So.. since my last post about snow, it hasn't stopped snowing. We now have over a meter of snow and Bajram Curri has turned into a life sized ant farm with paved out pathways to stores and bars with walls of over three feet of snow locking you into the paths.

School has been cancelled until further notice, there is no public transportation in or out of the town and I haven't had water for almost 5 days. Which has led me to using my reserve of water that my landlady made me fill up this summer and has been sitting in my bathroom since then. So glad I didn't ask questions and just listened to her because it's the only thing washing my dishes and helping me cook. I have no idea when I'll get water next or if my pipes are frozen or not.. It's kind of hard to tell anything but I do know now that the 'it's summer and that's why we don't have a lot of water' answer is now proven false. We haven't been losing power as much as I would expect with this much so, but I don't want to speak too soon.

We went on a walk yesterday and it was beautiful, I wanted to enjoy the snow before it got mushy. It's going to be around for a while because the forecast reads nothing but negative degrees celsius. The town does have a somewhat eery feeling though because it's so quite and a lot of people are just staying inside all day.

I've heard from a lot of people that this is the most snow that they've had in years. People are scraping off the snow from tops of buildings so they don't cave in, cars are completely covered in snow and look like hills.. this is the most snow I've ever seen in my life and I don't hate it.

I know the first thing people worry about in the states with winter weather is getting food and losing power.. since I walk to get my food and lose power a lot anyways, it makes it way different. It's hard to run out of bread when there's 5 places in town that make their own bread or chickens that lay the eggs in the villages around us.

At first it was a school-is-cancelled-because-the-radiators-broke-again-and-they-can't-send-anyone-from-Korca-three-hours-away-to-fix-them day, then it became a snow-is-rapidly-falling-and-it-is-cruel-to-get-students-and-staff-out-in-this-weather-to-attend-school-in-an-unheated-building day! We would never have something so pedestrian as a simple snow day. We instead had a day of mad catch-up work and a snowball fight outside. Overnight the snow accumulated up to my thigh! Thank you for small blessings and our director's prevailing wisdom.

In America, it's always so exciting to go out with your friends and family because you know that your dinner and drinks with be taken care of, why? Because it's your birthday. Well, in Albania, the tradition is 100% ass-backwards. The person who's birthday it is is responsible for taking everyone out for drinks and coffee. Today was my counterparts birthday. After the staff meeting, we all trekked through the 1.5 feet of snow to go to the nicest lokal in Bajram Curri for drinks.

The women all ordered tea or coffee while the men ordered round after round of coffee/raki, red bull/vodka, coffee/Jack Daniels, etc. Now, typically at the end of coffees there is a huge fight about who is going to pay. It is not Albanian tradition for everyone to pay for their own, the idea is that someone pays this time and someone else will get it the next time, kind of like bar hopping where one person buys the rounds at one bar and the next person gets the next round, and so on..

Not this coffee. I counted, there were 27 people at 5 tables pushed together and guess who gets the tab? That's right, the birthday boy. I mean, I guess you could compare it to having a party and the person who has the party generally forks out the money, but this is the equivalent to going for drinks with 25 coworkers and being left with the bill because it's your birthday. I saw him later on through the day, it's a small town, having coffees with relatives and friends, all of which he was expected to pay for, and did. I made him a birthday card, one in English, one in Shqip, which everyone just got such a kick out of because 'why was I giving him something on his birthday.' There's a lot of things I accept or traditions I go along with, even if I don't understand them, but this one is by far the craziest to me.

It also makes me kinda glad my birthday is in August, 'pushim month' which is typically the vacation month and no one is around.

Which is a little over a 1.5 feet, for those still on the metric system. Who am I kidding, I used my phone's converter to figure out how much it was today after the engineer measured. Its snowing all over Albania this week and I don't think we got the most out of everyone but we got enough. I've never been in this snow before in my life.. almost two feet? Okay, maybe when I was 8 during that huge ice and snow storm we had that one time. I mean, it's so different when you don't have a car, can walk to work, don't have centralized heating, hot water, are used to the power going out.. I mean the idea of a 'snow day' doesn't really exist. Everyone runs late anyways, the people in the villages get to run a little more late than everyone today, I guess that's a plus. School only went half a day today and is called off tomorrow because a lot of the kids come from villages by furgon and the roads are the best.

So for all of you stateside, enjoying that nice 18 degree weather, wishing that you had more of a winter.. just remember me, sitting in my apartment with my wood stove on, my water pipes frozen, three layers, handwarmers and 4 blankets on. Yeah, thats 65 degrees fahrenheit.

Look, I’m not admitting that I have a problem. This is not a cry for help. So, don’t even think about an Intervention. I’d see right through that bulllllllshit… I mean, come on! Why would my best friend ask me to meet her at some random hotel room? Oh no… I’m not havin' it!

Here’s the thing… its not about addiction. I just really really really must have … (be strong, Melia... nothing to be ashamed of) HOT SHOWERS! And I'll say it: I don’t want to live, if it means living without them! As I think about how I crave the hot shower experience, I can’t help but relate to the heroin addicts I’ve encountered. And by encounter, I mean… watch with blink-less fascination on TLC’s gut-wrenching Intervention and movies like Requiem for a Dream, Traffic and so on. So clearly, the following comparison between your typical, run-of-the-mill junkie and my own steamy vices will be based only on the most solid of expertise.

Let me walk you through it.

It’s morning and roughly 50 degrees or so inside my apartment. Crawling out of the radiant heat of my mummy bag, every fiber of my being screams for that fix, that comfort, that that sweet satisfaction. As I make my way to my bathroom, I watch my breath float in front of me and imagine the blue-ish purple shade my lips have taken. I’m careful to prepare my private sanctuary, securing the window closed and sliding the door closed behind me. Afterall, I can’t bear to give up a single droplet of steam. Stripping down, revealing the bareness of my soul, moderate chills grow into shivers. And on the occasions when I’m careless enough to let my tootsies hit the frosty tiles… we’re talking full-body convulsions. But it doesn’t last. No… I won’t let it last. My reprieve is only moments away.

When the fog begins to rise, it marks the moment I’ve been aching for. One deep breath and without hesitation, I step into the flow. Pure, unapologetic indulgence. As the first waves of hot water wash over me, I’m rendered virtually useless. No shampooing, no sudzing… just my Id reveling in its pleasure. During these precious moments, nothing else… no one else matters. When I finally “come to”, there’s no telling how much time has passed. Seconds? Minutes? Weeks? The high is too good. I’m woozie, stoned, giddy with feeling the warmth reach my core. It’s what makes me feel alive again.

I manage my way through the typical routine, wash face, condition hair, shave legs, yatta yatta… it’s all a ruse. Just opportunities to ride the high for as long as possible. Once there’s nothing left to do (or I can sense the hot water running frighteningly low), I allow myself one more little taste… pushing the nozzle just a little hotter, a little sumthin’ to get me through. Drying off brings fast, aggressive scrubbing of the skin, scrubbing away the guilt from placating my urges. And suddenly, I’m overwhelmed with resentment… furious at all the things (work, meals, friends, etc) that stand between me and my next fix. Returning to reality, I can hardly even look at myself. (But that’s only because the mirror is all fogged up!)

