A lot of things have happened and I’ve been really lazy with
the updates. Here are the topics: 1-Milot’s Health Fair, 2-My host sister’s
wedding, 3- My 1st experience
with couchsurfers, 4-The night I was
kidnapped by my host family, 5-World Vision partnership, Impromptu speech, and
youth leadership conference in Pogradec, 6-The start of school
1)
Milot’s Health Fair
I wanted to get going with a community
project, and I saw that there was a lack of knowledge about basic health
information in Milot--thus I began to plan a Health Fair. I took a tooth model,
a scale, and some pens from the Peace Corps office, tables and chairs from my
school, a Blood pressure cuff from Milot’s Health Center, and used other
volunteers as resources. It was a true collaboration of efforts to make this
fair happen. Originally, the Health Center did not want to lend me a BP cuff because
they thought that nobody would be interested in the fair, and they did not want
their name attached to failure. They eventually caved, but decided that no
nurses would come to help this time around. I planned to have the fair at
Milot’s weekly market, and I wasn’t quite sure if I could claim a space. Things
seemed a little fuzzy for a while, and I have to admit I was pretty nervous
about its turnout. However, the day came, and the fair was a success. I had
created 300 little certificates for people to record their weight and blood
pressure, and almost all of them were gone by the end. People were excited to
see what was going on at our table, and they were truly interested in
furthering their knowledge of health. I spoke with a nurse from the Health Center
after, and she told me she heard the fair was wonderful. She would like to work with me to plan another
health fair for the school.
2)
My host sister’s (Bana’s) wedding
The wedding
was intense..to say the least. It began with a “bachelorette party” that
consisted of going to my family’s local (café), getting fake nails with a bunch
of other young women, and dancing around to traditional Albanian and modern
Albanian and American music. I didn’t really want the fake nails, but all the
other women were doing it and it felt like the right thing to do (NOTE TO SELF –
that was a bad choice. They took me forever to pry off my fingers and they
damaged my nails. Not to mention they were completely useless and impractical.
I couldn’t even type on my phone). We stayed out pretty late… just us ladies
dancing around and talking about what we would wear to the wedding for THE NEXT
3 DAYS!
The next day was day 1 of the wedding. It
began during the early hours of the evening and lasted until 2am. The whole
Milot community (Only the bride’s community members) attended the party. It
consisted of one of my xhaxhi’s (Uncle’s) feeding me and another volunteer,
Kate, a lot of beer and us dancing around to traditional Albanian music for
hours on end in the school yard in front of my host family’s house. Most dances
were Albanian circle dancing which is a series of steps repeated over and over
again while holding hands and moving in a circle – It is EXTREMELY fun! Kate
and I stumbled home (starving – We only drank beer. There was no food) and ate
whatever was in my fridge at the time. The next day we went to my host family’s
house around 3pm. My host sister sat in the family lokal in her gigantic white
wedding dress. She sat on a chair in the corner, make up in full forced, and
dress sprawled out across the floor. My other host sisters fed her by hand. Her
only job for the day was to sit and look pretty while community members came by
to wish her congratulations and good luck. While she sat there, other family
members handed out candies and sweets that were beautifully wrapped. Later on
that that night, there was a huge dinner at Milot’s only restaurant, Barcelona.
The place was decked out with ribbons, bows and confetti. Kate and I scored
ourselves a spot at the “Family” Table which was very flattering, but super
awkward! We were served plates and plates of meet, pickled vegetable, other
traditional Albanian treats, and of course…beer. There was a lot of dancing,
but mostly for the family of the bride. The husband made an entrance late into
the dinner with all of his close family members, and then he sat with Bana for
the rest of the night. This party went until 3am. Once again, Kate and I
stumbled home feeling absolutely exhausted.
The next morning Kate had to leave pretty
early, and I had to be at my host family’s house for the last bit of the
wedding. It was so early, and I was super tuckered out. I waited for what
seemed like hours for something to happen. The whole community just waited and
waited in front of my host family’s house and there were a lot of decorated
cars in the school yard. Finally, the husband’s side of the family arrived
dressed in ball gowns and tuxedos. They greeted everyone in my host family and
then went into my host family’s lokal for lunch and their own private party.
