have been having coffee with Jamal his friend came around. His name was Logban.27 years old doctor in Kumanovo. As for him sports in not so interesting. But he doesnt think that there are many chances for people in Macedonia..

We finished our conversation and went to see FK Milano Kumanov Football Stadium.

FK Milano Kumanovo

Milano Arena Kumanovo.
Stadium holds 7000 people

So after that we had to walk all the way back to our neighborhood. And the weather was so terrible.

Me,Jón and Daniel just went to CID. Stayed there from 12-16 and went out again. We saw 2 guys walking out in CID and decided why not ask them. 17 years old Stefan and 20 years old Jovan. They are in some rock band. But they told us that most famous sport in here would be handball and football.

And their opinion that no so many people can get a good future by playing sports in Kumanovo.

So, we needed last interview. It took us an hour to find somebody who wanted to speak with us.

That man was Dalivar 30 years old.He said that most famous sports in Kumanovo are handball and basketball. Football teams are not so good in here so he thinks that city need more money to expand some football teams.

But there are many opportunities in Kumanovo. You can practice handball,basketball,football,box and much more. Here is the list of some activities that you can try.

РК „Куманово“ – Handball Club
КК „Куманово-2009 – Basketball Women Club
„СКОК“ Куманово –Athletic club
ВК „Вело М“ Куманово – Cycling club
БК „Фајтер Илири“ Куманово – Boxing club
ФК 2Милано“ Куманово –Football Club
ФК „Ројал“ Куманово- Football Club
.Пинг понг клуб „Куманово“ Ping pong club
Боксерски клуб „Фајтер Илири“ – Boxing Club
ФК „Мио Спорт – Football club
СПК „Козјак“ – Hiking club
КК „Теута“ – Karate Club
КМФ „Биџо“ – Football Club
ЦК „Цикло Спорт“ – Cyclying Club
ПК „АКВА“ Куманово- Swimming club
КК „Кумани“- Basketball Club
ЗСР „Пчиња“ – Fishing Club
Аикидо Клуб ‘’Агатсу’’-Аikido Club

It was fun day we took lot of pictures, here in Kumanovo you can play tennis outside on brand new court.Here there is also football academy for youths. Yesterday we had a chance to see a game. I don´t know how did it go but we took few pictures.

Football academy

Pride of Kumanovo! Kumani!

By the end of the day i realized that you can get a better future if you practice hard enough.

Its all about the will and the passion. Impossible is nothing!

Monuments,parks and squares

Today we will be talking about monuments in Kumanovo City.We´ve walked for 4 hours around city. Trying to gain some information about monuments. We started with so called "Marshall Square" there we took few pictures. Kumanovo was occupied by Ottoman Army.So , so called partizans started rising against Ottoman army. Monuments speaks for it self.

In memory of women who started rising against Ottoman
Army

Then we found out about Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980). He was Yugoslav revolutionary and states man. Marshall of Yugoslavia and President of the Socialist Federal Republic.He led Macedonia through the war and was national hero.

Josip Broz Tito

After that we wanted to visit a museum of Kumanovo but it was closed. And for foreigners its 100 deners but for locals only 20 deners! People in here really do know how to get money from Tourists and Volunteers. But it was fine because we had so many monuments and churches on our way so we visited biggest Orthodox church in Kumanovo. Cameras are not allowed in the churches so we had to put them in our bags. So this is the front yard view.It is a very beautiful church inside and from outside.

Soboren Xram
St.Nikola

Then we took a long walk to the Statue of Independence in Kumanovo. This Statue is for Soldiers who lost their lives in First Balkan War.  Major battle of the First Balkan War took place in Kumanovo in October 23-24 1921 against Ottoman Empire. This statue is located on top of the hill. From where you get beautiful overview of Kumanovo.Behind this statue is the wall with names of all Kumanovo soldiers.

In memory of whom who lost their lives
in First Balkan War

We thought that we were done after this long walk, but we never give up until the job is done. So we had to walk for 1 hour through neighborhoods and parks. On our way we had a chance to see Roma district/neighborhood. It was something you must see and think about. They don´t dance on roses there. They eat everything. They wear what they get to wear. They don´t go to fancy shops to buy clothes or food. For some families 1 loaf of bread is enough for whole week.