Hello. I’m Melia and I’m a hot shower addict. It’s been a little over 14 hours since my shower. And I don’t think I’ll make it much longer.

Peace, Love and Steamy Bathrooms

Blogger’s Note: I truly believe that addiction is a disease that requires both significant medical and emotional support to overcome. Despite the tone of this post, in no way, do I wish to minimize the experiences and trails of any addict. May we all muster the courage to battle our demons.

Senior Prank 2011-2012:

The senior class concoted and put into a motion a most devious prank prior to our winter break. It completely topped anything else of which I've ever heard. A handful of the students obtained a copy of the school key and, one night, forced a donkey into the building and up the stairs to the second floor. The students locked the poor donkey in the 11th grade classroom and made sure to crown the teacher's desk with a generous pile of manure. The beast spent a miserable night pacing an icy, confined space full of desks and chairs. When the custodian came in the next morning to fire up our anicent radiators, he heard the donkey's distressed braying. Once he hit the second floor, he also SMELLED the donkey. The classroom was a mess of urine and manure. The creature had emptied his nervous bowels. The custodian attempted to lead the terrified animal down the double flight of stairs and back outside. Ever hear that hooved animals can more or less manage ascending stairs but most certainly cannot descend? Well, it's true. The donkey basically stumbled and fell his whole way down those stairs. If I were him, I would have a list of students to haul off and kick clear across the valley. And, it took the better part of the morning to rid the hall of the stink and the classroom of a slip-'n-slide horror show. Truly excellent prank - who didn't giggle and snicker? Talk about making asses of the entire 11th grade... and of the entire faculty, for that matter! You know what, maybe the pranksters just made asses of themselves. Because, at the end of the day, what an awful experience it was for the donkey!

Well here we are, literally 6 months after we started and the final logo was decided on today. After many, many numerous revisions, meetings and decision making, the mayor and the Kukes Regional Council decided on a logo for the municipality of Bajram Curri.

I learned many lessons during this project. I've worked with picky clients before with my design work, ones that think they know what they want but really don't or have a vision and want exactly that even a trained design eye thinks differently. This was definitely one of those times where I had to swallow my personal preferences and opinons and give them what they wanted and envisioned. I realized that while my time is short lived here, this logo will represent this municipality and town for years and years to come and I should give them exactly what they want, even if it goes against what I think looks the best.

I've only been living here a short 8 months and who am I to say what would represent them the best. I also learned how it feels to not be involved in the design decisions but just be given orders after the decisions have already been made with no input. I believe that this would happen in bigger design and marketing firms and I think is a good learning experience because it's not always an easy thing to do, especially since I put so much time into the design work I do. That's not an experience I have had yet, outside of school, because all of the design work I've done I was either the sole designer, begging for any kind of constructive feedback, or a freelance designer, only taking direction from the client.

So now that the logo has been decided on, it will be in the letter head of all of the documents that the Bashkia circulates out, locally, nationally and internationally. My new project is designing a flag for the logo that will represent the city as a whole. It's really great to be doing work here that actually relates to what I studied in school and I think after doing this logo and the tourism website my opportunities will open up to more projects. I had the mayor of Bujan, a small village outside of Bajram Curri, approach me at a Cafe last week wanting me to design a logo for the village of Bujan.

It's hard getting back into the swing of things after being gone for IST and the GAD conference for over a week, probably because it's about ten degrees colder up here than it was in Plepa. Nothing like getting up in the morning and the buckets of water you use to flush your toilet with are frozen over.

Also, nothing like the fire going out in the middle of the night and waking up and being able to see your breath in your living room that now serves as a bedroom.. that'll really make you want to get up in the morning let me tell you what. I've officially started buying items that should be refrigerated and putting them outside on my porch, it's really effective. Doing dishes kinda sucks because I can't feel my hands when I'm done and I'm at about 1 shower a week. But overall, it's not that bad.. I mean it could be worse.

I have an on-and-off relationship with exercise, usually dictated by the seasons and the amount of work waiting for me at home (read: my lack of self-discipline). I go through spurts of running, usually up the mountain road leading out of town. The road winds up along our side of the Vjosa River Valley wall. There's a fearsome drop to the valley floor below, occasionally broken by narrowly terraced vineyards. Many kilometers away on the opposite face of the valley, the Nemercke mountains soar sheer and high, impassive and impenetrable. Best view in Albania. Even better when the sun sets or rises. Even better when the wind whips, and the mountains barely breathe through the frozen stillness. Even better when I'm running through jangling herds of sheep, goats, and cows on their way out to or back from pasture.

Sometimes I go with Visa, which is great - we push one another all the way to the mountain spring marking the rise where we then double back. We yack the whole time and keep on picking favorite landmarks to which we race. I bought her a pair of running shoes last Christmas after she spent Summer 2010 running in flats! Other times I go by myself, especially when we're experiencing rain, snow, and/or a prevailing north-eastern wind. Everyone in Albania knows that both willful and accidental exposure to the cold and wet will cast one into the throes of miserable infection. I risk it and get scolded, happily. Who doesn't want an Albanian mama clucking over you, smoothing your wet hair and brewing tea to warm your insides?

Visa and I were most disappointed this last October when we discovered that a particular gnarled and windswept olive tree, a beloved landmark once curving off a bend in the road, had been hacked down. Maybe by a hunter. Adios, our dear friend. You were a beacon of hope at the top of an otherwise most discouraging uphill stretch.

Since I moved to Albania in 2010, I twice attempted to found run/walk groups for female friends and colleagues, the first composed of twenty-somethings and the second of thirty-somethings. Both sputtered and than putted to a stop after about two months each. The major barrier proved to be culture.

Since the collapse of Communism, it is uncommon for women to publically exercise in Albania. This is changing, especially in the capital city, but rural communities such as Leskovik aren't universally tolerant. There are always a handful of bored housewives who gleefully speculate about others when they have nothing exciting going on in their own lives. Mind you, these women are a precious few amongst many good-natured souls, but their speculation still spreads like wildfire and does plenty of damage.

My second exercise group gave rise to malicious gossip. Folks wondered why my fellow runners weren't dutifully spending their time at home, how they found the time to abandon responsibilities. For whom were they exercising? Why did they want to look good? Because surely a woman only exercises to improve her outward looks, not to improve her cardiovascular health and spirits. Is she hitting the pavement for a man outside of her marriage? A particularly nasty rumor became associated with one of my friends, and we were forced to abandon the pursuit. I started thinking about what to do next.

Remember how I was writing last year about our odyssey to secure a health volunteer for Leskovik? We got one named Emily last June! She's a sweetheart and a half. In September 2011, she and I founded a women's aerobic class with the help of Emily's counterpart and my friend, Bruna. Bruna lobbied hard with the health clinic. The female doctor heading the clinic in turn secured us free use of public space and electricity for one hour four times a week. The municipality gave us permission to use the tiny, high-ceilinged dormitory dining hall. Jani Vreto's female physical education teacher, a friend of mine, donated the school's four gymnastics mats. My director permitted us to use the school projector. We rig up my laptop with an extension cord through the kitchen window, and the projector is angled and balanced on a pile of books. With it, we cast video up onto a white-washed wall.

