PST Routine

PST (pre-service training) defines our first 10 weeks in Albania.  We fly into Tiranë and immediately take a bus to Elbasan, a "larger" city about an hour away.  We trainees spend four days there at a hotel being briefed and oriented and given shumë information.  Then, we are unceremoniously carted off to our host families where we live for the remainder of training.  This entry is mostly a factual one about our schedules.  A description about how training "feels" deserves its own post.

For future trainees who may stumble across this blog (or stalk it like I did group 14ers blogs' after receiving my invitation for Albania), please note that it is specific to COD volunteers (although the experience is pretty similar across all three sectors). 

In Thanë:
The majority of our time the first four weeks is spent at our host sites.  There are 13 COD volunteers this year; half are in a small village and half are in a town.  (I am in the partially bitter village group.  At least my host family and fellow site mates are stellar and supportive.)  We have two language/culture instructors who alternate between the two sites.  We study in a classroom in the local school, have our coffee breaks at a nearby cafe, and walk into the next village over for lunch and the next town over to use the internet.  Other than having to be constantly vigilant so as to avoid becoming roadkill, it's not a bad trek.

We had to draw an illustration of "what we did this weekend" and then describe it in Albanian.  This was the class favorite. 

The routine varies from week to week, but this is a pretty standard example:

8:30 - 10:30 - studying shqip, "shcheep" (Albanian language)
10:30 - 11:00 - coffee break (I do so love the 40¢ espresso.)
11:00 - 1:00 - study more shqip
1:00 - 2:00 - lunch
2:00 - 3:00 - cultural topics/discussion
3:00 - 4:00 - potentially, time to work on our community project
4:00 - done for the day

(As PST progresses and we get more and more stressed/acclimated/anxious to get to our future sites, our daily routine gets less and less demanding.  Thank you Peace Corps.  Otherwise we would lose our minds.) 

spontaneous camera-photo of Alex acting out something in language class

In Elbasan:

Typically we go to Elbasan for "hub days" on Wednesdays and Fridays.  It is a nice break from village life and the classroom that is frigid for the first four weeks of training.  CODs go to Elbasan every weekday during weeks five and six to learn about project design and management and to visit various governmental agencies and NGOs.  And of course then go for beers/coffees/limon sodas and conversation/complaints afterwards.  Hub days good for catching up with the volunteers in other sites/sectors.  No matter how great your site mates are, everyone is ready for a break and some new faces after several weeks together.

Many of the general sessions are informative and engaging, but some are tedious/mind-numbing, especially when you are already dealing with the general low-level stress of PST.  But it is really no different than having to sit through meetings and trainings at work or lectures in college.

Trainees hard at work studying shqip on a hub day.  Wait, where are my books? 

Again, the schedule varies, but this is a pretty standard routine for hub days:

8:00 - 9:30 - study shqip
9:30 - 10:00 - coffee break
10:00 - 11:00 - study more shqip
11:00 - 12:00 - lunch
12:00 - 2:00 - technical training
2:00 - 2:30 - coffee break
2:30 - 4:30 - info sessions on health, safety and security, culture, logistics, administrative info, and occasionally old videos you have no idea why the Peace Corps hasn't yet updated
4:30 - done for the day

(We sometimes get done with hub days early.  One day we ended right after lunch.  I live for those days.  Some days we go to Elbasan on Saturdays for class or information sessions.  I am not so fond of that.)

I love post-training meals in Elbasan.  So delicious and relaxing. 

Overall, the PST routine is draining but mostly necessary.  (I am sure they have their reasons...)  It does not help that your every move is tracked.  Again, I understand why this is the policy during training, but it takes a mental toll, especially if you are highly independent.  Previous volunteers say that PST is absolutely the most difficult part of being a PC volunteer.  Thank god.  Three more weeks!

