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Thursday, August 22, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
My Weekend = Music, Dance, Politics, and Kosovo
My oh my, have I had a good weekend or what? Phew! It’s been a busy one, that’s for sure.
The fun began on Friday with a visit from one of the coolest girls in Albania…...Kat from Has! Woohoo! Extreme North reunited! We all met up for coffee at our favorite cafe, the main hotel in B.C. where we discovered that B.C. was hosting a huge music festival that weekend. How freaking perfect timing is that, huh?
Around 6pm, we followed the noise that filled up the city, towards the giant outdoor basketball arena near the entrance of town. It was packed! We had to sneak around the outside to find a place to see because it was so packed. The festivities began with many groups of traditional dancers and singers. We recognized many of the steps because earlier that week, one of our favorite restaurant servers gave us private lessons on how to do the traditional “Circle Dance” of the Tropoje region.
After a while, one of the female singers, who looked very confident on stage and really got the attention of the crowd, started to speak in Albanian. We didn’t understand any of it except when she mentioned “Teke lolli” which happened to be the most popular song in Albania along with what I would argue to be the song of Group 16’s PST experience. We all looked at each other with blank stares. Ian then said, “Wait, is that the Teke Lolli girl?” Then, all of a sudden, the song begins! “No Way!” I said. It was her! Everyone in the crowd began to cheer and sing along. She jumped off stage and walked around the arena engaging the audience. What was even cooler was when it came to the rapping part of the song (Ian has a deal with some other PCV’s that he will preform the rap part in the PC talent show in the fall), the actual rapper guy showed up on stage and started to sing! Wow two Albanian celebrities in Bajram Curri? Could this be real? We all got really into it, dancing and singing along. After they were done, we were so pumped that we wanted to wiggle our way down into the arena and hopefully meet these famous Albanians. When we got to the bottom of the stage area, we noticed Luke’s counterpart and a few of the police officers that we knew. They noticed us and guess what…..they let us come in! No questions asked! We felt like celebrities at that point! Of course, the Americans can come sit by the famous singers, the major, and everyone else that is important. It was awesome!
Another thing that was really cool was when we all went up to go take a picture with the Teke Lolli girl, when she saw that we were American’s she got really excited and hopped out of her chair to take a picture with us. It was almost just as much of a joy for her to get a picture with the Americans as it was for us to get a picture with a famous Albanian. It was pretty cool.
Kat and I recognized a few more singers that we had seen on Albanian TV. We couldn’t get over how we were put on the same level of importance as these celebrities. As the night carried on, the celebrities left, but we stayed around to celebrate and dance with the locals. At one point we were dancing with the major and some of the police officers. It was quite funny! I even met a local that was a famous ballet dancer. He told me how he has performed all around the world including New York, Texas, Paris, and London. He practiced some moves with me, including throwing me in the air! I felt like a ballerina! :)
After all the groups had preformed, the major invited us to the exclusive after-party. How cool is that? So of course we went! There was food, dancing, celebrating, etc. It was a good old time! After about a few hours, we headed home to rest up. Sali Berisha, the current Prime Minister of Albania was coming the next day and we didn’t want to miss it!
The next morning, I woke up to pounding Albanian music, right outside my window. Whe I looked out my bathroom window, I saw a stage sitting right in the middle of the main street. “Where did that come from?” I thought. Sometimes I wonder what Albanian’s do at night. Do they sleep at all?
We all met up at my place where Kat and I cooked an “American” breakfast for all of us. Yum, yum,yum, yum, YUUUUMMM! We made scrambled eggs, banana pancakes (with Nutella and peanut butter on top, of course!), a failed attempt at hash browns, and delicious Turkish coffee. Ok, well the last one is Albanian, but you get my point ;).
We enjoyed our breakfast as we listened to more famous Albanian singers preform their hits that we heard countless times during furgon rides. Then, just as we finished our breakfast, we heard a deep, power voice echoing through the town. We all took turns peaking out of the bathroom window to see the Prime Minister speak. We didn’t go down to the event, because 1. we couldn’t really understand anything, 2. we didn’t want to get involved in any political situation that would make Americans look bad, and 3. we had a way better view from my bathroom window.
We chilled the rest of the day, watching movies and listening to music. Ian even got to teach Kat chess which he was sooooo excited for! Good for him!
On Sunday, we woke up early. Since the moment we all got assigned to live in the North, we had been planning get-aways to Kosovo. And today was our first opportunity. We ate a quick breakfast and met up at the furgon stop just outside my apartment. Thankfully Kat was there to remind us to bring our passports because all three Bajram Curri-ers forgot theirs. Hahah.
It was a hot day! A REALLY hot day! I was sweating in the furgon ride there and it wasn’t even the peak hours of the day yet!
When we made it into Gjakove, my heart started racing. I was so excited to explore be in another country and to explore a new city. And that’s exactly what we did. We walked all around the city. We dominated that city! We saw a few statues and buildings, none of which looked like the type of thing you’d see in a tourist city. But I liked that. It made the city even more beautiful knowing that it wasn’t a popular tourist destination.