Jane Fonda circa 1980 is the star of the class, leading us gently, yet firmly, through lots of leg lifting and counts of eight. Our group quickly swelled in size and now has both regulars and occasional attendees. We exceeded our mat space as we grew in number, so new members began to bring frayed carpet squares to keep themselves off the cold floor. We bob, bend, lunge, stretch, lift, and punch in rhythm, laughing at ourselves and whooping. Little boys tried to peer into the high hall windows in the beginning, but now we aren't such a novelty as we link arms and head down the middle of main street in sweats and sneakers.

We've seen some toning and some weight loss. Results are SO important when we need to argue the value of our class. Mostly, we've observed an eagerness to escape the house or the family shop, to get those endorphines going, to exercise freedom, to enjoy one another's company. Sometimes we grab a coffee after class just to prolong the high and the companionship.

We're on a month and a half hiatus (yikes!). It's been a truly merciless winter. Just ask a neighboring PCV whose house experienced such low temperatures (down to -25 Celsius) that her glass jars shattered, her water reserve froze, her pipes burst, and her kitchen became a skating rink. Leskovik is settled in a crook where gale force winds raging across the valley from Greece concentrate all their towering fury. A wonderful experience if you're at home under a blanket with a roaring wood fire, cozily listening to the windows tremble then frantically rattle then subside again. Not so wonderful once you leave the house. Again, you couldn't get an Albanian woman in her right mind to spend an exercise class on a cement floor in an unheated, uninsulated building. You couldn't get me to do it, either.

Everyone took a copy of our video home; they're all supposedly plugging away on their living room carpets until we meet again in the spring. Maybe we'll be on the advanced video! We keep on talking about adding a once-a-week yoga component. Hmm. I'll let you know.

C.O.D. volunteers of group 14 in Plepa for in-service training last week.

It was good to hear what other volunteers in my sector have been doing and share ideas.

I had fair warning that it was coming. Somebody had put a handwritten sign up on the breaker box that apts with back bills would get their power turned off. It was ripped up on the ground by mid afternoon and handwritten after all, so I didn’t think anything of it. A week later, I [...]

Peace Corps Training

This is a role-play about what it is supposed to be like when you meet your host family in Ukraine. From: robs723 Views: 230 2 ratings Time: 18:10 More in Entertainment

It's been a problem for generations and now is just skewing the population even more. Selective abortion can be explained by the parents finding out the gender of the baby and then deciding to abort the child solely based on its gender. I have heard horror stories, women going through procedures over 10 times because the ultrasound turns out to be a girl and the family doesn't want a girl. It has been suggested by private European companies that Albania, along with some other Balkan countries take away the option completely to tell the parents the gender of the child. It is something that stems from traditional beliefs and believing that the male of the family is more important and powerful than the females.

According to a recent report from the Council of Europe, in Albania 112 males are born for every 100 females – a rather disproportionate figure compared with the ratio of natural demographic growth. Albania has a similar situation to some other Caucasian countries, while Kosovo is among the most problematic countries in the Balkans.

“Selective abortion is not a new problem in Albanian society,” states a sociologist, active in women's rights. “In the traditional patriarchal system, daughters are thought to be born to be given to a husband, and therefore are in some way external to the family. And traditionally they don't carry the family surname. If a family only has daughters, they say that family will become extinct,” she explains. Read more here..

Last weekend was the Gender and Development conference in Plepa/Durres. Over 50 kids from all over Albania were able to attend this conference due to a grant won by the G.A.D. from Vodafone. The conference was three days and included activities that brought awareness to gender issues in Albania, ways to talk to people about them, how to promote gender equality and fun activities to encompass all of these ideas.

I chaperoned two boys from Kukes, Ditjon and Erjon, because Emily is still out of the country. I left at 6:00am Friday morning and was dropped off on the side of the highway to scale the stairs to Kukes. I checked out Emily's apartment to make sure everything was still good since she's been gone, picked up some materials for the conference and I left with the boys around 12:00pm. We arrived to Plepa and got settled in, had dinner with the rest of the participants and had one session that night where the kids were split up, boys on one side, girls on the other, to make collages on how women and men are portrayed in the media by cutting out magazine pictures. We then had a discussion about it and it was so inspiring to see how passionate the kids were about the topics.

The next day we had our first session on role playing gender scenarios and discussing solutions to the problems. Once again, just hearing how opinionated and passionate the kids are, boys and girls, was so refreshing because these kids, are the next leaders of their communities, and coming to events like this only pushing them further in that direction.

An Albanian woman came and spoke about domestic violence and gave her personal story about her abusive spouse and the repercussions she faced when filing for divorce here. There is still a very shameful attitude towards divorce here and it is not very common. Domestic violence is more prevalent than statisticsc may show because most women do not report the abuse because of no trust in the police and for fear the abuse will only become worse.

I really think the conference was a success and hope the kids go back to their communities with a mission. We finished up the conference with interviews for the documentary. The only downside is the kids that participated were volunteers, all from the southern part of Albania (which is more liberal and progressive) and they all were very passionate, not a bad thing, but just gives common answers and not a lot of diversity for the interviews. Once again, I was so impressed with all the kids that attended the conference and all the volunteers support in order to make the conference go as smoothly as possible.

Role playing session where teens acted out scenarios on gender issues..Conference room at Hotel Tropikal..Project design session. Each group of kids developed a project to do when they returned home. Gender roles session. 1 person makes the salad, 3 people eat and 1 person cleans up. Open

discussion after about work at home and why women are the only ones doing it.Peace Corps G.A.D. committee and chaperones for the conference.. Ohhh Xhoniiii..My boys from Kukes and two girls from Pogradec..Volunteers and participants in the conference...

My Kukes boys, Ditjon & Erjon..Lovely ladies of the Peace Corps..Team building session...Discussing their group projects..

It has been so long since I blogged that I don’t even remember when I wrote my last blog, or what it was about.  So, expect a few blogs this week, covering: Christmas, New Years, and my recent trip to Italy. WordPress did a little 2011 year in review of my blogging, so I thought [...]

GAD Albania just completed it's second annual Youth Leadership Conference in Plepa, Durres. Over 65 participants came to the event and completed activities examining traditional gender roles, being an ethical leader in challenging situations, listening to a victim of domestic abuse share her story, completing a Project Development Management training and building life skills such as household budgeting and cooking. We wrapped up the conference with a visit from our Country Director Hill Denham, who inspired the participants to pioneer the gender equity movement in their communities.

Overall, the event was a huge success. Thank you to all our amazing participants who partook in the conference. You guys are awesome!

