Volunteer Visit - Burrel

PST is taking over my life! I mean, seriously, I’m constantly on the go. From the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep is about training and learning the language. Phew! 

But I did get a chance to have a breather this past weekend during the Volunteer Visit event. And, let me tell you, this event is pretty much the coolest thing that the Peace Corps have ever thought of! Haha. Basically, what happens is the Peace Corps staff pair each trainee with a current volunteer that is doing pretty much the same kind of activities that the trainee may do after PST. Then, for 3 days, the Peace Corps staff sends you to the volunteer’s site to get a real-life example of what life is like after PST! Pretty cool, huh!

In the weeks leading up to the Volunteer Visit, you could tell how anxious all of us trainees were to go explore the country, especially since all of us had only seen Elbansan and our individual home-site villages since we arrived. To make it worse, the Peace Corps staff held-off on telling us until a few days before the actual visit. This is something the Peace Corps staff really likes to do. They tell us about a really cool, exciting event but wait till the last moment to tell us exactly what each of us will be doing. I think it’s their way of keeping things exciting during a stressful time. Haha. And, let me tell you, it works! But it kind of adds a little too much anxiety. :)

So, a few days before the Volunteer Visit, Ghenti, the Director of Training, made a map of Albania with each of our photos posted on the sites that were going to be traveling to for our visits. But….he waited till the end of the day to do the big reveal! Plus, when it was his time to talk, he kept on postponing and postponing the reveal until all of us were about to jump out of our seats and attack the map! 

When he finally revealed the map, we all rushed up to the map to find our pictures and our future visit sites. I found my picture just north of Tirana (the capital of Albania) in a city called Burrel. 

Saturday morning we left Kuqan early so we could start the visit as soon as possible. And to our surprise, it was beautiful outside! It had been so rainny and gloomy for the few weeks that we never imagined that we would get some decent sunlight. As we made our way to the furgon station, we bumped into our fellow classmate and trainee, Emilie who was heading to Tirana to meet her host as well. We all hopped on a bus together to head to Elbansan to find a furgon. When we arrived in Elbansan, we went directly to the furgon station (or should I say spot) for Tirana. We were instantly harrassed by a group of furgon drivers, trying to convince us to ride in their vehicles. One of them even physically grabbed Ian and tried pulling him towards his furgon. I quickly jumped into the one that looked the cleanest and had the most decent-looking people inside (I figured the locals would pick a good driver). Ian joined me, but we left Emilie behind since she was meeting others going in the same direction. 

The furgon rides was actually not too bad. Our driver drove safely and at the correct speed limit which is rare here. But I was happy. When we arrived in Tirana, we somehow miraculously ran into Kait within minutes of getting off the furgon. It was amazing! Right away, I could tell she was a down-to-earth kind of gal. I knew we were going to have a good time this weekend! Kait told us that her friend was going to join us for the weekend but wasn’t going to get in for a few hours so we planned to just hangout in the city until then. We headed over the well-known pyramid building in the center of Tirana. When we got ther, we saw another American. In my head, I was like “Another American? Must be another Peace Corps Volunteer.” And I was right! It was April from Group 15. Just after introducing ourselves, Jill and Mary from our group, who were meeting up with April, showed up. Almost immediately after, another girl from Group 15, Emily, showed up as well. She was waiting on three other trainees. It’s almost like Peace Corps Volunteers attract each other like magnets. haha. We all decide to wait together so we all walked over to a popular cafe (which I can’t remember the name, are you surprised? haha) to get a coffee. 

As we commerced over coffee, Tyler, Don, and Emilie (the volunteer we left in Elbansan) found us and sat down with us. We basically took over that cafe’s outside seating. It was pretty funny. It was a great way to start off the weekend!  Hanging out in a large city, drinking coffee in the sun. It was awesome. 

Afterwards, we headed to another well-known restaurant (when I say this, I actually mean well-known to the past and present Peace Corps volunteers) where we all got splurge on some comforting American food. Oh, oh, oh...I remember the name of this one…...Stevenson Center (or something like that). haha. 

While chowing down, Allie, Kait’s friend finally arrived! Yay! I later found out that she too was a Group 15 volunteer and that she had spent 8.5 hours that day traveling from here site in the south of Albania just to get to Burrel. That sounds so crazy to me, seeing as Albania is only about the size of New Hampshire! 

After we were all done eating, we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed to another furgon station to get a furgon to Burrel. This furgon tool about 2 hours and luckily, the driver was pretty decent. What can I say, we must have had really good luck that day! But, the road was EXTREMELY windy, with curves after curves lining the entire mountainous road there. Kait told us that she only had one puker on the way here, only one! Hahah.

