Romanovce/Rramanli

Considering that I've been here in country for almost two months now, it's probably about time that I tell you a bit about how I'm living here.

Romanovce

I live with the Angelovski family in a town called either Романовце (Romanovce)/Rramanli. It has two names because it has been home to both Macedonians and ethnic Albanians for hundreds of years and both groups have a slightly different name for the town in their respective languages.

The town has about 3,000 inhabitants, ~2200 of which are ethnic Albanian and ~800 of which are Slavic Macedonian. The town lies in a narrow valley, is about 1/4 mile wide but about 3 miles long. It's surrounded by farmland but is only about 3 miles from Kumanovo, one of the largest cities in the country.

I live with the Angelovski family, one of the Slavic Macedonian families who seems to be related somehow to just about every other Macedonian family in town. I was a little anxious when first we rolled up to my house, but my fears were quickly proven to be unfounded. My family is plain awesome.
First of all, I was greeted at the door by this little guy!

Medo!

His name is Медо (Medo) and he's pretty much awesome. He's about 3 months old now and it's just so fantastic having a puppy around to play with when I'm tired of speaking in Macedonian.
Along with the puppy, we have an older dog (Bruno), two kittens (Max and Sara), two cows (Duschka & Gyurgija), 12ish chickens, and occasionally pigs and goats.

For Dario.

Pretty much just a photo op.
I'm awful at milking.

Harvesting some late season grapes!

In addition to raising animals, my family grows grapes, wheat, barley, sunflowers, leeks, onions, potatoes, tons of herbs & spices, and the juiciest tomatoes I'd ever had in my life. All of this fresh produce means that I've been blessed with some absolutely amazing cooking. This, for example, is my typical breakfast! I start with a bowl of homemade noodle soup (both the soup and the noodles are homemade!), something fried, some cheese, a salad of tomatoes, onions, & peppers, a cup of tea and a cup of coffee. Lunch is normally a bit heavier, and always includes meat and rakija.

What's rakija you ask? Well remember those grapes we grow? My family makes our own wine. Every year my host father produces about 7 barrels of wine. Of those barrels, only about a full barrel goes to wine as a finished product. The rest goes into our family's antique moonshine still where we make our own distilled wine. Though grouped with brandies, this stuff is clear and STRONG (about 60%). And it's not just my family making it either. Most rural families in the area make their own rakija and insist upon sharing it with you whenever you make a social call.  A second item that every family around here makes is called Ajvar (Aye-var).

Stirring the Ajvar

Roasting Peppers

Ajvar is a local paste made from the ground flesh of roasted peppers. It has the consistency of a tapanade and is absolutely delicious. It's a very long process to make the ajvar. First, you roast the peppers on a giant stove until the skin starts separating from the fleshy interior of the pepper. Second, you peel the skin off and clean out the seeds. (Or if you're my host father, you make goofy faces while eating fried fish) Third, you run the peppers through a meat grinder. Finally you throw in some oil and spices and reduce the paste in a big pot over a fire before canning it and enjoying your homemade ajvar the year round. It's delicious, but I'm really not sure how nutritious it can be after being cooked for so long

Sveto & Nadica

In case you've seen any blog posts talking about some people here, I should probably introduce my family. My host dad, as seen in the posts above is named Sveto (Sss-veh-tow). He's an amazing sport and even obliged me with a photo of him drinking Terere. He looks so natural with the guampa in his hand that it's really hard to tell that he isn't a Paraguayan. My host mom's name is Nadica (Nah-deets-ah) and she is easily the best cook of any of the host mothers in Romanovce. They both keep super busy during the day with household and farmyard chores and like to relax in the evening watching some Turkish soap operas (which give my Latin Telenovelas a run for the money). They both are very physically emotive, which is fantastic for me as I struggle with Macedonian as it means that I can look for meaning as well as listen for it. I could rant for hours about how much I love living with them, but for brevity's sake, just know that I could not have a host family that more closely matches my love of laughter, adventure, and hospitality. Finally there's Goce (Go-tse) who is my host brother here. He's a few years older than me and is basically the older brother I never had. He loves teasing me, telling me when I'm doing things wrong, and giving me advice on women. He's generally a pain in the butt...which is exactly what I've been to Daniel since forever so I guess what goes around comes around.