My Wood for the Winter

This past week I also received my wood for the winter. I will be heating my house with a wood stove. It will replace my regular stove for the winter and I will have to learn to cook with a wood stove. I imagine that there will be several burnt meals, before I figure out the proper way of using it. I had help from several of the kids in town to move my wood from outside next to my apartment building to my balcony in my apartment. They were hard workers and I really appreciated their help. We were able to get all of my wood up over the course of the week. We would work for about two hours a day. It is now all in apartment waiting to be used this winter.

School in Fushe-Arrez

On September 6th, I had my first day of teaching. Since then I have actually only taught 5 days, due to illness and having to go down to Tirana for a day. I will try and give you the idea of what a typical day is like so far.

I get to school a bit before 8am. I enter the school and talk with the teachers while we wait for the 8am bell to ring allowing the students, who are waiting outside in the courtyard in front of the school, to come in and go to their classroom. Here in Albania the students stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers move from room to room each period. After the students get to their classroom, Valbona, my Albanian counterpart, and I head to our first class of the day. We enter the classroom, which is about 5 degrees warmer than in the hallway due to all the students and the direct sunlight coming in from the windows. We do not turn on the lights in the classroom or anywhere in the school for that matter and just use the natural light from the windows. The room is very bare. The walls are painted white on the top and green on the bottom, there might be a couple posters on the walls and there is a blackboard at the front of the class. Sometimes it is a regular slate blackboard as the ones we are used to in the States, but other times it is just a black rectangle that is painted on the concrete wall. There are three rows of desks in front of us, where there are between 25-40 students facing us. There are two to three students to a desk.

Valbona starts by taking attendance and then reviews the homework, while I stand in the front or head to the back of the class to give some support in keeping the class in order. We then begin teaching the lessons. Valbona and I usually split up the lesson, where I do the reading and she write on the board or vise versa. She always does the grammar lesson, which is fine by me. I have to read very slowly, so the students can understand me. Most of the students have ony heard British English, as that is the kind of English that is taught in Albania and throughout most of Europe. Few of students have heard someone with an American accent speak. This difference in English has caused a few complications, such as when I write on the board the words that they don’t understand from the readings, since I spell things the American way. For example I spelt “realized” on the board and a student was really confused and asked Valbona why I spelled it with a “z.” They had learned to spell it, “realised.” This has caused some difficulties, but It is good for the students. Despite the fact that when I teach, we don’t get through everything, since I have to go so slow, Valbona is happy that I can provide the students with the opportunity to listen to a native speaker. When the bell rings to signal the end of class we leave and head to our next class.

There are 6 class periods in the day, with a 40 minute break after 3rd period. Valbona and I usually teach 5 periods in the day and during our off period we go and have a coffee. The day goes from 8am to 1:15pm.

In the afternoons, I have been planning my own lessons or I have relaxing. Valbona goes and teaches at the private English language school in town. She is very busy giving courses, which accounts for the great English I hear from the students who live in the town proper of Fushe-Arrez. She is a great teacher, which makes my job a bit easier.

My First Couch Surfer

Kumar and I had our first Couch Surfer a couple weeks ago. Simone was in his early 20s from Milan, Italy and he ended up staying for three days. I should probably explain couch surfing to those of you who have never heard of it. It is a website that you sign up on, it is free, but they request donations if you can afford to give. You make a profile and you friend people (much the same as with Facebook). You write references for your friends and those who surf your couch. You then can search for people who might live in the city you want to go to and see if they are willing to put you up for a night at their house. I always check the person’s references before accepting them into my apartment. It works really well here in Albania, because most of the couches are of Peace Corps volunteers and I can really trust what they have to say. And so this is how I came to accept Simone to come and stay in Fushe-Arrez. He ended up staying at Kumar’s house, as I did not want to harm my reputation here in town by having a boy stay with me. It was a fun few days. Simone cooked diner for us one night and we showed him what life is like in a small Albanian town. We went to a soccer game in town at our new soccer field and watched Kumar play. It was a great experience where we learned a lot about different cultures. Hopefully, someone else will want to make the trek out to Fushe-Arrez sometime soon.

My Birthday

My first birthday in Albania just passed. It turned into a two-day event and was a whole lot of fun. On my actual birthday, my friend Alicia came to visit me. We had a laid back day, where we wandered around town and had a couple coffees. That evening, we went to go watch a soccer game at the new caged soccer field in town. It is a beautiful synthetic field. This game was going to be a very special game to see because the girls in town decided that they were going to play. It was a first and I was so excited to see Albanian women breaking the stereotypes and breaking through the invisible glass ceiling, which stipulates that women do not play soccer. When we arrived to watch, however, several of the girls got cold feet and decided they didn’t want to play. So the remaining girls were trying to figure out how to get enough people in order to play the game. They allowed some boys in the game, but they really wanted girls, so they came and asked Alicia and me. I was completely unprepared, but said ok anyway. I was wearing a skirt and flip-flops (not quite the proper attire for playing a game of soccer). They put me in the goal, so I wouldn’t have to worry too much about my skirt flying up. I then kicked off my sandals and entered the game. It was so much fun! My team ended up winning. I saved every goal that was shot at my goal that was airborne. The three shots that remained on the ground, I missed (I need some help with my foot-eye coordination). It was a great game. There was a large crowed watching, who cheered for all of the women playing. I hope that it will be all women in the game next time and that this will become a regular game.

The next day, Fushe-Arrez was flooded with Americans. Two volunteers from Shkoder, three volunteers from Puke, and two volunteers from the south, plus one of Kumar’s friends from Istanbul, came to visit and celebrate. Kumar dug a fire-pit in his front yard and made some make shift benches. We roasted chicken and potatoes in the fire and then had watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, and most importantly brownies for dinner. It was delicious. We passed the American football and had a truly American birthday cookout. It was fantastic.