As the furgon approached Burrel, Ian and I were google-eyed over scenery that surrounded us. We were surrounded by mountains, with a beautiful green river below us, weaving between the mountains. Every mountain was covered with luscious green vegetation. It was absolutely stunning.  

When we arrived in Burrel, we walked through the city (which I was pretty excited about, since I had been living in a small village for PST and was unsure about what kind of sites I could be placed in) and to her house (yes, she has a house!). It was a small house compared to houses in the US, but to have a house as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania is like saying you own a hotel in the US. Pretty dang awesome if you asked me. The rest of the day we just chilled out and we got to meet Brad and Dan, to other volunteers that live and work in Burrel as well. 

On Sunday, the rain had returned but that didn’t stop us from exploring the city. Brad and Dan were our tour guides as they showed us the famous Burrel prison which is supposedly the most dangerous prison in all of Albania. In addition, they told us that at one point in time, the prison was closed and made into a museum but was reopened after the Albanians ran out of places to put prisoners. I thought that was pretty funny! They also took us to the WWII cemetery which was just outside the city, on a hill that overlooked the valleys surrounding Burrel. The rest of the day, Ian went to hang out with Dan and Brad, whereas I went grocery shopping with the girls and helped prepare dinner. We were becoming typical Albanians and we didn’t even have to try (hahah, jk). 

I think one of the best parts about this weekend was the food that we made. Kait is a really good cook and she was so stoked to make us foods from back home. So Saturday night we made mashed potatoes, Sunday we had Indian food with naan bread, and Monday night we had tacos/burritos with homemade tortillas. D-E-L-icious!!!

Monday was the day to get down to business. It was a work day so we were assigned to shadow our volunteer at work. So Kait took Allie and myself with her to her office at the Burrel Health Center. There, I met her two counterparts who were so excited to meet me. And like true Albanians, they wanted to know every little detail about me. They were very sweet. Afterwards, Kait, Allie, and I went to coffee (another Albanian tradition) and then did a little shopping. That was pretty much a typical day in the life an Albanian. haha. It was awesome!

After Ian was done observing Dan and Brad teach their English classes, we all met up again, had dinner and watched some Parks and Recreation and some Modern Family. Good ol’ chillaxing at it’s best. 

On Tuesday, we headed back to Elbansan. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much luck this time with our furgon driver. Not only did it take him an hour to leave Burrel (in which he continuously drove back and forth down the main road of town until his friend was finally ready to be picked up, which by that time the furgon was completely full, not to mention that he got pulled over by a cop and was ticketed for something that I couldn’t understand in Shqip), but the whole way back that he was speeding like crazy, passing every car and furgon that he drove behind until his tail-gaiting was too close to causing an accident. He even drove the opposite way in a round-about, just to beat all the other cars to the next highway. There were at least 5 times where I thought, “This is it. W’re definitely going to crash now.” But we made it back in one piece, thankfully! Yay! 

Overall, I had a blast during the visit! It was nice to meet current volunteers and to hear their perspectives on the Peace Corps and to see what it’s like to live in Albania as a Peace Corps volunteer. There is hope after PST! haha. 

But for now, it’s back to training and learning the language. A week from today is the day that the Peace Corps Staff reveal the ultimate news for all us trainees….that is OUR SITES!!! These will be the sites that we will be working and living for the next 2 years! So you can only imagine the anxiety levels that we’re all experiencing! It’s all everyone can talk about! Ahhhh….I can’t wait! :)

Dates, dates, the magical fruit!

So the coolest thing happened to me today! I went down to eat a late lunch (I wasn’t hungry when Ian and Emiljian were eating) and while I was down there, Ian and I noticed a tray full of this tomato-like fruit. We could tell the fruits were frozen by the small white specks surrounding the bottom surfaces. But all the fruits had these small black lines on them, giving them the appearance that they were rotting. 

As Ian and I stared at them debating on if they were actually frozen tomatos, our host dad came into the kitchen and said “Hurm, those are hurms.” Ian and I looked at each other. Hurm? What the heck could hurms be? We figured it was just a fruit common to the Bulkans that was probably not in the US. Our host dad saw that we were still confused so he cut one of the fruits into pieces so we could try it. Ian was a little skeptical so I took the first bite. It was SUPER cold. Yep, I can confirm that it was frozen! haha. I took another bite. It was very, very sweet but super good! “Yum,” I said to Ian, “It’s really good, very sweet!” Ian took a bit. “It’s weird,” he told me, “It looks like it’s rotten.” “No, it’s not rotten,” I told him, “Take another bite, it’s good!” He took another bite but he didn’t look as thrilled as I was about how good the fruit was. 

