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. :) 

Valbona Monday

Last week at work, one of the only things I could really understand was that my counterpart and the Hygiene Specialist were planning an environmental health promotional event in Valbona, a beautiful, mountainous touristic town 20km away from Bajram Curri. I was super excited to go! I knew I wouldn’t be much help since I didn’t know the language but I was so happy to see them in action. So, all week, I was translating and studying all the vocabulary I could thing of that had to do with environmental health with the hopes that I might be able to contribute some to the event. 

When Monday rolled around, I headed to work early….too early. No one was there yet. haha. But after I waited for about a half hour, people started trickling in. Little did I know that everyone in the health center was going with us. In fact, they even rented a minibus to drive us up there. 

It was a beautiful ride up! The road winds through the mountains, along the crystal blue Valbona river. However, about 90% of the road leading to the town is all dirt and only wide enough for one car at a time. So instead of taking what should have been a 20-25 minute drive, actually turned out to take about an hour. I thought it was very interesting that the road wasn’t paved yet. Valbona is probably the #1 tourist destination in the north of Albania. People all over the world (mainly from Europe) travel there to experience it’s natural beauty through hiking, camping, and swimming in the cleanest river in Albania. Yet, the road going to Bajram Curri is perfect! Haha. 

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. :)

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. 

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:

:)

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!