Tirana

Off to Shkoder

My first time in Tirana was overwhelemed with the energy of NATO acceptance. A very, very big deal here. The road from Tirana to Shkoder is a new one. Unlike the road between Elbasan and Tirana it is flat and relatively wide. It does not wind through the beautiful mountains, nor does it provide exceptional vistas or roadside stands with fresh olive oil but it is fast and easy.


The bus ride should have been smooth. However it wasn’t. About 40 minutes into our ride, the other trainee and I, along with everyone else on the bus heard a sequence of extremely loud screeching noises. Most everyone looked out the window to see a relatively new Mercedes careening off the road into a rock. I don’t know whose fault it was.

Some thought the driver was trying to pass someone in front; I didn’t see it I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the man across the aisle from me was visibly shaken. He started to complain loudly to the ticket collector, who tried to calm him down and then decided that the best course of action was to take himself and his family off the bus. The ticket collector got the driver to stop and the man, his wife and child deboarded in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. A few minutes later, the driver got pulled into a gas station by a police officer. The officer got on the bus, spoke to the driver and then got off the bus with the driver. They chatted. After an acceptable bit of time passed, I started to get a nervous. I thought I too might be stuck in the middle of the road, but unlike the man with the family, I didn’t speak Shqip or know where I was. I started to text my volunteer hosts when the driver appeared and we took off. I should note that after the incident he drove much, much more conservatively and I felt quite safe.


I arrived in Shkoder expecting to see the lake I had heard so much about. I didn’t. I saw a theater and huge empty hole in the center of a roundabout wrapped in white. Later, I was told that’s where the statue of 5 heroes used to be. As I stood there waiting for them, I tried very hard to see the beauty in Shkoder. I couldn’t. Admittedly, I was really disappointed. My hosts picked me up and we walked to their house. It was on that walk that my disappointment literally evaporated and I fell in love with Shkoder. Shkoder is beautiful- believe the hype.

We walked near mosques and churches. Along a restored pedestrian street that seemed lifted from a movie. Down roads with beautiful and diverse architecture which effortlessly melded together.

I put my stuff down in my hosts’ apartment. The married couple I stayed with was extremely hospitable and welcoming. They showed me their fantastic shower- a closed stall- and I thought I had come to the lap of luxury. We chatted for a while. Then Wendy, the wife and technically my hostess, took me on a very detailed tour of the city.




Wendy explained the religious issues, pointed out stores, neighborhoods, spoke about the history of the city and explained her work in Shkoder. We passed a few organizations she was connected with and I got a bit of a feel of the work she does. It was getting dark and as I had started traveling what felt like forever, I and everyone else was ready for dinner.


Before I talk about dinner, I should divulge that Shkoder is known for its Italian food. The entire city has a strong connection to Italy. When communism ended, Italian money flowed in to Shkoder to repair its churches. Many Shkodrans are catholic but more importantly for me, most of the restaurants are Italian. Italian restaurants mean delicious fresh pizza, pasta and fish.


Wendy and Will, her husband, took me to a great new pizzeria down the street. There we met up with another volunteer and her friend. We chatted and I started to get a fuller picture of the work the different volunteers do in one city and the collaborative opportunities that “site mates” create.


After dinner, Wendy took me to Chicago, a beautiful restaurant overlooking the city to meet one of her many counterparts.
Fiona was recovering from a sickness, but it was still great to meet her, though unfortunately, I couldn’t carry on a conversation as well as I would have liked. However, the company was great and the view was fantastic. I could see the entire city glittering from that point and as we sat there, there was a short black-out reminding us that even though Shkoder feels like a modern European city, the infrastructure in Albania is still far from perfect. But then again, so does the infrastructure in the US.

Preparing for the Volunteer Visit

I woke up with really sore gluts (for non-gym people those are butt checks. There seems to be much discussion of those in this blog lately). This really isn’t surprising since the small hill to my house seemed like a 90 degree climb last night. But, I was really happy to be so sore because it means is that The Biggest Looser combined with the lower body Pilates is working. That workout is sure to give me a fit to strip body by the end of PST. So, if any of you watching have a good workout video (biggest loser, Carmen Elektra, yoga, Pilates, abs, toes- I’m not picky) to send to me please do!

When I managed to get past the soreness to get dressed, eat and leave I left my room unlocked for the first time in three days and returned home to a room that hadn’t been touched. Class in Elbasan was just as encouraging.

