Bye bye beach- Mirupafshim plaxhi

So this is the final part of our series covering the month of September and the first week of October. School finally opened so I have been going out to a few schools and have been watching my counterpart give presentations on swine flu that I write up and she presents. We do have a lot of brochures and posters to hand out, it seems that the UN and USAID have been very active in getting items out to help control the panic that has been spread through the media about this flu. Many Albanians do not think swine flu is much to worry about, in fact a good way to get a laugh is to ask someone after they sneeze if they have the swine flu. So my job has not picked up much, it seems what they really need is a good book full of lesson plans that cover on health multiple topics. In fact the Peace Corps is working on such a book, which I helped to do some editing on, but it will not be ready for a while. So my work day is still limited to about 2 hours a day at the hospital listening to my counterpart tell me how Lauren and I should speak more Albanian when we are at home and maybe I would get better. We are constantly told that while Lauren speaks more than me, I speak cleaner than her. It’s amazing to me that since I can say 20 words really well, I must be the better speaker, but then we are in a male dominated society, so just by showing up I get bonus points. We did both finally get tutors, Lauren’s is one of her students at the University that she taught over the summer. She is about 42 years old and speaks English really well. She also works at the tourist office in town.

Lauren recently ended her summer review course, with all two students, as they prepare to start a new school year. She just found out this week that the University will finally open on the 12th. However, she still does not know what courses she will be assigned. Things are a little less urgent here, as you might gather. She is trying to remain calm about the fact that there is no designated textbook for many of the courses, and students are asked to make photo copies of whatever resources the teacher gathers for them. Considering she has none since she does not know the subject, this may prove slightly challenging to get done by the time she learns which course she will teach. My tutor, we met over the summer when we were working at the camp run by the nuns. She was helping the nuns out with some of the programs. She is 28 and also works as a tour guide for the groups that come from Greece to visit Butrint, one of the three World Heritage sites found in Albania and only 20 minutes from Sarande.

We have also started working with the nuns again, Lauren teaches two English classes at their school while I co-teach a computer class with my language tutor. Lauren has 4 teenage students in her intermediate class who are quite good at English already, and has about 20 kids, aging10-19 in her beginners course. They are so eager to participate, and learn English. In fact, many Albanian students take private courses after the school day ends in order to further their education. Could you imagine if it were normal for most American teenagers to go and take Spanish, German, or Italian after school and actually want to be there? For my sessions, I guess co-teach would be a strong word, since the class is conducted in Albanian, but teaching a computer course does lead to a lot of pointing and watching what someone else does. So I am getting by rather well. I also recently met with an English-speaking director of a local foundation who needs some help with several different projects. So I am excited to do anything that he can throw at me. The first being, to design his foundation a website. He lost out on two funding opportunities because he did not have a website, which the funders required. We will see how it goes, and I’ll post the link when and if I get one up. He also wants me to help update the local tourist map of Sarande, which a former Peace Corps volunteer helped him design about 4 years ago. Lauren and I are the first volunteers placed here since him.

So life keeps on going here in Sarande, although at a much slower pace than over the summer. Many of the little cafés and restaurants have closed down for the winter and the crowds are long gone. The weather has started to cool down a bit at night but we are still in the 80’s during the day. The beaches are also deserted. We are told it will quiet down even more next week when the university students head back to school, many of which will be headed for Tirana. We have started working out pretty regularly, something that neither us ever did back home with any diligence. We brought the P90X series that you may have seen on an infomercial. Tony, the teacher, is crazy but highly entertaining. He yells at us not to go and eat any crispy crèmes during the breaks. If only he knew what we would do for a big fat hot crispy crème! Eating healthily, however, still remains a challenge, there are no green vegetables and the selection in general is decreasing by the day. It will be very interesting to see what we can get in the winter months. We eat a lot of pasta and rice and do our best to throw in what vegetables we can find. We can get meat here, it is just always a little iffy. You can’t just walk into a market and buy unfrozen meat like we can at home. You either buy it frozen, or go to the butcher and get it “fresh”, meaning you tell them which part of the hanging carcass you want. Since we have not ventured to talk with the butcher, we buy it frozen. Yet, many of the stores don’t have generators when the electricity goes out, so hence the iffyness. Sometimes when we walk home from classes, we see unidentifiable meat roasting on a spit. It always looks and smells so good. However, we recently learned that it was kerkec, or lamb’s intestines. Yum. Our neighbor promised us one day that we could cook it together since it is such a delicacy. How do you say, “Um, I think I will be especially busy that day unfortunately” in Albanian? In two days, Vince, Lauren’s dad will arrive on the ever so enjoyable 9 hour Athens-Saranda night bus. We are really looking forward to his visit, and even more excited about lulling off to sleep to the sound of his sweet snoring! Just kidding Vinny!

