Mother In Law

We had taken a ferry from Italy to Greece and hired a car. The plan was to drive to Athens and through to Macedonia. Ivan, who would later become my husband, had learned his mother was visitng relatives in the small village where she was raised. I was to finally meet my future mother in law.

When we arrived at the border, it was explained to us that we were not allowed to bring the rental car into Macedonia. We parked and locked the vehicle, grabbed our bags and began a long walk from Greece into Macedonia. This was a time when ethnic Albanian's were desperately trying to get out of their country. Taking in our beautiful surroundings we couldn't help but notice there were men in uniforms laying among the tall grass with great big guns pointing at us. I felt better knowing that Ivan spoke the language if we encountered any strife.

At last we were officially on the other side. A taxi driver was there and after a brief conversation on price we were on our way to "The Village". After 45 minutes we slowly went down a dirt road. It wasn't as thrid world as I was led to believe. We unloaded our gear from the car when I heard what sounded like a heated argument. The parts I could understand were,"friends with guns come and kill you". We ended up paying triple the agreed price and everyone was friends again.

Three days was about all I could bare. Ivan's relatives had only one volume which was loud. They never spoke softly and preferred to yell and scream. Apparently his cousin had a curse out on her by the witch who lived down the road and she suffered terrible headaches as a consequence. Not understanding a single word they were saying, I retreated to the bedroom for a good cry. My future mother-in-law appeared to finally say hello and formally meet me. I will never forget her words as long as I live, "You have strong bones and wide hips for babies". My future flashed before my eyes. She had it all planned out for me. We were barely together a year at this point and already she had big plans.

I can't say I was sad when we left the village. I would like to think of myself as open minded but I learned from that trip, when it comes to food I am very Westernized. They had fresh hot milk from the goat every morning along with cheese the made as well. There were two rabbits in the yard when we arrived but the last night there was some sort of meat dish for dinner. I never complained and ate everything on my plate. For this, I am proud.