Two different current COD volunteers presented their work and COD policies. The first volunteer works in the north for the department of agriculture. He described the multiple jobs that he had, surveys he implemented and spoke about the potential for business growth in a small city. The second volunteer presented on “How to Start a Small Business”. This is a course developed by two current volunteers to teach business skills in emerging markets. The two volunteers spent a year developing the course and tailoring it to developing countries. The course is so successful that the volunteers have taught others how to teach the course, sent it to Washington and the Peace Corps has templated it to teach all over the world. As we have heard so much about the course, the brief over view the volunteer gave was welcome and illuminating.

Lunch consisted of a really fresh salad at the pizza place. For non-pizza eating reasons refer to the first paragraph. After lunch Mira, the Albanian head of PST, had us all group into our satellite sites. We then had one representative go to the tables of each of the other sites to learn about the community projects they were doing, while we hosted the rotating representatives from the other groups. The majority of the other projects (5/6) seemed to revolve around trash in some way. Trash scavenger hunts, trash pickup, earth day, sanitation awareness, trash collection and so on. Clearly, trash has been bothering us. Perhaps this because as outsiders, we don't understand the other pressing issues facing our villages and this is the most visible one. No matter how much we try, after 3 weeks, we are still Americans speaking poor Shqip peering in. At this point our primary understanding of the country is visual. It will take months, if not a year, at our jobs until we can understand the non-visual assets and problems. How can you fully understand corruption, work attitudes or untapped potential unless you are in an office or school interacting with people on a daily basis?

Hearing the other volunteers speak, it became increasingly clear that I will have a hard time processing all the information until I have a filter (i.e. site, sector, placement) with which to filter the information. In the afternoon, two current volunteers, Karen and Amber gave a great talk on the work they are doing with the agric-Puke and other organizations in the north. It was inspiring and informative but hard to fully digest without a framework to apply it to.

Mira approached me after our lesson and told me she had heard I'd been trying to organize a Seder. She then said that I was welcome not only to have a Seder but sleep on her floor after (we can't travel at night, and I can't travel on Passover anyway). Excellent. Amazing. What a supportive staff. I was so thankful. I cannot believe how welcoming the Albanian staff has been. I'm so excited to cook an Albanian Seder. I'm sure there are others who have done vegetarian Seders; I just need to find them....

Listening to the current project, hearing that I can have a Seder and knowing that I was finally going to see Tirana the next day injected me with energy. I am really looking forward to going to Shkoder. I keep hearing over and over that it was so beautiful. In that mindset, I realized I didn’t really need internet. Instead, I relaxed with some volunteers, having a city beer tasting the freedom I'd have in Shkoder. Then I headed back to the village looking forward to my home cooked Kos.

I got home and gave Rina another computer lesson. Ok, to be honest it was a far, far cry from a lesson. She asked me if I could teach her tonight and I told her yes. I set her up her hands and then told her to practice typing using a few Shqip words to get a feel for where the letters are on the keyboard. After watching for a few minutes, I started packing for Shkoder. She sat on the bed practicing. A few hours later -why it took so long I cannot answer- I checked the computer expecting to find tons of Shqip words, but found a mangled alphabet typed out several times. Actually, I don't even know if you can call it an alphabet. But the point was, she going exposure to a computer which she rarely gets and some practice. I think if we keep up the lessons and she practices every night she will learn to type pretty well. She wants to learn and I want to teach.

I went to sleep, exhausted, packed and happy to have finally sorted out all my clothes (which is what took so long).

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.

Bell Ringing

Language class was amazing today. I realize in reading my posts, that I spend a good amount of time describing the food (you all must think I’m a bit monomaniacal) but I do and think about quite a number of other things.

For instance, today I thought language class was really helpful. We read a dialogue once. Then we closed our books and had to remember and transcribe the dialogue from memory.

Our attempt was so comically bad that our teacher cracked up. We finally got in almost right, but are all still struggling a bit.

After class, I made a fabulous discovery. I learned how the bells ring in the school.
(I posted a few days ago my confusion over the cow bell and school bell ringing at almost the same time).

On my way out of the building, I came across both bell ringers. Yup- there are two. One stands by the entrance and manually rings the school bell, while one walks up the stairs to ring the cow bell.

I sort of guessed that, but wasn’t sure. Now, I’m sure. Thankfully, the bell ringers were happy to pose. Then Kristen posed next to the bell.



I saw many chickens crossing the street today. That has nothing to do with the bells, but since I’ve been trying desperately to capture a chicken crossing the street with my camera, the sheer number of chicken crossings was great because as soon as I missed one, there was another crossing right behind it. I think I captured about 5 different chickens crossing the street today on my camera.