Peace Corps, Greece?

We were thinking of asking our director if there was a need for two volunteers to rough it in Greece and spend the next two years determining if Peace Corps Greece should be a top priority for new site placements in 2011. As you may have seen from our pictures, Greece was nice, very nice. In fact, once we got there and saw all of the action, we both watched completely mesmerized. It was total stimulation for all of the senses. We started the journey by taking the night bus from Saranda at 7:30. There were a total of 7 passengers, maybe. It was interesting to note, that all of the Albanian passengers were very concerned with their seat assignment, and diligently sat (in the front, next to each other )where their ticket told them to. Ben and I headed to the back, took off our shoes, and spread out. After about two hours, we stopped at the Greek border, first was Albanian customs, and then got back on for the 1 minute bus ride to the Greek customs. I had to use the bathroom since the bus did not have one, and got stuck using a porta-potty which was the worst one I have ever used. Lesson learned: the “nice” bus to Greece does not have a bathroom. After speeding through the border, we continued on our bumpy, rickety way. Neither of us slept really, and when we got to the bridge where busses cannot pass, the bus boarded a ferry, and Ben came from the back of the bus (the only part where you can lie completely down) to say hi. Naturally, he left his sneakers and pillows so that he could return after the exciting bus on a ferry ride. Little did we know, that this was the part where the bus driver gets his 37 minute snooze. He hurried to the back of the bus, looked at the pillow, squeezed it into position around his neck, and started snoring instantaneously. 9 hours later, we had arrived to Athens, at 5:30 Greek time. We waited with some others for the metro to open and then headed to our hostel’s general location. We didn’t really have a plan, but we hoped maybe we could get into our room early. No such luck. The very nice Kenyan, Kevin told us he would keep our bags but that we could not check into the room until noon. So we ventured back out into the dark streets of Athens. Many of the shops and cafes were covered in grafitti, but luckily as the sun rose, the grafitti disappeared as the shopkeepers lifted up the garage-type security doors. It was quite beautiful to experience Athens waking up. It was so serene and the view of the Acropolis (which means High or Sacred Rock), which was a quick walk from the hostel, was spectacular in the early morning light. It must have beckoned us, because before we knew it, we were at the top and overlooking the entire city center. The Acropolis did not open up until eight so we sat, and waited patiently to enter wondering about all the dogs.

Evidently the Greek Police take care of all the stray dogs so they are everywhere, but they all seemed very friendly, just looking for a little treat. The ones up at the Acropolis didn’t like the military jeep, or the delivery truck all that much but didn’t seem to mind all the people. The Acropolis and the surrounding sites (which include the Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, etc.) were very cool to see. Much of the site is under renovation, so there is a lot of scaffolding and lots of workers cutting marble and marking out cracks in the foundations that need to be restored. The view from the Acropolis is amazing, you can see the entire city of Athens, which stretches out in all directions, ending in the south at the sea and seemingly never ending in all the other directions. From the Acropolis we ventured down to the brand new Acropolis Museum, made mostly of glass so that you can see the Acropolis as you tour the museum but also so you can see the newly uncovered ruins found beneath it. While we did our best to enjoy it, our lack of sleep the night before was quickly catching up with us and we headed back to the hotel. After a long nap, we head out to see the Plaka area, which is the swanky neighborhood of Athens, with great restaurant and café lined cobble stone streets and lots of stores. Around every coroner there was a church or fountain or a great view of the Acropolis. We found a nice little Greek restaurant away from the crowds and enjoyed our first Greek meal which included a free dessert crepe. We spent the rest of the night just walking around and looking at stores and trying to plan out our route for the next day. We had thought of going to Delphi, the World Heritage Site about 3 hours north of Athens, that the Greeks once believed to be the center of the world, but it would have been another 6 hour bus ride so we decided to just hang out in Athens and enjoy some good Greek wine. We spent the next day seeing all the other historical sites within walking distance of our hotel. After a while you do feel like you can only see so many pillars and old piles of rocks. I guess if we had gotten a guide to explain the significance of said piles of rock we might have enjoyed them more, but we were satisfied with just exploring on our own.