As I am talking about my American birthday, I feel that it is necessary to explain some differences between how Americans and Albanians celebrate. Unless Albanians throw a surprise party, the person whose birthday it is has to throw the party and pay for everyone who comes. If they invite people to coffee or lunch, they are expected to pay for everyone there. It is basically the complete opposite idea of how Americans celebrate. Some volunteers have had a big surprise when they have invited everyone to lunch because it was their birthday and then they had to pay for everyone’s lunch.

Pets in Albania

After taking Abby, my cat, to the vet yesterday, I thought I would write some about pets in Albania. First, pets are a relatively new phenomena in Albania. Most Albanians so not have pets and if they do it will never be allowed to enter their house. Few pets even have names. Since the fall of communism and the increased presence of western culture, more Albanians are starting to have pets, but many still think it is crazy that I have a cat. Pet stores have been springing up all over Albania in the last few years. One thing though, is that pet stores do not know quite how to sell the pets and how to hand them over to their new owners. Many pet stores will hand you your new pet in a plastic grocery bag. When a volunteer, here asked for a box instead of a bag the owner thought he was crazy and being difficult. He finally found a box and put two holes in it and then handed it to the volunteer with a perplexed look on it.

As pets are new in Albania, so are veterinarians. You can find them throughout Albania, but knowing if they truly know everything about animals is difficult. For more precise treatments, one usually goes to Tirana, where the vets are the best. So, this brings me to my story.

I learned that my kitten Abby worms. I needed to take her to the vet, so she could be looked at and treated. I tried to find a vet in Shkoder, but the only one I heard of almost killed a cat because they gave the wrong dosage to the cat. So, I opted for Tirana. That involved a 4½-hour bus ride there and another one back. Luckily I can do that in one day if I leave on the 5am bus. I, also, needed something to carry Abby in. I couldn’t find anything, but large cases or birdcages, so I put holes in a cardboard box and put Abby in it. I had to text the vet when I arrived and he came and picked me up. We walked to his office. This office consisted of one room, with a curtain that could act as a divider if they chose to close it. I put Abby in her box on the table, which was covered in rubber. All of the pills and utensils were on shelves at the back of the room. The fridge with the temperature specific drugs was an old white dorm room size fridge. The walls of the office were a dirty yellow. There were two pit bulls in the waiting section with their owners. It was a very interesting office. I wanted to get Abby fixed as well, but here in Albania, they go by age and not weight for deciding if a cat can be spayed. So, I have to wait until she is at least 9 months old, before I can do that. The doctor gave her the shot and a deworming pill and gave me some shampoo for her. And that was the end of our visit. It lasted all of 3 minutes.

Afterwards I went to a restaurant (and yes, they allowed me in the restaurant despite having a cat with me) and waited until I could go and catch the 12pm bus back to Fushe-Arrez.

Having a pet in Albania takes a lot of work. I have to go to Shkoder or Tirana to get litter and food. I have learned more about cats in the last three months than I learned in all of my previous life.

A Fun and Sad weekend

This past weekend was a mix of enjoyment and sadness. I will begin with fun part, because I guess that is what came first, although only barely. I went Shkoder this weekend. It is a city on the coast in northern Albania. It is only a 2-3 hour furgon ride from Fushe-Arrez. I was visiting three of the volunteers there, Tiffany and Terry, and Jessie. We spent most of the day trying to stay cool. It was crazy hot there and we sought out the cafes that had air conditioning. In the evening we went to the Miss Earth Albania show. The winner would go to the international competition in Vietnam sometime later this year. The pageant was great, even if by the end it was a bit boring. There were 27 contestants, most of them in their teens or early twenties. It started with a bathing suit competition. It was pretty similar to the American beauty pageants at this point. Then they had the evening gown competition and that was also very similar to the American version (except the dresses were a bit shorter). Then came the first surprise, they put back on the bathing suit tops, but with daisy-duke shorts and a sequined cowboy hat. After that they had a talent portion, in which only three contestants performed (no one is sure why). They all sang and only the last one was a pretty good singer. The second one sang, “We’re all in this Together” from High School Musical. It was fantastic. She might not of had the best voice, but she did have good stage presence. They finished the night with a wedding dress competition. It was incredible. It just completely solidified that this pageant was in Albania. Being asked about marriage is brought up just about every time I meet anybody here. And the wedding dress competition was a great end and just seemed so fitting for Albania.

The next day, Kumar bought a rabbit for a pet and we headed back to Fushe-Arrez. This is where the sad part of my story comes in. On Saturday only about an hour or two after arriving in Shkoder Kumar and I get a call from the PC office making sure that we are ok. They inform us that there was a massive bus accident in Gjegjan village (only about 15 km from FA). The bus was headed to FA from Durres. When we were Shkoder we didn’t know much, we did notice that it was on the front of every newspaper the next day. We saw the causality count and knew that it was bad, but I felt distance from it until we arrived in Fushe-Arrez on Sunday. It was very sad. Everyone was depressed. When we arrived the head of parliament was there visiting families. Prime Minister Sali Berisha had visited earlier in the day. And yesterday President Topi visited the families. Most of the causalities were from the village, but there was one family that was hit hard in Fushe-Arrez. One of the girls I know from camp and she is now in a coma. It is extremely sad. I ask for everyone’s prayers and thoughts. It is a very difficult time in our town and only time will heal. I did hear that as of today the girl showed some minor signs of improvement, but she is still in critical condition.

