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!
No comments:
Post a Comment