Usually, this is hard to do because it takes a few seconds to reach in my pocket, get the camera, turn it on and zoom of the moving target. Today, they were fast as usual, but I kept my camera out and on. I was determined. My chicken hunting skills lead me to make two huge generalizations. Number one, chickens really do cross the street to get to the other side. Number two, chickens can be really fast when they want to be.

Chicken crossing pictures in hand, I went home to change and back to Shales to workout. Kacey, Chris and I worked out to “Biggest Loser”. It was great to work up a sweat and loose some fat, but doing it in Albania, particularly in a cross-gender group is tricking. As we laid out our bodies across the hall to all watch the video, Kacey’s house mother gave Chris house slippers to wear during the work out. Yeah- those are a bit dangerous to wear during jumping jacks. You could easily kill yourself. For real. Who knew house slippers were murderous?
Out of respect he kept wearing them, until we told him he had to take them off or he’d hurt himself.

After the work out, we took a long walk to stretch out. We each made a pact to change our diet in one way the following day, with the looser buying lunch for everyone. I am going to try very, very hard not to buy a chocolate bar tomorrow (not so easy when they are $.10 and new European combination.

I went home and luckily, because I had both workout and warned my family I would smell bad after and asked for a shower before hand, I was able to obtain my fourth bucket bath. Yes- by now I no longer suck. I am by no means a pro, however my confusion at how to shower while being the shower no longer exists. In fact, I bet I could get the entire shower down to one bucket pretty soon. That'd be sweet. If there was ever a water outage or sever limitation on water in New York I'd be hands down the cleanest women on the upper west side. That's right. You'd all be struggling with clothes and deodorant, and there I'd be all shiny and clean from one bucket.

Feeling refreshed from my shower, I asked Rina if she wanted to work out with me tomorrow. She was a bit apprehensive about working out at Kacey’s but eventually agreed to come. It will be great for her to get out of the house and to work out. I think we will both enjoy it. Hey- after all the housework she does, she could easily kick my butt and might ended up shocking both of as in the workout world.

Computer Lessons

Looking at my title, which you don’t see I realize I’ve officially been in Peace Corps for 2 weeks. It feels like forever. My blog titles are numbered and named so that I can submit them chronologically, and so for this one says Day 14.
Today was a hub day. This means we all go to Elbasan and have language lessons at the hub. I had both of my excellent teachers at once and learned the future tense. During lunch I went against my rules and exchanged money: $15 and I only have $11 left. I know it sounds so little to you, but $4 goes really far here. So, I guess I couldn’t make it on $3.25 for 5 days. However, I was good about bringing my yogurt and bread from home, so only spent .50 on food: A fresh spinach berek for .30 and meringue.


After the training sessions, which included all medevac and dental cleaning details, we were set free. Like yesterday, we were all so happy to not rush home right away. Daylight savings is truly a present for those who like the city. There are several factors that force us home by dark. Not only does the Peace Corps forbid us to travel when it is dark, but Furgons do not run when it dark and women do not travel when it is dark. So, it’s really important not to lose track of time because one could not get home after 6. We all literally turn into pumpkins.

With all the extra time I tried to find this great wireless café that my language teacher had told me about. That didn’t work out so well. After lugging myself, my medical kit and laptop up and down the mail street for 30 minutes, I finally believed the other volunteer that the café was in the other direction and didn’t work. Obviously, the walk made me very thirsty so I had a relaxing beer with three volunteers at a café. At 5:50 we all jumped up and realized we had to scatter fast to our furgones before turning into pumpkins.

I made it to the last furgon and bumped into Kacey there. We still had some light as the Furgon had been unusually fast so she walked me home. When I got home my mama was not happy. I thought it was because I had locked my room today but as I stood on the porch with her for a long time watching Kacey go home, I realized it was because she was very concerned for Kacey’s safety. Now, in fairness to her women don’t walk each other home here. However, it was still light out and Kacey had enough time to get home before dark. Also, there is very little that could happen to her on the village road. There are few cars that drive on it and most of the vehicles or rather transportative entities tend to be donkeys, tractors and mopeds. Like us, these tend to go home when the sun goes down, so I highly doubted she was at any risk. Nonetheless, we stayed on that porch until she turned into a dot.

I was a bit apprehensive to enter the house as I knew that Monika, our home stay coordinator, had contacted my family about them using my computer and that I had locked my room. I tried to be extra social and was told dinner would be small. But dinner ended up being more than enough and an enjoyable affair. Rina had made an amazing spinach berek which tasted as good as it sounds. My host mother told me she loved me and Rina invited me to her wedding reception. She then invited herself to my wedding reception and I said of course you should come. I learned that Rina is only 16 and is turning 17 in April. Realizing I was 14 years older than her (I remember 1992) I told her I could be her mother! We all had a good laugh at that one.