Towards of the end of the day we made the hike up Lycabettus Hill, which is even higher up than the Acropolis and is the best place to watch the sunset over all the monuments. From there we went back to the Plaka for dinner where we met an Albanian who told us he had not returned home in three years because it was too dirty and unsafe for his kids. He was highly surprised that we spoke some of his language and even stood up for his country saying it was not all that bad. My guess was that he was there illegally and that was the main reason for him not returning to Albania. There are lots of Albanians illegally in Greece and they are not looked upon very kindly by the Greeks. Even though they take all the low paying jobs and the vast majority are kind responsible people, many Greeks have nothing nice to say about them. This is unfortunate because both countries share so many customs and traditions and have the same ancient influences, with main difference being that Albania was taken over by the world’s strictest communist regime for 50 years and missed out on any chance to become what Greece is today.

We had to get up rather early on Thursday in order to catch our ferry to Santorini. Lauren was very pleased to see that the ferry was quite large and even had an observation deck, TV to watch, and several coffee bars to help us pass the 5 hour journey. We made several stops along the way and the views of the different islands were fantastic, one could spend months just going from island to island. But we were heading for the best of the best Santorini. Pulling into the port you have to cross over the rim of the volcano which was long ago pushed in by the sea. The remaining crater rim is now home to the quintessential Greek white and blue villas, hotels and churches all teetering on the edge of the volcanic cliffs.

After a short windy bus ride to the top of the cliffs and over to the town of Fira we jumped on another bus to the opposite side of the island, not only to discover a beautiful black sand beach, but also that our hotel was back in the town of Fira where we had just left. After a gyro we caught another bus back to Fira found our little hotel, which was very nice. Because the towns on the rim of the volcano all face west, Santorini is believed to be on of the best places in the world to watch the sunset. We would concur. Both nights we spent on Santorini we were drawn with hundreds of other people to the sides of the cliffs to watch the magical sunset over the sea. We also went to the famous red beach, visited the town of Oia, ate some great meals, and did a lot of exploring. We also just barley missed being trampled by a pack of donkeys and paid $14 dollars for one margarita, but it came with the sunset so it was worth it.

We also discovered a great little place to have waffles and even better we found a new favorite dessert. It’s called bougatsa (http://whippedtheblog.com/2008/09/23/bougatsa-heavenly-greek-custard-pie/), and it is really good. If you have a Greek bakery or restaurant near you, forget the baklava and ask for the bougatsa. We loved the entire island, the bus drivers left a lot to be desired for they have no concern for pedestrians and refuse to answers any questions about where they are going and despite the no-smoking signs they all smoke. We also could have done without the old naked men, but other than those minor items it was the perfect little island.

Next we had a much shorter ferry ride to Mykonos, on a much smaller and disorganized ferry. There were no marked lines, so everyone was trying to push their way onto the ferry with their luggage. After storing our luggage, we found our seats and settled in for the 3 hour ride. It was amazing to see so many different cultures represented on one little ship. Greece attracts all types of travelers from all parts of the world. In Albania it is a rarity to see anyone that is not white, a sad fact that adds to a notable undertone of racism here. It is also interesting to see so many people communicating in English as a second language. Since most foreign visitors do not know Greek, they interact in English. So it is pretty fascinating to listen to a Philippino and Greek nationals ask for and receive directions in English. Upon approaching Mykonos, we could see the infamous windmills in the distance.

We had decided to stay on the beach rather than in the town center. So we boarded the Paradise Beach shuttle with some other backpackers and traveled about 15 minutes to the south east end of the island. I have to admit when we arrived to the reception and there was a “bodyguard” only allowing one person into reception at a time coupled with the little white “bungalows” (picture shed you might find your back yard) everywhere, I was thinking of the song Hotel California, “you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” It was a little bizarre. Once everyone got checked in the “big man” behind the desk came outside, stood next to the bodyguard, and explained the facilities and asked if we had questions. Next we were taken to our little white box which was the mid-range accommodation with a private bathroom. Camping was the economical option, and a bigger “bungalow” was the more luxurious option. After making sure there was no special kool-aid drink in the fridge, we left the slightly depressing bungalow behind to go check out the beach.