Gjakove is known for it’s endless sales on clothes and household items. Unfortunately most shops were closed because it was Sunday, but we did find an awesome cafe called Cacoo where we all enjoyed some foods we missed from back home. Kat and I enjoyed some tasty fruit smoothies, while Luke and Ian got some awesome sandwiches with some delicious apple-smoked bbq sauce. YUM!
Afterwards, we headed to the Supermarket! WOOHOO! One thing that you learn to love when you live in a small, foreign city is the Supermarket! Man’s greatest invention ;). Unfortunately, the monster of supermarkets was closed that day, but we did find a pretty decent one with many things from back home including hot sauce (Albanians hate spicy food), a few cooking spices, granola, and cacao powder. It’s funny how these things have become a luxury to use. Cheers to living life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. :)
After our shopping spree in the supermarket, we walked a little but more. As we were walking past a pharmacy, the lady that owned the shop called out to us. “Are you American?” Kat replied “Yep.” She hurried toward us with excitement. “Which state are you from?” she asked. “I’m from Colorado,” I said. Kat pointed to Luke and said “We’re from Arizona.” “OH, ARIZONA,” the women gasped, “My nephew lives in Phoenix.” Luke jumped into the conversation and said, “I’m from a city just outside of Phoenix.” Then the women got really excited. She invited us into her store where she continued to talk about her nephew. She insisted that she call him up to tell him that she’d met Americans from Arizona. We all kind of stood around as she hurried for the phone. If the situation wasn’t weird enough already, she was calling her nephew back in the states where it was literally 3:00am. After a few tries, she finally got ahold of him. She then handed the phone to Luke, as if they already knew each other. We watched as Luke tried to make the situation less awkward. He told us afterwards that the nephew was really confused about what was going on. But, it was very sweet how excited the lady got about seeing Americans. She was a very lovely person and I know that if we see her next time we visit Gjakove, she will be very warm and friendly to us again.
After that experience, we headed back to the furgon stop to head back to Bajram Curri. We were very excited to get back and cook the foods we had just bought.
Overall, it was an awesome weekend! I’m so happy that my weekends are so packed with stuff to do. I feel like I’m making the most of time while I’m here in Albania and I love it!
Now, you’ll just have to wait and see what I have planned for next weekend….Moohahaha. :)
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Valbona Monday
Just before getting to the town itself, we stopped at a small local on the side of the dirt road. This was my first real look at the river. I’ve never seen a river as blue as this one! All 20 or so of us strolled into this hidden local, which I thought was for a short coffee/raki break before heading to the town (it’s very common for furgons to take short coffee/raki/food breaks in the middle of their travels). However, when we all took our seats at the tables and couches inside, my counterpart looks at me and calls our “Hajde, hajde Jennifer.” (Come, come). So I stood up and followed her and another specialist that I knew in our office to the bartender/local owner. There, my counterpart handed her a sheet with information about water safety and proper sanitation for preparing food (which I thought was about environmental health before getting there). Her and the other specialist continued talking about the topic (or so I believe) for a few minutes and then my landlord, who is also one of my co-workers, came up the the bar with two small, empty bottles. He filled each of the bottles with water from the tap. As I stared at him in confusion, my counterpart turned to me and said “Laboratory” and then it all came to me! We were here to test the water levels of different locals, not a promotional event!
So after taking a few photos, we headed back on the bus towards Valbona. The rest of the day, we stopped at each of the locals and did the same routines. Some of the locals were restaurants and hostels as well. So, part of our job included going to one of the guest rooms and evaluating the cleanliness of them. This basically consisted of taking a quick walk through of the rooms and looking at each other for confirmation that it was clean. “Mirë, mirë” was usually the response (Good, good). Oh, and of course my co-worker took pictures of all the rooms and bathrooms….for official documentation of course ;). It was quite an interesting experience.
One of the stops we made was at the main tourist information building which had a basketball court outside. While many enjoyed a coffee break, a few of my colleagues and I decided to play a game. I has dressed all nice since this technically was a work event, but that didn’t stop me from running around that court, kicking some booty. :)
After visiting a few more locals/restaurants, we headed back to one of the first places we stopped and had a HUGE lunch feast. We ended the meal by doing some traditional Circle Dancing around the dance floor. At this point I could tell that this was a big event for my office. Only about 5 of us actually did work, and the others just came for the ride. But I could tell that this was a great way for community bonding in the workplace. Everyone was enjoying themselves.
After circle dancing for about an hour, the electricity went out, which means time-to-go in Albania. So we all packed into the minibus and headed back to the city.
So yeah, that was my day at work yesterday. :)
Monday, June 10, 2013
Weekend Hike
This weekend, Ian, Luke, and I decided to explore the mountain ranges surrounding us by going on a hike. We had been talking about this ever since site announcements, so we were all very excited and anxious for the adventure, especially since most of the mountainous area around us has not been damaged or touched by humans. Let’s just say Albanian’s think Americans are crazy because they get pleasure from walking up mountains. That’s one of my goals in Peace Corps; to show as many Albanians as I can that outdoor activities are not only good for your health but can always be very fun.
