Last teacher training- As expected, a full house. Even several new teachers showed up hoping to get a certificate! Certificates aside though, the training went well, and the teachers learned about cooperative discipline, engaging speaking activities, and they shared their best classroom practice. The superintendent showed up, and told the teachers to appreciate what I have been doing for them for free since the other option to earn professional development credit costs them at least a hundred bucks.
Project Design and Management Conference in Durres- The following week, I took off to Durres, a central port city with one of my students for a PDM workshop. The goal of the conference is to create a working proposal for a community project. Since the university is only in its beginning stages, they do not have a library for the English faculty so we hoped to learn about writing a grant to get funding for English books. The workshop went well, and I think the 6 Albanian counterparts really got a lot out of it. We also had time to enjoy a big city in the evenings. We found one restaurant with live music, delicious food, and beautiful décor with the average entrée around 5 dollars. Sometimes, I can’t believe the steals you can find. Fast forward: the grant has been submitted but not approved for this quarter. The committee did fund four other projects that had priority over a library. So, here’s hoping it will be approved in October ;)
Corfu, the lushest of the Greek isles- After I got back, a small group of us went over to Corfu, just 40 mins by hydrofoil! It was awesome. We explored old town, the old fort, the beautiful beaches at Paleokastritsa, Achille’s palace (where one of the Bond movies was filmed), and the numerous monasteries. We stayed in a beautiful B&B, and had a really relaxing weekend. It is hard to believe that such a different world exists less than 10 miles away.
Boat Trip with Howard- I think we have mentioned the RPM Nautical Foundation that comes every year to map the sea floor. This year, only a few people came back, but we spent some time with them in June, and they even invited us out on one of their dives. We travelled South past Butrint, and very close to Corfu, and the water was crystal clear. It was a really nice day. Here’s a short video of the trip:
Visit to Aurel’s house- Sometime in late June, Sister MariCruz called me to tell me that the father of one of my students had died in a freak accident. In addition to being a school principal, he also did electrical work on the side. On the morning of his daughter’s 7th birthday, he got up early to do some work in a nearby village, and was electrocuted in front of his eldest son, a senior in high school. Aurel, the middle son, and my English student, is only in the 10th grade. Tragedies like these just remind you how life takes such dramatic turns, and how important it is to appreciate each day. In mid July, Ben and I went to visit the family, but Aurel stayed in his room, so I left a letter I had written for him with his mom. I really grew close to him as he was only one of three students in my advanced course at the nuns, and I wanted him to know that we would help in any way that we could. He’s different than many of the other teens that I have encountered here, and I pray that after his grief lessens a bit, that he will stay on a straight path, and maybe even find a way to study abroad so that he discovers that more than Albania is out there. In class, I would often relate something that had happened to me that I found illogical or just different than what I was used to, and Aurel would laugh, and say, “Welcome to Albania!”
Summer Camp- For those of you who have gotten the impression that we just travel and don’t do any work, I put together a slideshow of our work at the summer camp here in Saranda that we did during July. We had over 200 kids age 5 to 13. The nuns that ran the camp had volunteers come from several towns in Italy, as well as a real Clown. Fikri Tallih, the former star of the Cirque du Soleil show “O” in Las Vegas, worked with and taught the kids clowning and acrobatics. The kids also did art projects and sports activities.
During the month of the camp, we got invited to eat wood-fired pizza, and real Mexican food with the nuns and visiting helpers! Both nights we stuffed ourselves silly ;) We also went to the infamous Blue Eye with the group. The water was frigid, but very refreshing. We also went to Cuka, a nearby Roma village, where Fikri did a show for the community there. The kids, as well as one old grandma, really loved it. It was so nice to see so many kids laughing and enjoying themselves.
Graduation- In late July, I found out that the University was having its first graduation ceremony for the Economics’ students. So Ben and I were invited to attend. It was supposed to start at 7:00 but didn’t get going til 7:45 or so when everyone had finally arrived. Even though we got there really early, and found seats, they made us play musical chairs 4 times because they were not happy with where we had chosen. By the third time, Ben had lost his seat, and I was in a professor’s (who came 45 mins late) seat. With some more arranging, I got out of having to wear the gown, and Ben got his seat back. I enjoyed the “We are the champions” opening song, the professors answering their cells while seated on stage, and the chaos that ensued when students went to get their diplomas but didn’t know whose hand to shake first. After the ceremony, I was informed that only 7 of the 24 actually passed, and that the rest would have to return to the university to retake their finals. TIA.
