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.

The beach in Durres at the Tropika Resort

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 5^th 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!

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!

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 8^th 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 8^th 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!!!!!!

Site Announcement! Guess where?

Ok, ok. I know I’ve been away from the blogging for way too long. Well, you see, I’ve kinda been on a crazy roller-coaster of emotions. And well, I just couldn’t imagine how I would blog about it.

It all started the Monday before site visit announcement. Zyri, one of the Health Coordinators of the Peace Corps, asked me to co-host a presentation with her on that upcoming Friday about Obesity. Don’t get me wrong, I was stoked and honored to have asked to present in front of my peers about a topic I had much experience working with. However, I’m kinda terrified of speaking in public. You may be thinking, “What? But you have done hundreds of presentations in your life?” Well you’re right. But for some reason, my anxiety levels get way out of control in the days leading up to every presentation that I get, even thought I secretly know that after I’ve finished the presentation, I’d think back on my stress and laugh. So by Wednesday, I was already waking up in the middle of the night thinking about the presentation. On top of that, Genti, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Peace Corps (yes, we have a lot of coordinators) had asked everyone to come up with a mini lesson to teach to everyone on Friday. Yes, the Friday that I had my obesity presentation and yes, the friday that site announcements took place. Oh, not to mention that we another health brochure project due that day as well. As you can see, lots of stress was building around this one friday. 

On top of all that, language classes were getting intense. When I say intense, I mean WAY intense. This was the week that we were starting to learn different tenses. With Albanian, the different tenses aren’t simple. For each person (I, you, he, she, you (as a group), we, and they (each for masculine and feminine)), the ending of each verb change….for EACH TENSE!!! Plus, many verbs are irregular so when we learn general rules to help us memorize the endings of each tense, there’s a pretty good chance that the verb we use will not follow the norm. By the time we got to our 4^th tense, I had forgotten how to conjugate the simple present tense, which at the time, I thought was super easy. 

Outside of school, everyone was talking about site placement. “So where do you think you’ll go?” was the opener to almost all the trainees’s conversations. We were all so anxious to know. And for the Peace Corps staff and current volunteers, Site Announcement Day is a huge deal! They couldn’t stop talking about it either. “At least one or two people cry every year” one of the current volunteers told me, “It’s all that stress and anxiety that builds leading up to that moment when they call your name and you find out that it’s not exactly the nicest place to be placed.” But for me, the site placement was the least of my concerns. I figured that I really didn’t have any control of where I was going to placed so why worry about it, right?!

So by the time it reached Friday morning, I was burnt out by the language and my anxiety and stress levels were off the roof! All I wanted was for the day to end so I could get some sleep. Luckily, my obesity presentation was the first presentation of the day. I started the presentation off with lots of nerves (I didn’t know I could talk that fast!) but soon enough I eased into the role. Overall, the presentation went very well. I was very relieved. Next I had a few health sector-related and then it was time for the small individual lessons. I waited to till the last minute to present mine which I chose to teach my group how to preform the alphabet in sign language (we were suppose to chose something simple to teach our group so I chose something that I was an expert at, haha). It went really well, actually. My activity for the lesson was sign language picturades where one student was suppose to draw something and the other students were suppose to spell out that thing using the sign language alphabet. They all seemed to enjoy it which made me really happy. It was kinda nice to do some small fun activities which definitely helped lower my anxiety levels. 

Directly after our short individual presentations, it was site announcement time. Many group 15ers (the current volunteers/the ones that started last year) and group 16ers (volunteers that were just finishing their 2 year service), along with all the Peace Corp Albania staff were there to celebrate the event. The staff rearranged the room so that everyone gathered in front of the table with the projector that displayed a giant map of Albania on the back wall. Before the event started, many of the trainees formed a circle and preformed (or at least tried) some traditional Albanian circle dancing. 

Then it was time to get started.

One by one Genti began to reveal each of of placements by popping up our pictures next to the location of our future site. He started with the older volunteers, most of which were placed in the larger cities like Tirana (the capital), Elbasan, and Durres. With every revealing, everyone cheered and Mito, a fellow trainee that has been dubbed the photographer of the group, got the all-star hollywood reaction photo of each of the trainees. Since I knew that Ian and I were going to be placed together, I kind of had a feeling that we would be reveal pretty early on since not many sites could fit two people. And I was right. Almost right after all the big sites were revealed, two pictures pop up at the top of the map. It’s Ian and I. Genti shouts out “Ian and Jen in Bajram Curri!” My eyes widen and my mouth hit the ground! Half the group cheered, whereas the other half gave out a worrisome oooooo or laughter. This was the place everyone feared of being placed. One volunteer even said that if she was placed there, she would quit the Peace Corps. Nobody wanted this site. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! And I didn’t know how to react.

