My Trip with Macedonian Outreach: What I Saw, Felt, and Learned

We started our trip at a refugee care center in Thessaloniki, Greece. That’s where I met a boy in the kids’ area. He only spoke Arabic, but we still managed to do a word search puzzle together. It was cool how we didn’t need to speak the same language to understand each other. But then he had to leave. Before he left, he told me he lived about three hours away in an apartment. I said goodbye, even though I wished we had more time.

After that, my family and I traveled to Bulgaria. We visited one of the churches there and after worship all the kids went outside. We played soccer together and even though I didn’t know their language it didn’t matter—soccer kind of works like a language all its own. When it was time to leave, I said goodbye to them too. I noticed their homes were really run down and I’m not sure I’d even call them houses. It made me really thankful that Macedonian Outreach had helped build some better ones nearby.

Then we headed to Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. The city looked pretty nice, but once we drove outside of it everything changed. We visited a community where people were living in what was basically a landfill. I could barely believe it. There were stray animals everywhere, and flies constantly buzzing around. It was hard to believe that kids actually lived there. Still, even in a place like that the kids smiled. We played soccer again, and later I found out a lot of them had phones and even played Brawl Stars—one of my favorite games. That really surprised me. Even though they didn’t have much they still found ways to have fun like any other kid.

After that, we went back to our hotel to get ready for the long trip home to California. Looking back, this trip was really fun and kind of eye-opening. I saw how different life can be for kids in other parts of the world. I hope that me and my family were able to bring a little bit of hope and joy to the people we met. I definitely feel like I’ve learned a lot. And, I’m really thankful for everything I have.

Judah Malakoff, Age 11