Gëzuar Krishtlindjet dhe Gëzuar Vitin e Ri: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

In Albania the sounds of Christmas are less like carols and more like gun shots. (Since December 1st, all the Albanian boys have been running around and setting off fire crackers some quite large and all rather startling, is that a cigarette butt burning next to that car, oh no, it’s a firecra…BANG!!!) While Albanians might be 70% Muslim, they have no quarrels about celebrating all the holidays, any reason for a feast is a good one. So while we thought there would be no decorations, no trees or lights, we were very happy to see the street posts decorated with lights, and Christmas trees in the stores. The only thing lacking is the music, which thanks to Amazon’s 25 days of free Christmas Songs we have been able to fill in ourselves.

Lauren’s classes at the university ended on Wednesday, they didn’t tell her that until Tuesday, while evidently for me all of December was vacation time, with the exception of the very first week, were we did one presentation for World AIDS Day. So at least for me December has been a rather slow month, in which we both have been battling a bit of the flu and we finally had to use our heater, during a very rainy cold week. Now it seems as though all the rain and dampness we had is locked inside our apt. So it is much warmer outside than inside. Last weekend we made our way through the rain to have a pre-Christmas Party with our friends in Permet, which is about 3 hours from here up in the Mountains. So it was much colder there and above the town the mountains were covered in snow. We had a nice time, but the town flooded while we were there so we did not get to explore much of it. Last time we where there my ankle was still hurting pretty bad so we didn’t get to explore much then either. Since the 4 of us all had December birthdays we celebrated them as well. Catherine somehow was able to make, Lauren’s favorite cake, strawberry shortcake, and a good time was had by all.

Last night for Christmas Eve we went to the Italian nuns for mass, which was very packed, at least 60 people there, on a normal Sunday there might be 20. We recognized some of the songs and did our best to follow along. At the end, the priest held a plastic baby doll, and everyone lined up to kiss it, we skipped out on that part. After mass they had some refreshments for everyone. It is hard to describe this, but I will try. First of all Albanians do not believe in lines, and so by the look of the room, you would have thought they were giving away money, people pushing, shoving, knocking over drinks and plates of food, just to get some cookies. Now this is all done in a weird orderly manner, pushing and shoving are in fact normal and expected, so Lauren and I were in fact the odd ones out because we were not pushing ourselves into the room to get food. We had several people come to us and tell us to push our way in and get something to eat. After chatting for a while we walked back home, and on the way we stopped and got a chicken and some beers, then watched Love Actually and went to bed. This morning, we had some left over banana bread, Lauren made some for the nuns, and tried to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.

We hope this finds you all well, we miss you and wish that we could be closer. Have a Wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We are off to Italy for a week with my parents on Monday. We have to take a bus to Athens and then fly to Rome, so it will be quite the adventure.

Reasons to be Thankful:

• We were invited to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the Ambassadors’ house.

• That our stomachs did not rupture with the amount of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin and pecan pie that we devoured like we had not eaten in several weeks. I think the 6 Peace Corps volunteers put the 5 marines to shame when it came to eating.

• That I did not reinjure my ankle, playing touch football on a wet hill of a field and that despite my 31 years, I can still throw a mean spiral about 40 yards, while being rushed at by ex-military types.

• That I turned 31 years old last Friday.

• That Lauren will turn XX on Sunday. (XX stands for 30)

• Our host family welcomed us “home” with open arms, 2 hours of wedding video watching (from a cousins’ wedding, we only had to watch 2 of the 6 tapes, and that was just the brides side, the groom has another 6 tapes of video) and a gigantic feast of more turkey, a chicken, a cow’s pancreas, cream of wheat turkey like stuff, egg pie and two bottles of red wine, which mainly I drank along with our host dad. Then they also gave us about 30 pounds of oranges, lemons, mandarins and persimmons to take on our 7 hours bus ride home (they grow them all in the back yard).

• That now our chances of getting scurvy are now even lower.

• That Lauren finally got to see some of Tirana. We had a nice time walking around, going to our office and getting some more books to read, visiting the Embassy for a career day, where we learned all about the foreign service and working overseas, we had some great meals at nice restaurants, and even went to a business convention, where they had everything from plumbing supplies to laptops to wedding dresses.

• That we enjoy so many of the other volunteers. Dr. Mike and Catherine met us back in Sarande and took in the sites of Sarande and Butrint and Mike even took us out to dinner for our birthdays. Two of the other volunteers that lived close by came to have a birthday lunch with us on Friday. I got coveted Oreo’s, which is a big deal here, but we have found two stores that are selling them here in Sarande, which is a big sign of development and one that I may mention in my next report to PC and take credit for.

• That we have made it 1/3 of the way through our service, we are here for 27 months and about 30% of the people who join PC early terminate for a number of reasons during those 27 months. We started with 34 volunteers and now we are down to 30.

• That we do not have a Turkish toilet. You can Google if you are really interested.

• For all of you that have taken the time and the money to send us letters, emails and packages and have even come to visit us. We feel very spoiled and really unworthy.

• That we live on the sea with a very mild climate, at least so far anyway.

• That we have internet access, it is not the best and is a great cause of frustration but for those of you who knew Lauren when she was in Nicaragua, it was an email once a month and a letter every couple of months and if you wanted to call you had to prearrange a time to call her at someone else’s house who had a phone and hope your Spanish was good enough to make them understand that you want to talk to Lauren.

• That we have each other, I could never last here without Lauren and she could never find anyone who could cook or clean as well as I can!

• That the nuns have opened their school to us to teach English and help with computer classes and that they give us such a great example to follow.

• That Gratz College is working with Lauren to help get books for the University of Sarande.

• That despite how bad my Albanian is some of the older grandmas still get such a kick out of me trying.

• That we only have three more weeks ‘til we get to go to Italy and see my parents.

• Finally, that we got a brand new, beautiful niece last week, Maura Jane.