Little did we know that Luke (the guy standing behind
me in the purple shirt) would be our site mate!

The reaction photos! Yep, I was shocked! :)

See, Bajram Curri is a small town that is extremely isolated in the mountains of Northern Albania. It’s so isolated that to get there, it takes 8hours and the only road that leads there forces you to go into Kosovo and then back into Albania. Plus, it’s known for it’s harshly cold winters, frequent power outages, and limited amount of running water. This was like the most undeveloped site in Peace Corps Albania and they chose me to go there. CRAZY!

At first, I didn’t know what to think. All I could think about was how unreal it felt. Out of all the sites that current volunteers predicted we would be placed, Bajram Curri was not one of them….not even close! 

While everyone else was getting their site announcements (many of which were in nice, sunny places near the beach or near Greece), many people came up to me asking me “How do you feel?” with a slight hint of worry in their faces. Others came up and patted me on the back and said “Bajram Curri, huh?!” Even the Safety and Security Coordinator came up to me and asked how I was dealing with it. When I told here I wasn’t sure, she kept saying oh you’ll be fine it’s a beautiful place. I was so in shock that I didn’t really pay attention to the other site placements. After everyone was announced, everyone clapped and one of the trainees announced that we were all going to celebrate at one of the local restaurants down the street. So we all grabbed our bags and headed over there. This time, we definitely took up the entire seating areas. Americans were everywhere. 

This is when I started to get worried. I could see a routine forming. Fellow trainees came up to me and said things like “Oooh, Bajram Curri. What do you think about that?” or “So are you ready for the cold?” but most of them were very supportive like saying “I hear it’s beautiful up there” (I still hear that all the time!) and “You’ll be just fine, plus you’re very close to Kosovo.” And then when current volunteers came to introduce themselves to me, the first thing they’d ask is “So where are you going?” and the minute I would say “Bajram Curri”, I’d either get a “Ooooh, you’ll be fine” or a “pause…..Good, I hear it’s beautiful up there.” All I could think was “Why me?”

And after leaving to head back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why would they choose me to go to such an isolated, cold place? Why couldn’t I be spent to live on the beach for 2 years? What the heck have I gotten myself into? My emotional roller-coaster was sinking with each negative thought. 

And it wasn’t stopping there. That night and the morning following, everyone wanted to know where I was going to be working for the next 2 years. And every person, and I mean EVERY single person, had the same worrisome reaction. “Ooooh. It’s cold there.” Some even asked me why. 

It got too much to handle. Could this place really be that bad? And yep, I turned into one of the people that cried over site placement. I spent the whole day in my room feeling sorry for myself. I’m not that adventurous of a girl. Sure, I like going hiking and camping if it only consists of a few nights. But living without hot water, electricity and in the bitter cold was not something I enjoy doing, not in the slightest. I just couldn’t see any positive in it. I had spiraled down. 

It took a few days for me to bounce back. After talking to my mom (who always knows how to comfort me) and hearing some of the good things about Bajram Curri, I started to feel better. 

What really helped me was reflecting on why I chose to do the Peace Corps in the first place. I am here to help people improve their health. That’s the bottom line. And sure, I won’t be enjoying myself on the beach while fulfilling my mission but at least I have the opportunity to share my passion of healthy living with a community that needs it. And then I thought about how I was originally suppose to be placed somewhere in Western Africa. I thought to myself “Would the living situations there be that different than what I was dealt here in Albania?” It’s probably a lot warmer there, but they still have electricity and water problems. 

On the next HUB day I got to talk to other trainees that were placed in isolated areas in the North and it made me realize that I wasn’t the only one worried about my site. We all kind of formed a bond and a pack that we would help each other out. I’m excited for our North Group! And I guess Bajram Curri is actually quite a popular place for vacation. So many people came up to telling me that they were going to visit during the summer to come see the mountains and beautiful landscapes. This definitely made me feel better. Plus, Ian and I got a site mate! Luke, a COD (community outreach development) trainee will be joining us. YAY! And he and I have been already planning co-projects like building a gym or/and designing trail maps when we get there. Things are looking much brighter now. 

So yeah, that’s what has been going on with me. I think my roller-coaster is balancing out now. We’re only 3 weeks away from swearing in and moving to our future sites. I can’t believe how fast PST is going. 

Expect to see a few more blogs up soon about Practicum and some events I’ve been up to lately. They were…wait for it….EPIC! (haha, How I Met Your Mother reference for all you fans out there :))