Half an hour later, my sister emerged from the house (practically falling out
of the door) bawling her eyes out. My host family followed close behind crying
as well. Why was she crying? This is an Albanian tradition for the bride. She
leaves the house upset because she will never live there again—essentially she
is giving up her family to join another family. As she walked to her new
husband’s car she kept crying, and the whole Milot community followed behind
her. I oddly found myself crying as well. I don’t know if it was because I was
tired or because I knew I would miss Bana, but for whatever reason, I was
caught up in the emotion of it all.
3)
My 1st experience with couchsurfers
Two Polish doctors came to visit Milot
because they wanted to see “The real” Albania. They could not have chosen a
better place. When they arrived, the community wanted to meet them, as usual. My
school director saw them and decided to invite them to see his village in Fushe
Milot. My director is in his mid 30’s, but he is unmarried so he still lives
with his mother. His mom cooked us a gigantic meal all made from fresh items
from the village. It was delicious! The couchsurfers and my director exchanged
Polish and Albanian flags. It was a really nice gesture on both parts. When we
returned to Milot, Max and Ola (my CSers) wanted to see the Health Center. I
took them to see the center, and they asked to see how the nurses there check
hemoglobin and glucose levels. The equipment turned out to be 40 years
outdated, so Mat and Ola took a video to take back to their University in
Poland to raise awareness of the poor medical conditions in Milot. With any
luck, they can raise some money to buy new equipment for the Health Center
here. Having couchsurfers made me realize how integrated I have become in the community.
I was able to translate for the surfers, and really show them around my city. I
also realized how difficult it would be
to be a tourist here without knowing somebody who lived here. Taking a furgon
on your own is difficult because you have no idea where to go or how much money
to pay. There also are not any official stations. The difference between old
and new lek really threw my surfers off as well. Albanians tend to speak in old
lek (adding an extra 0 onto the price and making items seem 10 times as
expensive). My surfers thought the shopkeepers here were trying to cheat them.
Despite the little bits of confusion, it was cool to have them here, and because
my 1
st experience was good, I will likely continue to take in more
couchsurfers.
4)
The night I was kidnapped by my host family
A week after the wedding, I was in my house
just relaxing. I had half a bottle of wine left from a “wine and cheese” night
that I had with another volunteer, Amber. This particular day while relaxing, I
decided to finish the wine. I was also simultaneously watching a Chinese film
in Italian. Needless to say, I was a little out of it. I was still tired from
the wedding and a little overwhelmed with preparing for the school year to
start. I had anticipated going to sleep early when all of the sudden I got a
call from my host sister, Ina. “Come downstairs now! Mom and Dad are waiting for you!” I didn’t know
what the hell was going on or why my host parents were waiting for me, but I
threw on some pants and ran downstairs. It was after I got downstairs that I
realized I was a little tipsy. I stepped on a loose tile and almost fell down
only to look up at my 16 year old Albanian language tutor (Kristi) who was
staring at me very puzzled. I looked back at him and in English (which he can’t
understand) “Uhhh..I’m lost. Where are my host parents?” Before he could say
anything, my host parents yelled my name, directed me into their vehicle and we
took off. When we arrived, there was a
gigantic dinner waiting for us with a huge baby goat in the middle – and yes,
the head was served as well. There was a man playing a traditional Albanian
instrument (like a mini 2 string guitar) and singing about…well he was actually
singing about drinking Raki and putting pictures on Facebook. It was odd, but
awesome at the same time. He just made up the song as he went. I even got a
shout out. So what was this dinner for?! It was very the husband’s side of the
family to celebrate the recent wedding of my host sister. Bana had requested
that I come to meet them. We watched the wedding video, ate a lot of food, and
of course… drank a lot of beer (Yes, I was hammered). Bana showed me her new
room and gave me a photo of her from her husband’s wedding because they have 2
different weddings. She looked so beautiful! She was dressed in a dress and
looked like the queen of hearts. I asked Bana if she was happy, and she smiled
at me, holding back some tears and only shook her head no. It was then that I
realized why I had cried the day she left. She is only 19 years old, and she
had been taken away from her family to live with a 26 year old man. The entire
dinner she did not get to sit down and eat with us. She only served everyone
else at the table. I hope she will become happier as time goes on. I miss her a
lot already.
