It is sometimes hard to believe that I work with agriculture and rural development. But the project also finances some construction and refurbishment works and hence site visits are included when we come.

If you are wondering what I am actually working with, here is a 3.5 min film about the Agriculture Strengthening and Accession Project in F.Y.R. Macedonia that I have provided support to the implementation of over the past 2 years. (The film can be found on YouTube along with other stories of projects carried out in the country.)

My responsibilities under the project shifted a bit for this mission to F.Y.R. Macedonia compared with previous visits and thus for once, I got to go on a field trip. Since the main focus of the project is institution building, I normally spend most of my time in offices and corridors in Skopje. But in order to follow up on project implementation this time, I had to go out to one of the regions and visit a local entity in the town Prilep. (F.Y.R. Macedonia’s forth largest town as I understood it.) After our meeting there, we had the opportunity to also meet with some farmers who told us how they perceived the effects of the project, and since they were really content, it felt very rewarding. (In addition to positive direct effects of the project, an indirect effect had been that a monopoly situation had been resolved and that they as a result now received higher prices for their produce.) And since we had some time between the two meetings, I got a quick guided tour of the town center, and bajadera-style cake with sweet (non-alcoholic) boza at the local patisserie.

The new park in the center of Prilep, with a brand new statue of Alexander the Great, or Alexander of Macedonia as he is called locally. If your spontaneous reaction after reading this is that you need to brush up on history, you’re not the only ones…

Boza and untraditionally shaped bajadera cake

I am in Macedonia since Sunday. It is really nice to be back again, though we are not staying at our usual hotel. Last time we were there, there was a fire in the kitchen and the corridors outside our rooms were filled with smoke from the basement to the top floor, but without a single fire alarm going off. Several firetrucks came but when my colleague went downstairs to the reception and asked if they shouldn’t evacuate the building, the staff told him that they didn’t want to cause any panic. And since there were always things that didn’t work properly throughout the two years that we stayed there (from the water system, to the internet and last time even the telephone in my room), and that were never fixed from one stay to the other even though we pointed this out, we decided to stay at another hotel this time. And as you can see, I got Lucy’s and Charlotte’s first room. Unfortunately, no handsome man has offered to change rooms with me so that I get a room with a view. But then again, this is not my first time in Skopje, and at least this is on the first floor so I will get out easily in case of a fire. If the fire alarm works that it….

And yes, all of my colleagues, I am aware that I am not following the UN and World Bank recommendations regarding hotel room location. And yes, all of you who do not work in the international organizations, someone has concluded that between the 2nd and the 7th floor is the optimal location for a hotel room in terms of mitigating the risks of BOTH a fire and a car bomb, and hence, we are recommended to book our hotel rooms accordingly!

Believe it or not, but I have actually made the decision to move back to Sweden for a while if I am not offered the contract that I want here by the end of the year. (My contract situation is a long story and I won’t write about it here.) I don’t take what has happened personally, but I have also come to the conclusion that I do not like living in DC enough that it is worth any type of contract. Especially not a contract that I could do part of from Stockholm, where I have my friends and family and a much cheaper apartment. So I have decided that if the situation remains the same over the next few months, I will quit my apartment here and go back to Sweden for a while. I hope to do some part-time work for a while and focus on my studies, and perhaps travel a bit before I start looking for a new job again. A mid-term plan is to perhaps do a PhD, unless something more exciting comes up. It is a little weird not knowing what comes next because I have always been so focused, but I guess life sometimes is like that?

Stockholm, December 2009

I am thinking of changing the name of my blog and any idea is welcome! The current name was automatically given with the former blog provider and I never bothered changing it. But now I am thinking that perhaps I should come up with something more inspiring? So if you have any ideas, please let me know!

Thanks to all of you who got back to me after I asked for advice on reading related to the food systems! I will certainly check everything out that I have not already read. And please continue to send articles etc if you come across something that you might think is interesting. In the meantime, for the conscious food consumer who does not have time to read, I can recommend Food Inc. I think I have already posted a clip from this movie here a while ago, but it is worth repeating. While the EU is not exactly where the U.S. is, it is good to have seen this movie when entering the supermarkets also in Europe. And perhaps especially for all of you among my friends that live in countries where this phenomenon only just started. 

I turned in my assignment for my MSc program on Sunday and my life is finally back to a normal pace again. Kind of anyway. My old contract expired Monday and my new contract will not be in place until the end of the week, so I am off work for a few days. It doesn’t mean that I am not working, but at least I don’t have to go into the office and I can explore the concept of flexible work schedule fully! And after having cocooned myself in my apartment for a week while focusing on my studies, I am trying to take advantage of the possibility of including social activities among my daytime commitments. Hence, my week has in addition to some work that needed to be done, also included lunches, coffees, multi-hour Skype calls with Sweden, etc, etc, etc. And now I am off for drinks with A at Kramer Books and After Work, which is one of my favorite places in town (as all of you, who have been here, know). Sunday, I am going for work to Skopje and then to Podgorica, so while I think I could have gotten used to this type of life, the break is unfortunately over soon.

No Halloween Parties for me this year, since I had to finalize my assignment, but when I was out walking in the Capitol Hill neighborhood Sunday evening, the streets were filled with trick-or-treaters. And I managed to decorate my apartment appropriately.

I have a thing for notebooks. I am not sure why, but I get inspired by them. And different notebooks inspire to different things. Some are perfect for planning my life. Others are perfect for writing a certain story. Or for collecting ideas. For gathering memories from travels, or for a certain topic that I am studying. Now, when I started my Masters Program,, I went out and bought a new, green notebook with messages about saving the environment on it. Different languages also require different notebooks. My Romanian notes are for example collected in a 75 euro cent notebook that I bought in Moldova, with a picture of the Central Station in Chisinau on the cover. And so on. The notebook that Jessica gave me now is beautiful. I am not sure yet to what topic it will be dedicated to, but I am sure I will fill it with a special project!