Thursday, October 17, 2024

2024 October 3 - 4; Relaxing at home

We had a couple of days at home to relax - me, JB, and Tina that is - Violeta never stops - from 5 am until at least 10 pm - she is washing, cooking, cleaning, tending her gardens and vegetables - the first one up and last one to bed. And she is always smiling - she loves a good laugh at something even if it is herself. She makes us great meals - at least 2 daily.

So while she and Tina were busy one morning, JB drove me to Krklino - a village about 15 minutes outside of Bitola on the Skopje road. We had a bit of trouble finding it - we walked into one driveway where the woman looked at us strangely - we asked about the museum - she just looked at us. So we went a bit further up the road and eventually found the place. It is one man's private collection - he has a load of old cars, motorcycles and sidecars, and bicycles. He buys them and repairs them. He has a 1972 Volkswagen bug that is decorated with flower power designs - it reminded me of my 1972 Orange VW convertible bug - I bought it when I graduated from college. It was a manual and I didn't know how to drive it!

There are all kinds of old household goods - Singer Sewing machines are everywhere - some of their pieces are used in the porch railings, the bases used as the bottoms for tables. There are old lanterns, dishes, pots and pans - it was amazing. The son took us upstairs for even more items. There was a room set up as the end of the 19th century home for a wealthy family - similar but smaller scope than the French Museum in Bucharest. There was another room set up for a regular person or farmer. I was especially interested in the room set up as a Jewish home - there wasn't very much - the son said that after all the Jews of Bitola were deported to the murder camp, the government took what possessions were left - the Nazis had previously taken anything of real value while the Jews were still there. He said that people had these items in their basements or stored away somewhere - not sure where they found them. His father paid for most of the items in the museum although some were donated by people who wanted Macedonian history remembered.


2 decorated trunks from a Jewish family or families. I love the decorative detail on them - the small matching one on the floor - the pocketbook casually laying on the trunk as if the owner would be right back.



I spotted the menorahs right away - every home must have had at least one. I didn't recognize the other items but someone left them behind. The Jews have been persecuted everywhere for centuries although I took a history course on the Ottoman Empire - the instructor said that the Ottoman sultans invited the Jews to come into the Empire because of their knowledge and business acumen. They welcomed the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal - they employed many to help administer the Ottoman Empire. It is very sad and troubling to think that one of the largest Jewish communities in the Balkans could be rounded up one morning, forced onto trains and sent to their deaths - less than a dozen escaped. And this is all remains of them - a few possessions. 



Table top with a Singer Sewing Machine base. The family expanded the museum during Covid and built another building - 6 rooms upstairs to rent out - a restaurant downstairs - and a large wrap around porch with the above tables and benches. They only have bus tours coming this year because of lack of help but they plan to expand next year.



The owner who had just received an envelop of old currency and his wife making Ajvar. I don't know if you can see my pocketbook on the arm of the empty chair. I had been sitting there while the father was showing me the currency. JB wanted the picture of me with the wife. We left the museum after refusing tea, coffee, food - their hospitality was wonderful. We were halfway home when Tina called - the son had called Ilce - who had set up the visit - to tell them that I had forgotten my bag. We changed direction and headed back to the house - the son met me with my bag - he just laughed when I said that I was so overwhelmed by the Museum that I never missed my bag. I'm sure everyone else thought I was losing it.




Auto Ethnic Museum Krklino


Philip Tanevsky's family's business cards for the museum above and their bicycle shop in Bitola below.




Welcome to Bitola sign in Macedonian, English and French.



These 3 pictures were taken as we were driving to Novaci, and they show the dust blowing from the digging on the mountain where Tina's brother Ilce works. 





This picture shows the pollution from the power plant and the digging up of the mountain.



My daily visitor - Tina's cat


The next day we went shopping at this supermarket - there are small shops in Novaci - but this supermarket has larger sized items - we were buying our souvenirs - candy, cookies, chips! The store sells everything - it is much larger than it looks!


Very windy as we headed back to Novaci - look at the Macedonian flag blowing in the wind.



Some of the small shops in Novaci.



I asked JB to drive down to the power plant - I could see the smog as we drove toward it.



Dust blowing from the area where the digging is taking place.




Dust darkening the clouds.



This was a clear sunny day - look at how cloudy these pictures are.





More smog in these pictures.





Power plants spewing smoke along with dust from the digging. The power plant in Bitola provides 70% of the electricity in Macedonia. The plant is in Novaci which experiences power outages quite frequently.




Difficult to see the smoke coming from the power plant stacks but the upper sky is blue with white clouds - the sky is darker lower near the power plant.




Lots of pollution in this picture. 

Studies have shown that the Balkans in general have a large pollution problem from their coal-fired power plants. The plant in Bitola has some of the highest levels of pollution in Europe. 

Balkaninsight.com reports that: "The latest analysis, compiled by Bankwatch, released this week (2022), shows that fine dust, PM2.5, concentrations alone are responsible for up to 8.43 per cent of all deaths among adults in the nearby village of Novaci. This means that in this small, sparsely populated municipality, up to 6 people die prematurely every year due to PM2.5 pollution ...

Dust and sulphur dioxide emissions from the power plant are consistently higher than emissions’ legal limits. In the past few years, the plant has frequently been ranked among Europe’s top five emitters of pollutants."



I have read that, depending on who is reporting, there are plans to phase out the use of coal by 2027, 2030 or 2050. The power plants would be updated to use natural gas but that is also a fossil fuel. 
In November 2023 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank were planning to propose a €3 billion (US $3.26 billion) Just Energy Transition Investment Program (JET-P) to fund the replacement of Bitola power station and Oslomej power station with 1700 MW of renewable projects. I saw a YouTube video of several workers from the Bitola area talking with workers from a power plant that transitioned to clean energy plants. We will have to wait to see what happens. In the meantime how many citizens of Novaci die from the pollution.  And what about the workers - it doesn't sound like there are many safety programs nor safety equipment. 
















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