Because not many people hike here, trails are kind of difficult to find. We had to some how create our own paths. Saying that, at the beginning of the hike, we saw a mountain that looked like it had a road carved into it. So we headed in that direction. When we got to the point where we were at the bottom of the mountain, we tried to follow what looked like a path towards the peak. As the path got steeper and steeper, we realized that this was no path at all. Instead, it must have been a dried up river or some sort of water path that came from the top of the mountain. At one point, we were definitely rock climbing without ropes and gear because of the steepness. But it didn’t last long. Since we basically climbed the mountain vertically, it only took us like 45 minutes to reach the actual trail of the mountain. But, we made sure to record our amazing spiderman abilities by marking our initials in one of the boulders of the mountain.
We continued to follow the path deeper into the mountains until we came across a man and his sons who were relaxing behind a few trees, picking some leaves for what I’m guessing this their family’s tea business. When they first shouted out “Mirëdita” to us, I had no idea where the voice was coming from. But then I heard some moving of the trees right next to me and just through the vines of leaves, I saw them all sitting, smiling in together, enjoying the shade as they took a break from work.
Now, in America it might be a little awkward to go up to complete strangers in the middle of the mountains and to have lunch with them. But, here in Albania, it kinda felt natural. So that’s what we did. We climbed through the branches and stumps and made our way to where they were sitting. We made small talk (as much as we could with our language skills) and found out they lived in a village very close to Bajram Curri and that they knew the past 3 PC volunteers. The man made some friendly jokes about us liking to hike and how the past volunteers liked to run. Extreme physical activity and exercising for fun is such a foreign idea to their culture. For them, men do the physical work in the garden or at work, and the women stay home and do the housework. Other than that, what good is doing extra physical activity if it has no benefits? Goal number 2 of mine while I’m here in Albania. Although, in the bigger cities, more and more are easing up to the idea of exercising for health and for fun. Many places have gyms or places for people to do exercise. Bajram Curri unfortunately does not……..for now. :)
After finishing our lunch, we said our good-byes and they directed us to the safest path to get back to the city. We did get a little lost heading back because their was no distinct path. Thankfully, we could see the city in the distance and we knew that in the worst case scenario, we could knock on one of the doors of the few houses that we pasted by along our route and ask for directions. But it didn’t come to that. We made it back just fine. Overall, it was a great, small adventure to start off our stay in the beautiful mountainous area of Albania.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
First Week of Work
I just finished my first week of work at the health center here in Bajram Curri and it wasn’t as easy as I thought. Sure, there’s not a lot of busy work being done (which is typical for Albanian culture) but there’s a lot of sitting around and chatting. In my case, the chatting only lasted about an hour and then my counterpart would send me home. And after being away from Albanian Language classes for almost two weeks and hardly speaking a word of it since, jumping into a full-albanian speaking workplace was very overwhelming.
Avash, avash! Starting something new is always the hardest part. For now, the only thing that it going on in my head is:
:)
Monday, June 3, 2013
Swearing In! I am an Official Volunteer!
YAAAAAAAAY! WE DID IT! This past Thursday, me and the other trainees officially became volunteers when we took the oath at our Swearing In ceremony. It was a nice ceremony, which took place at the historical Skampa Theater in Elbasan. We had many speakers including the governor of Elbasan and Earl Wall, the PC country director. Also, three of the volunteers also gave speeches IN SHQIP! It was unbelievable! All their practicing showed off because they sounded like natives! It was great.
And guess what?! We even had a celebrity there! Well, a celebrity to the Albanians. It was none other than the U.S. Ambassador, Alexander Arvizu. Never heard of him? Well, each and every Albanian goes all starstruck when he enters the room. He was the one that got to swore us in to be volunteers.
After the ceremony, we got to see his fame in action as everyone hurried on stage and gathered around him to get photos. It was really funny because he was open to taking pictures, but he tried so hard to make it about the volunteers rather than himself. He’s a very sweet man.
Now here’s a funny story…
So, when Ian and I went up to the Ambassador to get a photo with him, we said hello and introduced ourselves. He began by asking the same standard questions like “Where are you from?” and “Where will you be serving?” We answered politely while trying not to move our mouths too much since there were like 4 cameras pointing at us, trying to get good photos of us. After snapping a few, Ian turns to the Ambassador and tells him that his father grew up in Colorado Springs (which we had learned from the previous time we met the Ambassador that he also grew up in Colorado Springs). The ambassador got intrigued and asked “Which high school?” Ian tells him. The ambassador shouts of “No way?! I went there too. What year did your father graduate?” Ian fumbles a little while trying to guess what exact year his father graduated (I mean, who in the world knows the year their parents graduated from high school?) Ian guesses “Maybe ’73 or ‘74”.” Then the ambassador’s face got really excited! You have to remember that we’re standing next to the ambassador, surrounded by eager Albanians who are desperate to get a picture with him and here we are stealing his attention. Then the ambassador replies, “No way?! What’s his name?” Just as Ian tells him the name, the ambassador’s face lights up. He then shouted, “Get out of here?! I was really good friends with him! He was ahead of the German club and I was ahead of the Spanish club!”