Host Family- After several calls from our host dad, (the host family is the family we stayed with for three months when we first got to Albania) we finally set up a date to visit. It was very nice to be back in Pajove. The family was very happy to see us, especially the grandparents and the two young cousins who were visiting from Italy and got to practice their English. We asked the host family if they had hosted another volunteer this year and the dad told us “no, the Peace Corps called and asked but I told them I already had two American friends, I don’t need any more.” Sadly we did find out that the Grandfather’s sister who live with the family had passed away. We never really understood her situation she lived behind that main house and never came to meals or even inside the house. But she was always was very friendly to us and loved talking to Lauren. Our host dad showed us his pictures from his trip to Las Vegas, which he was very thrilled to have visited, he was just concerned that everything in America seemed to be made in China.
Tirana- After a night with our host family we took the quick two hour bus to Tirana. We had to get our yearly physical and dental check ups. It was very nice to finally get a teeth cleaning, and out physicals were uneventful. I still have some issues with my ankle, which I have been told nothing can be done about while I am in Albania, but day to day it seems to be ok. It was nice to be up in Tirana, most of the city had left for the coastal towns and a weather front had cooled it down into the 70s. We enjoyed getting to discover the city a little more, we found a great Chinese place to eat as well as a really nice park just outside the city with walking paths and an artificial lake, complete with baby strollers and joggers. Yes parks, people exercising and baby strollers or car seats are all still oddities here. We hooked up with some other volunteers and went to see some of the hip bars with the expensive beer ($5) and some of the cool bars that have the same beer for $1. Everyone talks about how expensive Tirana is but we have found that for the most part it is equal to or less than where we live in Saranda.
Germany-From Tirana we flew from Mother Theresa Airport to Frankfurt, Germany. There we met up with my sister and family. Most importantly we got to meet for the first time little Eibhleann our new niece. We enjoyed a few days at their home in Kaiserslautern meeting their friends, getting to shop on the Air Force base, getting to eat real food and sleep in a real bed as well as play with our nephews and niece. We then packed up two cars and head for Copenhagen. It only took 12 hours and about 15 bathroom breaks to get there but we did. We stay at the Marriot right on one of the many canals. On our first day there we hooked up with an old friend of my mom’s who lives in Copenhagen and had agreed to be our guide. We did a canal cruise around Copenhagen seeing all the major sites and then Bent, our guide, took on us on a walking tour of all the great sites, some churches, towers and Christiania, which is a free state. It is not part of Denmark or the EU, it is kinda a hippies paradise where drugs are sold out in the open (the cops still do raids and they don’t like you taking pictures). It was interesting to see especially when you have a two Bronze Star awarded Air force Sergeant with you, who made sure we were out of there before it got anywhere near dark. That evening we headed out of the city to see Kronborg Castle, made famous in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was a beautiful castle set right on the sea with Sweden just a few miles across the sound.
The next day we had lunch with Bent at his apartment and then set out south of Copenhagen to The Cliff of Stevns where we all defied the 75 degree stair case down to the beach to have Eibhleann baptized. It was a nice ceremony, her brothers managed to not stone her as they thoroughly enjoyed heaving the 70 million year old stones into the sea and we all made it back up the cliffs without any short term difficulties. Some of the more aged amongst us might still be feeling those cliffs! We returned in time for Melea and Matthew and Lauren and I to head out on the town while my parents watched the kids. We got to see some sites that we had missed and take some pictures of the town all lit up at night. The next morning my parents left for Corfu and we headed across the bridge to Malmo, Sweden. It was only an hour drive and we only spent about 2 hours there but Malmo is a cool little town that made us want to spend more time there, but now with a 13 hour drive ahead of us we had to get on the road back to Germany. We arrived home around 11:45 at night and then had to get up at 5:00am to make our 8am flight back to Albania. We had a great time visiting my sister and really wished we had more time to spend with her and Matt and eat their food and enjoy their house and children.
