June in Fushe-Arrez

The last three weeks have been great! School finished for the summer two weeks ago at the beginning of June. At the end of that week the bashkia (town hall) held a community picnic up in the mountains. It was a two Kilometer hike up the mountain to the site. Kumar and I were having a rough time towards the top (mostly me). I kept slipping on loose gravel and I was wearing trail running shoes with good grip, while most of the Albanians were wearing flip-flops or dress shoes and having no problems climbing up. I felt like a failure. Oh well, I finally made it to the top and there was flat area with two make shift goals for soccer games and there were speakers hooked up and music was playing. I met up with a couple of my students and talked and then we started circle dancing. A while later, after many people left to go back home a soccer game started. I managed to get myself on the bashkia team (even though I don’t work there). I was the only girl playing and then about 20 minutes later they allowed an Albanian girl onto the opposing team. It was great! I was so happy to see that another girl was allowed to play in what is usually a men only game. We played two games and my team won one and lost one. The next day though was fantastic! Everyone was congratulating me on play soccer and were so happy that I played. I gained a lot of respect from the community for playing that game it was unbelievable. I found out later that I also was on the local tv channel in a clip they were doing about the community picnic. It was pretty exciting!

Since then, I have been helping out at a children’s camp. It is financed by the church and run by two of the teachers at the 9-vjecare (1st -9th grade school). It is a great camp! They meet at the school at 8 am and then go to a place by the river. All of the kids eat their breakfast and then we split up according to grade level and the kids read to each other for about 40 minutes. We then have a game time. There are some organized games and some pick-up games of volleyball or soccer. Then the kids go swimming in the river. It is really something special. I have heard of very few summer camps. So far, Kumar and I have helped teach the kids the importance of throwing their trash away in a trash can and not just on the ground. This was a big accomplishment and at least at camp they still follow our advice and throw away their trash properly. The teachers who run the camp are fantastic and could not be doing a better job. They really have a good plan and have managed to secure toys and come up with different activities for the kids to do throughout the morning. It is great!