I realize I haven't written much before about the USAID Small Project Assistance (SPA) grant Diana Pasho, our school librarian, and I won to build a library for Jani Vreto. We're close to concluding the grant, so here follows the backstory:

I am working with Jani Vreto's librarian, Diana Pasho, and with our director, Veli Xhelili, to build a new school library. Our old "library" was a mildewed, lightless storage room stuffed with decaying books and collapsing chemistry cabinets. The school had the potential for a functioning and attractive library, but lacked the financial means. To rectify the situation, Diana and I applied for a USAID Small Project Assitance (SPA) grant. We won a SPA grant in the April 2011 application round and finally received the funds in July 2011. Our proposed project sought to build a new, COOL (please don't judge my vocabulary use - it IS cool) library and to stock it with attractive, modern literature for adolescents in Shqip and in English. We began library construction, technology training, and collection expansion last summer. The projected project conclusion date is early February 2012.

Diana and I founded a student group called "The Friends of the Library" (Miqte e Bibliotekes) last spring while writing the grant to foster student ownership of the project, to contribute to library-related decision-making, and to help with project implementation and daily operations.

Since August 2010, we've been building an English language literature collection solely with donations from friends in the US. Notably, a US shipping company called DHL agreed to work with the Capital Region Education Council (CREC), one of our donors in Connecticut, to facilitate FREE transport of a major shipment. We now have about 250 English texts. With SPA funds, we also ordered $1,000 worth of new Albanian-language books to update our permanent collection in Fall 2011. This order included classics, but put emphasis on the likes of Harry Potter, Twilight, The Golden Compass, and more popular literature designed to reinvigorate student interest in reading for pleasure.

Diana, myself, and the Miqte have developed Excel catalogues of our collections and are creating a physical card catalogue. We worked hard over the late summer months to alphabetize and sort our standing collection by genre. We reclassified the books by author's LAST name, which is a new system for Albania. We also established careful cataloguing and borrowing rules for the library.

In late Summer/early Fall 2011, we relocated the library to its new home. October 2011 was the Grand Opening month, promoted new Albanian language and English language literature and educated students on proper library use and new systems. The space is painted a warm cream, lined with honey-colored bookshelves bolted to two of the walls and wide, double bookcases marching down the center of the room. The fourth wall - all windows - is covered with donated lemon-colored curtains to protect the books and keep the room cool. Students and teachers donated plants to line the windowsills. School-donated reading tables and chairs were in place by mid-September 2011.

Diana, the Miqte, and I hold library hours during the daily school recess and four additional hours a week. The Miqte are primarily responsible for facilitating lending, maintaining the bookshelves and classification system, keeping the library clean, and updating recods. We're all still plugging away at the card catalogue. Diana's currently working on an Albanian language curricular module with upperclassmen using the library's resources. I'm working on a tree of knowledge mural for the back wall and slowly collecting and mounting posters, quotes, and maps to decorate the walls.

Our school custodian and sometimes electrician fixed all of the wiring for free, so we have enjoyed lighting sufficient to brighten the dreary days of winter. My most persistent worry was that the radiators clinging to wall below the windows would cough, shiver, and give up the ghost mid-way through winter, but they have instead exceeded expectations and kept us warm.

Fast forward to January 2012: Visa and I are planning an English book report module for the upcoming Spring 2012 semester. We'll see what happens! All of our 9th grade English students will read one English novel from the library, prepare a book report and visual representation of the novel, and answer questions about the text in an oral interview by the end of the semester. Realization of that goal would be a coup. My service began with a school entirely lacking a functional library, never mind English language literature. It now has the potential to end with a REAL library and English literature module.

Just a few more cosmetic touches to the space and card catalogue. We've also a long overdue trip to the bank in Erseke on the calendar so we can finish balancing expenditures for the grant report. The swiftly-approaching conclusion of the grant merits a HURRAH! Diana and the Miqte have committed a great deal of time and effort to administering the library since it opened in September 2011. I wouldn't dare to wonder what this project would've looked like without the Friends. Project design and management without a motivated, intelligent, and resourceful working team is a hideous prospect. Shudder. Thanks to the students, I am really truly confident that the library will continue to grow under Diana's supervision and serve the Jani Vreto community long after I've left Albania.

Until my Close of Service sometime in May 2012, we'll continue to independently collect funds for a several improvements we couldn't cover with the grant budget. Together they rather read like a "seriously, Molly? SERIOUSLY?" wish list: add a corkboard for posting student work and announcements, replace the door with one that doesn't require a shoulder to shove open and a knee to slam shut, acquire additional Albanian language books, equip Diana with a real desk, locate a reasonably-priced and well-functioning BUT used laptop to house our electronic catalogue. That's a bit expensive. Think we can do it?

If you would like to donate books to our ever-growing English language collection, please take yourself over to the nearest USPS office, purchase a $50 flat rate box, pack tightly, and ship to:

Molly Douglas

Bulevardi Fan S. Noli

Godina X

Leksovik

Albania

Venture onto our library page at: http://janivretoschoollibrary.shutterfly.com/

Some library progress pictures below!

Peace Corps Albania Group 11 Close of Service Slideshow

Pictures from throughout our 2 year service in Albania From: leslieintheworld Views: 0 0 ratings Time: 06:26 More in People & Blogs

The winter season brings many discomforts and hardships to Albania. Torrential down pours, dumping of snow, violent winds, biting cold, and the flooding of many below sea-level areas. Many places around the world face these elements, however as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania sometimes it seems a little tougher than usual.

In addition to the 'normal' winter weather, Albania's lack of modern developments makes winter a little more, shall we say interesting? than it ever was back in The States. There are three main issues....the lack of building insulation, the absence of central heating/homes in southern areas not equipped with wood stoves, and the constant and ever frustrating power outages.

I am sure many of you can imagine what it would be like if you lived in a concrete building with no insulation, no central heating, and the power flickering on and off. If you can't picture this situation just think of me in a black, fleece, spandex suit plus a winter hat, wool socks, and my puffball jacket with my headlamp on trying to see by candlelight, as I pray that the battery in my Kindle won't go out. Frequently this combination is in addition to me inside my sleeping bag.

We, as Peace Corps Volunteers, have been prepped and advised about these winters. However, no matter how much one mentally prepares, no one is ever prepared enough for an ice-cold shower in a freezing apartment. Because I live in the southern part of the country, my house has solar panels on the roof, which (when exposed to the sunlight) powers the water heater in my home. Let me tell you something not many people think about when they come up with the idea of a solar-powered water heater. When it is hot and sunny outside, who the hell wants hot water? It's when it's raining, cloudy, and bitterly cold that I want a scalding hot shower. NEWS FLASH: Solar-powered water heaters don't work during that type of weather.

The most frustrating aspect with the intermittent electricity is the fact that when we do and don't have power makes absolutely no sense! Let me lay out a scenario for you. It's a sunny day, the air is still, and everyone has paid their electric bill. One would think that power would not be a problem, but no. The entire town's electricity is out. How does this make sense at all? For the most part, bad weather = no electricity, but it's when there is absolutely no reason for there to be a power outage that drives me up the wall.

Although there still are frequent power outages through out Albania, Albanian electricity and electric power has come a long way since the late 1990's. Many businesses and families own generators that help during long periods of power outages, people in the northern areas have wood stoves to heat their homes, and it is said that Albania is working on their electric deficiencies. Unfortunately, the mentality of not feeling obligated to pay one's bills is really hurting the electric companies and slowing the development of electrical power in this country. The good news is I have power right now!

