Pictures from our field day are on their way...

Group Community Project

All 40 of the volunteers are split into groups of about 5 or 6 and live in different villages. Each group was required to design and implement a community project. It serves as more of a practice on how to build relationships, plan and work with Albanians, and assess resources available. Our group decided that sense we had classes in the high school everyday, but had little opportunity to speak with the students that we should include them into our project. Also, one of the volunteers' host father is the director of the hospital. So naturally we wanted to utilize that resource. We were "planning" on having the director of the hospital come to the school and speak for 10-15 minutes about being healthy/exercise/pollution etc. then follow it up with a field day which would include several American games. ( the egg toss, 3-legged race, and the bat spin relay.)

We thought we had communicated that we wanted 12 students from each grade to participate in the competition, but unfortunately instead of having around 50 students show up we had around 300. There were far too many people for the director to speak and it was very difficult to keep them all out of the way when we wanted to have the games. However, I'm not sure the kids have ever had an event like that planned for them because everyone wanted to be in it and I think everyone had a great time. It was definitely nice to finally interact with the kids who had been so curious about us for so long.

It's been a while

Thursday, May 17, 2007:

Eeep! I just looked at the date of my last post and feel the need to offer my apologies to anyone who has yet to lose interest in my very slowly developing blog. I would offer excuses but I’m afraid I have none. I’ve been quite busy and that has allowed me to fall into somewhat of a routine. Things have also been quite uneventful. I think the initial culture shock wore off and the pile of work on my desk has piled up…both aren’t very conducive to trying to write often. This weekend will mark two months and its past like a blink of the eye. My training is starting to wrap up and boy and I ready to be at my post. Last weekend I took a trip to my future site and I couldn’t be more pleased. Driving through the western flats of Albania is not very appealing if you’re seeking out good scenery, but about 5 minutes before you get to the coastal city of Vlore the foothills turn into mountains and the dry arid fields turn into lush green hills. The road bends around a few hills and it offers the first views of the Adriatic Sea and the city. The city itself is nothing out of the ordinary but its location is certainly something to write home about. (or post in your blog about) I was invited to be at the event planned by the municipality that kicks off the summer season. We spent most of the day at the beach swimming, playing cards and jumping off of the old communist dictator’s seaside house into the water. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures so I cannot yet post them, but I will be living there for two years so rest assured…they will be posted.
I suppose since it’s been nearly a month I haven’t yet posted about what my job in Vlore will be. I’ve been assigned to work in the Bashki (municipality) in the department of tourism.

This is what was given to me in a packet describing my service:

The PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) will be expected to work with four priority areas as follows:
1. Tourism development
2. Cultural Preservation
3. Youth development
4. NGO coordination

Specific Job Tasks:

Working with Youth Center
Helping and coordinating youth efforts to participate in the process of improving the transparency of the Bashkia toward the citizens in Vlora.
Participation of the youth in improving the Cultural services
Helping and coordinating the mobilization of the students of Vlora University and high schools also
helping in organization and coordination of Youth activities in Vlora
Sharing the American views on youth development with Vlora young people.
Working on tourism
Helping the day to day operations of the tourism office
The coordination of the info gathering and sharing among NGOs and Tourism sector of bashkia and other related entities
Helping with development and the process of publishing a news letter
Helping the process and find the appropriate ways of gathering information from connected entities
Coordinate the process of getting students involved in tourism issues
Help in staff management
Help in internship involvement
Help in preparing and implementing the seasonal tourism activities
Working with Non for Profit organizations
Coordinating the activities and strengthening links between bashkia and NPOs
Helping in the process of needs assessment and priority setting of the NPO sector in Vlora
Working with Programming department
Helping the process of public participation and urban planning