While this was going on, we could tell that our host dad and mom were trying to find the English words to describe the fruit in more details in hopes that we might know what the English name for the fruit was. He told me about how the trees of this fruit grow in the fall and that in November they pick the fruits and put them in the freezer to store them over the winter. Then he asked us to go get our English/Albanian dictionary so we could look up the word (we’ve relied on this dictionary many times since we’ve moved in but have tried to make it our last option so we could learn the language better). 

Ian came back with the dictionary and handed it our host dad. He flipped through the pages, trying to find the name of the fruit. When he found it, he shouted “Dates!” Date?! Dates?!!! Really?! My eyes got huge! I looked at Ian in amazement “Dates? These are dates?!!,” I said. I was so excited! I eat dates all the time back home! They are like the main source of sweetness for many health-minded gurus like myself. But I had never seen them in their fruit state before, only after they had been dried out like raisins. 

I took another bite of the fruit with a huge smile on my face, and yes, I could totally taste the date-i-ness taste! “That’s why it’s so sweet!” I told Ian. My host father was so happy that I was so happy about eating this. I tried to explain to him that in the US, we mainly eat them dried, but it was kind of hard to describe since he told me that they don’t have raisins in Albanian. He was so happy that I liked them that he said that I could have one every day if I liked! I’m not sure if he was joking but I’d totally be up for that if it’s true!

It was such a great moment, I had to share it will all of you!

Oh I love dates! :)

Kuqan Hike

Today, our group (minus Ian) decided to enjoy the nice weather and go for a hike around the hills of our village. Our goal: go to the highest point that we see! 

We already kind of knew the direction in which to go because of the community map activity we did. So we headed to the edge of the map and into the unknown.

Around every corner there was a new hill that looked taller than the one we just climbed. So we kept climbing. At the highest point, on the tallest hill (which actually wasn’t too high) we had reach the cemetery. It was quite a beautiful cemetery! All the graves were decorated with colorful flowers and shrines, along with a plate of fruit that sat at the edge of each tombs. I think that this is a common theme here in Albania, to have cemeteries on the top of hills, that is. Just the other day when Ian and I went walking along the main road into other neighboring villages, we spotted another cemetery that was on the top of the hill. I’m guessing that it symbolizes putting their loves ones above them and having the deceased watch over the living around their grave. I could be totally wrong but I like the idea! Plus, what a gorgeous site to see from the top of the village! 

As we made our way around the cemetery, we spotted a whole line of bunkers that were carved into the neighboring hill. We had to go check them out!

Albania is known for their bunkers. They have over 4000 of them in the entire country, and Albania is not a very big country at all! I don’t really know too much about them, just that they were built during the cold war. But, hopefully I’ll learn more about them as I learn more about the culture. 

I was so excited to go into a bunker! It was actually quite funny! I was racing through the weeds and plants along the path, as if I had just found a cave with hidden treasure like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. When I got to the one labeled “2” I hopped over the branches blocking the entrance and began to look at the interior of the bunker. And of course, the bunker was completely empty. It was quite large, though. Much larger than I had imagined. But no hidden treasure, haha. I waited for the others to walk into the dark abyss that made up the bunker. We walked all the way to the end and took a few pictures just to have proof when we told our friends back home that we were actually inside a bunker! haha. Oh, the things that amuse American volunteers in Albania. haha.

As we headed back, we passed an abandoned building that looked as if the windows had been either knocked out or blown up. We ventured inside where we found the remains of nicely painted walls that had been covered by graffiti by what I assume are young teens and children of the village. And of course, the path that we chose to come  back on must have been a trash dump for some of the villagers that live in the higher areas because we walked through this watery path lined with pop bottles and food wrappers. A few villagers working on their gardens watched as we hopped through the path, trying to avoid all the mud and trash puddles. I could only imagine what they were thinking. haha. 

Overall, it was a nice hike. And I can now say I’ve been in an Albanian bunker! Yay! :) 

First week of shkollë!

Wow, this week has gone by so fast. Yet it feels like I have been here in Albania for so long! It’s amazing how close all of us volunteers have gotten in just a week! I feel like I know most of them so well, especially the other four living in Kuqan with me. 

So this is the basic schedule of a volunteer: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday (morning only) is for Language classes at the local elementary school in our village. Tuesday and Friday are HUB days where all the volunteers travel to Elbansan to meet as a group and to go over logistic stuff and technical training.  But, we are always busy! When some of the current volunteers told us that PST was going to be the hardest and busiest part of our volunteer experience, they weren’t kidding! But it’s a good busy. If we’re not studying the language or sitting in meetings, we’re hanging out with our host families and learning about the culture. There’s never a dull moment!