Sound track for this post - Float On by Modest Mouse   

photos

I think I must have been pretty happy this day.  :) 

last breakfast in the States

first night out in Albania

A major wedding dress boutique brand in Albania is called Sara.  Too bad ALL of the dresses are utterly atrocious.  It looks like taffeta and sequins vomited on the mannequins.  

Smile if a Bird Poops on You

The Peace Corps provides trainees with a booklet on Albanian culture.  I have shared some of my favorite tidbits below.

Things that made me smile:

• "The butterfly is believed to be a representative of the human soul.  Whenever a butterfly is coming around you or sitting on your hand, it means a human soul (especially a relative) is visiting you.  Don't try to kill the butterfly; it will bring you bad luck.  Try to understand the message it brings to you and then set it free."
• Albanians LOVE fireworks and New Year's
• Albanians celebrate every holiday, regardless of their professed religion (read: potentially many extra days off work)

Things that made me think:

•  "The Albanian language is entirely distinct from the tongues spoken by neighboring nationalities.  This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula."
• "The Albanian language affords the only available means for a rational explanation of the names of the ancient Greek gods as well as the rest of mythological creations, so as exactly to correspond with the characteristics attributed to these dieties by the men of those times.  The explanations are so convincing as to confirm the opinion that the ancient Greek mythology had been borrowed, in its entirety, from the Illyrian-Pelasgians."
• Zeus survives today as Zot (Albanian word for God)
• His most famous oracle and supposed original place of worship was at Dodona in present-day Albania
• The invocation of his name is the common form of oath among modern Albanians
• Athena, goddess of wisdom as expressed in speech, would evidently owe its derivation to the Albanian "E Thena" which simply means "speech."
• Thetis, goddess of water and sea, probably derives from "Det" meaning "sea."
• Ulysses, or in Greek Odysseus, means "traveler" in Albanian.
• Their first king was Hyllus, "the star," closely related to the Greek god Helios, "the sun."
• Albanians are believed to be descendants of the ancient Illyrians whose culture likely originated in the Stone Age and manifested itself in present-day Albanian territory toward the beginning of the Bronze Age (approximately 2000 BCE).  They were a conglomeration of tribes that inhabited the western part of the Balkans. 
• Albanians have been legendary for their hospitality and wartime bravery since antiquity.
• Illyrian women were afforded near-equal status to men, even becoming heads of local federations and in one case queen, Catherine the Great of Illyria.
• Shiqperia (Albanian for Albania) likely means "land of Eagles."
• Currently about 1/2 of Albania's traditional territory belongs to its neighbors.
• Blood feuds (to learn more, read Broken April by Ismail Kadare)
• Some proverbs/expressions:
• "Trimi i mirë me shokë shumë."  The brave person has a lot of friends.
• "Kush i bën gropën shokut bie vetë brenda."  Whoever digs a hole for his friend ends up falling into it himself."
• "S'bëhet vreshti me urata po me shata e lopata."  A vineyard is not done by blessings but by way of a shovel.
• "Nga e thëna në të bërë është në mes një mal i tërë."  There is a mountain between saying and doing.
• "Puna e rinisë, jorgani i pleqërisë."  Working when you are young is the comforter of old age.
• "Jeto sikur do Vdesesh nesër, mëso sikur do jetosh gjithmonë."  Live as if you will die tomorrow; learn as if you will live forever.

 Things that made me scratch my head:

• As of 1946, as mush as 85% of the population was illiterate, princially because schools using the Albanian language had been practically non-existent in the country before independence in 1912.  (Greedy/hostile neighbors and invaders tried their best to kill the language over the last 600 years.)
• Albania is a land where it is not uncommon to see a relatively thuggish-looking guy belting out the latest Rhianna song. 
• Bad luck omens:
• "When an owl comes and stands on the roof of your house, it means bad luck for you.  If that owl starts to sing it is a bad sign and means that something bad is going to happen."
• "If a dog howls at night, it means someone will die."  (If this were true, all of Albania would be dead in a week.)
• Good luck signs:
• a baby pees on you
• a bird poops on you
• you find a horseshoe
• you see a spider - the bigger the better
• garlic in the pocket keeps away the "evil eye" (and many a Westerner)
• "In preparation for the expected invasion of American and Russian troops, Albanian factories produced 180,000 concrete bunkers by 1985, in addition to millions of 6 foot high concrete poles topped with iron spikes to impale invading paratroopers.  The port city of Durrës (Albania's second largest) had live ammunition invasion simulations every 8 weeks in which the entire population was evacuated to the surrounding villages."

