Floods and Kadare

Fall, most of winter, and spring = (amongst other things) rain and mud. Up in the mountains, most of it washes down into the valleys, and we are thankfully also blanketed with snow. The rains can, however, wreak havoc in low-lying country.

At the beginning of December, Albania struggled with flooding. The northern shoreline and most of the northern provinces were inaccessible. Volunteers were evacuated from Shkodër and Lezhë while others were instructed to remain within their sites, not to risk the roads. NATO even contributed to the relief efforts. Around 12,000 people were relocated by December 5th. Water flooded the streets of the northern cities and villages, forcing residents to pole their way in skiffs and other makeshift flotation devices. Mud in houses, property destroyed, school interrupted, homeless and cold and wet and adrift.  Check this BBC clip for footage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11923596.

Briefly ignoring the nightmarish implications of a city unexpectedly submerged, Shkodër was once a Venetian city state, so perhaps streets becoming canals makes some modicum of sense. Shkodrans pay tribute to Italian culture with a brilliant bicycle culture and frequent mixing of Shqip with belissimas. I had my hair cut by a Shkodran stylist with extremely flexible wrists who trained in Italy. Venice contracts out production of hand-crafted plaster Carnival masks to a Shkodran workshop. At the sobering end of things, Italy has also lost a considerable number of troops on Albanian soil. Albania – Shkodrans, certainly – owns some measure of Italian culture.

Ismail Kadare wrote a book called The General of the Dead Army (Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur) about an Italian general in the post-war period who goes on an unsettling quest to reclaim the bodies of Italian soldiers interred in Albanian soil. The opening chapters have a passage about flying over the forbidding peaks of northern Albania that aptly illustrates the aura of mystery shrouding both communist and post-communist Albania and her closed, mountainous terrain. I recommend reading that and Spring Flowers, Spring Frost (Prilli i thyer), which won the Man Booker Prize in 2005.