I am sorry to leave this entry on such a sad note, but that is where we are now. I am still doing camp and the kids are still loads fun. I went swimming today and played some cards with several of the kids. I taught some more English words to Teacher Bardhe. I hope everyone at home is doing well! I will write more soon.

Shijak and a long trip back to Fushe-Arrez

The morning after the Embassy party, I made my way to Shijak (a town between Tirana and the port city of Durres) to go to a game night at Libby’s house with some of the other Group 13 volunteers. Libby, Brad, Molly, and I spent the day relaxing, playing cards, and preparing some of the dishes for the potluck. Then around 6pm, the other volunteers arrived. We started to cook some more and by 9pm we had a feast. We had couscous with eggplant and cinnamon, a sushi salad, gazpacho, smoothies, brownies, ice cream, cake, potato salad, and bean dip. It was fantastic! A lot of this food we could not have made without some of the packages that that some of the volunteers received. It was so good! After dinner we played Cranium. When it came time to sleep we were all over. Some people slept on the patio, in the hallway, on couches, chairs, and in the middle of the living room floor. It was a crowded place, but it was so much fun!

The next day, Brad and I headed back to Fushe-Arrez. Brad is a volunteer in Pogredec, who was coming for a visit. We decided to go to Durres and catch a bus from Durres to Fushe-Arrez. I knew that there was a bus that went had the direct route, but I didn’t know when it left. So, we went to the bus station and asked around about the Fushe-Arrez bus. No one knew anything about it. (Just to let you know, I was right and there is a bus that does that route) After we didn’t get any positive responses, we got on a bus headed for Shkoder and the driver said he would drop us off where we could catch a bus headed for Fushe-Arrez. It ended up that the place that he would drop us off at was at a turn-off for another highway. We had to try and stop a bus headed in the direction of Fushe-Arrez. After about 45 minutes to an hour in the hot sun waiting for a bus to come that was headed in the right direction, we stopped a bus headed for Rreshen. I knew that I could get off at Rubik. From Rubik I we could catch one of the Tirana-FA buses and get home that way. We had a pleasant two-hour wait in Rubik with Leslie and then boarded the bus for FA. We finally arrived back home at 5pm. It was a long day. The rest of Brads visit we had coffee with the cleaning lady at my school and went on a short hike and just relaxed. It was a nice couple of days.

Tirana and the Embassy Fourth of July

Thursday, the 8th, Kumar and I headed for Tirana. We got on a Furgon that was supposed to leave at 9am. It did not depart Fushe-Arrez until 9:45, however and then it headed toward Puke and we did not leave there until 10:45 or 11am. At this point we would usually be about two-thirds of the way to Tirana and instead we were only 20 minutes away from home. It turned into a 5 hour-long trip! When we finally arrived in Tirana, we tried to find “Freddy’s Hostel.” We arrived at the hostel and they didn’t have our reservation. I didn’t think much of it, since I had to make the reservation on the phone and maybe there was a misunderstanding. We later found out that there are two Freddy’s Hostels on the same street. We went to the wrong one, but as we had already paid, we had to stay put. We then headed to the PC office in order to pick up our tickets for the US Embassy Fourth of July party on Friday. We stopped for lunch, where we had crepes with pulled chicken, avocados, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. They were fantastic! I didn’t realize how much I missed cream cheese. (I realize I talk about food a lot, but it really does make me happy when I can eat something else than pilaf or makaron (pasta). We met up with Alicia (the volunteer in Krume) and we spent the rest of the night with her. We went bowling and then we went to a bar and had some good dark German beer.

The next day Kumar and I got up and met with his landlord, who lives in Tirana. We had coffee and talked about different things. She is a teacher in Tirana. She got her degree for teaching in the 1990s, even though she should have received it much earlier in life. It was when we were talking about this and how I studied diplomacy and focused mostly on Europe that she told me this story about her family during communist times: One day when her father was receiving his food rations, he complained that the food was bad. This statement was enough to sentence him to seven years in prison. Afterwards, no one in his family, kids, nieces, or nephews, were allowed to go to university. I am telling you this because at the end of my conversation with her, she said that she wished someone would tell the story of Albania during communist times. It was a very difficult time and very few people have tried to tell what happened during that time.

When we left the coffee, Kumar and I went to the Albanian History Museum in Skanderbeg Square. It was a great museum. It showed the history of Albania from prehistoric times until the end of World War II. It did not cover the communist time at all (in fact there is no real museum in Albania that does show the history of Albania during communist times. One is being put together in Shkoder, but that is the only one that I have heard of.). It did a great job showing artifacts and telling the story of Albania. My favorite fact was that during WWII, Albania is one of the few and maybe only country, whose militia fought off the Italians and Germans by themselves with no help from the outside. Albania also saved thousands of Jews. They didn’t send any of their Jews to concentration camps and even allowed the Jews of the surrounding countries to enter Albania and even gave them citizenship and papers, so they wouldn’t be deported to camps.

Then at 6pm, we met up with other volunteers and headed to the Wilson School in Tirana for the Embassy party. We ate hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, baklava, apple pie, and brownies. They set off fireworks and we talked and caught up with volunteers who we hadn’t seen for a few months. It was a great night!

The Long Hike up the Mountain

Leslie, the TEFL volunteer from Rubik, came for a visit on Monday the 5th. We decided to go for a hike that day. We were going to hike up to the antennae at the top of the mountain facing the city of Fushe-Arrez. People had told that it was only an hour to hour and half hike. It was definitely a longer hike than that. We left at 11am, which was our first problem. It was getting to be the hottest part of the day. Then I didn’t bring enough water with me (not knowing that 1 ½ hours was going to change into 3-5 hours). Our last problem was that the trail ended about 10 minutes into the hike and we had to bushwhack our way to the top.

