arrival at ambrela

needless to say, this has been a rather insane week. the trek from oak ridge to skopje was fairly fast and all together incident free. macedonia is, so far, much warmer (i was expecting a second Russian winter perhaps?) and prettier than I expected.

from what I've gathered so far, ambrela is a tiny two-room establishmeny that serves as outlet seperate from the school system where roma students can continue their studies. the schools in shutka are currently functioning at about three times their capacity. one solution for the overcrowding is to send the older students to school in the morning and allow them to leave after lunch to make way for the smaller children. ambrela works, therefore, to both provide a place for to come during their free time and a way to keep them engaged in academics despite their abbreviated school days. it also provides the Roma children with tutoring they might not be able to get from their parents, who are frequently not as well educated.