Starting a new thread “Life at Home” in our Voices magazine, we are reaching few members of our VCS family to ask them about their thoughts and impressions. Finnish, Polish, French and Turkish living in sunny Macedonia…

Summer surprised us, especially me from Finland, as I consider 20 degrees plus to be a summer already. That fact makes it a bit more difficult to stay inside, but gladly we have a balcony where we live during the days when the full quarantine takes place in Skopje. From the beginning, I took the unfortunate situation to improve myself and my skills. There are no moments of boredom when you have your flatmates that put all the energy together. The amazing foods we do, conversations till late hours with moon in the night sky, walks in the mountains, all the muscle pain of trying several exercise videos from YouTube, Harry Potter marathons, trying to learn the first guitar chords with painful fingers… And of course working, online. Life floats, summer is here, mind is staying positive.

Selina

Sun is the only guest in our home. It’s sending warm greetings through the sunrays reaching every corner of our flat. Especially our balcony is like the sunny island in the middle of the jungle that Skopje was once and still is. The difference between this jungle from few weeks ago and now is massive. Before quarantine started, Skopje was probably the biggest city jungle I’ve ever experienced, with the streets always busy with the cars and people talking and laughing all around. Now the noise is replaced by more natural jungle to which all the kinds of birds are contributing. Nature is alive and that’s one of the reasons to stay positive. You can hear birds singing. See all the trees blooming with the colors and Vodno turning green. Discover turtles walking slowly with no worries while you are taking your daily oxygen walk. The time we are living now is different than what we got used to, but it’s up to us to make the best out of it. So we do here. Taking up kitchen challenge and becoming chefs. Coming up with new ideas for future projects. Making music to have some good laughter and sparkle with joy. Catching up with our friends from all over the world. Being grateful for all the little things.

Ewelina

The time in isolation sometimes goes surprisingly fast and sometimes it feels that the day is never ending. We’ve enjoyed each others company in our flat, shared meals, focused on work things, exercised, watched movies, danced, laughed… as well we’ve shared our frustration, bad feelings and fears.
But it helps to endure when you know that the situation is only temporary and hopefully soon we get to continue our adventures in this wonderful country.

Kirsi

I’m happy to be here during these days. Because, there are very small amount of corona virus cases than other countries. Also, people are calm, they don’t buy everything in the shops. We can find everything, anytime we want. The weather is so good and we can take sun, there are green places near our home. I feel lucky and I hope this situation will be better in a month.

Doğukan

In this unprecedented time, getting bent out of shape because of this restrictive situation leads to a deadlock. Of course, it’s not rocket science, it’s not at all a piece of cake. As an alternative, I am very happy my mission at Volunteers Centre Skopje remains underway. For instance, writing articles for VOICES or designing an online French conversation workshop with teammates are definitely very stimulating ways to express my creativity and think of something else. Besides, I have a very nice living environment and an awesome view of the Vodno mountain I enjoy every day.
So let’s put it this way: For sure, I could not have been in a better environment to hang tight for this quarantine to end. I hope the situation here will be fine eventually, as far as possible.
Anyway, these days, I do think living just day by day and enjoying little things of life such as a good coffee, a nice online chat with friends elsewhere in Europe or South America for instance or a good read is important. These tips might inspire you to eventually being downhill from this challenging time. Take care!

Jules

Stay positive. Smile 🙂 Use your imagination. Be creative. Be active. Enjoy little things. Share your stories from home. All the best from

VCS family