It was no easy going. The path was pretty steep and most of it was covered in a loose covering of rocks. This created a slippery surface. No one got hurt, but it made it slow going, and just postponed when I would get to eat lunch (as we were waiting to eat until we reached the top of the mountain). When we finally reached the top, it was beautiful and we had a great birds-eye view of Fushe-Arrez. We went down a different way and after about 20 minutes, we hitched a ride with trucker heading towards the copper factory. When we reached town we were exhausted. Kumar made dinner for us that night and we had a delicious curry chicken. It was a great end to a very tiring day!

Lezhe 4th of July Party!

The week of the Fourth was a busy week and full of delicious food! On the third of July, I woke up from the overnight camp and helped break down camp and then I went home and packed and left for Lezhe (a city on the coast of Albania). The volunteers, who are posted there, had decided to throw a Fourth of July party. We started the party by going to a Lokal (bar) and we had cheeseburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, watermelon, cake, and Jello. It was delicious! We stayed at the café until the end of the second World Cup game of the night. After finishing the camp we went out to Shengjen beach and that is where we slept the night. We were right there next to the waves and we climbed on old bunkers and played in the sand. By around 2am we went to sleep and then only about 2-3 hours later we woke up because that is apparently the time that Albanians start to come to the beach. I woke up to find many Albanian staring at the strange foreigners who are sleeping on the beach. I am not exaggerating about the staring that was going on. I believe there was some pointing too. Since we were awake we decided to leave and I was actually able to catch the 6:45am bus back to Fushe-Arrez. I definitely did not think that would happen.

Overnight Camp

On July 2nd, Kumar organized an overnight campout with the children from the day camp we had been helping with. We secured tents, drinks, blankets, and some snacks for the kids. This was the first time that anything like this has happened in Fushe-Arrez. It was difficult to get everything arranged and was nearly called off the day before, but we straightened everything out.

We woke up the morning of the camp to discover that a family of Roma had moved in right where we were going to camp. We decided to go through with it anyway and just moved our camp a little farther up river. At around 11am, Kumar, Dritan, and I went and got wood scraps from the local lumbar yard for the fire. Just after lunch, Richie and Michelle (two volunteers from Puke) arrived and helped us set up the tents and clear the area of rocks. A bit later, Judy (another volunteer from Puke) and Jessie (a volunteer from Shkoder) showed up and helped us get everything else together. The kids arrived around 6pm with the teachers. They were so excited! They had never been in tents before and couldn’t wait to get into one of the tents.

After splitting them up into groups, we let them go and get settled in. Sister Benedette (one of the nuns at the church in town) came and greeted the kids, as it is the church that funds the day camp. TV PUKE interviewed the Sister and Teacher Liza and then took some footage of the rest of the camp.

For the rest of the night, we played games, had a campfire, sang songs, and prayed that it wouldn’t rain. Most of the tents had rain covers, but a few did not. Additionally, all the adults had to sleep outside under the stars and it would not be fun if it started to rain. Luckily the rain did not come and everything worked out fantastically. It was extremely successful. The kids had a great time and we when we woke up we still had the 30 kids that had come the night before. No one wondered off or got hurt. It was a great experience.

A Stressful Tuesday

The last two weeks have been extremely busy! I have traveling and many things have begun to happen in Fushe-Arrez as well. I will be covering it all in the next couple of posts. On Tuesday two weeks ago, I woke up and expected a pretty ordinary morning and then my TEFL boss, Agim, was going to visit in the afternoon. It turned out to be probably the most stressful morning since being in Albania. I go to the kid’s camp that I help out with and learn that Kumar is going to Puka, teacher Liza is working, and Bardhe is extremely sick. I allow Bardhe to go to the doctor, but that leaves me alone and in-charge of 25 kids ranging from 6 to 12 years of age. I was overwhelmed. We had two balls, one for the boys and one for the girls, and that was all I had to entertain them with. Bardhe said she should be back in about a half hour. The kids were great at the beginning. They played some games and there was no major incident. Then about an hour and half later, some of the boys decided that they wanted to go home, which was allowed, so I let them. I was not in charge of mostly girls and a few small boys. The girls then seemed to realize that it was just me and they decided to start testing me. They tried to swing from the branches of the willow tree when I had my back turned. They grabbed sticks to beat each other with in their game of tag. The stripped some of the small willow branches of leaves and tried to use the as whips. It was getting out of control. I was finally getting them under control, with the help of a few of the girls and one of the older boys who were there, when teacher Bradhe returned. Once she entered it all went back to normal, but it was definitely one of the more stressful mornings.

Then in the afternoon, Agim came and helped me decompress by giving me someone to talk to about by stressful morning and help me organize my thoughts about some secondary projects (projects other than teaching English, which is my primary project), which I have been considering. It was great to talk to him and learn that I am on the right track as volunteer. You get a lot of training during PST (Pre-Service Training), but once you are a volunteer you are kind of on your own and have to figure everything out for yourself. This leads to a lot of confusion and self-doubt about what you are achieving as a PCV. Agim helped me learn that I am doing just what I need to be doing at this point of service.

Kruja

This last weekend I went to Kruja with Kumar, Dritan (Kumar’s counterpart), and Stephanie (a German who has been living here for the past two months). In Kruja, we visited Skanderbeg Castle and shopped in a little bazaar. Skanderbeg Castle is the most famous castle in Albania. It has been mostly destroyed by earthquakes and the Ottomans (Turks), but is still the main reminder of the nations biggest hero, Gjergj Kastrioti or Skanderbeg. He kept Albania out of Ottoman control for nearly 30 years. Albania only succumbed to the Ottomans after Skanderbeg’s death. The double-headed eagle on the Albanian flag comes from the coat of arms of Skanderbeg’s family. The castle in Kruja was his stronghold. You can see the sea from on top of the mountain where the castle is and it is towards the center of Albania. It was great to go and see the castle and town. Before we headed back the Fushe-Arrez, we visited the café where President Bush stopped during his visit to Albania. It is now named the George W Bush café.

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!

First Week in Fushe-Arrez

My apartment in Fushe-Arrez is beautiful. It looks like one that is in the United States. It is very cold in the apartment, but that’s normal in Albania due to the fact it is built with wet cement (cement not dried in a kiln, but in the sun. It sucks out all the heat from a room). I even have a western toilet!! Which to some people might not mean a lot, but Turkish toilets are a pain and are the norm in northern Albania. I feel really lucky. I have an enclosed balcony, a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. I do not have a washing machine, which will make washing clothes a very cold endeavor in winter.

My first week, I observed classes, which were mostly just tests because of it being the end of the year. On Tuesday of that week, I visited some volunteers in Kukes. It is a town about two hours away from FA. It is huge compared to FA and has several large super markets. It has a large outdoor market as well. It was nice to visit some Group 12 volunteers (they have been here for a year) and see what it was like after year.

It was there in Kukes, where I also picked up Abby, my new little kitten. She is adorable. She is a mostly white calico with orange and black spots. She is very cuddly and loves to play. I love having her around. It helps when some of the loneliness creeps in. She just makes me laugh and helps give me something to love.

Last Days of PST in Pajove

It has been a while since I wrote last. I have been very busy since my site visit. I am now actually living at site as sworn-in volunteer for the Peace Corps.

Since my last entry I took the language exam where I received the mark of intermediate-low. I was hoping for at least one step above that, but at least I passed. The day before that exam, we finished our community project by giving our last English lesson to the school in our village (we had been giving lessons for a couple of weeks, as the only language at the school was French) and then we played a game of volleyball and did some Yoga with the kids. It was so much fun. As I am awful at volleyball, my team tried to keep the ball away from me or in the breaks they would try and give me quick lessons. I tended to be the biggest liability on the team.

The last week, I helped put together a thank you party for all of the host families in Pajove and the near-by town of Bishqem. It went very well. We talked, ate, and did some circle dancing (because in Albania it is not a party if there is no circle dancing).

Then the next day, we got sworn-in as Peace Corps volunteers. The US Ambassador, John Withers, did the swearing-in. The mayor of Elbasan was also in attendance. It was even reported on the national tv news. No one saw me, I was too far back in the crowed. It was a great event!

The next morning I left early in the morning to go to Tirana and then on to Fushe-Arrez. I had a ton of luggage and had a taxi drop me off at the “bus stop” for Fushe-Arrez. However, the bus was supposed to leave an hour from then according to one driver and not at all according to another driver. I had no idea where I was in the city and it was a nerve-racking couple of minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually the bus came and everything worked out, but when you have that much luggage it is not always fun to not knowing what is going on.

Fushe-Arrez

We arrived in Fushe-Arrez around 5 pm. I had to drop my luggage off at Kumar’s apartment because my apartment was not ready. (We took half of all the things we brought to Albania to Fushe-Arrez, so in two weeks, we wouldn’t have to take it all.) After that Kumar’s counterpart, Dritan, took us around town and showed us the sights. My counterpart unfortunately got a flat tire by running over barbed wire and had to go and deal with that. Dritan showed us the different shops, the cathedral (as this is a predominantly Catholic city), the schools and the bashkia (city hall). Kumar and I then made dinner for ourselves.

The next day we met the mayor, who is the youngest mayor in Albania, but really has his act together. He introduced Kumar and I to the bashkia employees.

We then went to the gjimnaz (high school) and observed Valbona in her classes. The school is immaculate. It is four stories tall. The halls are painted with the bottom half green and the top half white. It is a beautiful Albanian school. The students are also awesome! They are very respectful and are incredibly smart. Most of them speak very good English. There is still the unfortunate class of village students who have never taken English, but are expected to be at the level of those who have been speaking it for seven years. However, that class was very attentive and tried to learn the language as fast as they could. For the rest of the week, I went and observed classes and even met one of Valbona’s classes at the private school. On Friday, we tried team teaching for the first time.

The rest of our time in Fushe-Arrez was spent meeting the local people. I met the head of police and the director of the health center. Both were very impressive.

Just as another side note about my community, it is the only city in Albania where the bashkia is the head of trash pick-up and I even saw a western style garbage truck. Also, I would say that 8 out of 10 people speak at least conversational English. Many of them have also said that it is not that hard of a language to learn (I am thinking it is because the grammar in Shqip is so difficult that it makes English grammar manageable).

As for first impressions, I love my town. It is very progressive and beautiful. The people are extremely nice. I will be living in the center of town, which is perfect. Everyone is very interested in way we are there and is appreciative of what we will be doing. It will still present many challenges, many of which I am worried about being able to overcome, but that is what I signed up for when entering the PC.

Tirana Tour and Counterpart Conference

On Monday I got up early and headed for Tirana (the capital of Albania). Some current volunteers gave us, trainees, a tour of Tirana. We learned were the Peace Corps office was and the Embassy. Then we learned where the major furgon and bus stops were in the city. We found some of the international restaurant locations. I had enchiladas for lunch. It was probably the best part of the day. It might not have been up to my standards had I been in the US, but here they were delicious.