As luck would have it, one of the nuns from Saranda was leaving to go to Italy on the same day that we were returning from Germany and she graciously asked her driver to wait for us and give us a ride all the way back to Saranda. This meant no 8 hour overnight bus ride, but a nice comfortable 5 to 6 hour car ride. Our driver, Rocco, met us at customs and we were only on the road for 10 minutes before he got pulled over for speeding. He might have been going 50 in a 45. But since it is high tourist season it must also be high time to rake in some extra bucks from speeding tickets. Usually the cops will wave the Nun’s by when they see them but Lauren couldn’t get the habit on fast enough, so Rocco had to pay. But after that it was smooth sailing, he even took us down the coastal road, which Lauren had never been on. It was the perfect time of day with the sun setting over the Aegean and the Ionian seas. We had great views all the way down to Saranda. We got in around 10pm, straightened up a bit and got ready for my mom and dad who were coming over on the morning ferry from Corfu.
As we had told them Saranda in August is busy and hot. So they were not to surprised when they made the quick 5 minute walk to our apartment and were already sweating and in need of water. They had thoroughly enjoyed their time in Corfu (who doesn’t) and were very pleased to start putting together all the things we had tried to explain by email or skype or that they had seen in pictures over the last year and half. They loved our view from the balcony, truly understood how small and hot our apartment was, how horrible the streets are to walk on, and how strange it was to hear people speak Albanian. Over their short visit we walked around town, had coffee at some of our local hangouts, enjoyed some Albanian food and tried to enjoy some Albanian wine and even did the Xhiro. They even got a serenade from Tom the Albanian hostel owner that I help out. We also took them to visit Butrint the World Heritage site near by, which is almost as interesting as the bus ride it takes to get there. The road is under construction and buses trying to pass buses that are passing cars trying to avoid cows all on a one lane road that hangs on a cliff is a very Albanian thing to try. I think they had a good time and were very happy to see what our lives are like here. There was no work to show them since all of Albania is on holiday for the month of August.
The next day we had to head back to Tirana for the Volunteer Mid-Service Conference. We are well past mid-service now but better late than never. The conference was a bit of a let down as far as conferences go, but it was nice to catch up with all the other volunteers and very nice to have an air conditioned hotel room for a few nights as well as a per diem to spend on more fun restaurants. It also gave us an excuse to see some more of Albania that we had not yet seen. Shkoder is 2 hours north of Albanian and we had heard very good things about it and so decided to invite ourselves on up. Lauren and I turned into a group of four people showing up at BJ’s house in Shkoder. BJ is volunteer in our group, she is in her 70’s and after Peace Corps groups was chased out of Georgia by the Russians in 2008 she renewed her Peace Corps service in Albania. BJ is one of those people who can do and has done everything, she is as spry as the rest of us and loved having company to take all over her city. She sent us out to visit the Raza castle, arranged for us to visit the Venetian Mask factory, where they make masks that are sold in Venice, Las Vegas and New Orleans, she also showed us the best places to eat and even took us on the Xhiro.
It was also BJ that mentioned to us that we should do the Koman to Fierza ferry ride. Which until recently was prohibited to volunteers because of the remoteness of the area, but with clearance from PC and the Embassy we found ourselves at six in the morning hunting down the bus to takes us to the ferry. Our time turned out to be a trial run, since by the time we found the bus it was already full, so we had to return the next day a little earlier to make sure we got a seat. The lake that the ferry travels on is about a 2 hour bus ride north of Shkoder, the lake was made due to several hydro electoral dams, that some of you might remember last January overflowed and flooded Shkoder and the surrounding region. The lake is more like a really highly flooded river, no more than ¼ of a mile wide but most likely 30 miles or more long. The guide books all call this ferry guide one of the best things you can do in Albania, so our hopes were set pretty high. The two and half hour ride was definitely one of the best things I have done here. The water was crystal clear and like a mirror. The huge mountains and rocky cliffs that came right to the waters edge reflected perfectly on the still surface. As we winded our way through the mountains, the boat would randomly stop at literally a rock and old man or woman would hop off the boat and disappear into the trees with no house in site for miles. The friendly boat man later told us that there were villages high up in the mountains that were about a 2 hour hike from the lake. We would then keep heading north until we would see a group of people on the bank of the lake and pick them up or see another random rock and another group would get off there and walk into the wilderness. We did meet a lot of nice people on the boat who were very excited that we spoke Abanian. The captain of the boat even let us drive for a while and did his best to answer any questions we had about the trip. Needleless to say it was a beautiful trip but one in which the journey was much more enjoyable than the destination. The town of Fierza was more like the intersection of Fierza with a gas station, store and restaurant. We did find a room to stay in for the night, but I cannot say I would recommend anyone staying in Fierza, Albania. We did walk out to the damn and sat along the river but that was about it for local attractions. We also had to be up at 4:30am to catch the next ferry back to Koman and then our bus back to Tirana.
