First Days in Albania

So after an amazing few days in Philadelphia with the roomies from college and Mike, I have finally arrived in Albania (after an extended trip of about 20 hours!) and it’s already amazing! Surprisingly, I haven’t been nervous at all…even during the beginning stages and during traveling I just had a very real peace about coming here. I feel like it’s just the reassurance that this is exactly where I’m supposed to be right now. I know that this is the perfect timing for being here and I’m really excited about it. I’ve only known the people that I’m with for about 3 days…but right now, it feels like a lifetime. Already we’ve experienced so much together that it feels like we’ve gone through journeys and journeys together. There are about 35 people total split up between the fields of Health, Teaching English and Community Development. We will all live in satellite villages where we will do language training and then 2 days a week we will head into Elbasan (the larger town) to do some group training on culture, health, and safety. The people I’m here with are really cool—from various walks of life but all with the desire to improve the quality of life for people in developing nations.

Today was our first day of orientation and we met with our program directors to discuss our eventual site placements (where I’ll be for the next 2 years after training). During my interview with the Community Development coordinator, I think I mentioned “arts” or “culture” about 80 times (ok…maybe only 15). I also mentioned that I LOVE event planning…so who know what type of activities I could be planning. …I had the brief vision of myself teaching hip-hop to Albanian teenagers or something. ….apparently the dance scene is just breaking in Albania and I said I love working with middle and high schoolers. So who knows what I’ve gotten myself into J I feel like Albania might be the Prague of the early 90s…when the isolated post-Community country had a birth into the contemporary arts scene…so we’ll see. I’ll keep you posted on my site assignment but I won’t know until about week 4.

So instead of trying to convey everything I’ve witnessed in the last 2 days (…it feels like SO much longer!), I’ll just do a brief list of first impressions of the country.

· Gorgeous landscape! (palm trees next to snow-covered mountains) with a planting season that’s year-round
· Fashionably dressed people—even if the living standards are lower than the U.S. (…seriously the women are SO fashionably dressed…I might need to invest in a pair of awesome $19 boots that everyone has here)
· Cows tied to leashes on the side of the road
· Donkey-drawn carts
· Construction everywhere (thought apparently it looks like people are busy, but it sometimes takes 10-15 years to complete a project)
· Men crowded around tables playing dominoes in the afternoon coffee time
· Ugly concrete bunkers studding the hillside (used during the Communist period under Hoxha in case of a bomb attack by the West)
· So many gutted concrete buildings (think the pictures of the platforms with the stairways leading up to the sky that have no walls)
· Dichotomy of scrap metal yards/trash dumps/broken concrete next to brightly colored villa-style apartments and other in-tact shops
· FABulous food! (Mediterranean-style diet with many vegetables and salads and lamb/chicken….which my going back to meat is going okay!)
· Being unabashedly stared at. ..we went on a walking tour of Elbasan yesterday and people STARED at us unashamedly…they have no qualms about making it clearly obvious that we are foreign to their environment and are intrigued
· Not being able to go out after 8 pm because women are not seen outside after that time and NEVER go anywhere by themselves (even during the day!)

So hopefully this isn’t overwhelming for the first entry! I have no idea what my access to internet is going to be like. I did find out a little bit about my host family (that I will live with for 3 months during pre-service training). I have a dad (that is an immigrant from Greece) and a mom that are in their mid-40s; a brother and a sister that are 18 and 19; and a grandmother that is 84! So I’m excited to meet them on Saturday!

In other news…my funny language story of the day (which I’m sure there will be many!) is of course, a story involving the humor of a middle school boy. The number for 2 in Albania is “dy” (pronounced “doo”) and so we were going through class repeating things after the teacher as a group; then by each side of the room; and then each saying it individually. As I’m sure you’ve already figured out…repeating the phrase very quickly results in a LOT of people saying “doo doo.” So naturally, I completely lost all self-control and laughed hysterically for about 2 minutes straight. By the time it came around to me to repeat it individually, I couldn’t even breathe. …I’m hoping all of the people at Hot House can appreciate this story since they know my history of laughing at “duties” in office meetings. …so clearly, I haven’t changed that part of my personality.

I love you all and appreciate your support in getting me here! Be in touch and keep me posted on your lives!! I’ll try to write as often as possible!