Tirana is a very busy and hectic city. There are cars everywhere. There are stoplights and cross signals, but you still need to look both ways because cars do not always stop at the lights. There are a lot of times you just have to chance it and run. It is a pretty easy to get around though. The streets are pretty big and are laid out in an understandable pattern. With that said, I am not sure if I could get back to the PC office without a bit of a reminder of where it is. After our tour of Tirana, we headed for Durres for our counterpart conference.

In Durres (a coastal city), we had our counterpart conference for a couple of days. This is where we meet our Albanian counterpart. The PC sets you up with a person from your host country in your sector. My counterpart is the high school English teacher in Fushe-Arrez. Her name is Valbona. She is already an amazing teacher. She puts a lot of time and effort into her work. She has many classes and then in the afternoon she also teaches at a private language school in town. At the private school she teaches people of all ages who want to learn English. At the conference we went through the process of what it means to be a counterpart and a volunteer. We also had time to get to know our counterpart. We stayed in Durres for only one night and on Tuesday afternoon I left with my counterpart and her husband for Fushe-Arrez. It was a four hour trip through some winding mountain roads.

Belesh Camping Trip

So this past week was my eighth week here in Albania. I only have a week and a half left of training. This up coming week is really busy. We have a big community day project in my village of Pajove on Wednesday and I have my language assessment on Thursday. That is when I find out how good (or bad) by Shqip really is. So it is really big week for me.

This past week was also extremely busy! On Saturday May 8th to Sunday May 9th, my group of volunteers went on a camping trip in the nearby town. We don’t have tents so we just slept out under the stars. To get to the site we had to hike up the huge mountain. My group decided to not take long and easy approach to getting up the mountain, but the more direct and straight up approach. It did only take us about 10 minutes to get to the top, but I was exhausted by the time we reached it. It was really steep.

Once we got up there, we explored the old communist underground bunkers, which were situated on the top. Here is a short history note for those of you who don’t know much about Albanian history: from the 1940s to the early 1990s, Albania was a communist country, however they were not allies with the other communist countries of the world. It was ruled by a man named Enver Hoxha, who ruled the country until the mid 1980s. He was extremely concerned about invasions, so he built almost 750,000 bunkers throughout Albania. Most of them still exist. It was a couple of those bunkers that we explored. It was pretty interesting. They were in fairly good shape for being as old as they are. They are made of concrete and metal rods.

Afterward, we played American football. Some people played guitar and most of us just talked and relaxed. It was a really fun and a nice break from the usual routine.

Week Six

This week was a pretty slow week. Tuesday was a great morning. I went with Klarida to open up the water in old Pajove. It is about a 10 minute walk up the mountain to the water tank. It was a beautiful morning and we saw snakes, turtles, and frogs. We picked and ate green plums (way before they are ripe). They were a bit sour, but really good. It was a great time with Klarida. I have always had trouble being around her just because neither of us are great conversationalist and the language barrier just makes it that much more difficult. It was nice to have a morning where their was none of that for once.

Later that night we went to Klarida’s parents house in Paperim (about a 10 minute drive from Pajove). Klarida took me with her to drop off some materials to the local seamstress for a dress she was having made. When we got to the house and they saw me, Klarida told them that I was an American who was living with her. It was like I was a celebrity. I have been stared at before, but this time, it was almost like I was an alien who was to be revered (if that makes any sense). It was an interesting experience. They were very nice, but I would bet my life that I was the first American that they had ever set eyes on. It was strange experience. So far I have met people that have at least seen an American before and I became use to that type of stare, but this was on a whole other level.

After Tuesday, my week went kind of on a down turn for a few days. I got a really bad cold, which can be difficult to get through when you are living in a country and still have minimal language abilities. The culture here is to help as much as possible and to not leave someone alone if they are sick. I have the complete opposite idea of what I want when I am sick. I prefer to be left alone. So, it is difficult to find a balance and not offending your family when they want to do more for you.

On Friday, I was learned that another volunteer’s site has been moved and he will now be my site-mate. His name is Kumar. I am really excited. It will be really nice to have another American that I can talk to in person.

And Saturday, we had language tutoring and then went bowling in Elbasan. It was fantastic. The bowling ally was on the outskirts of the city, but it was so much fun. I learned that I am just as a bad a bowler in Albania as in the US. I didn’t make it above 75 points in either of the two games we played. Needless to say, I came in last in both games.

Other Happenings over the last two weeks

A few days ago, I witnessed an oil fire where they tried to smother it, but just caught the blanket on fire. They then dragged the pot and blanket outside and sprayed it with water, as their last hope. I huge fireball erupted, but then the fire quickly went out after that. It was really something to watch. It made me thankful that in the US we have fire extinguishers. It would have ended the fire so easily.

Last Sunday, a few volunteers and I left town for the day and ventured out to Peqin, a small town about 5 minutes west of Pajove (by furgon). It was a beautiful day. We met up with the owner of the restaurant, Argon, we go to everyday in Pajove and had a coffee with him. He then drove us out to the bazaar and we looked around and hiked up by the river. After a while Argon left and we walked back to town and stopped to look at a small old castle left over from the Ottomans. We joined in a pick up game of soccer with a couple of the local boys. It was a lot of fun. The boys were hilarious. They would call each other by the names of the soccer players of the jerseys’ they were wearing. Some of them would pose for Diana and her camera and other would run like crazy to get away from us taking their pictures. They were not afraid to take my water and then finish it in about 10 second either. I didn’t mind, but it was just surprising when they said “uje” (water) and I tentatively gave them my water and it was then passed around and finished. Overall, the day was extremely relaxing and a much-needed break from our usual routines.

