Chickens, Sheep, Bucket Bath and more

Blogger: Observations - Edit Post "Chickens, Sheep, Bucket Bath and more"If yesterday was my first full day of culture shock and comparing everything to America then today was my first full day of my new life in Albania. Except for one long awaited conversation, I barely thought about America. It was a truly enjoyable day from start to finish.

I woke up really late and ate breakfast, which my host family generously offered to serve me in bed (I declined), in the dining room. After breakfast, I went outside and finally saw my village for the first time (the weather was lousy yesterday and we arrived late). My village is beautiful. There are fields in the back of my house that are perfectly framed by mountains. The front yard is really a big garden with Spinach, Onions and many other vegetables whose names I have to learn (does Okra grow here?). Those of you that know me know this is definitely the best part of my house. The house is encircled by a porch about 4 feet deep which is good for sitting on, reading a book and observing the chickens.

We (my host family) have many, many chickens. The chickens seemed to come from everywhere and I couldn’t figure out whose chickens belonged to whom. Many seemed to not belong to anyone. They just sort of wonder all along on the streets, in the various yards and so on, often eating garbage and sometimes have sex. Once I forced the American mentality of "mine" go from my mind and stopped wondering about who owned what I started to really enjoy watching the chickens.

I walked around house to front porch just in time to see a rather sizable group of sheep being herded by. Amazed I went inside to get my camera. Unfortunately, it was out of batteries so I sat on the side porch waiting for it to charge while enjoying the sunny day reading my book on a small plastic red stool. My host mother feed the foul rice and I enjoyed seeing them come running. By watching her outside, I learned that we have a chicken coup under the house and seem to be somewhat connected to the miscellaneous structures on the right side of the house. This makes sense, as the Gjusha (or grandmother) seems to come from there - the right side of the house- and does not live with us.

Camera charged, I walked off to find Katie at her big pink house. She came out, greeted me and then introduced me to her family, who of course invited me in. The boys and girls were very excited to interact with another American and sought to feed me. I had Albanian yogurt (cos) for the first time with bread (buk). The yogurt was great. Very tasty but not sweet at all. After talking to her family for a while in my pathetic Shqip I learned that Astrit, her host father, had done the floors in my house. I told them they were "Mire" (good) lacking the Shqip (Albanian in Albanian) to say beautiful (on my to-do list for tomorrow).

We walked off into the village observing the vines that would eventually yield grapes and olive trees
We met up with the other 3 COD trainees at the internet cafe and the 5 of us took off to explore the rest of our village, including the school where we will be learning Shqip and all about Shqiperia (Albania in Albanian). Seeing all the chickens made me realize that everyone in this village and all the ones like it know exactly where their food comes from. It’s such a great life. You get hungry, you grab a chicken. It's really that simple.

I returned home before dark and took my first shower in my host house. It was perfect. My host mother gave me super hot water and two huge buckets to bath with. I'm not really sure where the water came from. It is something I must investigate. I bathed in the center of the floor which Astrit had built with a drain and discovered that I really suck at bucket bathing. Though I suck at bucket bathing, I learned that I really liked the idea of using a fraction of the water that shower bathing uses and knowing and controlling exactly how much water you consume. This particular bucket bath was also great because a) it was the first one I had ever taken and b) I was so bad at it that I can only improve.

My hot bucket bath was followed by the conversation I've been waiting the past 6 days for: I finally spoke with Chris. Unfortunately, he is out of the March madness pool, but he did get Benji's flat screen to work. We caught up on as much as we could but then realized that we should hold off until we know what the cost will be.

Back to Albania: After all the woman had showered we had a great meal of fresh lettuce, scallions, rice, buk, djath and giz (cheese and some other kind of soft salty cheese like Lebene). Sitting by the Stove Me Gas (Gas Stove) after dinner, my host mother pulled out some dessert. When I asked her "Chfare Eshte?" (what is it?) she not only told me Baklava (YUMMY) but then pointed to herself and made the motions of rolling dough. She had made it! How fantastic. I tried to eat as much of her labor of love as possible which we both really enjoyed.

The three of us watched tv and I finally got to see the handsome Eddie Roma. I knew it was him because the minute he came out both my host mother and sister squealed, pointed and shouted Eddie Roma! (To those of you not in Shqiperia he is the tall, dashing artist mayor of the capital city Tirana who has painted all the buildings in bright bold colors and is running for Prime Minister). He is just as handsome as everyone says he is and I could feel his charisma though the tv. A minute later the opposition leader appeared and a lively debate ensued. I'm really not sure what anyone was saying but the opposition guy (whose name I wish I could remember) took a cookie and gave it to Eddie. Eddie took a bite and then put the rest in the mouth of his checkered-pants assistant. It seemed like everyone was having a good time being on the show. I'm glad that I was briefed that elections were happening in June had googled Tirana buildings before I came here so that I had some frame of reference and some idea of what the painted buildings look like.

Now, I am laying in my bed, typing away, hoping that I can somehow get all this info off my laptop on to the blog. I'm also thinking about waking up tomorrow and going to language class. While I've genuinely enjoyed them all, I'm extra excited for this one because I have so many questions!

Over the past 1 1/2 days with my family I learned the word Giz (the spreadable cheese), poule (chicken), lupe (cow) and a few others but haven’t learned verbs. I realize there is so much I need to learn like think, now, later, a little, a big amount, time, how much? Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday, maybe, I don't know, and much much more....


Can you find the Mercedes, chickens and steps?