Swearing-In and Moving-On

I do not think I would have survived PST without the lovely ladies of Thanë.

Peace Corps Albania Group 15 Volunteers

Our swearing-in ceremony was Thursday.  We were all dressed up and looked pretty comical struggling under the weight of our luggage as we navigated puddles, potholes, and people on our way to the Skampi Theatre near the castle in Elbasan.  About half of us planned to stay the night in in the city, and after dropping off our luggage we went for the obligatory morning coffee (meaning an espresso, macchiato, or cappuccino; no drip coffee here).  We entered through light security about an hour before the ceremony and ambled around the stage chatting and taking photos.  The Peace Corps was to receive the Mother Teresa Medal of Volunteerism, apparently a very high honor, so the President of Albania attended the ceremony to give the award.  Also in attendance were the Mayor of Elbasan, the US Ambassador (who read us our "Oath of Office"), and a famous Albanian singer who crooned a half Shqip/half English rendition of New York New York.  I am pretty sure that the footage played on the news all evening.  Hopefully I will find a few of the hundreds of pictures that were taken of us with the President and ambassador.

milling around before the ceremony

The Thanë crew poses for a photo.  I like the looks on Liila (blue dress) and Luis' (vest) faces.

The photo-quality of this is poor for some reason, but at least we're all looking at the camera.

A tragedy overshadowed the event.  On Monday, a bus carrying students from the university in Elbasan plunged almost 500 feet into a ravine near the city of Himarë.  13 students and the driver are dead, and about 20 are in the hospital.  Many of our host families knew the victims, and although some in our group were displeased that so much attention was given to the accident at the ceremony, it seemed the sensitive and diplomatic thing to do.  The event made international news, so some of you may have already heard about it.  But if you want to get a sense of the Albanian news, here's a link to a short clip about the accident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzMdlYYftMI 

from left to right - President Topi, Ambassador Arvizu, and Mayor Sejdini

Ambassador Arvizu giving his speech

Alex, Mike, and me

Peace Corps was awarded the prestigious Mother Teresa of Volunteerism.  This is most  of the Community and Organizational Development team with our fearless leaders Diana and Marsi.

The ceremony lasted about 2 hours and afterward we felt the sweet taste of freedom that accompanies the transition from trainee to volunteer.  We can now move about the country as we please, live in our own apartments, cook our own meals, pay our own bills, and set our own schedules.  We stayed up late last night to celebrate, and this morning we made our way to our new home sites.  I am the only volunteer from our group headed to Durrës, so I set out alone this morning and caught a minibus around 8:00 am.

While the minibus waited in the station for more passengers, I had the standard conversation with the driver using my limited shqip.  "Where are you from, Boston, New York?  When did you come to Albania?  How long will you be here?  What about your family?  Why are you here?"  The length of my responses does not usually match the nature of the question but instead matches my language ability.  Sometimes I will answer a question with more information than is needed just to practice using my limited vocabulary.  Since this is a small country and my host father is a furgon driver (a van used as a taxi), most all of the shofers (drivers) in Elbasan know him.  At least that gives us something to talk about.  Usually my furgon and street conversations end after about three minutes.  Hopefully by the end of June I'll be up to 5 minutes.  

Durrës

We picked up a few more passengers on our way out of town and probably stopped 30 more times on the 2 hour hour journey, picking up and dropping off people along the way.  In Albania, you never know who or what will get on the bus or furgon.  Maybe an old lady carrying a huge crate of  kastravec (cucumbers). Or a man in a business suit.  Or a farmer in a sport coat carting live chickens tied at the feet.  Or a baby with an amulet necklace intended to ward off the evil eye. Or a Peace Corps volunteer with an i-pod and a backpack.  On the bus, you will pass expensive cars, horse-drawn carts, fruit sellers, mules tied to ropes, strands of garlic hanging from half-finished buildings, groups of old women dressed in black. Today we passed a paraplegic young Roma man sitting in the middle of the highway right around a sharp curve.  I am not sure what he was doing.  Trying to get money or a ride?  Trying to die?  The driver didn't flinch and the passengers didn't react.

I will live on the port side of Durrës.  The beach side is called Plepa and is only a 5-10 minute bus ride away.

The red and white ferry goes to Italy every day.

I knew we were near Durrës when I saw large thatched umbrellas for sale by the side of the road.  Summer is coming and will bring with it thousands of vacationers headed for the plazh (beach).  Apparently a lot of residents here move out for the summer and rent their flats.  That makes it difficult to find suitable apartments for volunteers in coastal areas under the Peace Corps mandated rent limit.

Since my apartment will not be ready until Monday, I am staying at my site-mate Kim's place.  Initially I was bummed because I could not immediately move in and would be alone for the first weekend/week since she is traveling.  But now that I am here it seems like a perfect situation.  I am free to roam my new home city without the pressure of starting my job or settling into my apartment.  I do not feel like I am crowding Kim in her studio with my self and my luggage.  I will go buy exactly what I want to eat, go to the beach, meander the streets, read, and do whatever else I feel like doing.  No hurry, no worry.


Below are some random photos from the last few weeks.

We had a picnic in Shushicë on our last "Sunday funday."

Joyce had the brilliant idea to chill our bottles under the waterfall.

In the States, I think they called this Family Size.  Apparently in Shqipëri it's Professional Size.

The ethnographic Museum in Elbasan has a collection of artifacts from Albania's past.