Apparently Paradise Beach is one of the biggest international beach parties of all time. Since it was post-season, there was not too much going on, but the young crowd that was visiting made the most of their time, and started the party early. Several half-dressed, very intoxicated, entertainers got on top of the beachside bar and tables and danced to the blaring techno music. Naked sunbathers enjoyed the show from a distance. The beach was sandy, very blue, and had rocky cliffs on either side of it. Although it was nice, it was a little weird with all of the naked people. During the first and second week of September the weather in Albania was gorgeous, and for some reason no one goes to the beach after September 1st so we had the beach to ourselves for those two weeks, so I guess we were a little spoiled. That evening we had dinner at the designated cafeteria on the beach, and then headed to the beach bar to watch a more intensified version of the daytime beach party. I would say the toga guy and the swimmer girl in were the most entertaining of the bunch. Yes, the toga boy only wore a toga, and the swimmer girl only wore a bathing suit with a long scarf on her head with high heeled boots. To our left, a group of 4 visitors in their 70s thoroughly enjoyed the dance scene and one of them even actively participated in the dancing by imitating the “swimmer girl’s” swimming-like motions.

The next morning, we hit the beach in the morning, walked over the cliffs to another close-by beach, and then headed into the town of Mykonos. Although it was very windy, it was still warm and very sunny. We saw the windmills, the side-side area know as Little Venice, and basically spent the whole day getting lost in the never-ending maze of cobble-stoned streets which were lined with beautiful bright-colored and white painted houses and shops.

We splurged on an amazing lunch at an Italian restaurant called Casa di Giorgio and at one point Ben looked over at me and said, “I just want to live in this” referring to his bowl of pasta carbonara. Again we live on just basics in Sarande, so it doesn’t take a whole lot to excite our taste buds. As the sun descended, bars and the nightlife started to come alive. We found the club “Space” that all of the backpackers were talking about on the shuttle the prior day, and finally were able to piece together part of the conversation they had about clubs. Although they were speaking perfect English, we could not follow the conversation they were having about the club scene for the life us. I guess Space is a hot spot. Just not sure what is appealing about techno music, but that is just me. So around 9 we headed back to the cult I mean Paradise Beach, and had another sleepless, mosquito buzzing over our faces, night. Did I sell you on Paradise Beach yet? Oh yeah there was some pigeon coup thing too, like they had exotic birds on display or maybe that is how they sent messages out to their cult leader.

Anyway, the next morning, we caught our last bit of sunshine, and left our little bungalow behind to catch the 1:30 ferry back to Athens. Around 6 pm, we were on the metro and heading to catch the 8:30 night bus back to Saranda. We got our tickets, and grabbed one last Greek dinner in a local taverna. Although Ben’s chicken took over an hour to prepare, it was well worth the wait. Greeks eat dinner around 9 or 10, so I think we threw the chef off when we asked to eat at 7. The chicken actually tasted like chicken too, which was a HUGE plus. The chicken we buy here has the consistency of fish…interesting, huh? Ben also managed to find an open bakery so we could savor one more bougatsa. Turned out be apple filling in the center, but who is complaining? What an equally nice surprise! Nine 1/2 hours, and a flat tire later, we arrived in Saranda at 5:30 am, and went straight to bed. What can I say except that Greece was fantastic and if you ever want to go, mid-September is the perfect time!

If you want to see all the pictures of our greece trip, use the links below:

Athens:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tstoltz.lb/HighlightsOfAthens?authkey=Gv1sRgCPi939GLi665Ug&feat=directlink


Santorini:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tstoltz.lb/HighlightsOfSantorini?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6nlrK_gJ_Jbg&feat=directlink

Mykonos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tstoltz.lb/HighlightsOfMykonos?authkey=Gv1sRgCJzCvqnIsOrmqQE&feat=directlink

Tirana, Let’s Paint this town…

Yes, it has been a really long time, and for that we apologize. It is amazing how fast time keeps going by even while at the same time it seems to creep. Now that October is here, the crowds are long gone, but we still get the occasional cruise ship and the ferries from Corfu are still coming once a day. Life in Sarande has slowed down, not enough to quiet the motorcycles outside our roadside balcony but enough for the discos to close down and stop blaring the Rocky Theme at 2am. As a side note, since the city is built on the side of the hills facing the sea, there are several long stairways in which one could reenact Rocky’s run up to the Philadelphia Art Museum, but if you want the music you have to do it at 2am.

So to make up for our slacking we are going to do a three part series this week (if internet stays on long enough) covering the month of September. Enjoy.