Peace Corps Albania Group 11 In-service Training Slideshow

Collection of pictures from the first 6 months in Albania. From: leslieintheworld Views: 5 0 ratings Time: 03:23 More in People & Blogs

An Albanian Grammar Lesson

Excerpt from LTB Ep4 "Why. We. Teach." Live Theatre Blog, is a live play performed the first Thursday of every month. Performed by Deven Simonson, and directed by Sara Perry. It documents the trials and tribulations of being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania. Written by playwright, Eric Czuleger, currently volunteering in Northern Albania. Watch in the theatre or stream it live from anywhere in the world- Always free. www.livetheatreblog.com www.facebook.com/livetheatreblog www.twitter.com/livetheatreblog From: livetheatreblog Views: 0 0 ratings Time: 03:54 More in Entertainment

Today at work my colleague actually lit her scarf on fire. It was in flames and we had to stomp on it to put out the blaze. A scary thing in an office full of paper. Though it’s shocking (and a little bit funny/ironic that this happened ), the fire is not surprising seeing as [...]

so my last update was work...this update is fun.....just got back from a short trip to macedonia, bulgaria, romania, turkey and greece with four other peace corps buddies...we rented a car in macedonia and did quite a bit of travelling...i think romania was my favorite country of the places with travelled, with a town/city called Brasov being my favorite place (although it was all enjoyable). i had good company, good food, good sightseeing and good times...i think i simply reinforced my belief that major cities are not for me as istanbul although beautiful and full of history, was probably one of my least favorite cities...i just think it's tough to get a feel for a country by a major city, i'd much rather spend my time in the rural areas getting to know the people, and the culture...but that's just me...

next up is a trip to africa (kenya and possibly tanzania) with my girlfriend kristen...she has yet to be to africa, so i'm excited to share that with her...i have been there once and can't wait to get back..we're planning on going to a elephant orphanage, go on a safari, feed some giraffes, and hopefully visit a peace corps volunteer or two so we can see what life is like in Peace Corps AFRICA!

finally, i made a video for an organization called Travel with Balls...the idea is simple, when travelling the world, bring a couple soccer balls you can buy for about 2-3 dollars, and pass them out to kids in need...the response you'll get is amazing...clearly i'm not suited to be an anchor on ESPN, but it was well worth my nerves to make this video and support a good cause and good people! you can see my video below, and the official video below (official video first) and if you search "Travel with Balls" on facebook, twitter and the web you can access their respective accounts and their blog...i really hope it takes off and more people get involved...that's all for now..have a good one folks....

Official Trailer:

My contribution:

it's been a while since i blogged last...i have a couple updates to give...

first, we've completed the soccer project, named a champion, and made a cool video that all the participants can remember...hopefully sopa, protect ip and the music companies will allow me to continue to share the video for years to come with the music i'm borrowing using the "fair use" clause....haha..anyway, here's a video recap of the soccer tournament...i had a great time doing it...and i think the participants did as well...

next up is the park project...what can i say besides it has been an up and down experience...the latest is that we've had to uninstall some equipment to make repairs to insure the equipment lasts...in addition, we had a "volunteer day" with some of the high school students to help turn the soil around the trees, and paint different features to keep the park looking nice (which is hard to do in winter when the grass turns to mud)....we had about 8 students come out to help us out which was nice, my sitemate kim and i even did some work ourselves....after winter dies down a bit we will return to the park and reinstall the equipment we uninstalled with the necessary reinforcements...

finally, although my time here is winding down, i'm working on two new projects, i won't be able to fully complete either, but i hope to lay the foundation for the volunteer who follows me to gramsh so they have some work to do when they arrive...

the first thing is a project at the local health center...i'm submitting an application today to begin to replace an outdated filing cabinet (about 30 years outdated) where residents medical records are kept...this is a small grant i hope we can utilize to show the benefits of a modernized filing system in one office...i also like the idea of starting with one office to make sure the project is worthwhile...we're starting with one filing cabinet, but if this project is useful, i think we can replace about 30 cabinets at 5 different locations, which would be a much bigger grant that would have to be completed after i left...but, given the importance of keeping medical records in good shape, i think this project is a good candidate for a grant...

the second thing i am working on is a tourism project for the region of gramsh...again, we're setting the foundation for something bigger...right now we're picking the 5 best locations, and trying to put together a program for travelers, and a place where they can easily gather information...the final piece will be teaming with an english speaking person (possibly a high school student) to act as a tour guide...i'm hoping we can get all the information ready and up on the web before i leave....

so that's that when it comes to work..hope you're all doing well....

Brandon's Peace Corps Home in Benin!

This is a video tour of my home in Benin. I'm a Peace Corps volunteer with the bare essentials. From: brandonisfun Views: 1420 5 ratings Time: 03:06 More in Nonprofits & Activism

It's that moment that so many girls dream of their whole lives. The moment that that one special guys gets down on one knee, takes her left hand, looks her in the eyes and tells her he can't live without her. The proposal. For most people, this happens once maybe twice in a lifetime. For girls serving in many PC countries, this is a common occurrence. This is my story of proposals received while serving as a PCV.

It first started in Albania. Not long after arriving in Albania, my host family and other people in the community started mentioning their single sons, cousins, nephews and brothers. Almost every other female PCV in Albania also noticed this increased level of attention within their community. It wasn't long before the 'proposals' started coming in. I started collecting pieces of paper that would be handed to me with phone numbers on them. Sometimes while I was sitting in my office, random men would come looking for me to see if I wanted to go for coffee. "Do I know you?" I would ask and they would reply something like, "Yes, I'm *insert name here*'s cousins wifes brother-in-laws nephew." When PCV's got together it would always be a fun topic to compare recent proposals.

Since arriving in Morocco, I have received even more proposals. The proposals I have received here have seen a little more serious than those in Albania. One man tried to set me up with his son for about two weeks before I had my tutor step in on my behalf and tell him that I was not interested. Another man tried to convince me to teach him English as an initial reason for meeting me. The most current one, is actually the son of the man who tried to get me to meet his son. He showed up for my adult English class and not knowing who he was, I let him attend. Last night after class (which was not his class but my advanced one), he gave me a book. I told him I did not want it because it was in script and I can't really read script. He said no just keep it until next week. He left and I looked inside the book and there was an envelope. Inside the envelope was the following note:

Now how can a girl say no to a proposal like this? It reminds me junior high when people would send a note saying "Would you go out with me? Circle one: YES NO".

Since most girls will only have one or two proposals in their life, I feel pretty special that I have been proposed to more times than I would like to think about. However, I don't think this will be on the one I'll be accepting. I'm still holding out for the guy that actually speaks the same language as me (fluently), already has US citizenship, has seen me outside of class or other group activities and doesn't live at home with his parents. Maybe I'm being too picky but I figure I still have time to be picky. I haven't hit 30 yet where I have to start talking to my friends who promised me if we were both single at 30 we'd get married.