After dinner Rina tried to ask me about my laptop. I didn’t really understand what she was asking. She seemed to keep saying it’s not possible for me to have a laptop. I thought she was saying it’s not possible for me to use your laptop as the possible verb (te) and you (te) seem the same to me at this point. I kept saying that is correct, you cannot use my laptop: it is brand new and expensive.
Finally, after some writing and dictionary use I realized she was saying it’s not possible for her to have a laptop can I teach her the laptop? I said of course. I’d be happy to give her a ½ or more lesson every day, as long as she understood she could not use it when I am not home. I asked her what she wanted to learn and she didn’t know. I pretended to type and she said yes. I told her we should start tomorrow. So, tomorrow, I think I’ll start Rina’s computer lessons with typing and opening and saving a document and see how it goes. Ideally I will teach her enough computer skills to be employable. That would make everyone here pretty happy.

Work Out Day

Today was a day of highs and lows. I got really nauseas at school and took some medicine. After school, I felt better so I went home to get some workout clothes. I got home and discovered that all of my stuff was moved around.


A few days ago, I had tried to show Rina That 70s Show. After it didn’t fit in the dvr player I remembered European and American dvrs and dvds are deliberately on a separate platform to combat privacy. I tried to explain to her that my dvds won’t work in the dvr player but she kept putting my dvds in. She finally stopped after her mother told her. After that, I showed her the show on my laptop. Because the show was in English, and admittedly has a ton of innuendoes, she wasn’t that interested in (I don’t blame her) and instead kept shutting and opening my laptop. After that, I started to hide my computer. When I went home to change my clothes my computer, which I had left in hiding under the bed, was on the table. I had a nagging feeling my computer had been used, but my excitement at working out overrode that and I headed out not wanting a long drawn out conversation.

I changed and then left with Kacey who had walked me home. We took the collapsed workout ball, pump and sneakers and left to pick up Katie. We must have looked like quite a site walking around in our muddy shoes (read: leather boots) and workout clothes. Determined to buck the peace corps trend of gaining weight (shocking! Women tend to gain weight in the PC) the three of us headed to Kacey’s house where we blew up the ball and did Carmen Elektra’s Fit to Strip workout.



We pushed the bed aside, turned on the laptop and put out some rugs. Kristine came over to get a movie but instead found the three of us at the start of Fit to Strip attempting to do calisthenics in a small space we carved out near the weed wacker. The sight was too funny for her to pass up. She had just come from a run, so she didn’t join us but she did helped coach us which essentially means every time an exercise came on she said “Oh, that’s a good one!” Let me tell you- Carmen Elektra’s ab workout is no joke! We made it through about 30 minutes before Katie and I got half bored and half excited by it and decided to run. We ran to the cemetery and back, or rather Katie ran and I mostly ran.


No one runs here. No one. Just like no one gets mail. So, the sight of two girls (GIRLS!!) running was way too much for certain people. Most people and animals stopped to stare as us but left us alone that is possibly because every March very disoriented, badly speaking Shqip speaking Americans descend on this little village. But a few people, actually men and boys, felt the need to point and yell at us. More than a few cars that honked at us and then drove back to pass us again. While this attention was a bit unnerving at first, I’ve sort of gotten used to it. However, nothing prepared me for the little sheep that attempted to run with Katey.


It was great to get moving, do some sweating and get the blood going. At the end of the workout, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. Yesterday, daylight savings time had generously bestowed an extra hour on us, so we finally didn’t have to run home right away. Looking at each other, deciding what to do, Kristine had a wonderful suggestion. She asked if we wanted to see her Donkey. Who wouldn’t? We went to see her donkey, sheep and cow. She warned us the cow was huge, but I still wasn’t prepared for her. Unca is so big that I don’t think she could fit out of the door of the barnlike brick room she is kept in. She also warned us that the donkey was mean (it almost kicked her off on Saturday) but didn’t tell us that there is a fantastic lemon tree on the way to the cow.



My answer to “Whose lemon tree is that?” consisted of her host mother generously getting a broom to knock all the lemons down. It was pretty tight- she wacked it for a second and the lemons came down.

