School Starts

At the risk of sounding super cheesy and losing my reputation as a downer, today was truly another great day.

I woke up way too early for my taste- 6:30- but was surprisingly not tired. The sleeping bag was a great help in providing me with warm, sound sleep. After sorting out my school stuff, I ate a quick breakfast and ran off to school, picking up Katie on the way.
At the place where our road meets the main road (think T) we bumped into 2 of the 3 other volunteers and all walked to school together. The lesson was Shumer Mire (Very Good) as usual: I learned plenty of useful terms, phrases and sayings. The classroom or more accurately the library was cold (if the houses don't have heat, the schools certainly do not), but we were able to get outside for a few activities and heat up. We also took a 30 minute coffee break with the teacher, Onela, to practice conversing in our Shqip.

School ended and lunch started, though that part was a bit harder than it sounds. Today is a national holiday in Albania, which means that everything, including school and most restaurants were closed. I searched up and down the main road for an open restaurant only to find many cafes which were happy to serve coffee and other liquids. After about 30 minutes, I reunited in front of the internet cafe with the other volunteers who had joined forces with the village children to find us food. The children graciously led us to a small store near the school that was, unfortunately, closed. They motioned for us to hold on while they searched for the proprietor. We waited, but they returned empty handed. Follow us, they motioned, which we did. The four of us went through the school yard to one of the houses that butted the school where we were asked if we wanted Mish (meat). Various animals were pointed to, confusion reigned and we eventually figured that they were about to slaughter an animal for us. We politely declined. We just wanted a snack.

Remembering that the place across the road from the cafe where we had our school time coffee break had a wooden shingle that said restaurant with an etching of a fish on it, I told everyone we should head off in that direction. We arrived and were served the most delicious Sallat (salad) Pa Mish (Without Meat). It was 1/3 lettuce and onions, 1/3 feta and 1/3 fresh olives. In fact, it was so good that we ordered another one. We also got a sandwich with Mish and our entire bill came to 200 Leke or the equivalent of $2.00.



Lunch finally ended and we went off to the internet café. Unfortunately the computers there are not virus protected so I cannot transfer this data on to it. I emailed a few people and then left, happy to be resigned to only an hour of internet a day. To prepare myself for the big trip to Elbasan tomorrow, I bought Dua Molle (2 apples), Dua Domate (tomatoes), a sour apple lollypop. As the day was winding down, I was eager to get home to my family that I assumed would be worrying about me.

I headed home to the other side of town before the sun went down. My family (Mother and Rina) was anxiously awaiting me with a bowl of absolutely delicious bean and onion soup and bread my host mother had baked from scratch. I went to my room so that I could rewrite and refresh myself on all my words so that I could use them tonight with my family and before I knew it my name was being called to eat again. This time, I had the soup, bread and a sallat of carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, scallions and olives that had been picked from my family’s garden. After dinner we sat talking for a long time (I guess this is what women all over the world really do when there are no men around). We talked about men, love, family, school and everything else that lends itself to miming, writing and really bad Shqip. It was great.

Now, it's almost 10 and I'm tired. I'm ready for bed. One of the goals of PC that I set for myself- living with the sun and earth- is starting to come to fruition.If I go to sleep now, and wake up at 6 and will be on the schedule humans were on for the thousands of years- the way we were meant to be....The way that must be healthier.

Good Night (Nathan E Mire).