I’m afraid this post has become dry quite quickly. Really the only exciting story that I can offer is my experience killing our dinner. About three nights ago my mother came into my room sharpening a knife. I was reading but she told me to come outside. I followed her and there was my host brother holding a chicken. She handed me the knife and told me I had to kill it. I think she meant they wanted me to. I was pretty reluctant at first since I had never done something like that before; eventually I ended up doing it. I had always heard the phrase “they’re running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off” but I never had the opportunity to actually see a chicken run around with its head cut off…until then. I have to say I’m shocked. I definitely thought it was something that lasted no more than a few seconds.
Well a few hours and a good chicken soup later it made for a good story.
The pictures I have posted along with this entry are from the town I am spending my training in. I did not take these pictures so I need to give credit to one Robert Adamski. I also want to thank everyone who has left me a comment. I haven’t had the time to post but I have read what you have written and it truly makes my day every time I read one. Thank you.
I hope you all are doing well and I hope to hear more comments!

To my devoted fans...

Thank you so much for the posts and encouragement. It is very much appreciated. I have much to post about but am extremely busy, so my apologies. I found out my placement for the next two years yesterday. I am going to be working in Vlore, a large Mediterranean city on the sea. I will be working in the Bashkia (municipality) helping with tourism and cultural preservation. I will be sure to write more about it this week. I will not have an opportunity to use the internet until the week after next.
I'm sure I will have lots to report on my next postings.

Again, thank you for all the comments, I love and miss you all.

Michael

Weekend memories

Sunday, April 08, 2007:

I find myself accepting the fact that this place is my home more and more every day. This is my third full weekend in country and the people and country is growing on me, more than I probably know. This weekend several of us decided to host our first volunteer social; inviting all the other volunteers to our city in hopes to sit around, have some wine, good food, and conversations that could be about anything and everything.
Yesterday we had 17 people come, which is about half of the whole group. There is a nice little restaurant on the end of the lake that is away from town that has a very nice patio. We sat outside for a few hours to just socialize. More often than not I found myself in between groups of conversations just listening, just watching, just taking in everything; it was a comfortable seclusion. It was great to see other volunteers, and have an event that was not mandatory for the Peace Corps.
Today Rob, one of my site mates, and I took the hour furgon trip into Elbasan for a tour of the city from a volunteer who is currently serving there. I’ve tried to think about how to describe the city, but I’m afraid my words won’t give it justice. The history of this place is phenomenal.
On the way home we happened to catch a furgon home with an English speaking Albanian. After answering many of his questions on the drive home we invited him to coffee to continue the conversation. It is very humbling to hear some of the stories these people have to share. This particular man is married, his wife lives in the same village as I do, but he is forced to work in Greece 9 months out of the year because of the lack of jobs in Albania. He rarely sees his family and works as many hours as he can. Sadly this story is one of many that exist in Albania. It is so difficult to respond to someone who is searching for opportunity, while I’m handed an opportunity of a lifetime on a silver platter. How can I not come off as condescending or arrogant?
While the lack of money and the existence of poverty punches you in the face when you step off the plane, what you learn once you’ve spoken with a few Albanians is that they are very wealthy in love. The pride they have in their country, the love they have for their family, and respect they have for the people and culture is worth more than all the money in the world to these people. And I cannot begin to describe how much I admire that.