Walking home with the huge workout ball garnered me some looks, but I just kept going home. I really like to say hello to kids who look quizzically at me or follow me to the store but don’t really like to deal with large groups of men at dusk. The children are usually just really curious and excited to try out the one or two English phrases they know “Hello” “What is your name?” “Good Morning”. A few times I’ve tried to respond by saying Molly and “how are you?” but they haven’t yet understood the second part. I know this because when I say “Hello. How are you?” they usually laugh and say “Nuk Kuptoj” (Don’t understand). The men however, don’t speak to me. They just stare. I’m not worried about my safety, but don’t like big groups of men who stare at me anywhere: on my corner in New York, on someone else’s corner in New York, in Chicago or in Albania. It’s nothing personal.


When I got home, I got a bucket bath (VERY needed). It was hot and excellent. I’ve gotten way better at bucket bathing. Third time is the charm. I got out and I offered to help Rina make the salad. Sometime during all this Gjusha and one of Mama’s friends came over. The house felt really full with five women in it- a nice warm feeling.

I was starving from working out and dinner was taking a really long time to cook, so I asked if I could have a tiny (Pak) piece of bread before dinner. I pointed to the bread, but must have asked wrong because I ended up being served right then and there in front of everyone. At first it was a bit weird but then everyone joined me in eating salad, bread and yogurt probably because it was getting so late. Because I made the salad, I made it without oil. Luckily, I had the lemons from Kristen’s mom to season the salad with.

Now, I’m back down. Sometime during dinner, I got a horrible headache. I feel as if the sides of my head are pushing in. It really sucks. I’m going to see if bed helps my situation.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Today I had particularly excellent animal sightings before I even got to town. I saw: TWO chickens cross the road (via foot), one fly across the road, a donkey and horse. In town I saw another donkey. Check that out!

Kacey and I took the furon to Elbasan, walked around for a bit ate some authentic gelato (3 scoops for 50 leke ($.50).

The weather wasn’t great, but it was nice to finally have a day in which I did nothing. I’m going to add to this blog later, but right now, I’m just going to put up my animal pictures. Note: While I have tried very hard to capture a chicken crossing the road, by the time I get my camera out and turn it on, s/he has already crossed. This is obviously very frustrating, but I finally managed to capture one today. HA!

Help: Coffee is a diuretic and my house bathroom is pee only.

Hurt: We go to coffee during our classroom break every day.

Help: We might switch our break from one ½ chunk to a 10 minute chunk and 20 minute chunk- too short to get coffee

Hurt: I like eating salad for lunch

Help: Part of what got me into this pickle were two overly zealous grocery shopping trips this weekend, in an attempt to eat healthy (It’s not going so well, refer to paragraph 1 line 13). On Friday I stopped a fancy looking EMC and bought 6 tasty yogurts. Think passion fruit and raspberry. I can take these yogurts to school every day for lunch (Help- it’s “free” in that I already paid for it and don’t have to purchase it going forward, and healthy- not doused in oil and topped with salty feta cheese). If I don’t purchase yogurt, or limit my yogurt purchase to one for every other day I would have about 300 more Leke. On Saturday I went to the EuroMax and bought fiber pasta (hurt), cereal for breakfast (could go either way) and crackers (help- with the yogurt they could make a good lunch). Also, I anticipate these foods lasting a while, so I might not have to purchase them during every pay cycle.

Hurt: I like going online to see whose read my blog (Post comments people, Post comments!)

Help: The internet goes out in Shales whenever there is a storm. It’s been out since Tuesday and the owner seems to be in no rush to get it fixed.

Hurt: I’ll always be in Elbasan on Tuesdays and Friday where there are plenty of internet cafes.

Help: Some things I spent my money on do not exist in Shales, like Gelato and individual sized store bought Yogurt, or are onetime purchases, like liquid hand soap and toothpaste.

Hurt: I’ll be going to Shkodra this weekend and will want to buy all the new delicious foods I see.

Help: (Theoretically) I’ll have a better idea of how to budget my money after these 2 weeks. I do not plan on touching any money from America, so I really have no choice.

Hurt: As the weather gets nicer, I can stay out later. This offers me more opportunities to spend money.

Help: Girls are not allowed out after dark and women really do not drink here and not in public, so there is no temptation or really any way to spend money on alcohol which is good for my body and wallet.

Hurt: I need to buy more toilet paper (I find that carrying a role around in my purse is an excellent solution to many of the bathroom problems one might encounter, particularly as the biggest one tends to be no paper) and detergent.

Help: These are not expensive purchases and I can hold off on till Friday to make them.

Hurt: When I am on my own, I will not have fresh bread, cheese or yogurt and will have to shop at the EuroMax to buy my own dinner. Even in Albania the grocery store has proven to be a malicious influence on me.

Help: I don’t want to get fat, so I might be able to resist some temptation, particularly regarding sweets and gelato.

