I am usually the first one in the office in the mornings so I take it upon myself to make the coffee. It is regular drip coffee but I do something secretly. We accidentally bought Turkish coffee and I opened it, not realizing what it was. From what I can tell, no one in the office drinks Turkish coffee and I know one of my coworkers doesn't like Turkish coffee. Well, my secret is that 2 of the 8 scoops of coffee in the filter are the Turkish coffee. You can't even tell. It's like swapping reduced fat mayo with regular or light cream cheese for regular. Most people can't tell unless you tell them. I figure my secret doesn't harm anyone - it's not like it is decaf! So, there you have it. Somehow, I usually end up being the coffee maker at work. Maybe it is from my days as a barista...ah the good ole' days. I wish I could be a barista here, part time, but the coffee bars don't just serve coffee. They are restaurants/bars so I wouldn't just be making lattes. And I don't speak Macedonian well enough.
Fun Fact: Turkish coffee is a leftover from the days when Macedonia was part of the Ottoman Empire. There are some Turkish words in the Macedonian language.
On to the trash talk. All the dumpsters on my street happen to be on one side and that happens to be the side I live on and walk to work on. I appreciate that I do not have to take my life into my hands crossing the street to take out the trash, but I am sure you can imagine how ripe it is on my way home after a day where it is over 90 degrees. That being said, I am careful not to complain. My friend, Jessica, lives in the Roma neighborhood of Skopje called Topaana. I have talked about Topaana before, I think. At any rate, in Topaana, home to 5,000 Roma, they have FIVE dumpsters. Five. On my way to work, I would guess that there are at least 15 dumpsters. One day I will count. Any way, in Topaana, that is one dumpster for every 1,000 people. In the municipality where Topaana is located, called Cair, there is one dumpster for every 14 people. Yet the Roma neighborhood has five. Jessica is participating in neighborhood discussions on how to deal with the trash issue and has gone to the municipality's government with high schoolers from Topaana to discuss the problem. What is interesting to note is how deep stereotypes run, even within one's own community. Apparently, there is a stereotype that the Roma are lazy and some Romani leaders said that Topaana's trash problem wouldn't be so bad if the Roma weren't so lazy. I am speechless.
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1 comment:
that way of thinking sounds familiar! think about the attitudes we have in the US about such a small percentage of blacks making it through college. it must be because they are lazy, we think, ignoring the fact that inner city schools are under funded and under staffed.
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