How freaking crazy is that? What a freaking small world! I mean, what are the chances that Ian and I were placed for the Peace Corps in the one country that’s U.S. ambassador is none other than Ian’s father’s good friend from high school? W-E-I-R-D!
But I thought the funniest thing of all happened after we realized this crazy coincidence. The ambassador looks at Ian and says, “You’re father didn’t come to the 20th (or whatnot) reunion. I was very disappointed.” It was as should have known why his father ditched the event. SO FUNNY! Wow! Way to disappoint! Hahaha. jk.
So yeah, that was the Swearing In ceremony. The following day, we said goodbye to all the volunteers and PST staff and headed to Tirana for one last fun day before heading to Bajram Curri. We met up with the other Extreme North Group + Miranda and Mark (that’s what we like to call ourselves since we know we are going to be spending a lot of time with each other) and spent the day living it up in Tirana. We crashed at Marty’s new apartment (a fellow new volunteer) and then headed up to Bajram Curri the next day. It was a great way to start off our lives as official volunteers!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Site Visit - Welcome to Bajram Curri!
You know the feeling you get when you’re in your car on the way to your first day at a brand new job? You can feel the wings of all the butterflies filling your stomach will nerves. Yet, at the same time, you can feel your heart pounding with with excitement to meet everyone and show them your skills. You’re mind is racing as you think of how to present yourself, telling yourself to remember to smile and to not make a fool of yourself. This is exactly how I felt last week as the week of our Site Visit began.
After the big announcement of our future sites a few week ago, all the volunteers could think about was going to their sites and seeing where they’d be living for the next two years. Who will I be working with? How big is the city? Will I have a turkish toilet? Will anyone speak English? These were just a fraction of the questions racing through my head in the days leading up to the Site Visit event.
To make the introduction into the work life of Albanians, the Peace Corps staff organized a Counterpart Conference to take place the day before heading to our future sites. And, they spared no expense with this conference. The staff booked hotel rooms for all of the trainees and our counterparts at the most luxurious resort hotel in Durres, a city about 30 minutes south of Tirana. Now, luxurious in Albania is nothing like luxurious in America. But, nonetheless, the hotel was very beautiful with a buffet breakfast, a ginormous heated swimming pool, and pathways leading directly to the beach. Plus, I got to take an actual real shower (in which I mean continuous hot water and more than a slow drip of water pressure) for the first time since the beginning of PST. It almost felt as if I was back in the states for a night.
We arrived in Durres in the afternoon on Monday. All of our counterparts had already arrived and had been in a few sections with our Program Coordinators. As I gathered my luggage and headed to my room, I kept peaking around at the groups of people chatting near the hotel restaurant, trying to anticipate which counterpart was mine. From the pack of information I received, the only information about my counterpart that I had was that it was a women named Valdete and that the past health volunteer in Bajram Curri enjoyed working with her. So basically, I had nothing to base my predictions on. :)
After an hour or so, it was time to meet our counterparts. And of course, all the Americans arrived at our meeting spot 15 minutes early, wearing their best clothes. And, just like typical Albanians, all the counterparts began to show up exactly on time. Right away, our Project Managers began pairing us up with our future counterpart. When Darina, my project manager, shouted my name, my heart began to race. “This is it!” I thought to myself, “The person that I will be working with for the next two years!” She guided me to towards a woman dressed in business-casual attire, with her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail. I could tell just by her aura that she was a very polite women. “This is Valdete, your counterpart in Bajram Curri,” Darina said to me and then left to continue with the introductions. I immediately began reciting all the common phrases I had been practicing in Language Class for the past week. “Mirëdita! Unë jam Jenny. Unë jam nga Colorado në Amerika.” (Good Day! I am Jenny. I’m from Colorado in America). She responded back by telling me some simple information about herself. But after all the phrases I learned had run-out, I could feel the awkward silence, that I had secretly trying to avoid, start to creep up upon us. I looked around at all the other volunteers and their counterparts. I heard many of them reciting the same questions in Albanian that I had just said and others were laughing and speaking in English. I turned to my counterpart and asked “Flisni ju anglisht?” (Do you speak English?). She replied “Jo” aka “No”. We both laughed a bit at the awkward language barrier, I knew we both didn’t know what to say next. We continued to try and speak to one another until I saw Ian (who’s counterpart had to leave) standing on his own. I decided to introduce him to Valdete. Now Ian was reciting all the lines too. Haha, oh the perks of learning a new language! But eventually the awkwardness started to ware off. We met up with Luke (the other trainee show will be living with us in Bajram Curri) and his counterpart as well as Kat (another trainee that will be living about an hour south of us) and her counterpart since we figured we’d be spending a lot of time with them in the next two years. Both their counterparts spoke English so they helped us translate our conversations with Valdete. We all decided to eat dinner together a the dinner event the Peace Corps had set up for all the trainees and their counterparts. I could see how close our little “North” family was going to be. It was great.