Language classes are my favorite! I’m learning the language so much faster than I expected, especially since I knew coming here that the Albanian language is unlike any other language in the world. I know how to ask the basic questions like “How are you?”, “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”, “How old are you?”, etc. Plus, I know how to respond to these questions as well! Ask me anything outside of that and I’m lost! haha. But it’s only been a week. I’m sure I’ll get there. :)

The school we have language classes at.

Language Class

Part of the language classes involve doing different projects and activities to learn about the culture and to put our language skills to the test. One of my favorite activities that we were assigned to do this week was to make a community map of our village so we can familiarize ourself with our surroundings. So, on Wednesday, Laurel, Emilie, Lawrence, Ian, and I all went walking around our village, tracking our steps and the places we saw on a piece of scrap paper.  Along the way, we got to introduce ourselves to different people in the community. We met the people at our favorite little market in town, Emilie’s host brother (who had been out-of-town till now) at another market, and we introduced ourselves to a few of the people that work at the municipal building (which we struggle, yet successfully did in Albanian). We also passed by many community members that we had perviously met like Lawrence’s host mother, Laurel’s host brother, our host grandfather, and a few of the neighborhood kids that we had chatted with before. At one point, while looking for the church, we were being followed by a family of goats.  When we moved, they would move. They, and the two young boys that were their owners, followed us all the way back into the hills of the town, while advising us on which paths to choose so we didn’t end up going on to private property. It was quite funny. 

Cindy and Emy, our host family's nieces. :)

After we had trekked around the entire village (which took less than an hour, it was so small), we all headed to the cafe/restaurant that Emilie’s host family owns. We go there so often that we have officially claimed it as “Our Hub."

Our Hub!

While deciding how to put the map together, Laurel and I thought it would be pretty cool to make a computerize version of the map. So Emilie and Ian drew the hand-drawn map while Laurel and I made different icons and roads on our laptops. The drawn map took like 20 minutes, whereas the computerized map was taking forever! But Laurel and I didn’t mind. We were actually having a blast. And as soon as we were finished making a building or a car, we would think of more and more details that we could put into it. Laurel’s host brother, Vasili, who was running around with Ian while we were doing this, occasionally would pop his head over, correcting us on our mistakes in colors of buildings or placement of stores, speaking in all Albanian of course. It was very cute! By the time the map was all finished (which we continued to work on a little each day after that), we had a full map of Kuqan with color-coded businesses, houses, cars, fruit trees, chickens, goats, sheep, and the one donkey on the side of the road near the school that we have named Gomar (donkey in Albanian). It was a masterpiece! 

The one donkey in our village that we have named Gomar :)

Our map was the hit at our gallery walk on Friday! Everyone clapped for it! Laurel and I felt so honored yet kinda dorky since we put so much pride into a silly, little map. haha. It was so much fun though! 

For security reasons, I’ve edited the map so that it doesn’t show our exact locations but I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Another part of language class that I absolutely love is the daily coffee breaks we get. Most of the time we go to our HUB at Emilie’s family’s restaurant, but we have tried venturing out and finding a new place. But the coffee we get is really good! I remember traveling around South America and having instant coffee everywhere I went, but here, it’s the real stuff! However, unlike in America where you can go to Starbucks and get your Venti or Grande size Latte, here in Albania you only get one size; that is, basically a shot of expresso that is placed in a teeny, tiny coffee cup. The first time I got it, I drank it in one glup. But I’ve learned that Albanians can spend an hour or more just sipping on this size of a coffee! I couldn’t believe it. I guess how they see it is the act of drinking coffee is more about socializing rather than getting your caffeine fix. Something I’m definitely have to get us too. Or, I guess, I’m just going to have to socialize a lot! haha.

After just a week, I can see the difference in my speaking and understanding skills. It just makes me even more excited and anxious to learn more of the language. 

Familja Ime

Oh my! I love my host family! They are absolutely perfect! 

Let me take you back to when we first arrived. So, Saturday after a language classes and lunch, we packed all our stuff (again! haha) and jumped in the vans to our designated villages. This was kind of a sad moment because we had to say good-bye to most of the other volunteers. I know it probably sounds funny but we all created such a strong bond in the past 4 days that it was weird splitting us all up into different areas. But, we knew we were still going to see each other on HUB days (technical training days) twice per week. 

Ian and I were headed to a small village called Kuqan, about 8km from Elbansan. It is the closest of all the villages that the PC volunteers are staying at, so it really didn’t take any time to get there. We were with three other volunteers: Emilie, from South Dakota, Laurel from Tennessee, and Lawrence from Texas. 