The more I get used to Albania and the better Albanian I speak the less I will get ripped off.

That is my life. As of right now, I foresee being able to live on $3.25 (less than the price of a lattee) for the next 5 days. Granted, this is because I am living for free, with breakfast and dinner included and have bought groceries for lunch. Regardless, writing that I will only spend $3.25 for 5 days seems odd, but good. I’ll let you know in 5 days (when I can afford internet again) how that goes. Hopefully, I’ll be able to report that it went very well. In the meantime, feel free to call. I get unlimited free incoming calls.

Meat Market

Today, I’m going to start writing about one theme of Albania strikes me, as I view my thoughts through the camera. I figure most of you are just trolling for the pictures anyway, so I might as well categorize them. This is a departure from my previous mostly chronological posts.

This is a short blog because I really wanted the pictures to speak. I wanted to deal with a phenomenon new to me: hanging meat. In Albania, after an animal is killed, the meat is hung out on the side of the road to dry. While I did grow up in a neighborhood of Manhattan called the meatmarket and clearly remember walking by huge butchers on a daily bases, I’ve never been this close to the entire process. My morning starts with a walk to town. Just before I get to the main street, there is a market where I usually buy a water. Almost every morning there is a animal hanging from the hook outside the market drying. While this was new to me, the village children have grown up viewing it on a daily basis and do not flinch.

Next to the mini market, directly across from the Kummuna (municipal building) there is another Kasap (butcher). While I have not seen meet hanging outside this Kasap on a daily basis, when I do see meat there, it is the body of a large animal, usually bigger than the one hanging from the minimart. I’m not sure what animal is in this picture.

I then turn left onto the main street, which travels through Shales and passes by the school. About half way to school, I pass another butcher. This butcher is always open. There is a sign outside that says meat- Mish. The first few times I passed it, I saw the bodies of very large animals hanging from hooks inside the store. The last few times I have gone to school, however, I have not seen bodies on hooks. Instead, I have seen cows tied up outside the butcher. I’m not sure if they were aware of their fate, but I was. It is this clarity of process that I have never seen. No matter how many butchers I saw lined up in Manhattan, hands and clothes stained with blood, I never saw a cow tied up.

Homemade and Delicious

Today, I met the mayor of Elbasan. He is so enthusiastic about us and has high hopes for the city, which is great to hear. Diamante, one of our Albanian COD organizers, gave a fabulous presentation about the various branches of the government in Albania. Out of all the information we have been given I think her presentation was the most helpful in terms of understanding how the government works, is divided and how to get things accomplished.

It’s so much fun to go to the big city and see everyone. Though Elbasan has a population of only 125,000 (about equivalent to a half my neighborhood in Manhattan) it feels like a city: there is tremendous action and bustle. Everyone is going here and there, people are sitting out at cafes and there is a sense of urgency. I get all excited for my by weekly adventure. Lunch was just as good- it’s exciting to have all the options of the city, even if the waiter thinks Mayo and Yogurt are the same. That got me thinking about yogurt.

On the way home, I picked up some fruit flavored yogurt (which was actually surpisingly expensive) and took the furgon back to Shales. The furgon fits about 8-10 people, depending on how big they are: 3 or 4 in each back seat and 2 in the front. When I arrived at the furgon stop there were already 2 people in the front and 2 in each of the back rows: 6 people total. I waited for about 5 minutes for another person to come to make at least 8. Instead of a person two other Peace Corps people arrived. I explained to them in English that the furgon needed 1 more person to go. While we were discussing, the little boy sitting in the middle row was tossed to the back. The three of us were squeezed in the remaining seats and off we all went on the Belesh furgon to Shales. I put on my headphones on and picked up my book.

At some point, the girl next to me and I bumped. While it was completely minor (it is a bumpy ride) I did look up. She said “sorry” in English and I realized she had been trying to see what I was reading. I was happy that she was curious about my book. After that, I tried to read with my book wide open so she could glance at the words.

When we were arriving at the outskirts of Shales she said “Excuse me “ to Chris. Both he and I looked up. I took out my headphones, put down my book and listened. She proceed tell him that she had seen other Americans in Albania and asked why we were here. Chris explained to her that we were part of the Peace Corps and what we did. She told us she was familiar with the Peace Corps because she had had a PCV as an English teacher which is probably why her English was so fantastic. She then told us Albania is really poor and asked us why we came to Albania if Albania is so poor. She also asked us if we liked Albania. We told her how much we loved Albania and how beautiful it is. We told her that maybe Albania doesn’t have much money but it does have human capital (hard to explain) and beautiful geography (easy to explain by point to the mountains). I told her I loved the mountains and landscape. Chris told her how warm and welcoming the people were. I asked her what she, as an Albanian youth, would do to change Albania if she had tons of money. She told me there was so many problems she didn’t know where to start, but when prodded she stated the roads and education system. She told us that she was a first year nursing student and was upset with the way the schools were run, particularly the fees she had to pay to take exams. Mostly, she seemed genuinely disappointed in her education and the lack of options waiting for her when she finished. There was someone something so touching in her questions. I told her she was doing the right thing, in obtaining an education and that things will work out. With her drive, which I saw burning through, I’m certain she will do well.