After dinner, we said good night and headed towards the pool. It just so happened that there was a wedding going on the hotel the same night all the trainees were staying there. So many of the trainees stayed out and hung out with the party guests. I, on the hand hung out for a bit and then headed to take the shower I had been longing for. And, yes, it was AMAZING! haha :)
The next morning we enjoyed a luxurious buffet breakfast and then spent the morning a few workshops/meetings with our counterparts. At the end, we were assigned to meet with our counterparts and to discuss some of the activities they had planned for the summer. So Valdete and I went to go discuss over coffee at the hotel restaurant. That is when I really saw the effects of the language barrier. Not only is my Albanian language skills at their beginning stages, but on top of that, the northen dialect is quite different from what I’ve been learning. I was definitely struggling with understanding what she was telling me. But she seemed to be very understanding. “Avash, avash” is a common expression used by the Peace Corps staff which means slowly, slowly.
Almost immediately after the meetings had ended, everyone began to depart to their future sites with their counterparts. The North Group, however, had to stay another night since buses only left for those places in the morning. Pull my arm, right?! Another night in the luxurious hotel? How could I survive?!
So I spent the rest of the day walking around Durres and hanging out by the pool with Kat and Ian. It really felt like a mini vacation. It’s funny how PST works like that. At certain points you’re super stressed about adapting to the culture, learning the language, and preparing for your future work, whereas, at other times you’re relaxing on the beach at a resort. Just another curve on the emotional roller-coaster of PST. What was really cool about the resort was that we were basically the only people there. After the wedding guests had left, it was just the four of us trainees and a random professional soccer team that seemed to have been at the resort for quite some time. It was very nice.
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| The beach in Durres at the Tropika Resort |
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| Another view of the beach in Durres |
The best part of the day had to be the dinner we had. Luke had returned from hanging out with his counterpart in Tirana when the four of us decided to go together as a group to find a bite to eat. We found a little byrek shop (typical Albanian food) and spent the evening talking about future plans and joking about how “mountainy” and “hardcore” we all were going to be by the end of our Peace Corps service.
We woke up early next day to head to Bajram Curri. Ian’s counterpart, Shyrete, was waiting at the resort gates with a bus going directly to Bajram Curri.
From past volunteers and other Albanians, we had been told that the journey to Bajram Curri was very long and that the road wasn’t very nice. We heard it took around 7 hours to get there from Tirana and that the road wasn’t very developed. Therefore, I was prepared for a rocky trip. But, to my surprise, the trip was amazingly easy. They had just finished building a new, multi-lane road which cut the trip duration down to nearly 4 ½ hours. I couldn’t believe. The road went through Kosovo which was pretty awesome. I hadn’t been to Kosovo before so I was really excited for that. We didn’t stop there, but I found out that Bajram Curri is only about 10 miles away from the border so I’m sure I’ll get to go there at least a few times during my service.
The furgon (what Albanians call buses) dropped us off in the center of town, next to the well-known Museum of Bajram Curri. As soon as we stepped off the furgon, Luke’s counterpart was directing us to the police van parked behind us, telling us that the police wanted to escort us to our apartment. For a minute, I was a little skeptical. Why the heck would the police want to “escort” foreigners to their new apartment? But one thing I remember learning about in PST was to just go with the flow; everything works out in the end. So without hesitation, we began to pack the police van with our baggage. We hopped into the van and the two policemen began to drive us away. I’m not kidding you, they drove around the corner and down a small road, and then we arrived. We definitely could have walked it in like 3 minutes. I later learned that one of the past volunteers had worked closely with the police department and even designed the official badge that they all wear on their uniforms. So I guess they have a lot of respect for the Peace Corps. It was definitely a nice, warm welcome to the city.
First it was Luke’s apartment. We helped him carry his luggage up the stairs to his apartment that was located on the third floor. There, Valdete was waiting for me. With much energy and excitement she called for me to follow her so she could show me my apartment. We rushed down the steps and started walking away from the apartment building. She called out to the policemen to follow us. We literally walked to the next building over and we were there. We grabbed my bags and headed up the stares. Our apartment was on the 5th floor. Let’s just say I got a real good workout dragging my overfilled suitcase up five flights of stairs. When I reached the top, I saw a lady at the door who welcomed me to Bajram Curri. I knew right away that this was my landlord. She opened the door and told me to look around. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My apartment was really nice! And when I say really nice, I’m not saying it was anything compared to anywhere I had lived in the US, but it was nicer than any of the other apartments I had seen in Albania. I mean, all my furniture matches! That’s rare for Peace Corps housing!
I have one bedroom with a ginormous bed, a living room that doubles as a kitchen which has a stove that is half gas and half electric (perfect for when the power goes out), a bathroom with a turkish toilet (typical for the north of Albania), and a small sunroom/closet which has clothes lines to hang up my clothes. It was much nicer that I expected! Very clean!
