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LIBRAZHD - where I will live for seven weeks

March 26, 2014

The Peace Corps has placed all volunteers in small towns and villages for seven weeks before we leave to our final sites where we will begin work.  Here we live with host families while we attend language/culture classes and receive technical and safety training.  The families receive a modest stipend for food.

 

The seat of honor is next to the fire place

Each evening finds me in the room that is the center of life for this family who has offered me their home for the next seven weeks.  I am sitting on a love seat against the back wall, the seat they have conferred to me because it is next to the fireplace which is the sole source of warmth for this one story home.  My gaze can easily catch all the activity in the room as I sit with my laptop that has a high speed, Wi-Fi internet connection. There is no heat in the three bedrooms which are the only other rooms in the home beside the foyer and bathroom. 

The center of family life

 Armand, the 17 year old son has just lounged on the sofa facing the omnipresent television.  His father, Aqif was there moments ago before he went to one of the cold bedrooms.  Dashurie, his wife moves about the room tending to others’ needs and the needs of order and cleanliness.  She stops for a moment by the fire for warmth and then moves again from stove to sink, preparing tea for all now that she has finished preparing and serving  and cleaning up after the dinner.  Her gentle support and commands reach out to all her children in the room.  Occasionally she throws Albanian words in my direction and insists that I pronounce them correctly.  Dajana, 15, sits with her brother Endri, 7,  as they scan Facebook together.

Saimir in the US

  They are simultaneously Skyping with their older cousin, Saimir who is in a long haul truck in America completing one leg of his 6000 mile weekly journey.  Today he is delivering fresh produce, which may bring  blueberries and strawberries to my friends and family in Newburyport.  Saimir is glad to talk with me about his love of Albania and also his hope to turn his green card status into citizenship.    The family calls Saimir every day;  it is a joy for him as he spends 16 hours a day in his truck and it is a joy to the family to see his success. 

Dashurie and Dajana

 Endri has just attacked his older brother on the sofa and they wrestle with giggles and grunts.  Endri quickly moves to kiss his mother who laughs with delight.  Aqif briefly returns to demand silence.

Shortly we will all go to our rooms.  They have given me one room to myself, a requirement established by the Peace Corps for all volunteers as we prepare for our final assignment in May.  We will leave the warmth of our host families and move into our own apartments at the site where we will make our contribution to those anxious for essential skills and competencies for this emerging culture.   Tomorrow Aqif will wait yet another day hoping for a phone call that will offer him an assignment to drive a delivery anywhere in Southern or Western Europe.  Dashsurie will prepare breakfast and gather her children off to school before she descends the hillside of tightly placed homes and opens the small roadside stall and sit with her offerings of cigarettes, chips, newspapers, fruits and other sundries.  Occasionally Aqif or one of the older children will spend some hours to provide her opportunity to do others chores. In the evening, at about 8,  Dashurie will return to prepare our evening meal after she has done the shopping.  

Tomorrow will be much the same for this family as it is with the host families of most of the other 40 volunteers who arrived with me in Albania last week.  Again I will sit in this seat offered to all guests of this home.   I will participate only at the edge of their life, noticing with wonder and admiration, as I do now, at this life so different from my own. 

Leaving Soon to Teach English in Albania for Two Years.

I have recently retired from a career in education and business.   When I turn 68 in April  I will be in Albania as a volunteer in the Peace Corps.  One of my friends suggested that I made this decision to "find myself" --- as if I had just left college.  I was mildly offended and abruptly replied that I was going to use my experiences to make a contribution. But as my day of departure approaches I am not so sure anymore.  Questions are flooding into my mind - How will I explain the kaleidoscope of values that represent me and my country?  How will I respond to questions about the thousand examples of the mixed values that America projects around the world at internet speed?  How would my friends describe the values that represent who we are as Americans?  (Please post your thoughts!) And what life stories and values will I discover in Albania?

I am convinced that we are all on a spiral journey that is dynamic but which also has predictability and directionality. (Refer to the chart below and URL linked to the chart).  Over time and given our life situation our perspectives and values evolve.   And in a similar way so does collective culture - locally, nationally, and globally.

I have mixed feelings.  It is painful to leave the comfort of my home, to be far from those I love, and will no longer be able to rely on the  familiar beliefs and patterns that guide my behavior.On the other hand, it will be  exciting to form new relationships with others with  different history, language, and cultural expressions.

I have two major goals.  My mission in Albania is to teach English – to provide a valuable skill needed as a country seeks to deal with its present circumstances and emerge into modernity from a predominately traditional culture that is hardened from fifty years under a repressive communist dictatorship.   Additionally my mission is to notice how circumstances trigger my own cultural values and impact my personal  spiral of development.

Some of my discoveries will be chronicled here.  Please comment.  Your perspectives are a valuable part of my journey.

The remnants of bunkers reflect an older worldview (red to amber) even while Albania seeks to modernize (orange) economic assets along their beautiful Adriatic coast.