The wheels on the bus go round and round…

How many times I’ve come and gone to Macedonia is equivalent to the number of years it’s been since I first came here in 2002. How much has changed is harder to quantify, however. I had little idea what to expect when I first came in Nov ’02 as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV), and I spent my first few months in a village that has hardly changed in the last few centuries, let alone the past few years.

Six years later, the nation’s capital, Skopje, is another story. When my good buddies and I escaped up here for a night during PC training in December ‘02 (and were reprimanded for it!) the 2001 conflict (and even Kosovo’s in ’99) were very recent events that left the city still shaken and divided, but which had brought the first groups of international workers en masse. Skopje only had a handful of decent outdoor cafes, grocery stores, restaurants, and nice cars from W. Europe. With Yugoslav and E. European makes like Yugos, Zastavas, Ladas and the like, it just felt stuck in its socialist ‘70s. I recall looking around at the New Year’s Eve celebration on December 31, 2002, telling my friend Kim just that. It was like we were living in a movie about a forgone era. But it was real—old cars, old clothes, and old habits. Oh, times have changed. Well, mostly...

With the ‘free market’, money appears more abundant, products imported from abroad are readily consumed, and heightened foreign direct investment (FDI) means more money is being poured into the country than at anytime since before the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991. Fiats, Volkswagens, Audis, BMWs, not to mention Mazdas, Hondas, and Toyotas race down the city streets and country roads. While the market is far from saturated with these products and services (as indeed, many people remain rather poor), their presence is testimony to the money that has flowed in here and really changed people’s lives. Nearly everyone of my generation or younger has mobile phones, cable TV, and the internet (or at least they use it). I even saw the bus company’s website on the side of the city’s decades’ old red buses in sprayed on, stencil letters. www.jsp.com.mk

It still has that socialist look, but it represents a whole new world in this country of two million. People ride the bus less and take their own cars or taxis more. You can even hear it in how they describe directions: Rather than say it’s a fifteen minute walk they say it’s a five minute drive. Whether it makes life more convenient or just causes more accidents and pollution I’m not sure. But regardless of the mode of transportation, the wheels are rolling forward and Macedonians are plugging along…