On my way home I saw the sheepherder again. This time the sheep were grazing in the field. I also saw a chicken crossing the road and a pony tied to a fence near my house. Add the sheep, pony and chicken to the donkeys I saw this morning and I had a pretty decent animal sighting day for a city day.

I came home and was welcome by Lavdeje. Rina and Gjushi are sleeping Elbasan. She showed me my jeans which she had washed today, much to my surprise and was very concerned about my dirty clothes. This has become a major source of concern for her. She is very, very worried that I have yet to wash my clothes. Yes, I’ve been here a week now, and should probably do laundry now but the distress and concern started on Monday, when I’d only been here for 2 days.

Every day she asks me if I want to wash my clothes, and every day I say tomorrow. Wednesday it stormed, so I wasn’t asked, but did get very muddy (hence, the washing of my jeans while I was in Elbasan). Yesterday, I said I can’t because I had not bought laundry detergent. Today Lavdja insisted that I do laundry. Saying tomorrow just wasn’t cutting it anymore: she thought I was saying it because I didn’t understand her. After I was given a tour of the laundry the laundry machine, shown the clothes that were hanging outside to dry and we both engaged in quite a fine act of charades which was included underwear pointing and other fine animated motions, I realized saying “I understand. Tomorrow” wasn’t going to cut it. I finally gave in. I found some clothes that were dirty and tossed them in the wash.

When the clothes were safely in the wash Lavdja tried to make me come with her to check up on the chickens. She kept screaming Poula (chickens) and Hajde Hajde (Come Here! Come Here!). I wasn’t sure what she going to do so I kept motioning chicken murder by tilting my head to the side and pulling my hand from my neck. She replied yes and no, but kept saying Hajde! Confused, I went outside with her. We went around back and she closed up the chicken coop (Btw- it is not under the house but in an actual coop. This is a picture of the coop through what I think is the olive trees). She then went behind the coop to chase after a loose chicken. The chicken shrieked and I really thought she was going to kill the chicken so I screamed and turned around. She laughed and came around empty handed. Again I made the motion for chicken murder, but this time she said yes, pointed to Gjusha’s house, said Poula and Hajde. I ran back into the house not wanting to see chicken murder. She cracked up. I sat at the table and was beginning to type when she came into the house with one hand behind her back, pretending she had a dead chicken in it. I made a squeamish face even though I had peeked out the door and knew she didn’t have a dead chicken behind her back. She cracked up again and then produced her empty hand. She then pointed to the house next door and told me she was going to lock up Gushi’s chickens. No matter how much I enjoy the Kopsht (garden), dairy and lifestyle, I’m not sure I will ever be able to stomach killing a chicken with my bare hands or watching it be done.

After the whole chicken fiasco, we had dinner. Lavdeje served me the spinach dish she had made with the Spinaq from her Kopsht (garden). Delicious! We also had yogurt that she made today, bread she had made yesterday and cheese with onions she had made today. I told her the yogurt was Shume Mire (it was) and that I wanted to learn how to make yogurt. Luckily she said she would show me.
We are now watching the news. I saw the leaders of both parties that are running for parties (socialist and democratic) as well as the report from Washington which I could not understand. I can identify bits and pieces of the soccer report and story on deteriorating schools, but in general need to work on my Shqip.

We're All Related

I can’t believe that I’m rapidly approaching my second weekend here. In some ways it feels as if I’ve been here for so long or at least that my life in New York happened a long, long time ago. Going out to dinner or getting delivery seem like concepts in a dream or movie.

As is now usual I woke up at 6:15ish. Gjusha was here. She and Lavdja tried very hard to get me out of bed- Molly! Ha, Ha, Ha (Molly! Eat, Eat Eat) but I didn’t get out of the toasty sleeping bag until 7.