Nice Albanians- Along the road, I do have to say we met one nice Albanian male after the next. On the ferry, the owner was so happy we spoke Albanian that he gave us a discount on the trip, then said he would treat us all to a coffee, and then offered his son to drive us the 3km to the town from the ferry. There were also 2 boys on the ferry that were so excited to talk to us. One spoke great English the other little guy did not, but he was quick to tell me that people in the North do not throw their trash on the ground! When we went to find food in the tiny town of Fierza, we found a bar and the owner had lived in England. While he wasn’t extremely friendly up front, he did warm up and sent a boy to buy us a loaf of bread that we liked so much. The next day our waiter, a student from Shkoder was so excited to find out we were from America and to practice his English on us. This cycle seemed to continue throughout the trip with the furgon driver back to Tirana, the bus driver back to Saranda. It was like suddenly, there was a law to be nice to the foreigners. Maybe it’s just that the North is different than the South, and a foreigner is still a sight. Whatever it was, it sure was nice to receive such a warm welcome everywhere we went.
Berat-After our trip north, we stopped in Tirana for a night’s rest, and ate Chinese food again. It is just too good to pass up. We also ate at the French bakery for breakfast. Yum. Wish I could buy franchises of these places for Saranda. Anyway, we took the 12:00 bus to Berat, another UNESCO world heritage site. It is called the city of 1,000 windows, and it boasts architecture typical of the Ottoman period. It also has a beautiful medieval citadel on top of the hill overlooking beautiful Mount Tomorri. Ben and I climbed to the top to check out the castle and stunning views from above. I was amazed that during peak season, we practically had the place to ourselves. We even found some adorable puppies who had made the castle their home. After a somewhat treacherous climb back down the cobblestone path, we had dinner with 4 other volunteers 3 of whom call Berat home. I think the Peace Corps thought it would be funny to assign Kate, Kate, and Kay to Berat. The restaurant (The White House) where we ate was really good, and it overlooked the river, and had a great view of the city at night. The next day, we got Belgian waffles for breakfast complete with bananas, ice cream, and whipped cream! Then, we explored the city some more, and checked out the hostel in town that is run by a British guy. It is housed in one of the world heritage buildings and is over 200 years old. It is a really neat hostel, and it was filled with travelers checking out Albania. Here is the link if you would like to see some pics, or more on Berat. http://beratbackpackers.com/default.aspx
Last week and ½- After getting settled back into Saranda, and our hot apartment, we met up with our sitemate for lunch. He has been managing to stay pretty busy this summer with a summer camp run by his organization, and with his usual work at the office. Oddly enough, I think we got the one Albanian waiter who doesn’t like smoke, so it was doubly hard to get anything we needed which is saying a lot. On Saturday, we had a coffee date with our friend, but we had to cancel because Ben wasn’t feeling well. Not long after cancelling, Ben was violently sick, yellow, and not a pretty site. After getting the medical officer’s suggestion that he should eat a hard-boiled egg, we knew if he didn’t get better, we needed to head to the hospital. Around 1 am, I accompanied him to the Bathroom, and started to feel light-headed so I quickly sat down. As I started to pass out, I called out hun, hun, hun. But, I was out, and Ben had no idea. I told him the next day, and he said he did think it was odd that I was talking one second and then snoring the next…Can you snore when you faint? Anyway, for the next several days, we were both weak, had no appetite, and were really tired. Apparently 300 people had the same virus and all went to the hospital. Glad we stayed home. By Wednesday, we finally were a little hungry, and I decided to make banana pancakes for our first big meal. They were all ready to be poured into the hot pan, when I asked Ben to pour the powdered milk (which was in the batter) into another container. As he was doing so…SURPRISE, the roaches had found a lovely, soft, and perfect home in the powdered milk box. Anyone for roach pancakes? Don’t feel bad, the roach motels are on their way as we speak. I am sure the roaches will like their new resort.
Tonight as we finished this blog, our neighbor came by with two plates of chicken, byrek and cheese. This was all to "pay" us back for sharing a few brownies with her yesterday. The brownies were good, but I think we made out on the deal, but now we have two plates that by tradtion we are supposed to fill with something to give back to them. Send us your suggestions.
Coming up next time, Budapest, visting America, school starting and other crazy adventures, stay tuned.