Part one: Tirana


As some of you more diligent TIA blog readers may remember, I was elected to the Volunteer Advisory Committee, which is a body that serves to represent volunteers’ concerns to staff. I like to think of myself as union boss but with absolutely no power. The VAC meets quarterly with the Peace Corps Staff and our fist meeting was at the end of August. Tirana, the capital of Albania, is only 137 miles from Sarande but due to the conditions of the roads and the buses that travel the roads, and the donkey carts that block the roads, and the thousands of Mercedes that speed across the bad roads, the trip takes about 8 hours. So even though they have Chinese food and real super markets, the hassle of the 16 hour round trip ride makes going to Tirana one of the last things on our “want-to-do” list.

So, as a means to ensure a quicker trip, I decided to hitch a ride North. Two other volunteers and their friend were also going to Tirana. During the summer many people from the capital vacation in Sarande and usually don’t mind picking up an American guest to chat with during the drive back. Magically within 10 minutes a nice new Mercedes pulled up and offered us a ride within an hour of the Capital, as long as we didn’t mind the little dog in the back seat. Without coming to Albania it is hard to explain the large amount of Mercedes here, there numbers seem to rival what I can remember of Germany. But whether they are used, rebuilt, or have “fallen off the back of the truck”, I am not sure, but I would guess that 1 out of every 3 cars here is a Mercedes Benz. Not only did our driver take us all the way to Durres, he called his friend and had him pick us up in Durres and take us the last hour to Tirana. I think travelling with 3 young women probably sparked this hospitality.

Tirana is the largest city in Albania with a population of over 500,000 and growing by the day. Like many developing counties large amounts of people have left their homes in the country side in order to find jobs in the capital. So much so that it is expected in the next few years, Tirana and the close by port city of Durres will merge into one large metro area that will be home to over half of the country’s population. When communism ended in the early 90’s, Tirana had more horses than cars, legal building were thrown up all over the city and large amounts of unemployed people moved in from all over. While today the ubiquitous Mercedes has taken the place of the horses, Tirana itself has made some headway under its current artist turned mayor Eddie Rama. Seeing the dull, dilapidated, decomposing communist style building everywhere, Mr. Rama decided to make the city his canvas. While critics would suggest that painting buildings is not quite cleaning up the city, many people of Tirana have embraced the idea, so much so that Mr. Rama is now head of the Socialist Party and recently lost the election to become Prime Minister, although, he is still demanding a recount and he and his party have refused to be seated with the new Parliament. They are even talking of starting protests this weekend. So we will see maybe we will be painting our city soon.

One thing that Mr. Rama could do would be to at least paint some street names on the sides of buildings. The lack of street signs and even street names makes getting around the capital a very interesting game of oddly named landmarks. Example: from the bus station go to straight until you get to the UFO store, to your left will be the statue of Skanderbeg, continue to walk so that he is staring you in the back. Next turn left at the “looks like it is about to launch a space ship” building , look for a rock with a piece of metal sticking out of it, go through the cave and then the second door on your left will be your hostel. If it sounds crazy in English try it in Albanian.

The VAC meeting in and of itself was uneventful, but it was nice to get to see some of the other volunteers and even nicer to eat some American food, like a Cheeseburger, BBQ chicken and a milk shake. The VAC meeting was at the Peace Corps Office, which I can’t even being to explain the directions to, but it is close to the US Embassy. I got to see most of the staff that I had not seen since swearing in ceremony in May, and I also had my ankle looked at by the medical staff. It is doing much better but still not 100%. The bus ride home was also thankfully uneventful (no one threw up). Since the trip is so long there is a built in “Pilaf” stop, where everyone gets out and uses the rest rooms and can buy a bowl of pilaf. This is just a big bowl of rice, sometimes with some beans, sometimes with tiny bits of beef like stew poured over it. It hits the spot for 50 cents and I have learned that you should always eat where you can see the bus driver, this will let you know when he is about to leave, and you won’t get left behind. This happened to us on another trip, where we took too long finding a bathroom and when we came out the bus was gone. Fortunately, someone noticed the Americans where not on board and the bus had stopped about 300 yards down the road. After the Pilaf break, we got back on the road and continued the journey though southern Albania which is definitely a sight for the eyes. We passed though small towns and big ones, followed a crystal clear river and transversed though both mountains and valleys. Lauren was very happy to have me home, but very upset that I had not brought her back some of that BBQ chicken, burger, or milkshake.