5)
World Vision partnership, Impromptu speech, and
youth leadership conference in Pogradec
One day my school director asked me to stay
after school preparation hours, and I was really confused why. Trend—I am
always confused. When I arrived he explained that I would be meeting with 2
World Vision Representatives. They came in and to my surprise, they could speak
English! They discussed the types of activities and clubs I wanted to start,
and told them about my ideas for a Girl’s, Model UN, Reading, and Outdoor
Ambassador’s club, and they thought they were great. They offered the school a
partnership and we agreed to share resources.
Their first request was that I lead a workshop at a conference for the
leaders of Kurbin (the district that Milot is in). After the meeting with the
WV reps, the next day there was a WV teacher’s training for Kurbin. I went with
all my colleagues, and we had lunch and discussed experiences that we’ve had as
teachers. It was a little hard for me to follow along because the training was
all in Albanian. I kept turning to my colleagues and saying in Albanian “I want
ice cream.” They just smiled back and said “Me too.” At the end of the
training, when we were all ready to go home, 1 WV rep asked me to give a quick
speech about gender equality. She had noticed that all the men only sat with
other men and the women with other women, and she wanted me to point it out and
say something. Luckily, my counterpart was there to translate for me, but after
my little impromptu speech, chaos erupted. Some teachers were very against my
desire to empower women. My colleagues stood by my opinion, but it was a very
stressful time, and a lot of arguing occurred. The training ended with my
colleagues taking me out for a big ice cream. They are great!
A week later, I attended the youth
leadership conference in Pogradec. I went with Kate (same volunteer who came to
the wedding J
). We gave presentations on Public Speaking and Relationship Building. Pogradec
was beautiful. It is right along the border of Albania and Macedonia and has a
beautiful lake named Ohrid. The workshop went really well, and the students did
a great job. However, they had a little bit of a hard time taking criticism. It
was a lot of their first times speaking in Public and although they were
nervous, they gave it their best. It’s students like these who lead me to
believe Albania will have a bright future!
6)
The Start of School
The start of school finally arrived after a
long Summer. I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t pretty nervous. My
counterpart and I decided to come off aggressive and clear. I am already very
young for a teacher, and my counterpart is even younger than I am. We decided
it’s better to act tough and not be walked all over. We have a strict no cell
phone policy and a homework point system. If we see a cell phone in class, it
goes right into a bucket. If students don’t do their homework, they must write
their name in a book and they receive a minus for the day. 3 minuses = a full #
grade down for the entire year. They can earn back a minus for the day if they
participate a lot. Albanian students have much worse behavior than American
students as a whole. They tend to shout a lot, leave the classroom, and talk
back. A lot of times I can hear my students telling my counterpart that they
won’t respond to me because I don’t speak Albanian and won’t understand. Some
days, we teach 6 hours in a row. Some days, I want to scream at my students for
being so disrespectful. However, there are times that the “poor” student will
speak up and try his best. There are times students thank me and my counterpart
after class, and there are times they tell us we are their favorite teacher’s
and that English is their favorite class. It is times like these that make it
all worth it. My colleagues have also asked me to teach them English 1 day a
week for an hour after school so I will be doing that too. Also, Model UN
applications were due, so now we wait until Oct 1st to see if Milot
gets to participate in this year’s conference. Fingers crossed.
Here’s to a good school year!
Here are some photos from my recent endeavors:
Goat dinner:
Goat head:
Health Fair:
Little Village by Pogradec:
Bana's Wedding:
Lake Ohrid:
Public Speaking Workshop: