Friday, May 15, 2009

View from my new office and other juicy work details

Right now I am sitting at my desk (yes, as in MINE. Think terrible twos: mine, mine, mine, mine) in my (mine, mine, mine) new office in Vlore.
A few blog specific announcements before I move forward.
#1) I have filled in many missing entries. What does this mean? This also means that after this entry, I will fill in about 14 entries before going forward. So, be sure to scroll down to read all about the counterpart conference, Vlore and my last few weeks in Elbasan.
Why does this happen? Because I do not have internet every day I write my blog on word and then upload when I have internet. Sometimes I am so excited to tell the most recent news that I uploaded the last entry first and then go backwards uploaded previous days. This happened with the site placement entry. I uploaded it first but then ran out of time to upload the preceding days. So, if you go back through the blog you will see new entries that weren’t there before.
#2) I have tried to fill in pictures when I could. Pictures take a while to upload which is why I am so behind on pictures. I plan to upload them at work while I write my grant proposal, since word does not require much RAM.
#3) Please feel free to post comments or questions.

Now, on to the juicy details. My office has internet and a porch overlooking fruit trees and wine vines and an amazing counterpart (Peace Corps jargon for boss) who already has plenty of work for me. This is great because I, along with all other volunteers, have been told for the last 10 weeks that the summer is ridiculously slow in Albania and that I will not have work. I have been told that I will get invited to many, many coffees (Hjadje Pi Café= Come, Drink Coffee) and that other cohorts have even had competitions as to which volunteer has had the most Hjadje Pi Cafés in a day (11. True Story). Within that frame work we have been given sessions titled "How to stay busy in the summer" and "how to create work". We have already gone over the first 3 major areas that need work at Aarhus, incredibly without having coffee. They are sewage, land fills, and a grant proposal that I have to write.