It’s 9 p.m. I’m sitting on the balcony. Outside, I can hear the lively voices of children enthusiastically playing football and jumping rope late into the night. It takes me back to my childhood. When we were kids, we were always eager to grow up. We looked up to our older brothers and sisters. As…
This month of July wasn’t my first one in Skopje so I thought I would be able to handle the heat this time. I was right. Yet it was still hard to fall asleep. But heatwaves aren’t kind to everyone. Since the beginning of the month I saw plenty of animals in pain. How can…
There are days when everything feels too fast. Hours blur into one another, faces pass like shadows, and we forget that life isn’t measured by what we accomplish, but by what we truly experience. In this rush, slowing down becomes an act of quiet rebellion, a way to reclaim the rhythm of our own heartbeat.…
The art of noticing. What a blessing, huh? Walking down the street and just hearing the loud music coming from the car stereo… that warm breeze of June hitting the back of your neck. And what do you see now? All the ingredients of summer are slowly coming out—children asking for ice cream once they…
There was a time when paper had weight. Ink stayed. It marked your hands, your day. Now it slips past us, screen lit, endless, forgettable. In Macedonia, print is not dying loudly. It is thinning out, quietly. Fewer pages, fewer kiosks, fewer reasons to hold something real. We scroll instead. We consume faster than we…
I wouldn’t have read this editorial a few years ago. Back then I wouldn’t read editorials, introductions, author’s notes... I was always too excited to jump straight into the article I wanted to read. Why should I read about the behind the scenes of the article? With time and experience, the world around us changes…
When was the last time you were thinking about what you are actually consuming? Every day, we are bombarded with news and advertisements, making us feel increasingly detached from our emotions. Buried under advertisements for the latest micro trend, I see my brain screaming for help, overwhelmed by all the bad news. So, fleeing into…
⭐Lea: Life in Skopje is so different. It is unpredictable. It is surprising. Sometimes taking all my willpower and strength. Still, so beautiful. The people, the cultures, the different ways of living. All the new things I get to do and see. It is changing me in ways I never expected, and I enjoy this…
While some celebrate New Year or Christmas a silent, eldritch species is threatening the world, the Woodcrawlers. They are not animals. They are tall, silent, and move wrong. They mimic voices and hide in plain sight, becoming part of the trees. The forest falls unnaturally quiet when they are near. When you go to the…
While traveling to a new place and starting a new life, a new job, building new relations, you will always be accompanied by one constant: things are going to change. Since my arrival in Macedonia, this is what I struggle with the most. I keep telling myself I want to discover as much as possible…
Hello and welcome to the November edition of VOICES, This month, we sadly say goodbye to two long-term volunteers at VCS. I’m Cassandre, also a long-termer, and watching volunteers leave is always bittersweet, especially Terry and Chloe, the last ones from when I first arrived. In this editorial, they share their final thoughts and reflections,…
As the air grows cooler and the leaves begin to fall, I’m reminded that my time here is also slowly but surely coming to an end. Indeed, while it still does feel surreal to say it, I’ve been here for almost 11 months already. Living in Macedonia is something that I would have never believed…
Since I arrived in Macedonia, I have felt a small shift inside me. It might be the way people open me their doors without hesitation, or how a shared drink can turn strangers into something closer. The welcome I’ve received here has been more than politeness, it feels like a real invitation to belong, to…
I was certainly aware that the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), held in Skopje from July 20-26, would teach me something as an Olympic volunteer, but it went beyond my expectations. I spent the entire week at the venue with competitions in taekwondo, which allowed me to see a world I hadn't previously been aware…
In April, I was sitting on campus in Ankara, just thinking about summer internship plans. I had no idea that in just a few weeks, everything in my life would change. While browsing through the university’s programs, I came across a three-month volunteering opportunity in Skopje, Macedonia. At that moment, I realized that something important…
Hope is a dandelion – and a dandelion is it. The story of everything takes its course with the smallest, tiny-tiniest seed of it getting carried and carried away by the early summer breeze. Despite its completely inconspicuous looks, the slender seed possesses a secret super-power: It can take a hold even in the most…
Dawid: As my time in Skopje slowly nears the end, I find myself naturally becoming more reflective about my volunteering journey. Stumbling upon the opportunity, struggling to write an application, accidentally missing the interview (thanks to my poor judgement of time zones) and arriving at the airport, all of this seems like it happened a…
Dear reader, birds chirping on the trees, water rippling down the mountain, the wind is brushing through the trees and you feel the warmness of the sun shining on your face. Spring is starting and with it a new Voices edition full of inspiration and ideas. Spring for me is a time to reconnect with…
初春風 無常迅速 春終わった Hello reader, another spring is coming. I bet you are surprised to read this beyond a word document. We haven’t talked that much lately, have we? Life has been a whirlwind of ever-changing circumstances. Although it was always like this. Change is a constant. Change is never changing. Next time we will…
One year ago, in February 2024, I was at the Montpellier Caribbean Carnival, celebrating the start of Lent. Totally immersed in a Caribbean environment. Who could have predicted a year later that I wouldn't be able to go to the carnival because I'd literally be in ANOTHER COUNTRY? A country that is completely unknown to…