When I finally did get up, I was given tea and coffee to heat me up. Gjusha was gone already.
One my way out, I remembered to take a few pictures of my house for our mapping exercise. I tried to take a picture of Gjusha put I couldn’t find her. When I asked Lavdja where she was, Lavdja pointed next door. Ah, I thought, she does in fact live next door. I found her out back but she absolutely refused to let me take her picture because she wasn’t dressed nicely. She went inside, changed, put on a gleaming white headdress, a clean black sweater and came outside and posed next to a lovely tree for her picture.

My day started at the Kommuna or municipal building of Shales- yes even little villages have one. We (the 4 other Shales volunteers and I) met with a current group 10 COD volunteer who told us what our community project for the next 9 weeks would entail: picking out and developing a community project for Shales and writing a project proposal to present to potential donors. Though we only have 7 weeks until we present our proposal, I’m very comforted that we will a)have the experience of writing a project proposal as a team and b) get feedback on our proposal before venturing out on our own to write them. During our meeting, we were also told various useful tips about working in the government. Our 3 ½ hour meeting flew by.
As a group, we came up with multiple ideas for our project and somewhat settled on one that has to do with trash collection. While people have very clean homes, the mode of dumping the household garbage tends to be placing it in an area where everyone else has dumped their trash or burning it (including the Styrofoam). Most of Albania lacks a formal sanitation collection system and the smaller villages suffer the most because of this since they do not have a tax base and therefore lack the funds with which to do garbage collection.

We thought of incentives for team trash collection, competitions and ways to reuse our trash. The later component a crucial one, as we do not have a place to put the trash after we collect it and want to make the collection something that could be replicated in the future. We floated the idea of compacting and reusing the trash as the base of the bench for the bus stop or using glass bottles to build a window for the school (two another community development ideas we folded in the trash collection idea).
After the meeting we had language class, lunch and more language class. Because the internet is still down the girls had time to go to a drinking only café after school before the sun went down.

As I walked home with Katie Astrit’s Mercedes passed us by with a nicely dressed couple in the back seat. I stopped at her house as did the couple that was in the back seat. They kept pointing at my house, saying Lavdja (my host mother’s name) and Motre (sister). I thought this meant the woman was Lavdja’s sister. She and her husband walked me home and it turns out they live in the house directly across the road from mine. When we got there, the woman pointed to Astrit and said Motre, making me really confused. The woman is either my host mother Lavidja’s sister or Astrit’s sister who lives directly across from Lavidja. I’m really not sure. More importantly, while trying to figure that out during dinner I made a few discoveries.
While trying to ask whose sister the woman was, I discovered that my host mother has 9 sisters and 3 brothers. She is the 3rd oldest of 13 children. Her youngest sibling, at 24 years old, is pretty close in age to her son Aqim who is 20. Rina has 20 cousins on that side of the family. I also learned that Gjusha has 5 children and 12 grandchildren. She lives in between her children (the father of my house and one other).

My second discovery is that there is no mail in Shales. According to my family the entire village does not have mail. There is a post office, though, so I’m a bit curious this assertion. What function does the post office serve if, in fact, there is no mail in Shales? This may sound petty to you, but I have been seriously struggling to figure out the mail situation since I wrote a letter Saturday night. On Monday I asked my family about mail with the help of the dictionary and got blank stares. On Tuesday I tried to mail the letter from Elbasan but was thwarted because I kept getting answered “yes” by the language teacher when I asked where the post office was.
By the time I finally found a different person to ask, I was understood, but was told that the only post office was in the center which was too far away from where I was. I could not make it there and then catch a furgone back to Shales before sunset, when the furgones stop running (Remember- on Tuesday we didn’t get to Elbasan until 11:45).

On Wednesday I had my language teacher translate a few sentence regarding mail (Do you have an address? Can I get mail here? How would I receive a letter here?). It was by showing this translation to my family that I learned, or was told, that no one here gets mail. There is a post office in Elbasan (45 minutes away) and Tirana (2 hours away). If I want to get mail, I must go to Elbasan. In a way, it’s refreshing- I mean how many times do you actually get something good in the mail? Something that isn’t a bill? For me, it’s about 5 times a year. So, no bills! No organizations asking for money. No catalogues of stuff I don’t want sent to me that I then have to recycle, killing trees and wasting valuable resources on the mail truck, recycle truck and recycling center. It’s kind of nice. I explained to my family that it is great that they don’t get mail and I wished I didn’t get mail because all I get is mail from people asking for money- which sucks.
Tomorrow, Rina is going to take her grandmother to Elbasan to visit her grandmother’s sister (aunt of my father- she kept telling me). I’m also headed to Elbasan to learn more about my future tasks and responsibilities as a PCV- very exciting. Maybe I’ll even have time to go to an internet café to post my writing.