CDM Work

Today Tausha- a group 11 volunteer- came to help us with our Community Development Project (CMP). It was an extremely productive session. We brainstormed our objectives, goals and visions on scraps of paper which made us think of how we wanted to structure the activities and pinpoint our learning objective.
Tausha’s Shqip is excellent. Having been in Albania for only 22 days, ours is not. She took us to the school director so that she could help translate and facilitate the meeting. We explained our idea of an environmental education day connected to earth day. He was extremely agreeable. In fact, he suggested calling in tv crews to have it filmed. He called in a few teachers and we exchanged numbers with them. Since the director was the librarian last year and we have our class in the library and he was very familiar with PC, which I think helped us. He agreed to stop by next week to get the details of the project.
At around 10 Diana the head of COD stopped by to discuss our placements with us. After my visit to Shkoder I was thrilled to see her and wanted to tell her how happy I was with the work I saw in Shkoder and with Aarhus in particular. Aarhus combines my three interests perfectly: community engagement, environmental justice/awareness and helping developing countries leapfrog in terms of development.
We went to language class and then met Tausha for lunch. During lunch, she disclosed to us that she is a vegetarian. As such, she knows all the places to scourer for vegetables. She pointed out various the vegetables and spices found around the village, including fennel and rosemary.
Tausha went home and we took the scraps of paper home to sort through and write up. PC work, including CMP, is becoming an increasingly bigger part of my life as the PC progresses and I adapt more and more to my new home. It’s encouraging to realize it’s really not that tough to adapt physically. Of course, that is easily said when you adopt your new home at the very beginning of spring (as opposed to the start of winter) and you genuinely enjoy the food.
Since today focused on CDP, I realize that I should post some pictures of the key players in the neighborhood. There is a seed store, Kommuna (Town Hall), Post office, a few schools, butchers, pastry shop, many drink only cafes, about 4 general shops, a hairdresser, hardware store, vet medicine shop, an internet café, a cemetery and cement factory. Can you figure out which is which?