If any of you ladies reading this have other excellent PC proposal stories, let me hear them! I love a good proposal story before bedtime :)

For almost four years now, my life has been Peace Corps. What does that mean? It means that I never know what the day will hold for me. It means that you have to be flexible and 'go with the flow'. It means that you have to learn to laugh at yourself and be prepared to be the center of stares and whispers. It means that you are out of your element but learn to fit into other peoples. I have not known what my day would be like, let alone my week, month or year. I will be finishing my service with PC this year and that means change. Finally, I know what that change will be.

I was accepted into Alverno's Adult Education and Organizational Development graduate program! I will be coming home in time to do all the 'grown-up' things that I have been putting off all these years. I will have to find a job, an apartment, sign a phone contract, pay for health insurance, car insurance and think about my future by opening up an IRA, just to name a few. Not to mention I'll have to adjust to having a set schedule again. It's overwhelming and entirely exciting!

When I was getting close to finishing my service in Albania, I wasn't sure yet what I wanted to do with myself so I signed up for 2 more years. When I arrived in Morocco, I was pretty sure that what I wanted to do was social work. I still love helping people but what I think I love more is helping people help themselves. One of the expressions that you hear a lot when working on sustainable projects is "it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish". By earning my MA I will be able to do just that.

I am so happy that I finally know what my next big step will be after PC. I still have seven or so months here in Morocco and I have many things planned for that time. Grad school is something that I've known I wanted to do for awhile but it took me awhile to find the right program. This is my next big step. This will be my next adventure. This will be the start to my 'real world' life and I can't wait!

I’m currently reading Chronicle in Stone, by the famous Albanian author Ismail Kadare.  Set in WWII Albania, it’s a coming of age story told from the perspective of a young boy in Gjirokastёr.  While I’m not sure if the book would … Continue reading →

This past weekend I traveled to the village of Vevčani in Macedonia to experience their annual new year’s celebration and carneval. The festival takes place on the 13th – 14th of January each year, and it is supposedly a tradition that stretches back 1300 years or more. Fellow PCV Chris and I arrived in Vevčani on the [...]

Yes, I have lived in Albania for almost two years. While I feel “at home” here, everyday I am reminded that I am, most definitely, a foreigner. Even though they remain strange or foreign to me, there are a few things that no longer surprise me after so much time in Albania. I almost don’t notice when [...]

I came across this quote the other day that said: “Everyone has a ‘risk muscle.’ You keep it in shape by trying new things.  If you don’t, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.” At first I just chuckled and didn’t think much of this little saying, but because of all [...]

I’ve discussed my New Year’s celebration in Ohrid, Macedonia….but if you checked out my photos from the newest album you may have noticed that I also went to Kosovo recently. After spending time in Macedonia, I headed up to Prizren and Prishtina in Kosovë for a whirlwind two day tour. As volunteers we weren’t allowed [...]

  This past summer, as many of you know, my site mate received a partnership grant to revamp a park frequented by the majority of the kiddos in Gramsh. We are very grateful for the support provided by many of our friends and family. This past month the project has gained some serious momentum. Workers [...]

I think one of the reasons that my posts have slowed down is that life Albania has slowly become more normal and routine. Therefore, I don’t consider a lot of it blog worthy anymore. Back in the States, I never felt it necessary to tweet or blog about my everyday life because to most people [...]

So this weekend I woke up with a nasty cold. It's been building up to it so I kind of prepared myself not to do anything crazy this weekend.. not like that ever happens anyways. I spent the entirety of the weekend in bed, except today, when I had to go out for eggs. I slept.. a lot and also watched a lot of movies I have on my harddrive from other volunteers. It still freaks me out to see Albania referenced in things by surprise. Like on an episode of Family Guy or today during the movie "Inside Man" an Albanian tape was played of the former president and dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxha.

Most portrayals of Albania in American pop culture has a negative undertone, usually relating to mafia activity or trafficking. In the Family Guy Episode, Peter had just created his own country called "Petoria" and was at a U.N. meeting and sat in the back 'where countries no one cared about sat' and he was right beside of Albania. Now, Family Guy is known for its offensive humor but it was quite a surprise to have the country referenced at all. The most famous Albanian reference in American movies is probably the movie Taken where the Albanian mafia (specifically Tropoje) takes two American girls living abroad and sales them into sex trafficking. On that note, last week was International Trafficking Awareness Day and I came along this documentary on sex trafficking in Eastern Europe. It was very enlightening and appalling that this is going on so openly.

A movie I recommend for any of my friends and family to watch what Albania looks like, specifically the town that I live in is "Der Albaner" or "The Albanian." It's a German made film but is shot in Bajram Curri about two years ago and is about a young man who falls in love with a local village girl. He may not marry her though because he father has already promised her to another man who can pay a larger bride dowery for her. The two lovers find out that she is pregnant and her boyfriend travels illegally to Germany to try and make enough money to buy her from her family to wed her.

Click here to watch the movie that was taped in Bajram Curri and Valbona. If you can get past the different language thing and just watch the interactions and locations, it might give you a better idea of where I live. The high school of my town is there, a few bars, the border at Kosovo that I pass through every time I leave my town and some traditional Albanian homes, like the ones that are guesthouse in Valbona. It gives a truer depiction, in my opinion, of Albanian modern day life and the push and pull between the older generation and the current generation. I believe the movie won a few awards in independent film festivals, but for me it's pretty cool to see my town in a movie.

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This December World Vision in partnership with Peace Corps, the Ministry of Health and Red Cross sponsored a Health Fair Initiative which is exactly what is sounds like.  Each participating volunteer hosted  a Health Fair in their site as well as traveled to support fellow volunteers in their respective sites. The fairs were a great [...]

I have been back in Albania for almost 2 months now, but it still feels like I just stepped off the plane.  I remember having a lot of time to think on some of the most excruciating flights of my life (and let me remind you that includes flying back to America with a broken [...]

Forgive me while boastfully say, “I think I’ve adjusted pretty damn well to life in Albania.” Granted… many of my fellow volunteers may chide me for the “luxuries” that my site placement of Elbasan provides. And they are right, I am lucky/Jam me fat to live in a larger city that has supermarkets, fairly consistent electricity, 24-hour access to water and a wealth social gathering spots. Elbasan is also considered one of the “warmer” areas of Albania. (Those quotes are meant no disrespect to my dear friends who live up in the mountains and frequently face temps in the negatives.) But hey now! Come on… I’m a desert-dweller and 10 years in the Valley of the Sun has made me soft!

I may have you wondering, “Just how cold/f is it?” Well, the nightly lows are right around freezing, 0C or 32F and the highs range from 6-10C or 43-50F. Hey…I can hear you scoffing…Ugh, that’s not so bad! And well, true, it’s not. (Here comes the BUT!) But I’ve eluded before to construction in Albania. My apartment walls are made of pure concrete block and there is literally no insulation. Windows are usually single pane, and “leaky.” In addition, central heating is a RARE phenomena. This means that more often than not, the temperature inside my apartment is the same as the temperature outside! And NO JOKE…there are times in the mid-morning, when it’s actually warmer OUTSIDE! What was that? The sound of your mind being blown? I’ll give you a moment to re-group.