After taking a quick look-through, my counterpart left and told me to spend the rest of the day relaxing and settling in. At just like that. It was quite. It was like a half hour of crazy, exciting moving in to silence. I got to look around my apartment a little more. I have a working refrigerator and freezer, a washing machine, and some other small erks. OMG, you’ll never believe what I found in the closet. A box for a juicer!!!! That’s right. For those of you that don’t know, I’m a dedicated juicer back home in the states. In fact, I debated on taking my juicer from back home with me to Albania but ran out of room in my suitcase. I settled with only bringing my Vitamix, my beloved blender, which I have yet to use but I’m sure I will as soon as I get settled in for good.
But, will all the excitement, I couldn’t bare to just sit and relax in my apartment for the rest of the day. So Ian, Luke, and I met up and got so
lunch.
The rest of the day, Ian and I walked around the city meeting the shop owners and basically introducing ourselves to anyone we spoke to. And let me just say, Bajram Curri is absolutely breath-taking. The city is located in a valley surrounded by mountains. Some of the mountains even have some snow on them still! And it’s not nearly as dry as it is in Colorado. There’s lots of green fields and vegetation in and around the city. The city is much bigger that I thought. I think I heard so many negative things about Bajram Curri before going there that I really thought that it was going to be a terrible place. But I can’t tell you how much I love it there. There’s so many markets with fresh produce, there’s a street which we call “the gabbi” because it has lots of open-market-like shops that sell clothing and things like that, there’s lots of nice restaurants and cafes, and there’s like three hotels. There’s even a nice “gjiro” which is like a wide-sidewalk path that people like to walk in the evenings. I was really impressed at how developed the city actually was.
But we did get one bad experience while we were there. That night, Ian, Luke, and I decided to walk the gjiro for a while before going to bed. As the sun went behind the mountains, we headed back towards the center of town. We encountered a group of young boys, which Peace Corps volunteers call “chums” because of their mischievous behavior, who said hello to us in English as we passed by. We replied with a friendly “Hello” and continued to walk. Unfortunately, this sparked their interest and they began to follow us. We ignored, thinking that we would be back in the town in about five minutes and they would eventually leave us alone. However, they continued to follow us and began to throw rocks at us. And they weren’t small rocks. These were rocks the size of their fists and they were aiming at the back of our heads. We all were kind of in shock, not knowing how to handle the situation. It’s funny because we had talked about this exact situation in one of our safety workshops during PST, yet we still didn’t know the right way to handle this situation. We walked a little faster until one of the rocks hit Luke’s leg. He turned around and shouted in English, “Hey! That’s not okay.” I think this intimidated them a little because they stopped throwing rocks. But instead they were just came closer to us and asked us a whole bunch of questions as they followed us back to the center of town. I was so happy when we arrived to one of the main streets. I knew that we were safe now. We finally got rid of the chuns and headed to our apartments to get some rest. Gosh, but it was a little scary to experience such a situation.
The next morning, I woke up with lots of excitement. It was the day I was going to be introduced to my future workplace and all my colleagues. My stomach filled with all those butterfly feelings and excitement. I met Valdete at 8:45 where we head to get a coffee before going over to the health center (very typical for Albanians). I could tell that my counterpart was much more confident here in Bajram Curri than she was back in Durres at the Counterpart Conference. She was definitely on her game!
After practicing some more of my Albanian over coffee, we headed to the health center. The health center is a huge building. The top half is dedicated to all the health workers and the bottom half is a laboratory. We went to each of the doors, introducing myself (which Valdete did most of the time) and attempting to have small, simple conversations in Albanian. But it didn’t stop there. We headed all over town, meeting everyone and their mothers! We went to the hospital (which is huge!) and met all the financial/administrative workers. I also got to meet the ambulance driver (yes, Bajram Curri has an actual ambulance which is rare!) who happened to be the brother of my counterpart. We headed to two of the four schools in the city where I met the directors and some of the teachers, and we stopped to meet random people as we passed them in the streets. I was so exhausted by lunch time. At that point, I was so happy that Albanians only work for half the day because I needed a break after all that running around. But overall, I was so happy with how the day went. Everyone was so welcoming, kind, and excited to work with me. I couldn’t ask for a better place to live for the next two years.
Unfortunately, that was the only day I got to spend in Bajram Curri because of the travel restraints. So the next morning, we schedule a furgon to leave at 11:00 and spent the morning outside of the high school where the city was celebrating “Olympic Day.” Ian and I had got all decked out in sports gear thinking that their was going to be a lot of sports going on. But instead, all that happened was a parade with all the students with one person carrying an Olympic torch around the city. We definitely looked goofy but oh well. Good times!
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| Dita Olympica në Bajram Curri |
So overall, I am over-the-moon happy about my Site Visit. I’m am so unbelievably excited to move to Bajram Curri to start my service. Now, if only I could become fluent in Albanian in the next two weeks, then everything would be perfect! haha. Yeah, not happening. But avash, avash.
If anything, I think one of the most valuable things I have learned so far is to take everything I hear as a grain of salt and to not jump to conclusions. I was so worried that I was going to hate Bajram Curri and now I can’t imagine a better place. Bajram Curri, here I come!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Practicum!