But anyway after 1 hour we got to our final destination. Stara Banja or Old Sauna.

This is a Mineral Water reservoir and a park with abounded hotel.

Its a funny and long story behind this park. And many people go to this park at night with car to do some  pleasure stuff.But this is life thats what we all do.

Mineral Water.


I will make a photo album tonight. Cheers Guys! 

Ívar Yan Cherkasov & Jón Heiðar  Ásgeirsson

Exploring Life in Kumanovo

                                                      Kumanovo/Куманово

Kumanovo is 2nd biggest city in Macedonia after the Skopje. Name of the city is connected Cuman´s invasion in the area in early 12th century. Mayor of the city is Zoran Damjanovski. Kumanovo was established in 1519. Population of Kumanovo is around 130.000 people. I would call Kumanovo "Multi-International city" Because it has so many nationalities.Macedonians,Albanians,Serbians,Romanies and few Turks.

62% of population are Macedonians.

23% are Albanians

6% are Serbians

5% are Romanies

0,3% are Turks

Main Religion in Kumanovo is Orthodox Christians. 76% of population.

It´s a very friendly and interesting city. Younger generation speaks fluently english. Older generation might not speak english so well, but you will be able to communicate with them.

In Kumanovo they have one gymnasium called Goce Delcer then they have Economic High School " Pero Nakov" where they study computers,tech stuff and economics.

So last night we went to Goce Delcer gymnasium and took a look around. Conditions are not like in Iceland or any other European country. But it doesn´t stop kids/teenagers from learning because they understand with out education they will not get any far. So they respect what they´ve got and make best out of it.

There are plenty of coffee shops,bars and restaurants in Kumanovo. Best bar-restaurant is "Nama".

At the day time its just an restaurant but after 10pm they close the kitchen and it would become bar/night club.

So today we had to take 10 interviews with 5 youngsters age between 17-20 and 5 older generation age 30+. Ask them How they like Kumanovo and what Kumanovo needs and what they do in spare time.

We began by visiting Gymnasium "Goce Delcer". And there we took some photos and interviewed 5 youngsters.

                                                                     Youngsters

Andrej Micik 17 years old student.

How do you like Kumanovo. It´s a small town but very beautiful one, has many beautiful women. People are very friendly and interesting. He says that Kumanovo needs more social life.More places to hang out together , play some good music on instruments. He is in the band and he wants to expand the band but he cant. Social life ain´t so good in here.

He said they have " Streets Festival" every summer but he wants more festivals.

Ivana and Maya. Both 17 years old.

They said that Kumanovo is ok city but they don´t like it because they are under the age and they cannot get into the clubs. As for social life is not so active in here they go to theatre, take drama classes and go clubbing if they can get inside.

They say that they would like to raise the economy here. So they could get some work and have more pocket money.

Marko 18 years old stundent.

He had a different opinion about Kumanovo. He said that the city was boring, not so much of social life.

At the moment he is in the Rock Band. Just group of youngsters from gymnasium. At free time he plays drums and guitar. At evenings he goes clubbing with his friends. Mostly "Xrizma"-"Harisma".

Future plan from him is to escape from Macedonia to Australia.

For Kumanovo he wants better future but he thinks this city will never change.

Dragana 17 year old student.

She likes Kumanovo alot. Her opinion is that city is very friendly, she has many friends who likes to go out at evenings. They don´t have so many parties because she thinks that study is very important for her and she doesn´t want to ruin the future for her self. For Kumanovo she wants a better future. Bring more tourist here and show to the world that city is not so bad. And of course more parties for youngsters and more clubs where under age students could get inside.

In spare time she goes to library, reading books and plays basketball.

So by the end of the day i found out that youngsters when they have free time they would go to the Coffee house, play sports, go clubbing and many teenagers bet!

They bet mostly at weekends. They love watching football (italian,spanish and english).

Then they love going out to clubs. Harizma,Agora,Versaj and Nama. Most famous clubs in Kumanovo.

And teenagers do realize that with out study you wont go any further.

 " Better future to raise the economics and social life. Have no problems with other nationalities . To be all equal"

                                                            Older Generation 

Igor 31 year old business man.