Now, let’s contine/Tani, le te vazhdojme. I’ve developed the greatest appreciation for what we in America so casually took for granted – Room Temperature (approx 68F.) Much of this information about climate was provided to us before leaving the US. So… I did pack accordingly…layers, long johns, hats, winter coats, wool socks…the whole she-bang! And... those with hearts bigger than Texas (yea…that’s right, BIGGER than Texas!) sent me some warm goodies. And I am quite certain that my well-intended mother has cleared out Kohl’s entire winter selection of FLEECE. Not even remotely an exaggeration.

Again, I’m a lucky one. My apartment is in great condition and my landlady takes great care to keep me warm, well-fed and happy! For heat, I have an electric unit. But as PCV’s with a TIGHT budget, this can be an expensive option. So it's only used in the COOOOOLDEST situations as a last resort. Usually, I crawl into my sleeping bag and bundle up. I have an *electric blanket that I use from time to time as well. So… truthfully, its not too difficult for me to warm up when I need to. (Here comes another BUT!) But, the low temps insidehave other effects…like how everything inside my apartment is cold too!

So here are some more reasons why I miss Room Temperature….and how I try to deal with it:

• Freezing tile floors: Slippers are essential if not popular! And its good practice to have enough for house guests too. When I don’t have my slippers on, I try to hop from one area rug to another!

• 3-day “dryer cycle”: Wait, I thought they didn’t have dryers in Albania? We don’t! We air dry… and in these cold days, its takes FOREVER.

• Take an outfit from the closet…COLD!: On the really cold mornings, I turn on my *electric blanket and lay my outfit folded inside. The first time I did this, I felt like a rocket-scientist.

• Chilly mouthwash and toothpaste: I let the Listerine just hangout in my mouth and warm from my body heat. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you try chilling your Scope and see how it feels!

• Frigid Deoderant: Clearly, I’m not strong enough for a “cold shower” to wake me up. But I do let the icy deodorant give me a jolt every morning!

• Frosty Toilet Seat: Yowzahs! The complete opposite of Hot, crossed buns! It’s gonna get a little personal here. Sheild your eyes if necessary. I don’t pull my pants down the whole way! I let them give me a little frost barrier on the edge of the seat and hope for minimal splash back. (Now I understand why Gramma Dunn liked those old-lady cushioned toilet seats!)

And finally, the best thing I can do when I’m cold in my apartment: Get OUT of my apartment! Kick around a soccer ball with the kids in my neighborhood. Browse the latest collections at the Gabi/Second-hand store. Go to a café and meet a friend for a coffee, hot cocoa or WINE! Challenge the old men in the park to a game of dominos. Go for a walk in the sun and strike up a conversation with a gramma/gjyshe who is selling her hand-knit wool socks. Buy a pair of wool socks! Accept an invitation to visit with my friend/shoqen time. To put it simply, be a good PCV!

Peace, Love and Finger-less Mittens!

*if you've accepted an Invitation To Serve as a future volunteer in Albania and arriving in March, DO NOT bring a US electric blanket. They don't do well with the voltage here. I found mine in Tirana for $25 US and it's perfect! Besides, use that space in your bag for something FUN! Oh...and CONGRATULATIONS!

So as ya'll should be able to guess I've never really had to deal with a real winter. Sure I've seen more snow than most Savannah natives and I've driven through a blizzard, but none of my experiences up until now have matched what I'm going through now. None have they even come close to being on the same level.

It snowed for three days straight the week before Christmas, and I am just now starting to see patches of my street. Most of Erseka is still covered in ice. A doctor friend of mine slipped last week and fell so hard he deflated his lung. The ice on my stairs made getting up and down from my apartment quite perilous for awhile there. This week the city workers started taking pickaxes to the sheets of ice covering the town. Some of those layers were several inches thick. Most days it doesn't get above freezing except in areas with direct sunlight.

Now I can hear you saying "Hey, man. Slow down, we have winter in the States. What makes Albanian winter so special?" My friends I haven't told you yet that Albanian winter gives everyone a special ability. As soon as December rolls around everyone is granted the ability to see their breath regardless of if they are inside or outside. That's right folks there is no such thing as Central Heating and Air here. Nor is there much in the way of insulated walls which means that quite often it is colder inside than out.

The only real way to negate this is to own a wood burning stove. I'm very fortunate that I have one of these. They are great and don't have that steep of a learning curve. Dealing with the wood can be a burden. You have to buy it, find a place to store it and have someone chop it up. The rituals of building a fire become a way of life. Every few weeks I take a stroll down to the sawmill to grab some kindling, then I spend an afternoon chopping and smashing it into small enough pieces to easily start fires.

There are many types of electric heaters in Albania but most of them are terrible. Many of them couldn't heat a small closet. They are very tricky pieces of technology. My friend Ian has one that doesn't heat his apartment at all but has managed to burn a shirt and a pair of long underwear.

I don't know how Albanians do it, but my fellow PCVs tend to move into whichever room has the stove in the winter. That means some of us spend 3 months living in our kitchens. Not a horrible existence ( at least there is always a snack nearby) but if you ever have to go into any other room in your house you have to grab a coat.

Don't even get me started on how wonderful the heating system is in my school.

This week marks 10 months of living in Albania as a PCV in COD (Peace Corps Volunteer in Community and Organizational Development). And all this time, I’ve been creatively dodging a popular question… “But WHAT is it that you ACTUALLY do!?” Well friends, the wait is finally over. (Sighs of relief are heard ‘round the world.)

First… A point of reference:

The 3 Goals of Peace Corps.

1) Helping people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2) Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3) Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Now… these are the World-wide Goals, and of course, each country has its own set of objectives for their specific needs. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all of them. (Sighs of relief are heard ‘round the world.) But I can tell you briefly, Albania is focused on building capacity of personnel in local governments, health centers and schools. My “official” role is COD-ing at the local government, specifically the Municipality of Elbasan/Bashkia Elbasan.

So, why have I been so reticent to talk about my work? Well….quite frankly, at first, it didn’t really feel like I was doing much! Hmmm…. Not exactly what you want to be reporting to the American tax-payers. D’oh! And, it was making me feel a little guilty. After all, the whole reason I joined Peace Corps was to DO SOMETHING! Even though I was trying to get involved, my wheels were just spinning. If you know me, you know how frustrating that must have been.

But as PCV’s, we are constantly reminded by our staff and colleagues that THIS IS NORMAL. Our first several months are less about projects and more about relationship-building, observation and cultural adaptation. (Hey does this sound anything like fundraising and resource development?) OK… of course, I can appreciate that. But, I am my father’s daughter and I do believe reckless impatience is hereditary. But recently, my begrudged patience has begun to payoff.

Today, I’ll focus on Goal 1, and other posts can address my “extra-curricular activities. Lest we forget, as a PCV, my job is not 9-5 Monday through Friday, but 24-7 Sunday to Sunday. I don’t have the option of turning off my community status “The American Girl/goca amerikane.” Therefore, Goals 2 & 3 become muddled between my professional and personal lives. This may be the only time in my life where I have ZERO work-life balance and actually embrace it!

So WHAT is it that I ACTUALLY do?!