Last week and the week before were our PST Practicum Weeks. It was like the ultimate test to see how well we could do as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The health sector trainees were assigned to design and implement two health classes in their hosting villages: one in the elementary school and one in the high school. In addition, each of groups in the different villages were assigned to host a health fair for their community. At the beginning of PST, I couldn’t even imagine how I could design, organize, and implement a health fair for a whole community, yet alone teach an entire class about health.
The Planning
In the few weeks leading up to Practicum, my group and I sat down to discuss the topics that we wanted to teach. We decided that we would teach the classes in pairs, so we knew ahead of time that we were going to be designing three lessons. But since we didn’t really know too much about the community yet, we decided to go talk to the teachers and the school directors to see what types of things the students were already learning so we could relate our classes to that. We were so unbelievably lucky with the amount of support we got from our community. All of the teachers and the school directors were so encouraging and helpful when we asked if we could teach some classes. Many of them gave us their opinions on what health topics would be most relevant and effective to teach to each of the classes and even introduced us to the students beforehand so that we could familiarize ourselves with them and have a better understanding of how to design the lessons.
For the middle-school class, we had spoke to the english teacher who was very excited about helping us communicate with the teachers and the students. She told us that the 8th grade class had recently been learning about environment health and that it might be a good idea to design a class around that. “Perfect!” I thought. This was exactly what we wanted; to design a class based off what they were already learning. The english teacher showed us the posters the class had made about pollution and recycling (all of which were in English) and we noticed that none of them talked about the health effects caused by pollution. Thus, we decided to design a course that took their knowledge of pollution and related it back to their health and how it impacted them.
The kindergarden teachers were very open about what topic we could teach to the class. They basically told us that we could do anything that we wanted. A few days before, the health volunteers had talked about how fun it would be to teach kids about germs and how to wash their hands correctly, especially since proper personal hygiene seems to be a major problem here in Albania. Therefore, we had no trouble deciding the Germs and Hand-Washing would be our lesson.
Lastly, for the high school class, when we met with the biology teacher, we was very happy that we wanted to teach a class for her students. She emphasized how little the students knew about STD’s and safe sex practices. She thought that if the “American’s” would talk to them about the subject, it would be more influential than if she or any other teacher would talk about it. At first, we were a little hesitant at teaching Sex Ed to an Albanian high school class. But, we saw how much the biology teacher emphasized the importance of teaching them this, so we decided that that would be the best topic to teach them.
Designing the classes were so much fun. After deciding on the topics, all we really had to do was to research the topics and then choose activities that would engage the students in the learning. We had no problem coming up with ideas on how to make the class engaging and effective. The real test was seeing how the Albanian students would respond to our teaching styles.
The Health Classes
The first class we taught was the 8th grade class. We decided to do this lesson on the first Monday of Practicum because it was Earth Day. How perfect can that be?! Lawrence and Laurel decided to teach this one so Emily took notes about the class whereas I was assigned as the class photographer. (P.S.: Taking photos was absolutely addicting! So much fun!). They started the class off with an ice-breaker activity that we called “The Yarn Game.” Basically what happened was each person took a chance throwing the ball of yarn their peers, and when each of them caught the yarn, they introduced themselves and said one environmental issue they had observed in their community. This was a great success! All the students were actively engaged and very respectful to the person that was talking. Even though all of them said pretty much the same answer to the environmental issue, the activity really seemed to get them excited about the topic and eager to participate in the lesson afterwards. After the warm-up activity, Laurel and Lawrence presented the information while asking the students to reflect about what they had previously learned about the topic. At the end, we played Jeopardy! to test their knowledge in a fun, interactive way. The students didn’t really get the concept of the answering with “What is…” but we improvised and they understood. Overall it was a very successful class. For being our first lesson, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the students responded to the lesson.
Our second class was with the kindergarden. All four of us were required to teach at least one class to the kindergardeners so we decided to split the class in two and teach the class in pairs again. For the kindergarden classes, we decided to make cartoon germs and stick them all over the classroom for the students to realize that germs are everywhere, we just can’t see them. Then we showed them how germs spread when we sneeze and cough without covering our faces. We did this by pretending to sneeze/cough and using a Windex spray bottle at a poster-sized drawing of a person, and showing them how much of the germs from the “sneeze” got on the person. The kids absolutely loved this! Next we showed them how to wash their hands properly (which most of them already had a good concept of but was definitely a good refresher). And to demonstrate the amount of time they should watch their hands, we sang “Happy Birthday” twice, once in English and then once in Albanian. The kids loved singing in English (all of them knew it!) and they loved showing us how to sing it in Albanian. At the end, we gave them some coloring sheets, one with germs and the other with a picture of washing their hands. Once again, everything went so well! All the kids were engaged and excited to learn. It was perfect!
