Meeting Rosana

Thursdays are long days. We have COD development from 8-11:30. Straight after we have school until 1. That is ta long time without a break. Thankfully, we were really productive during PDM (Project Development Management) today. We narrowed our community development projects down to one. By choosing one, we were able to focus on implementation and action. Part of an action plan in Albania is thinking of the people that could help us implement our project. In our village, this means English speakers, people with access to the school and if we're really lucky, a contractor with materials to donate.


Armed with our list of people to find, we went to the school. Though it was 10:30, the school director was not in. We asked when he'd be in and were told 10:30. Well, we thought, that’s interesting because it is 10:30 and he's not here. We figured the most prudent thing to do would be to seek out someone else and then return. We decided to go find Rosanna, an English speaker Katie had found while wondering around our village for the mapping exercise. Rosanna not only spoke English, but had obtained a university degree in it and had taught it. Katie knew she lived around the school, but not the exact place. We asked the people around the school where she lived were lead to a house directly behind the school. It had a beautiful well maintained garden and a gate.


Happy and surprised, Rosanna came out to welcome us. She was just as hospitable and welcoming as we thought she’d be. She revealed herself to also be an incredible and eager resource who wanted to work with us, help the village and work with the school. She repeatedly told us how happy she was at the chance to practice English and help. As she stood talking to us, the uninvited Americans, her husband were hospitably cut up some apples. When he presented them to us, we felt embarrassed for talking their food, but Rosanna explained that Albanians are very hospitable and must offer guests something to eat. She insisted that we eat as a sign of respect. We ate the fruit and left happy to have an ally.

We went back the school but the director was still not in. Since it was a beautiful day, as many of the next 200 will be, we decided to be Albanian and have a coffee meeting. It was semi-productive which means it was great. We drew up a rough plan of our environmental education fair so that we’d have something hard to look at. With a solid target and goal, we felt we could now get the ball moving on our project.

I chose to have an internet lunch instead of food as I was trying to catch my father before he left for the states. I missed him by 1 hour. Failing at that I tried to find and buy a longer and better valued international calling card than the overpriced and ubiquitous $5 ones sold every bodega in New York. I bought one from callingcards.com but then received an email stating that the purchase could not be completed unless the company calls me. Odd. Of all my experiences purchasing multiple and varied products online I have never received a message that a phone call must ensue to confirm the purchase. I called the number given to me in the email and was told by the person answering that not only would they have to call me but that they would then have to confirm the purchase via a .gov or .edu email. What a scam! This company never, ever states on any of its material that you must have a .gov or .edu email to purchase the card or that you must receive a call from them in the states to confirm. Callingcards.com takes your credit card info first, and then tells you this policy. I thought the point of an internet store was to cut out the phone. Silly me. Frustrated by my fruitless and expensive lunch I went back to class.

After class I tried to copy Kristen’s lower body pilates workout to my hard drive but failed. The three other volunteers met us at Kristen’s and together we asked Villy, her English speaking host cousin, a ton of questions about our proposed project. According to Villy there had in fact been a trash pickup Kendra’s year but she had somehow omitted it. Perhaps it is because only 20 people showed up. Puzzled, we asked more questions about this new discovery but didn’t really get any additional information. Villy also told us that the volleyball project last year had been a huge success and felt that our project would be equally successful.


The sun was still shining when the conversation was over, so asked Kacey if she’d be interested in working out at my house for the first time. I thought my house would be a good idea to have it my house if we were going to include Rina who’d said yesterday that she would join us. Kacey agreed and off we went literally down the muddy, rocky road.


I changed ridiculously fast (awards are welcome at any time) and headed out to the dinning room/cooking area to do Pilates. I put the computer on the eating couch and we started to move. Rina refused to work out with us and chose to watch Analia from the soap opera couch. The beginning was quite educational. The lead demonstrated the various muscles in the body, included the buttocks. This was done through a very intimate close up of her clenching her purple clad butt checks. Rina busted out laughing, as did Kacey and I. It’s pretty funny when the camera zooms in on a middle aged women clenching and releasing her spandex butt checks to demonstrate proper form, but it’s a whole different ball game if you don’t even understand why the camera is zooming in. Rina eventually got bored watching us emulate odd leg moves and started blaring her Spanish Novella (Spanish soap opera dubbed in Shqip. They are widely popular here). Well, the Novella didn’t quite go with the Pilates so we moved into the bedroom and finished up. Then I had my coup- I had my second bath in as many days! Don’t laugh. It was so exciting. I showered two days in a row and worked out two days in a row. Think about it.