Practicum

Sorry for being so long in updating my blog. It has been a very busy couple of weeks. This week and last week we had our practicum, where we would teach a few classes in the surrounding schools. It was a lot of planning and stress. On top of teaching in the morning we still had a good three to four hours of language lessons in the afternoon.

As far as the practicum goes, I think I did pretty well. After my first lesson to a 9^th grade class, I thought I did a horrible job. The lesson seemed so boring, but apparently I was able to get students to raise their hands and participate who had never participated in class before. That was REALLY exciting to hear. It definitely made me feel that I must have done something right in order to make students feel comfortable enough to raise their hands. The thing that I think worked was that I gave positive feedback and I didn’t humiliate students when they got the answer wrong, which is extremely uncommon in the Albanian classroom. It really is amazing what positive feedback and taking notice of all students can do. In another class, there was a boy who had no book and was just sitting there not doing the exercise when everyone else was working. I went to him and gave him my book and began to work through the exercise with him. I found out that he knew very little English, so I started by just translating the sentences. When I left his side he continued to copy the sentences from the book. Then when it was time for me to take my book back so we could go over the exercise as a class, he turned around and worked with the book of the girls behind him. It was really exciting to see that I helped him at least feel like he was worth something and he could do something. It is these types of moments that help me remember why I am here. There were plenty of awkward moments when I would ask a question and no one would raise their hands or I would realize that the class was no where near the level that the book was. So, I rarely got through my whole lesson plan because I would have to explain concepts and words more than I thought I would. Surprisingly, my best class, as a whole, was a bunch of fifth graders in a small village school. I brought in a dialogue about cleaning the classroom (which the students do in the village schools) and the fifth graders read it and then translated the whole dialogue into Albanian. It was incredible. I had translated it myself and I expected that I would do it, but after I did the first line, they started doing it all by themselves.

I had some fast planning sessions as well. For my lesson last Thursday, I was co-teaching with another volunteer and we had a lesson planned and then we got to school and the teacher said we couldn’t do that lesson. We had a five minutes planning session and I believe we delivered a good lesson. We did fool some of the other volunteers, who were observing us, into believing we had planned the lesson the night before. On Monday, I didn’t receive the book until 40 minutes before class started. When, I went to plan the lesson. I opened the book and saw that there was no structure to what I was to teach. I was supposed to do exercises in the book for practice and then realized that none of the exercises were related to the previous exercise. I ended up going through word choice and changing from the active voice to the passive voice, which, I might add, they had never covered before. I got through only two of the eight exercises I was supposed to get through. But, I refused to move on when the students were completely lost. I think it worked and the students seemed to appreciate it.

Friday, April 16: Site Assignment Announcement

It was a long day today. We waited for 4pm for the Training manager to give us our sites. We had technical training all day and by four all we wanted was to hear where we were going. Being toward the beginning of the alphabet, I didn’t have to wait long to hear my site. I will be living in Fushe-Arrez. It is in Northern Albanian near Puke (the capital of the district. Pronounced: pook). I will be the only Peace Corps volunteer at my sight. There are three volunteers in Puke, which is only 20 minutes away. As for the weather, it will be very cold during the winter and have a milder summer. It is high in mountains.

The school that I will be teaching at looks like it is an amazing place. They have a school newspaper, concerts, a debate club and more. Fifty percent of those who graduate move on to university. It is the director’s goal to increase that percentage. Other than that I don’t know much about the site at the moment and will return in a later posting with more details.

Things about Albania

I have realized that I have left out some vital parts of Albanian life. First, I never described what a furgon is. It is a large van, similar to a 16 seater. The drivers go fast and pick up people on the side of the road. Sometimes you are accompanied by farm animals and sometimes you feel like you are in a clown car because they try to shove as many people as possible into the furgon. Overall it is a cheap way to travel, but not always the most comfortable.

Another part of Albanian life that everyone needs to know about if they ever plan on a visit, is that Big Brother Albania is the television show of the country. It’s in its third season and it has its own tv channel. The show is literally on 24/7. Sometimes you just watch everyone in the Big Brother house sleep or read. It is quite an experience. There are some entertaining challenges, such as getting all of the eels out of their swimming pool. On Saturday, it looks more like the American version and you get the highlights and you vote for the contestant that you want off the show. This season, however, has opened up a large controversial dialogue throughout the country. The first gay contestant appeared in this season. LGBT marches went through his hometown of Luzhnja. This topic is very taboo in Albanian society, despite having a law, which strongly protects gay rights. Most people do not talk about it and find it shameful if someone in their family is a part of the LGBT community. So the show is bringing up an issue, which will help the country move forward and on to its goal of joining the EU.

Another thing that you will see a lot of in Albania are loads of fake flowers. They are all over in every room of every house. You rarely see real flowers in vases in the house. You will see donkeys and horse carts right next to clean new Mercedes-Benzs. You will see animals being led to slaughter or in some cases tied up outside of butcher shops. You will see people in Dolce and Gabana, but it will be one of two outfits that they own. It really is a country of contradictions. It is a mix of modern and ancient.

Volunteer Visit to Rreshen

This weekend I visited another TEFL (Teaching English as a foreign language) volunteer in Rreshen. It is a village in the north of Albania. It took about six hours to get there with three different stops. I first had to take a furgon to Elbasan. I met up with some other trainees there and we took another furgon to Tirana. It took about an hour and half to get there, due to the steep mountains and the numerous switchbacks. It is not really a trip for someone with a weak stomach or faint of heart (depending on the furgon driver). In Tirana, we met up with one of the volunteers working Rreshen and took a bus the rest of the way to the city.

