27 March 2010 - a full first week under the belt

Hello all!

So, I officially have a full week in Pajove under my belt. Cheers! I am still loving the experience, despite some minor stumbles. My Shqip (Albanian language) is coming along swimmingly. I am back at Matilda's uncle's place (which I have discovered is not a public internet "cafe") in order to crank out this post, with Matilda, Mage, and most of the nearby adolescents for company. There is another internet cafe in town (about 1.5 minutes from here), but it is a "locale" - more of a bar, and thus an unsavory location for girls to be seen. It damages my reputation, unless I am accompanied by men who are careful to define our relationship as benign. I have gone with the other PC volunteers several times. The male PC volunteers are our buffer, plus the owner is the brother of Brad's (fellow trainee) host father.

As I mentioned before, this village is SMALL. Everyone knows all about the habits, backgrounds, and languages spoken by the volunteers in training. We are: Molly D., Molly J., Lesley W., Leslie K., Nathan, Brad, Alicia, Kay, Brittany, Lauren, Meredith, Sergio, Diana, and Hari. My lesson group constitutes myself, Leslie, Brad, Nathan, Brittany, Alicia, and Hari. If someone speaks German, everyone in town who speaks German knows alllll about that individual. If someone wears brightly colored underwear and hangs it out on the line to dry, everyone is aware of that individual's color preferences. If I buy a Kinder Bueno bar, it becomes public knowledge that I prefer hazelnut chocolate. It's great to be a celebrity! Plus, none of the attention is hostile. It is purely friendly and based on an interest in relationship building. Building social relationships, with care, respect, and politesse, is extremely important in Albania. You always great your acquaintances, bring gifts for short visits, try to pick up the bill for kafe (coffee), etc.

So, now we progress to observations/notes on particular subjects.

KAFE
To begin with, Shqiperia is first and foremost not a Balkan country, nor a neighbor of Greece, nor a 70% Muslim country... it is a COFFEE country!!! If you were to inquire into Albanian personal values, the symbol of Albanian culture, the essence of Albanian life, being, spirit, dreams, beliefs, hopes... the response would inevitably, indubitably be KAFE. Life is brokered over a sweetened cup of Turkish kafe or a double express (espresso). Contracts are built, friendships furthered or broken, jobs won over kafe. I, being a former employee of that wonderful corporation known as Starbucks (don't fight me on this, San Franciscans and all those corporate giant-haters out there; you just don't know what you're talking about until you've worked for Starbucks), am extremely PLEASED to find myself in a country that celebrates kafe/cafe. It is sweet, full-bodied, complexly rich, and... satisfying.

Nete and Dafina prepare kafe by putting two scoops of sugar and one scoop of Turkish-ground coffee beans (the grind is the consistency of fine sand, for all of you non-Starbucksians) into a tiny pot on the end of a long handle. The rest of the pot is filled with water. The pot is held over a portable gasoline burner until the contents boil for about half a minute. One pot of liquid makes two tiny cups of kafe. Yum!

RELIGION
There is... none? How to describe? Following World War II, Albania became a Communist country and the government pursued the Soviet, then Chinese, then its own model of Communism with zest and zeal. If you are familiar with the Communist model of governance (which I hope you are), religion is a divider of the working masses, so its observance is carefully squashed into a neat packet to join all of the trash on the river banks. So, families might originally be Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic - whatever! - but it is very uncommon to adhere to doctrine today. Also, other religions are starting to cross the border. Younger generations are becoming interested in Evangelical religions, the Mormon faith, Judaism, etc. It's cultural, non-aggressive, benign, personal, and comfortable.

Also, the Prime Minister announced last month that gay marriage will shortly be made legal in Albania. Hopefully that will become a reality in the near future. Sexual orientation and gender roles are a touchy subject in Albania, not because people are uninterested or uncaring - simply because they are sensitive social and cultural topics.

WATER, SANITATION, and INFRASTRUCTURE
Water is uje (ooh-yee, which is a simple phonetic representation of the word and not entirely accurate). Uje is trickling about in the mountains and plains, but more often than not, it is full of raw garbage and some sewage. Albania lacks a garbage removal system. People simply fling their refuse, plastic and all, into the waterways and ravines. Please keep in mind that while others might gasp in horror, Albanians do not see what they are doing as environmentally cruel - it simply a part of Albanian culture and a benign activity. What other options do they have? Infrastructure, including roads and especially electricity, is extremely fragile. A recent initiative to more efficiently link the capital to the North hit a "roadblock" (ok, awful pun), when a mountain tunnel randomly collapsed. Winding roads make potentially one or two hour journeys last four or five hours. The whole country is rebuilding itself in a new capitalist and democratic era, and a lot of the early development projects introduced to Albania following its emergence from Communism in the nineties failed in the long term. All of my fellow Georgetown students know exactly about what I talking. Electricity was out for the majority of the day today! And I so wanted to do laundry... I will discuss with Nete when I get home. I can use the tiny washing machine (strictly cold water) or I can wash my clothing articles by hand. I think I will tackle the whites by hand! My clothes are quite dusty.

