Pippa Cookson, our pioneer in Macedonia, writes:
“I spent November ’03 to June ‘04 staying in a flat in Bitola, the second city, in the south of the country, near the Greek border, but every week went for two days to help Neysan, a youth volunteer (from Ireland and Bulgaria), who was living in Ohrtd. Neysan left in June to go to Aberdeen to study, and I felt I should take his place in Ohnd, Renate, a German woman who had lived there in 2001, came back for a visit, and found me this old house in the old town. It has a real personality, not like the raw new concrete flats. I moved in in August.
I am beginning to get to know people. Ohrid has a population of about 50,000 - many of whom turn out on fine days on the Corso (the pedestrian central street) so I usually meet one or two people I know. They also walk the wide promenade along the edge of the very beautiful lake when it’s sunny.
I’m learning Macedonian. I had a head start with the (Cyrillic) alphabet, because I once learned Russian. . I can’t yet understand the spoken language well, though I can struggle to speak it if I have to.
The old town of Ohnd is wonderfully picturesque, stacked higgledy-piggledy on the fairly steep hill below Tsar Samoil’s fortress. The roads are flagged and just wide enough for single-lane traffic -which doesn’t deter local drivers! Round the old town there was a wall, a lot of which still exists. My house is about 100 yards from the lower gate, the tower on one side of which is well preserved. I live opposite two small churches, St. Nikola and St. Bogorodica (“Mother of God”), which were used as hospitals and for quarantine when Ohrid was still the walled city. I think they make the house feel spiritual, and they are a pleasant component of the view, made of beige stone, with terracotta roofs.
The house is very old, constructed in the usual style - thick stone walls at the bottom, upper storeys overhanging, and with thin walls in lath and plaster, or wattle and daub. The timber used is sometimes just tree-trunks. The bottom floor is the “pod-room” (like a cellar but above ground!). One side of the house gets the sun all day, which is lovely.”
The Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland would like all communities and organisers of classes and events to be aware that Unit Convention this year is over the weekend of 22-23 October and asks, in line with NSA policy, that classes and events are not organised for that weekend.
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