Rreshen is a beautiful city, which is situated in the middle of mountains. It is almost an entirely catholic town, which is unusual for Albania. As it was Easter weekend, EVERYTHING was closed both Sunday and Monday. They closed down the bashkia (city council), the schools, many of the bars/cafes, the dyqans (stores), and the museum. Here are some fun Easter traditions of Catholic Albanians. They do not have Easter egg hunts. They do dye eggs and then the little kids go door to door wishing everyone a “gezuar pahket” (happy Easter) and they receive eggs (a lot like trick-or-treating). The kids then play a game where one will hold the egg and another kid hits the first egg with their egg. The egg that breaks loses and the winner receives both eggs.

Although, I was not able to observe a class until Tuesday morning, I did learn about what it will be like to be a volunteer. It was a very good experience. It allowed me to see that it actually gets a bit easier in some ways once I am a full time volunteer. I will get my own place to live and I will be able to cook my own food, which is a very nice luxury. I love my host mom’s cooking, but it does tend to be the same things or very similar tastes. The first night in Rreshen we made calzones, then we had taco salad and cheesecake, and finally we had a lasagna type dish with garlic bread. It was delicious. The taco salad was made with ingredients shipped from the US, but a lot of the other food we managed with the ingredients in Albania. Tirana does have a couple specialty import stores where you can find little bits of home like peanut butter. However, those items are extremely expensive and you can only really afford them on special occasions.

Week Two

This past week flew by. On Monday, I returned home from school and saw Shege (my host mom) working in her garden. I had no idea what she was doing, but it looked like she could use a bit of help, so I offered and she happily accepted. After changing into some grungy clothes I returned downstairs to help. Shege hands me shovel saying “hajde” (come). I enter the garden and she picks of her shovel and starts to turn the earth. I the mimicked her and so started my work in the garden. The soil in Pajove is very dense and is almost clay so it is extremely heavy. Soon al of the neighbors realized that the American was doing manual labor and they came out to watch/laugh at me. The 18 year old who lives in the house behind us could barely control himself because he was laughing so hard. It was worth the pain and the feeling of being an animal at the zoo because Shege and I really connected through that and she really respected me for my work.

The next day, I witnessed my first slaughtering of a chicken. It was actually a much cleaner process than I imagined. Shege pinned down the chicken and beheaded it quite effortlessly. I then learned (by observation and some commentary, which I didn’t understand) how to de-feather it and then butcher it. My family uses ever part of the chicken except for the intestines. We then made a gjelle (soup) with the chicken. I added to the new things I have eaten since being to Albania during that meal. I ate a chicken heart, which was actually better than the liver in my opinion. Shege was nice enough to see that I did not want to eat the gallbladder after having watched her clean out the last meal that the chicken had eaten. At the end of the meal, Shege said that I am going to make the gjelle sometime for the family (I am not sure if that includes slaughtering the chicken, but I kind of have a feeling it does).

Week One and Two

This blog is my own creation and is not affiliated with the Peace Corps or the US government and does not represent their views.

My first two weeks in Albania have been great and the I have learned more than I ever thought was possible to learn in just 14 days.

I arrived in Albania at the Nene Tereze Airport in Tirana on March 17^th. It was a beautiful day the sun was shining and I was tired. However, I had to stay awake for a little bit longer because we had a two-hour bus ride from Tirana to Elbasan, just a little farther south, before I could find a nice comfy bed to sleep in. That first night we had a traditional Albanian meal (and have had one every night since). It consisted of lots of vegetables and several pieces of meat and a dessert of something that closely resembled flan. We (a group of 47 Community Development (COD), Health Education (HE), and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteers) stayed at the Hotel in Elbasan for three days as we began to learn Shqip (Albanian) and all of the ins and outs of being a Peace Corps volunteer. Before we headed off to our host family the staff taught us Albanian circle dancing, which is common to do at weddings.

Saturday was the day that we set off for our host family. The initial greeting went well. However, I didn’t know much more than “miredita” (hello) and “si jeni?” (how are you). It was an awkward day. One of the other volunteers lives in the house right behind mine. Her family came over and we all attempted to have a conversation. It mainly consisted of Alicia and I pointing at things and saying “cfare eshte?” (what is that?). Our families could not have been more patient. They were so caring and just wanted to make sure that we felt at home.

By looking at my room and the fact that I have a western toilet and a hot shower, it looks as if Albania doesn’t need the Peace Corps. However, the closer one looks the more one sees that it is still a developing country and is in a great place move forward toward a better future. There is little to no disposal system for trash, so it is everywhere. People still ride along in horse-drawn carts even though there is an abundance of cars. Chickens run freely and as far as I know you can’t really tell whose chicken is whose. Every now and then you see a donkey or horse tied up and no one is around and it seemingly belongs to no one, though I am sure it does. These differences just add to the feel of the country. It is European in feel, however it is more like a Europe from fifty years ago with modern technology and influences seeping in.

As for my host family, they are amazing. They all work hard in there own respects. My host brothers help serve the food in the family’s “local” (coffee bar), my host sister helps with the cleaning and takes care of her baby. The hardest worker of all is my host mom. She is down in the kitchen by 4 am every morning making the dough for her famous byrek (philo dough filled with cheese) and for her mini pizzas (which are eaten as a breakfast food). She is still making byrek and pizza by the time I leave for school at 8 am. She continues all morning. She then goes and helps with mixing concrete for something that my family is making (I am not quite sure what it is yet) or she goes into the fields to till and turn the soil around her olive trees and grape vines. By seven or eight she is back at home making dinner for the family. It is truly incredible how hard she works and she does it all with a smile and still tries to teach me her language and customs. Overall these first two weeks have been an incredible experience.