TRANSITIONS

In the last three weeks in Shkoder I have been experiencing transitions.  Transition from regimentation of the Peace Corps Pre Service Training and the obligations of living with a host family to the freedom of my own apartment and the choice to once again create my own daily schedule.  Transition from a small mountain town with a strong influence of traditional values to the city of Shkoder where modern values are manifest in dress, grocery stores, music, religious tolerance and educational institutions.  In both cases, small town and large city, people tell me about  the residual influence of fifty years of a repressive communist regime that used spying and excessive punishment to isolate the country, discourage creative thinking and generated fear and mistrust among the population.  (More on that in a later blog)

Elona and her brother Beni

I rent from Fredi who lives above me with his family

Since my last blog post I have been adjusting to these transitions; creating a home in my apartment, getting to know the family that lives above me and shares my patio and yard, finding shops and restaurants, visiting the university where I will teach and negotiating my teaching assignments for the next school year which will start in October. (Yes, I have a largely free summer ahead of me!  I do hope to go to Tirana occasionally to teach some Business English workshops for working adults.)

My primary focus in the last three weeks has been on my teaching responsibilities for next year. .  The Peace Corps staff has told me that a native English speaker is highly valued, particularly one with an advanced degree and with business experience and therefore I will have to manage the demand on my time or risk taking on too much work.  (I certainly do not want to take on too much work.)  At the University of Shkoder I have met several times with the Dean of the Language Faculty and Dean of the Economics Faculty.  I have met others in Tirana who would like me to commute down there one day a week to teach a course in Business English.   I have numerous requests to tutor individuals.   Last night I met the Director of a choral group who has encouraged me to audition to sing bass and to support the choir with English pronunciation when needed.  So I will have to sort this all out.

Here is youtube link to choir I might join if I am accepted  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHN9zkG1Yzo. 

This Friday I will teach a four hour session for Masters Students in the Economics Faculty who are studying marketing for sustainable tourism.  They want me to focus on consulting skills and relationship selling. To make the four hours more relevant, I have spent the last week learning about the marketing of tourism and hospitality, in Albania and elsewhere.  Albania tourism is focusing on its natural beauty and unique culture.  I will post more about this in later blogs.

So I am managing the transition.   I am living in a studio apartment that is part of a family compound that is behind a stone wall, similar to many homes in Shkoder.   I walk miles daily just for everyday requirements, I have joined a health club, I have made friends with shop owners and greet my neighbors when I walk down the street.  I still miss my wife, my children, my friends and my big bed in America.

The street outside my family compound

Streets in the old part of Shkoder near my compound

Doing business with a new friend.