Life in the Land Where Donkey Cart Meets Luxury Sedan

   

   Things I have seen (or see regularly) on my 2-minute walk to school:

• a man standing on a rickety old donkey cart transporting a new washing machine
• local kiddos walking to class 
• gangs of turkeys
• flocks of sheep
• at least 15 chickens of at least 15 colors
• chained, barking dogs
• Albanians working in the fields
• the café where we have our much-loved coffee breaks
• friendly neighbors
• rank cess pools
• beautiful 3 and 4 story homes
• simple 2 room homes
• 4 bunkers, which now serve as extra home-storage (photos to come)
• homes under various stages of construction/destruction
• trash
• more trash
• a vision of my broken, bruised body flying through the air over the adjacent green fields after being smashed by a rouge furgon (passenger van that serves - surprisingly efficiently - as the main form of transportation in Albania)
• the beautiful mountains that surround Thanë
• pot holes
• old women dressed in black
• a fence adorned with an old windbreaker, arms stretched out and a baby doll’s head sticking out of the neck hole – super creepy
• lines of fluttering laundry
• Albanian flags
• 10+ solar-panel-heated water tanks atop roofs
• trees and flowers in bloom
• men on bikes
• “vehicles” zooming, lumbering, or bouncing down the road 
•  assume a speed of 40+ mph for vehicles that have the ability
• there is barely room for a bus and a motorcycle to pass each other safely
• the “sidewalk” is an intermittent gravel/grass path that many feet have worn down over time in an attempt not to become roadkill
• the “vehicles”:
• military convoys
• shiny new Mercedes
• more shiny new Mercedes (always speeding)
• huge old buses (which we use frequently)
• luxury travel buses driving so fast they look as if they will tip over at every turn
• communist-era vans held together with duct tape and prayer
• home-made horse-drawn carts toting various objects
• household appliances
• other people
• vegetables
• scrap metal
• sheep
• ???
• motor bikes that are so unnecessarily loud I want to throw a rock at the drivers heads
• half-motorcycle, half-push cart “things”
• other motorized contraptions I cannot even begin to describe

More Random Photos (Warning: Mostly of the Kittens)

This is a picture of me about 5 minutes after I found out that I have been placed in Durrës.  I was/am ecstatic.  When my name was called, I was video- recording the site announcements for Joyce.  Apparently when my name was called for Durrës, I started jumping up and down and squealing with joy.  Someone said I looked like a contestant on Price is Right.  I must see the video.  Glad I did not drop/throw the camera.  (My photo is the yellow one to the far left - sticking out is the gorgeous Adriatic.  Shumë mirë.)

The sites were announced by projecting a map of Albania on the back wall.  Our pictures popped up one by one as our names and destinations were called.  It was exciting and nerve-wracking.  See my face under Durrës on the west coast?  More details about my perfect placement to come soon. 

snuggle time with the kitties

learning to explore

Luis with an armful of kitties

I do not think Alex could have been happier.  Well, unless a good glass of wine was also present. 

The family does not seem to bother thinking about what they will do with the kittens.  The American part of me wants to say "What!  You don't already have a plan for that!?!"  Yet another reason Albania will be good for me. 

Random Photos

Liila and me about to leave DC for Shqipëri

the standard-issue Peace Corps medical kit - we are well prepared for minor emergencies

My host family dressed me in traditional clothes. I was initially dreading it, but then didn't really want to take them off. 