A ground-level perspective on water use meets electrical bills: I take a shower usually every three or two days, so my hair is spending a lot of time pulled back. The power required to heat the water contained in the tanks on the top of the house is very expensive, and considering the number of people with whom I live, I wouldn’t dream of asking to shower more regularly than my host family members. It follows that I usually look as if I slept with my head in a vat of oil. I am actually beginning to regret getting a haircut prior to departure for Albania! Shorter hair is difficult to wind into a clip/headband/hair tie style.

FURGONS
The main mode of transit in Albania today is by car. You will see teenagers driving old, sometimes new Mercedes, at top speed on the roads, swerving around pedestrians, masons with wheelbarrows of cement, and horse-drawn carts laden with straw or stones. Oh yes, there are still plenty of carts with their patiently laboring burros and horses. For those without cars or those who do not choose to drive all the way to Elbasan on a regular basis, there is the furgon. Public buses are slow and unpredictable, so furgons are your best option for travel. Furgons are vans, typically of the Volkswagen or Mercedes variety, that are privately owned and operated by drivers looking to make a few bucks. The same drivers regularly trek the same routes, so you can identify who is trustworthy by asking around town. A trip to Elbasan is 100 leke (1 USD); the trip back is 150 leke. Furgon drivers careen down the roads, only slowing for periodic police roadblocks, at which point they also hustle through the motions of seat belt application. Getting pulled over by the police is a bore! Out come the vehicle registration papers, the furgon driver apologizes again and again, and the police look generally fatigued. There are no speed limits, and adhering to your respective side of the road is optional. The furgon, as a concept, is universal. You can find minibus transportation, where one is wedged between an older woman smelling of garlic and a leering young man, wherever you go. Just make sure you have a notebook to wedge between oneself and the other passengers. Buffers everywhere are good! To date, I have traveled exclusively with my fellow trainees, so no issues to report (yet). I have heard that it is not uncommon to run into a driver who has had one too many shots of raki.

RAKI
Raki is the national moonshine. Everyone and his mother makes/drinks raki and Shqiptare wine. The wine is weak (almost a diluted red/rose) and the raki is STRONG. And I mean strong, like rubbing alcohol strong. My fellow trainees have been discussing the latter beverage's potency of late, but I found myself unable to contribute to discussions until last night. I know that most Albanian men imbibe daily, even ritually downing a shot with their morning coffee, but I had yet to see any alcohol make an appearance at my host family's table. We have grape vines and homemade jam, so I wondered where might be the raki? Last night I introduced the topic into the pre-dinner table discussion and discovered that my family is uniquely sober! They do make their own raki and wine, but keep it for rare use, mostly social. However, since I inquired, Nete and Dafina immediately produced a shot gloss and plonked raki in front of me. I made motions to inquire whether or not it was meant to be emptied all at once or in small sips. Small sips, the ladies indicated. I sipped and was, in a word, whoa. There is only one word for raki, and that is whoa. Whoa. You will have to try to imagine the extent of burn and kick in your own mind. There is no comparison legally available in the US.

FOOD
Shqiptare food is fresh and hey, completely organic and mostly grown at home. Everything tastes WONDERFUL, but some nutrients are missing in daily diet. My host family makes their own grape jam, wine, raki, olive oil, vinegar, pickled prunes, pickled cabbage, and pickled peppers. If I even glance in the direction of something unfamiliar or new in a jar on the counter, Nete pops open the lid and hands me a spoon with which to sample. I have yet to eat or drink something I did not love. Soup with beans, stew with meat, pasta with freshly made pasta sauce, new bread every day, byrek (flaky spinach pastry), an Albanian cornbread, rice, fusale (beans), kafe, and mountain tea. One exception: I am not a fan of hard-boiled eggs, both because of the cholesterol content and the smell/taste. I am, however, eating them for breakfast. Hop-a! (Greek and Albanian for “Dance/Heck yeah!”)

TURKISH TOILETS

You can look this one up. Consider that I have a Western European toilet and bidet in my host family’s house. I am a lucky girl! However, the public Turkish toilet situation is nothing by which to be intimidated. Once you get the hang of a handle-less balancing situation, the situation is manageable.

HOST FAMILY NEWS

This week we have been enjoying beautiful weather! It is amazing how much weather contributes to one’s state of mind and general well-being. Cool nights, warm days. We do only have a wood stove in the family room, so I sleep under a pile of thick, Turkish-style blankets in my room at night. I don’t want to think about the winter months…

Megi, Mande, and Eri took me on an official tour of the family’s houses and property. I admired flowering fruit trees, the baby chicks and baby turkeys cheeping about the yard under the watchful eye of Mama Turkey (she is responsible for both her babies and those of her chicken counterparts), the view from the top floor of the house, the grape vines, and the greenhouse vegetable plants. Nete and Dafina monitored our progress over the turned soil and manure in the field behind the house. Megi and I each grabbed one of Erian’s arms to make sure he didn’t disappear into the furrows altogether. Everyone, including Fatime and Sadik, posed for pictures and experimented with my camera.

Nete showed me all of her photos of Eri, her wedding, Meleq as young man, and her extended family. Yow! Albanian families are big and faithfully devoted to one another. Social circles are big, mostly because they consist primarily of relatives. Love and stick by your blood. Everybody else comes second. It was a fun exchange, with lots of new Albanian words for various parts of the extended family. I also figured out that the family used to live up a mountain maybe 30 or 40 minutes away.

Nete’s mother came to visit and drink kafe for a while yesterday. She looks like her daughter and is a bit more youthful than Fatime. Nete is a very pretty woman, so I would hazard a guess that she gets her looks from her mother. (Nete is also blonde and fair, which is unusual in Albania.) Nete’s mother spoke to me rapidly, hugged me, and was altogether a great lady with whom to spend 45 minutes. She brought cake (torte) for the kids, and for me. This is just one example of when my “foreign-ness” and eternal guest status work to personal advantage. Did I mention that I always get fed, whether or not I am “u ngopa” (full of food)? You have to ritually refuse food three times (no joke, this is a social custom) before the individual offering the food relents.

I have been studying primarily in the family room, near the wood stove and with the family, rather than in my bedroom. If you know me well, you are probably aware that I don’t like to study in a room alone or in silence. Thus, everyone has been getting involved in my language learning. I am now able to converse a bit with Dafina and the grandparents. I am able to understand Eri, and Mande and Megi patiently take me through easy conversations. Nete is wonderful; she is my lifeline language-wise. Even Sadik has taken an interest in my flash cards. He learns English vocabulary faster than I learn Shqip and likes to comment on Shqip’s relative simplicity. Why do the British and Americans need so many words to detail basic concepts and directions? It makes him laugh, and his amusement makes me laugh in turn.

I did my first load of laundry today and will hang it on the line tomorrow! Some colored undergarments were in the load, and I hear that they will be the topic of community gossip by the time they come off the line at the end of the day tomorrow. Oh well…

Megi walks with me to school every day, and now we are typically joined by other trainees and their host family siblings. We walk 20 minutes along the train tracks, which are distinguished by a great view of the valley, trash, and a dead goat. At least I missed the butchering of cows by the road prior to Nofruz on Wednesday. Brad saw the decapitated carcasses and kept his description to a minimum. I expect to see a lot of chicken necks snapped and so on and so forth. I will probably be doing some of that myself.

Twice this weekend I joined all of the women in the family, from 10 year-old Megi to myself and Matilda (Tila) to the eldest aunt, Nimete, at Nimete’s green house to sit on Turkish rugs on the tile walkway near the well in the front yard (which is full of lush fruit trees and happy chicks). Together we drank kafe, gossiped about upcoming weddings, and talked beauty regimens. The most fun I’ve had since coming to Albania! I wish I had brought a few beauty or style magazines to Albania. They would have been a hit.

I also helped Tila and Dafina turn soil for a vegetable garden in a lot in front of the houses. Last summer the men of the family laid a foundation in the lot for a potential food shop (i.e. supermarket, but in miniature). For the time being, any part of the property not sunk under cement will be tilled and planted for the purpose of cultivating leafy and juicy sustenance! We three girls attacked the lot with heavy spades (also wearing flip flops, which are verboten for yard work at my home in the USA), turning up snails, worms, and the occasional toad. The chickens followed us, snatching up every potentially tasty and protein-packed critter that captured their attention. Blisters tomorrow! And a sunburn… But we did win a nice round of kafe as a reward for our efforts. Shqip tutorial: punoj = to work/labor.

PEACE CORPS NEWS

This week we continue language lessons with two alternating instructors. Tuesdays and Fridays we take the furgon to Elbasan for technical training with the other TEFLers and for general training with the whole group. Our TEFL trainers are Agim and Ymer.

This past week we went to a secondary school in Bishqem to observe an English class (there are not enough English teachers for every village, so Lazarej has none) and to discuss the Albanian educational system and school resources and organization with its director. The lesson we observed was taught to sixth graders and dealt with the present continual tense (I think; this is not my forte!). Sixth graders are the same the world over; these students whispered, and the girls strained and practically quivered right out their seats with eagerly raised hands. The boys hesitated to perform in front of visiting strangers.

School runs from 8 am to 1 pm, and each class is 45 minutes long. Class size can run from 35 to 50 students, space is scarce, and resources are minimal and colorless. For example, the Bishqem school director (who also teaches biology and chemistry) explained that his science classes lack labs, so lessons are never concretely demonstrated.

Our language class typically runs from 8 am to 1 pm when we are at school in Lazarej. The classroom has a plywood board painted black, a stack of boxes full of chalk, no heat, some desks, chairs, and a plywood box covered with a table cloth for a teacher desk. We are also in the computer room (The technology is nice! It must be new – nothing else is!), so the door is padlocked and behind a metal frame. The building is white-washed, and plain posters proudly detailing student achievements, potted geraniums, and the national anthem decorate the hallways. There are two floors and maybe a total of eight classrooms. The front yard is a dustbowl for soccer and recess. The outhouse in the back is a no-go zone. Forget Turkish toilets, this is a sewage pit!

Our language teachers are young and a uniquely-Albanian brand of enthusiastic (reserved but dedicated). Ervin, in particular, is a sharply witty instructor, and our primary instructor, Ardita, is a sweetheart. We cover a lot of ground in our five hour lessons, though I did expect to spend more time in the classroom each day. I suppose this reflects the Peace Corps philosophy that you primarily learn by doing. I fully support that approach to learning. Cultural immersion all the way! We have kafe break (of course), during which period we head to the tiny shop next door and drink caj (pronounced “tschay”), which is tea and is typically chamomile or special “mountain tea”, or Turkish coffee. The more posh locale serve express (espresso).

Two of the trainees in my TEFL group celebrated birthdays since we arrived in country, so this Sunday all of the trainees (19 in total) living in Komuna Pajove (Pajove, Lazarej, and Bishqem) met for a picnic in Pajove Larte. Pajove Larte (or Pajove High) is a group of abandoned stone cottages on top of a hill behind the town where the poorer folk lived during Communism. The abandoned houses are perched on a very steep slope. They are linked by steps and surrounded by grape vines, lush purple iris, and wild greens that some host mothers use in cooking. The old cemetery is also in Pajove Larte, and the hill is capped by a well and deep water reservoir.

The picnic was a success, despite a late start due to a general tendency to forget that today was Daylight Savings in Albania. I was munching on toast in the kitchen when my host family pointed to my watch and explained that it was an hour later than I had thought. Aiee! I contributed Nutella and bread to the picnic, which also included peanuts, beer, pretzels, Prince cookies, and bananas. Sergio brought his steel-string guitar. He and Nathan took turns playing, and we all sang. We attracted some neighborhood children, and everyone below in Pajove Qender (Pajove Center) discussed our antics. It rained the night before, so afterwards we all trooped down to the locale for kafe in muddy sneakers and jeans. Afterwards, I walked to Bishqem with some of the trainees who live outside Pajove proper, and we discussed potential community service day projects.

Part of Peace Corps training requires each training group to design and implement a one-day development project at their training sites as both a thank to the communities for hosting us and an opportunity to experiment with a controlled development project. Some ideas: overhauling an existing school library, holding a career day at the local high school, painting a world map on the middle school wall, etc. It should be fun!

ALSO: I will be traveling to visit a current Peace Corps volunteer this coming weekend! We leave midday Saturday and return Tuesday afternoon. Also, Dafina asked me to join her on a visit to her sister, who lives in a small Albanian city not too far away. I would really like to do both, but there are language classes and homework to consider. I will see if I can manage it.

Another volunteer is skipping the site visit to attend a Shqiptar wedding. Hop-a! I hope I get to attend an Albanian wedding while I am here. Albanian weddings last for three days and consist of two separate ceremonies, one at the bride’s house and one at the groom’s house. The bride is exhausted by the end, having worn between three and four gowns and not being able, unlike her groom, to seek release in a glass of raki.