People are very friendly in Kumanovo. For him social life is very good because he has many friends.

He enjoys him self by going to Agora, Linka and more clubs. For his city he wants more money and build more monuments and make city look more better or cleaner.

And of course for him is main priority is to raise the the economy for local people.

" If you got the money, then you get everything you want" - Igor.

Juksel 46 years old unemployed Albanian musician.

What he told us is that Kumanovo is very boring city , sleeping city.

He wants more tourist to the city so they could bring more life from other countries. And show them something new. New life, new things or just bring new culture in Kumanovo.

Juksel finished Musician Academy. Not sure whether it was in Macedonia or Albania.

He doesn´t have any job. So for him life is very hard.

When he is free he would play piano or any other instruments.

Mickey 38 years old . Owner of Cube /Pub.

Kumanovo is not right.Traffic is terrible and unbelievable.But people are very friendly. One thing he doesnt like about this city is that economy is corrupted. He is the owner of Cube club and government always ask for more Tax and money from him. Micky said that it´s a very hard thing to set up a business in Kumanovo, you find the right people who can help you other wise you will end up in bad situation.

For his town he would like to change the government so everything would be fair and no corruption.

He has many hobbies but most of the things he likes to do is to travel around Europe, go the country side and hiking. Explore new places.

Qeremi Haki 52 year old business man. 

Well, Qerem is Albanian who grew up in Kumanovo. He has Macedonian citizen ship. Qerem left this city around 25 years ago. He moved to Swiss when he was around 20 years old. There he studied "Civil Engineering". He has his own company in Bern. Qerem said that this is his city and he loves to come here and visit his friends and family. Many people leave Macedonia for better future but they come back in summer. Qerem hopes that somebody will change the government , because he think its communism in Kumanovo. As he said " Politics takes all the money from people -Katastrofa ".

His hobbies are Chess and Jogging.

Borche 41 year old ex-comentator.

Borche finds it difficult to speak about Kumanovo. This is his city but he hates to see it in this shape.

There are 130 thousand people in this town and 22 thousand of them are un-employed.

Basic salary in Kumanovo is around 200-250 euros. So people have to work really hard to survive.

What he wants for his city? Is Raise the salary , look for some natural resources like Gas or Oil. So Macedonia can stand up on their own feet.

At his free time he go does swimming,plays tennis , watches football and plays all kind of sports.

Older Generation has same opinion as youths in Kumanovo. They want a new government. Because it´s so corrupted. They want to get more jobs so people will actually work and enjoy this place. Older folks want more tourist to Kumanovo. And make social life better. 

So its all for today i will upload some pictures tonight :) 

Ívar Yan Cherkasov & Jón Heiðar  Ásgeirsson

Saturday!

Well , i havent blogged for 2 days now.
So the time has come to blog. Today I and Jón Heiðar(Bumble Bee) , we went out for a coffee
with Sonja and Bojana(english teacher, Sonja´s friend)
We have talked about our presentation which will be tonight at 20:30. And how difficult will it be for us
to leave Macedonia. I made a promise for my self that I will come back here. I love that place, love the people and the culture. I have to make a long term project and send it to the EVS. And if they aprove the project i will back in Macedonia (Kumanovo) in June. But before I will have to fly to Russia and get new passport other wise I will lose my apartment in Russia.

well wish us luck for presentation.

Bojana english teacher on the right side and to the left is Sonja 

CID

Today we are going to be talking about CID- Center for Intercultural Dialogue.
Victim of the day is Sonja Jovanovska. But she was busy with financial stuff today so we got what we could out of her.

Center for Intercultural Dialog was founded in May, 2006 by 4 youngsters.
Their names are; Stefan,Bosko,Ilham and Magde.
The only person who is still in CID is Stefan and he is the President of CID.
At the time they all were in High School in Kumanovo(Macedonia).
And they wanted to start something for youngsters.
CID does many things, but the main thing is Inter Culture Dialog. It means that they are trying to improve communication between cultures. Because in Kumanovo there are so many nationalities.
Albanians,Serbians, Romans , Macedonians and Vlaks.So CID might be a small organization with not big office but it plays a Big Role in social life.