The final layer would not close over my bust, and grandmother thought this was hilarious.  In front of everyone, she grabbed my boobs and exclaimed "shumë e madhe" (very big).  Thanks gjyshe. 

attempting traditional dance with some group 13ers 

host dad and brother - delightful

I need much practice with traditional dance.  I will not be posting a video of that anytime soon.  I think the finger is host mom pointing to my poor foot-stepping.  For now I will just smile, laugh, and try to move in the right direction.

full moon in Thanë

another gorgeous sunset

When the sun doesn't shine, certain things don't happen - like hot showers or dry clothes. You must get creative, like using a hairdryer to heat/dry socks on a cold early morning. Also, apparently April is much colder than March. So glad I brought my sleeping bag. 

They grow up so fast...

so freaking cute and snuggly

Voskopoja (in pictures)

The volunteer I visited took us to a village in the mountains where she used to work.  Gorgeous.

an Orthodox church from the 17th century

The column on the left read "Enver Hoxha (Hoe-jah)" until about a month ago when someone painted over it.

Some NGO made signs indicating the location of churches around the village.  The juxtaposition of one such sign near this pile of rubble is quite telling of the situation of the village, and Albania in general. 

There was still some snow there, but the frigid stance is for dramatic effect only.  :) 

This church was in relatively good condition.

The inside of the church was particularly spectacular, but photo-taking was not allowed. 

It amazes me that this church is still standing after years of communism and relative neglect. 

17th century murals outside the church

graffiti from the ages

The architecture was unique, I assume to the region.  It is a curious blend of East and West. 

You can drink water straight from the ground.  I took this opportunity to fill my water bottle.  Delicious.

The winter's heavy snow caused a major part of the roof to collapse.  The volunteer is working with the community to get a grant to fix it.  Fingers crossed. 

view of the town

"tourist" banner in the volunteer and counter-part's office

Stuffed animals, dolls, impromptu scarecrows, and/or stands of garlic are hung from buildings to ward off the "evil eye."  Alex calls this "the land of suicidal teddy bears."  Obviously, I love her humor.   

Voskopoja is known for its honey.  The church had several bee-boxes (or whatever they are called) in the back yard. 

We walked around a lot that day.

This is a particularly interesting mural, especially the top mural.  It depicts the apocalypse, as assumed in the 17th century.  It is very surrealist though, I think. 

Another mural at the same church apparently shows the evolution of man from animals.  How progressive, and odd.

A close-up of the mural above.  Evolution in action?  Albania is an ever-unfolding mystery.

a Voskopojan man makes his way slowly down a road on his donkey

Hoxha built thousands of tunnels as a refuge for the "impending" American invasion.

Guess which cemetery plot is from the communist era.

stunning vista - I hope they get some funds for preservation

We had coffee at this mountain-top hotel.   I have a video but am having difficulty posting it.  Perhaps it is too long.  If only I knew how to edit it.

We saw this image in a church in Voskopoja, but photos were not allowed.  It is remarkable because it is the only example of a non-religious image allowed to be painted in an Orthodox church (in Albania?).  It is by the famous artist David Selenicasi, and depicts a typical Albanian peasant of the 17th century.  I think now some food company has this image as its logo, of course. 

view of town from the place we ate lunch

This is one of the most delicious dishes I have ever eaten.  It is "Lakror", and was filled with tomatoes, cheese, and onions.

Orthodox-style hotel, Soviet-style monument - welcome to Shqiperia

Apparently, in the late 1990's a Saudi-backed madrasah opened in Voskopoja and was teaching extremist ideology.  After the young students started defacing religious buildings, it was shut down.

Randomly, there was a bear cub in a woodshed.  The guys who "owned" it had shot the mother for who-knows-what-reason and sold the other cub.  This cub was as adorable as the situation was tragic.  

Honestly, I hope the little guy is dead by the end of the summer.  I think only a life of misery awaits it in Albania.  Placement in a foreign zoo would be the only positive outcome, and that seems impossible.