Lastly, with the high school class, it was mine and Emily’s time to teach the lesson. We didn’t know what to except going in to the lesson. We thought that it might be an awkward topic to teach and that we might hear a lot of giggling like we experienced in our high school sex ed classes, but we didn’t know for sure. This was Albania and who knows what they are comfortable speaking about. So we started the class with an activity. We wanted to show how fast STD’s can spread so we handed all the students a small piece of paper with three lines on it. They were told to go around the room and get three signatures from other people. However, this concept was very difficult for them to understand. What made it a little more difficult was that we didn’t tell our interpreter about the exercise beforehand so the whole signature thing got really, well….lost in translation. After all of them got three signatures (all of which were basically illegible to read), we handed them all another piece of paper with either a X, C, or nothing on it. We then asked everyone with a “X” to stand up (the X represented an STD). Then we asked for everyone who had the signatures of any of the person standing up to stand up too. Then we repeated the process again. Then we told everyone with a “C” (representing a condom) to sit down. Then we told them that everyone standing had got an STD and that the people sitting down didn’t get one because they used safe sex practices. Even thought the beginning of the exercise got a little confusing, all of them understood the point of the exercise by the end. I must say, Emily and I were very good at dealing with misunderstandings and going with the flow. It all turned out great in the end. After giving them same basic information about STD’s, we split the class into 7 smaller groups and had them each make a poster with information about a specific STD and present it to the class. I was surprised how mature all the students were about the topic. There wasn’t any giggling or jokes being made. They were really interactive and engaged in the lesson. And, of course, at the end of the lesson, we handed our free condoms for all the students. A Sex Education class is nothing without the free condoms, huh? And now, I can officially say that I have been a Sex Ed teacher! Who would have ever thought?! I don’t think any ever thinks that they would grow up to be a Sex Ed teacher, but yet thanks to the Peace Corps, I can now say I have, haha. :)
The Health Fair
After we were all done teaching the health classes, it was time to focus on our health fair. When we went to the local health center to ask if they would be interested in participating in our fair, they were so eager and excited to work with us. They even suggested the topics they thought were most relevant to the Kuqan community and told us that they would do any medical testing we need to be preformed there. From that moment on, I knew that the health fair was going to be much easier than I thought. We had our topics: Hypertension, Diabetes, and Obesity. Now we just had to organize the information, come up with interactive activities, and to promote it. We made a poster that told all the information about when it was, where it was going to be (we had asked Emily’s host family if we could use their restaurant as the location since it was the only restaurant in town and basically the only communal area in town), what we were going to talk about, and how it was open to everyone. We got the Health Coordinator, Zyri, to translate it into Albanian and then we went around to all the businesses in town and asked them to display it in their store’s window. Now imagine this, four American volunteers, with very little knowledge of the Albanian language, going in and out of stores pointing at a poster for a health fair and asking in very basic Albanian if we could hang (with hand-signals, we hadn’t learned that verb in Albanian yet) in their window. It was quite an odd experience. We couldn’t help but laugh at ourselves after every attempt and seeing the confused looks on the vendors’ faces. But, despite the confused looks, all of them were very supportive and they hung up our posters for all their customers to see. The lady from the ice cream shop (which we didn’t even knew existed until then) even gave us all free ice cream. Everyone was very sweet.
When the day of the health fair came, I was so nervous about everything going well. I’m a planner. I’m not very good at just winging stuff. But in this case, we had planned our the activities and information for each of the tables, but we hadn’t received any of the supplies, brochures, or medical equipment until a half hour before it started. Plus, we had language course the morning of, so as soon as the lesson was over, we head straight to the restaurant to set up. When we got there, Zyri was already there with all the supplies. I immediately got into set-up mode. I was moving tables, guiding people on where to put things, setting up the activities. I was on a mission to get everything ready by 12:00pm sharp. People started showing up right away. The doctors and nurses didn’t arrive right away so we began by guiding the people to the activities that didn’t require doctors assistance. Basically that meant that everyone could measure their height and weight to calculate their BMI. haha. So Laurel was at the measuring station, I was weighing everyone, and then Emily was using her phone (we didn’t have calculators) to input the information into a BMI calculator. We were constantly busy. Everyone was so excited to know how tall they were and how much they weighed. They didn’t even care if other people saw their numbers. I was surprised how open they were very open about it, even if they were overweight or obese. By the time we got through most of the people, the doctors had showed up and began taking people’s blood sugar levels. Lawrence, who was a nurse in the US, was taking people’s blood pressure as well. And since it was so unbelievably hot outside (like high 80’s, I swear I got a little sunburnt even just after an hour of being in the sun), everyone was trying to gather under the one umbrella that we had for shade. It was pretty funny to see. 
I couldn’t believe how successful the whole thing was. Everyone seemed to enjoy learning about their help and ways to adapt healthy habits. And I was so surprised how much support we got from the community. So many people showed up to participate in the event. We had ran out of all the worksheets we had printed out so each person could write down their health information for each of the activities, so we ended up writing them on extra pamphlets. And all the school kids that stuck around after they completed all the activities were helping us promote the fair by handing out pamphlets on different health topics to people passing by. They even jumped on and off of buses that stopped and handed out pamphlets!
By the time it wall all done, I was so happy at how well all of our projects went. For rookies, we looked like pro’s! It was awesome! So far, this was my favorite part of PST and now I have more confidence in myself that I will be able to make a difference in Bajram Curri when I begin my service.
Now, I’m only three weeks away from swearing in and moving to site! I’m so excited!!!!!!
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