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.