Right now CID is trying to communicate with UNICEF*

How and Where from do they get money .As you will read below CID is not profit company but they get foundations from "EU,Government of Macedonia,Sponsors and People who donate some money every month."

                                                                      CID

"The Centre for Intercultural Dialogue (CID) is a non-governmental,  non-profit youth voluntary organization." 1. Non-governmental in a manner that CID will act and work according to its  internal values and policies 2. Non-profit is a manner that all income, donations and gifts to CID shall be used  only for the purpose of implementation of the CID activity plans that shall aim  to achieve CID’s aims 3. Youth is our leading motivation and motivator to act actively in our society.  CID is an organization formed by young people, for young people 4. Voluntary – all major CID activities as well as the existence of CID  as an organization depends a lot on the voluntary involvement of all  members of the organization.  CID is thankful to its volunteers and will continue to provide everyone with  the necessary  support to perform at his/her best for the benefit of the society.                                                          Mission  Mission of CID is to promote and support intercultural understanding. And thats where volunteers comes.Volunteers get involved with locals and social live. They learn Macedonian language and then they try to expand CID or Multi-Kulti.  Depends in which organization you get or apply. Here are the main Values of CID. • Peace and Human Rights • Active youth participation // Empowerment • Interculturalism • Voluntary involvement • Respect for the Environment • Social, Ethnic, Religious, Cultural, Gender inclusion and equality • Transparency and Partnership                                                                     Objectives Objective 1: Promoting and supporting active citizenship within youth,  also including networking with institutions and support to institutions  in development of active participation mechanisms Objective 2: Active work and contribution to intercultural dialogue  through capacity building and information services for youth Objective 3: Enhancing voluntary involvement of young people, with working on promotional actions, aiming to primarily promote the SCI work camps, EVS, and local voluntary opportunities Objective 4: Promoting peace solidarity and Human rights as a culture of living, Organization of outdoor activities, festivals, panel discussions, international  exchanges, intercultural meetings etc. CID is a member of SAVA working group of Service Civil International,  UNITED against racism, European Network of Animators and actively cooperates  with YEU International.                                                                                                                       FOR WHOM Center for intercultural dialogue mainly works with young people from diverse  religious, ethnic, national and other beliefs who are at the same time creators and beneficiaries of our activities Mainly CID works with secondary school and university students as well as recent  graduates. CID works as well with youth workers as well as public administration that works with young people who are often involved in our educational projects and programmes. Sorry guys , i had to take some information from CID website. Sonja was kinda busy today so we took a quick interview with her.  Stefan.M. The President of CID Sonja.Financial manager.

Albanian-Macedonian Primary School

Well today we had a chance to visit Albanian-Macedonian school.

Kids learn how to understand each other and find mutual language.

They start learning that at young age. Most interesting thing that parents don´t push´em. They come themselves. Because they understand that the future is in their own hands.

So my job today was to observe and learn. I´ve learned that kids here are very interesting,funny and they show that they want to get to know you. They smile , wink and laugh with you.

They don´t really care how bad play ground is or how bad the ball is. They just want to have fun and play around. 

Once i saw the playground it made me wonder. Don´t they deserve better?

Even 1new football ball will make them smile. And smile is what we all need.

" Willing To Change The World Today?"

 "Why Not Volunteer And Make A Change!"

Enjoy the photos  guys

Primary school.
Main Entrance

VUK KARAZICH
Primary school

This is what they do in 1-6th grade

Masterpiece

Racism is not acceptable

24 EU countries

Play Ground

In Macedonia you cannot bring guns to school

They don´t get a football stadium to play football.
They play where they can.

Kids are not shy and even if they don´t speak english they still try to communicate!
And that is the Idea!

69 years old proud grandmother.
Her granddaughter has graduated from University 

Class where Albanian,Serbian and Macedonian kids come together and learn to respect and understand each other.

They started with a dance. Waka Waka - Shakira

So we have learned some words and then they were ogranized in  4 groups.

At the end they had to dance and sing.

They are not shy and very interested in meeting new people 

This kids are building a better future for the country.

So thats all for today, Ill upload some videos tonight and i will also update the blog tonight.
Stay cool.

Ívar Yan Cherkasov & Jón Heiðar  Ásgeirsson