Weekend in Fier

Friday morning a site mate of mine and I were to set off to Fier by bus. Fier was a city I knew nothing about and in all honesty I was quite jealous of the volunteers who were going to much more glamorous cities in Albania for their site visit. We arrived to Fier with few problems; the largest being that the bus we were to take was 3 hours late. My first impressions of Fier are not worthy of being noted, as they do not represent what the city is appropriately. Andrew (my site mate) and I were relieved to meet the two volunteers we were going to be sharing the next two nights with. The city of Fier really took me by surprise. It is one of Albania’s largest cities and is quite nice. Just beyond the outskirts of the city is an oil refinery, so the water is polluted, aside from that it is a very beautiful city. Most of the streets near the city center are boulevards that are nicer than those I’ve seen in America. High rise apartment buildings were being erected every so often, and we spent most of the first night in one of the city parks just chatting.
I was infinitely surprised by the size of one of the volunteer’s apartment; it is as big as my host family’s house. We spent the first evening cooking dinner and watching movies on a projector borrowed from the library.
Saturday rolled around and we decided we would prepare for a camping excursion on the beaches of the Adriatic. We planned to take a furgon to the edge of the city then walk the rest of the way; a few miles. After walking for 5 minutes an Albanian man drove by, stopped, and offered us a ride to the beach. On the way he offered to take us for coffee, then treated us to more once we arrived at the beach. After about 3 hours of talking, most of that time was spent trying to convince this man we were American. The two other volunteers spoke such good Albanian he refused to believe we were from anywhere but Albania. We pitched our tents, gathered wood, built a fire, and then spent the night doing the things associated with camping.
During the evening stories were told, questions were asked, but most of all the barrier between trainee and volunteer was broken. We told jokes, had beers, roasted sausages, shared sentiment and discussed parallel ideology. Throughout the evening I thought about many things; about how happy I was I decided to sign up for the site visit, but mostly, how since I’ve entered Albania I’ve experienced such a surprising amount of gleeful times at moments that they are most unexpected. We spent much of the evening laughing, and once the cold midnight air prevailed over our modest fire we retreated to our tents.
I’d like to take the time to discuss the bunkers that are sprinkled all over Albania. The leader of the communist reign in Albania had an immense fear of invasion. These fears lead to the construction of concrete bunkers all over the country. It is common to have a dozen concrete pillboxes strategically placed within a picturesque landscape. I’ve heard there are some 300,000.
The beaches were lined with these bunkers. Although the most captivating and I’d say appropriate, aspect of these bunkers had nothing to do with their presence on the beach but location. Over the years the sea level has risen, so the marks of communism are not only being swallowed by time, but also by the sea. I took some solace in this small observation.
When day broke I awoke with the sun. I spent most of the morning perched on the bunkers, losing track of my thoughts and dazing into dreams that were on sync with the tide. My state of mind volleyed between vertigo and euphoria. My mood could best be described as melancholy. I spent the first hours of that day quite peacefully.
The weekend came to an end all too quickly and since I’ve returned nothing has occupied my mind more than the freedom I experienced in Fier. Tomorrow I learn where my site placement will be and my anxiety level is at an all time high. One thing I have taken away from this trip that I can apply immediately is to not judge where I may be going on any preconceived notion. I knew nothing about Fier and had the time of my life.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007:

Today marks 3 full weeks in country. The last few days the weather has been beautiful and we have been as busy as ever. The Peace Corps has planned a weekend trip for current trainees to stay and visit with current volunteers. I am going to the city of Fier (pronounced Fear) Friday with one of my site mates from Belsh. Today we had language class for about 5 hours in the morning then had a meeting with our community development coordinators. After lunch Rob, Andrew and I took a walk around the town to do some more exploring.
We went to a part of town we had never been to and came across what appeared to be an abandoned school. It was a typical communist building with very brutal concrete construction. We were curious and started to poke around, and in trying to figure out how to get into the building we met 3 kids playing soccer. They told us they were playing soccer inside and invited us to join. For 30 minutes we played on the second floor of this school, the inside was in shambles and there was dirt and hay everywhere. We played around concrete columns and a few times the ball was kicked out of broken windows and needed to be fetched. I hadn’t the slightest idea I could’ve had so much fun when I set out on the walk and it was probably the best time I’ve had here in Albania.After a tough week of stress and a few downs a fun, social, active engaging activity was something that really boosted my spirits. Although things of late have gotten me down a little, I am really starting to feel at home here. I can’t say enough how great the people are. Every now and then an Albanian man will approach me and speak in English. I’ve had many free coffees shared with these men. And the best part of my day is when I walk down the street towards my house and pass a store where two little girls live. They must be between the age of 5 and 8, but every day when I walk past they always run from the back of the building to the porch and yell “HELLOOOOO” waving and smiling from ear to ear. It must be the only English word they know, but there has yet to be a day that I haven’t had the blessing of seeing those two girls greet me on my way home. Regardless of how upset or stressed I may be, that always lifts my spirits