I’m a consultant. I’m an advisor. I’m a morale booster. I’m a trainer. I’m a co-grant writer. “co” because with everything we do… we should be passing our expertise on to our Albanian counterparts. I’m a “what if we try it another way”-er. I’m and English speaker and quasi-tutor. (But I’m NOT an English teacher!) Essentially, I’m whatever the Municipality of Elbasan needs me to be (Hey oh!) Perhaps I should rephrase: I serve many roles based on my expertise and experience.

I participate in meetings about developing a “marketing strategy” to promote good work being done and future city improvements. I support a public/private committee of staff from the municipality and Elbasan non-profits charged with promoting volunteerism (which lead to a community-wide clean-up day pictured here.) I offer my suggestions on professional development needs, anything from presentation skills to using Excel (many financial reports are done by hand! Wha-wha-WHAT?!). I ask a lot of questions. Then I usually ask them again because I misunderstood the Shqip, or because something was lost in translation or because…things just change! I listen to staff express their frustrations with political challenges (although PCVs do not make political judgments!) In these cases, I try to encourage creative alternatives…or somedays, just let my colleagues vent. I join colleagues at seminars on project design and management so that we can learn and collaborate.

Does any of this truly serve Goal 1? I mean… how am I doing, here? At a conference, we were told, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Ummm. Errr. Well. Ugh. Am I making tangible changes in Local Government systems? Not exactly. Am I making a change among the people that I work closely with? I think so, a little. Will those little changes make a difference in their lives, their work, their contribution to their country? This is my sincere hope! And only time will tell.

Peace, Love and Making it Count

PS: The concept of measuring impact always makes me think of the very wise, very much respected Debra K. Stevens, begging the question, “But HOW can we measure JOY!?”

PPS: It also makes me think of the very wise and very much respected David Saar who served as a PCV in Sierra Leon in the late 1960’s teaching English, among other things. He received a phone call in 2010 from one of his students…who had become… oh JUST THE COUNTRY’S PRESIDENT! Confirmation that the seeds we plant as volunteers do grow strong and mighty! :)

The emotional roller coaster of living abroad..

Metta World loves Peace Corps nickname

Freed from Gauntanamo, Chinese man makes pizza in Tirane

Prosecutors seek jail for former Albanian PM

Tirana airport to add another terminal

After returning from traveling outside of Albania, I must admit, my life here has taken some getting used to again.. This has been my first week back to work and it's been pretty hectic to say the least in the Bashkia the first full week of the year. I'm still going to staff meetings every morning at 8:00am. Staff meetings that about 90% I don't understand, but I think just showing up every morning and sitting in them and actually being there is something. Every morning, once the Mayor has gone through everyone else and asks them if they have any problems or concerns he looks back at the back chair at me and says, "Brenna, a keni problem?" Every morning I respond with a "jo, falimenderit" and the meeting is adjourned. That little interaction has led to many coffees together and shume respekt, I guess just the fact I show up every morning and just around town in general, the town's pretty small and word gets around fast. I wonder what will happen that one wonderous day I do have a question or a problem.. My office has now moved to the mayor's reception office where I sit on a couch and use a coffee table for a desk but you know, I don't hate it. I'm right in the mix of things and people that see me in the Bashkia also see me on the street and recognize me as a worker in the Bashkia which is nice, as an American to be integrated and as a woman to have some sort of respect as a worker outside the home.

Anyways, today there was a feste for 21 years of Democracy in which I was supposed to take pictures for the Bashkia's website.. Since the auditorium filled up quickly and I was snapping photos of the circle dancing outside, I cut my losses and went to coffee with some women I work with who also didn't get in. During coffee I was asked to marry two different people, someone's son and someone's brother. The fact that I'm not married or not engaged by the age of 23 still comes as a shock to most Albanian's, especially women, but not today. I sat a table with the two women who were trying to marry me off, both of which were married, a woman who, I would guess, is in her 50's and has never been married and a woman, guessing again, who is around 25 or 26 and not married. How refreshing it was to not be questioned to death once I reviled my singleness and once I said "No, I'm not married, maybe later" and "No thank you for the offer of your son, I'm independent," that it was totally dropped. I was beginning to worry I had lost my mojo, matter of fact my 'foreign appeal' because I hadn't gotten a marriage proposal offer in a while. Glad to know I still got it, even though I wasn't sure I wanted it until I thought I'd lost it.

Anyways, after coffee I tried to go back to the celebration to try and snap some photos of the inside of the auditorium. Well, remember me ignorantly thinking some of my foreign appeal had worn off after being here for 8 months? Wrong. I walked through a sea of young boys who couldn't get into their favorite lokal after school to get a soda because it was closed off. The door was open, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, the sea of people literally parted. Filled with screams of "she works for the Bashkia" and "clear the road, have respect for the American" oh, and "she has to take pictures for the mayor, watch out!" (Sidenote: you'll notice in all the photos of the mass swarms of people leaving and entering, they're all men). At one point I think my feet left the ground as a few men lifted me to the front of the crowd. The level of respect I have for the people in my community continues to grow as their Albanian hospitality continues to shine through, even if sometimes it's overbearing (force fed, not being let pay for anything, being let to the front of 100's of locals). Sure there's a rat kid thrown in there every once and a while or an older man who stares just a little too long for comfort, but honestly, some of the most hospitable people I've met in my life have been in Bajram Curri; minus the fact that a line at the ATM or in general in public doesn't seem to be part of common courtesy.

I was talking to Kim online and she told me about going to see her landlord for the first time since we got back from our trip and she sniffed one time and he took her to the pharmacy, bought her medicine, went and got a space heater out of his own house, replaced the bulbs and took it to her home. If someone could find me a landlord in America that would do that, consider it rented.

I’ve been saving this gem of a text message for months: “She has a motorcycle in her bathroom!” To explain: as volunteers, we rent houses/apartments/rooms – and every volunteer’s living situation is different.   Cities differ, availability differs, landlords differ. … Continue reading →

Since being home a lot of people have asked me what my day-to-day work in Albania includes, but honestly I was just starting to figure it out before I hurt myself…  There will definitely be more to come on projects in the future, but here are just a few pictures of some projects we have [...]

So, I have to admit that these blog posts and I haven’t really been getting along (it is a work in progress I guess!), and it doesn’t help that before I even got to Albania I was pretty reluctant to start a blog.  I wanted to be anti-technology, live in the moment, yada yada yada…  [...]

When I was in Thailand a few years ago I bought this simple painting from some hippy expat that says “Everything is funny… If you wait long enough.”  I have placed this picture above my bed in every apartment I have lived in as a reminder that things are never as bad as they seem, [...]

Now that training is over and I am officially a Peace Corp volunteer I figured it was about time I tried to write a blog…. Sorry it took me 3 months!  Here it goes…. I feel like my time in Albania truly began the day I was taken to my host family in Belsh.  I [...]

I resisted this blog thing for awhile, but enough people convinced me I should give it a try…. So here it goes…. Albania in T-6 days!  Right now I am too busy to post anything too exciting because I figure going to work and packing should be my priority right now!  Also, none of it [...]