Lawrence’s hosts’ house was the first house for the van to stop at. We watched anxiously through the windows as we watched Airi, one of the Peace Corps staff, mediate the introductions and assisted with carrying all of his luggage into the house. Next was Laural’s hosts’ house. Emilie recieved news that a family member of her host family had passed away the day before so she was staying with Laurel and her host family for the weekend. So, again, Ian and I watched as they met Laural’s host mother and 2 young brothers. 

Then it was our turn. The driver put the van in reverse until we reached this tiny dirt road. As we made our way down the tiny, rock road, Airi pointed to the yellow building to the right of us “This is the school where you will have classes.” The dirt road, winded right next to the school. As the van made an “S” shape around a small white shack sitting right next to the school, we saw a yellow, two-story house with perfectly-arranged marble slabs leading up to it, surrounded by lushes lemon and orange trees. It was like a house you’d see in a storybook. Our host family was patiently waiting for us at the foot of the steps of the porch. With butterflies in my stomach, Ian and I quickly got out of the car, grabbed our first set of luggage, and headed up the marble walkway to make our introductions. Then, with much excitement, I said the only phrase I remembered from the few language classes we took, “Unë jam Jenny.” My nerves made me pretty much forget all the other things I was suppose to say to my host family. But that’s aright. They were really excited that I tried speaking Albanian. We met our host mother, Lindita, our 16 years-old host brother, Emilijan, our 22 year-old host sister, Elda, and their 5 years-old niece, Cindy. They guided us up the steps to our room and then we all]headed downstairs to get to know our host family more. 

We all took a seat at one of the three couches that surrounded an elegant coffee table that made up their living room. Elda, our host sister speaks pretty good English which really helped with the communication barrier with the other family members. They mentioned that they had three previous PC volunteers in the past few years which made me feel more relieved since they have been in this situation before. After getting to know each other a little bit, Ian and I headed upstairs to unpack some of our luggage. 

Now, this was a big deal for us. This was the first time during our entire Peace Corps experience thus far that we got to go through all the baggage that we brought. Back at the hotel, they only allowed us to bring up one suitcase and our carry-on since the rooms were so tiny. Therefore, I was really excited to get out some of the things that I had been missing for the past 5 days. Half-way through our unpacking, our host dad, Kujtim arrive and introduced himself. He speaks English too! Yay! After he arrived, we were kind of tired of unpacking so we all just hung out around a table on the balcony that we walk through to get to our room.

Their house has an amazing view of the village. You can see all the mountains and hills surrounding the area and both the sunrise and sunset. As we chatted, we could hear their many chickens and roosters playing in the field below. 

FUN FACT: Did you know that chickens climb trees? They do!!! Ian and I got all big-eyed as we watched 7 to 8 chickens climb into one of the trees and then rested there. It was insane!

While chatting, their grandfather and grandmother stopped by to say hello. Elda told us that they live in the house directly next to us, in the same property. They are Kujtim’s parents. He told us how he was the oldest child of 8 and that he was born in his parents’ house (and I thought I had a huge family!). He then built this house when he got older so he could take care of them if they needed help. 

Just as the sun was setting, Lindita called us all down for dinner. When we walked through the door of the kitchen, a nice wave of heat smothered us. It is definitely the warmest room in the house. Dinner was a vegetable and potato soup with bread and a fresh green salad. Everything was vegetarian! I felt so honored that they were kind enough to respect my vegetarianism! I had been worrying about that since the Peace Corps staff told me about how much meat was involved in the Albanian culture. And every meal since then has been vegetarian! It’s been wonderful.

Watching the sunset on our balcony 

The one difference that Ian and I saw was that Albanians like to from communal plates. The fresh green salad made with lettuce, green onions, olive oil, pepper, and salt, was prepared in two separate plates, placed at the two ends of the table.  We did get our own soup bowl, thank goodness, but when we wanted to eat some salad, we would have to take our forks and stab the leaves from the community plate. It was kind of weird the first night, but I think I’m getting use to it. I love cultural difference like this!

After dinner, they cleared the table and immediately grabbed a deck of playing cards. They really like cards! Every night so far, our family insists on playing a few games before bed. This is much different than what we’ve heard about the other volunteer’s families. Most families watch tv. Not our’s though! I’m so happy we were placed with them. Cards are definitely more entertaining than tv. Plus it’s more family-based and requires you to actively-think; good for the brain and socializing. :)

I could go on and on about our host family, but I’ll save more stories for another day. All I can say is that they are awesome! I’m really going to enjoy my stay here. Plus, I’m going to get really good at cards!