4-10
Today is Saturday and we all had to head into Elbason for a language activity and then a meet and greet with current volunteers. I think everyone was struggling a bit as we arrived at 8 am sharp on a Saturday morning, let me tell you not my typical routine of a Saturday morning, but hey it works. We were all spread into small groups with one language teacher and our role was to go around town to different places such as A museum, a school, a market and use the shqip that we do know and ask questions. ( A simulation ) This activity was a realization of how it will be when we are actually on our own trying to buy those apples and you realize they still don't know what your talking about. All I know is that my handy dandy notebook will be with me everywhere and I am not ashamed to be carry that around :) So this was an afternoon event and by the time we were all finished we had a shqip overload which practically happens everyday at least to Andrea and I. ( My other site mate!) After our time out on the town about 12 volunteers from Group 12 ( we are group 13) came by and did some introductions and then we went out with them and hang out. It was nice to hear a perspective a year in and gave you a good taste. Everyone had different situations and for the most part people were happy so I am looking forward to Friday when I receive my placement. (AHHHHHHH!)

4-11
Today Laura, Andrea, Nathan and I checked out a local church in Elbason that is ran by missionaries originally from Colorado. It was just nice to actually go out and know that we found a church even if it was in Shqip, one day I hope to find a church in English/Shqip. We ended up just catching the end of the service because we got the times wrong, but I was to happy to actually just be there even if it was only for thirty minutes. Before coming here I was a bit worried about finding people among my group and in Albania whom I could share my beliefs with let alone have a church to go to every Sunday. I was full on prepared to do just my thing, but God does provide those people and I am extremely happy when I know at the end of the day when I am really out of my element not only do I have God, but I have some great believers around me and I know I can really talk to these guys. After the service we met with the couple who ran the church and some other albanians that spoke English. They have been here for 15 years and just love it. They have ten children (wowsers!) and most are married to Albanians and moved back to the states. After church we decided to venture out for lunch and try something new. It's hard to really tell a good restaurant from another when the menus ( thats if they have one) have about 5 things on them and most consist of mish. ( Which in my opinion is mystery meat) But the restaurant we tried was great we all got some sort of lasagna. I was impressed! After lunch and (ice cream) Yes I found a great gelato place, dangerous for sure when you can have three scoops for 70 cents, but reminder we live on about five dollars a day at this point! After we all had food comas we headed to an internet cafe to catch up on some emails and such. I love the time that I have when I can just sit and enjoy writing emails, but then again I can't help but think that sometimes when I get on the internet in some ways I feel even more disconnected from the world or my world that I had. I have those moments when I am returning an email or on facebook and realize, "Wow that's not my life anymore." It's all good though because this time is short and I want to be here no matter what as long as no one gets married or has a baby ( at home) please wait!. ( ha) (Aunt Char, you are forgiven, not about the baby, but the wedding!)

4-14
Busy, busy day. Today was a full day filled with crazy times with my little brother. I absolutely love him to pieces. His energy is contagious and I think everyday he feels more and more comfortable with me. He tells me he loves me, but won't give me that kiss yet! Today we had language class for 5 hours which is pretty intense being locked in a room filling our brains with new information constantly. ( But I can tell that I am catching on because I am able to form some sentences, just may not be conjugated, but they get me!) I am thankful that Andrea's Mom has a Byrek bakery by day which means during the day she makes it from her house and kids and families go and buy it. (It's great! Fresh and Tasty) After class I went home because I wanted to spend sometime with my family so we first did my laundry which is always an event because they are shocked at how many pairs of underwear I have and I love that it has to hang dry out in the open for the whole town to see. ( Which isn't a big deal really, but when you have polka dots on your underwear I am sure that those neighbors are talking!) And that's the thing about living in a village that is as small as mine you really do have to be cautious of what you do because people know who you are and where you come from. For example today for lunch I ate my fruit that my Mom gave me then I went to the duchan ( the little store next to our school) and bought a bag a chips. Then when I came home My Mom made me eat more food because she said chips was not enough to fill me up. (Ha) So after laundry Andrea Julie and I went out to see the baby chicks. They had just gotten about 8 babies. To me this is exciting and I just can't wait to get home and play with them. (Until one pooped on me!) Babi (Dad) came home and asked if I wanted to go cut some bar down for the cow. So Julie, Niko, Grandpa, and I went on a little ride to go cut the bar. I always enjoy this because every time we go I get a chance (only one) at cutting the bar and yet I have succeed, but one day I will. They always tell me 'jo pune' which means No work. I just love to be apart of the regular routines because I feel more apart of the family. I came home and after Andrea and I played about ten rounds of dominos (literally, he is obsessed) he wanted to take me to the store to buy me some chocolate. All he wants to do is play with me and feed me. It was so precious when we went to the little store he got out his money and wanted to buy me not one not two but three little treats. He would not let me say no or buy it. ( Here we go again reminded again and again that all they want to do is make you happy when you are the one that feels guilty for all you have when at the end of the day this 6 year old cares more about you then you could ever imagine. At the end of the day this 6 year old sees past everything, everything you ever doubted and just wants to hang out with you. LOVE HIM.) Before dinner I got a little present. The neighbor girls that I had met last week decided to come by for a visit with their Mom. The little one who is two years old sang me a song. (Video coming soon) I love that people just stop in when they feel like it to say hello. I think this idea should be adopted everywhere and people should revert back to the times when people actually sat outside the porch and visited with one another.



4/18
So I will give you an update for the past few days. So I found out where I will be living the next two years which is pretty crazy, and the verdict is I will be living in Fier! I struggled with this all coming to a decision about my living situation, but when it came down to it I was pretty stocked to just be here and knew since there are 49 of us ( now ) that wherever I went that I would have someone near! So now you all can go check out Fier and start booking those flights because I am in the South next to some amazing/awesome beaches! Now let me tell you about my new home...First off my position is Directorate of Public Health and working with the Public Health of Fier. The population is about 80,236 pretty stocked coming from Thane which is close to 1,000 people. ( But I love Thane and I appreciate all the small things here and the people are so rich with life and culture it consumes me.) Fier is the most important industrial city of Albania, located in southwest Albania and located 12km from the ruins of the Ancient Greek city of Appollonia. Built by the Gjanica tributary of the Seman river, and is surrounded by marshland. The population is mixed Orthodox and Muslim. Things to do in the city, Historical Museum, Fier art Galley, Churches, Bylis Theatre, Puppet theatre ( yes you read that right!) and Culture House. This is just a taste of the beautiful Fier!

Currently I am sitting upstairs with Julie as she reads her book and its literally pouring outside and the power just turned off. And it was raining so hard that the water came into my room through my door and we had to mop it up. I love it! I absoluetely love the rain and it has rained a lot lately. Power is usual off at least a few times a week which is always a delight when your in the shower and the lights go off ( Yes it happened last week and Julie came and brought me candles so that I could shower) It's the little things literally that you dont take into consideration that you have, but then you get over them and deal with the circumstances you have, right? Is that not life in a nut shell! So today was an absolute lovely day. The few of us headed to Elbason this morning to go to church. This time we knew that the service started at ten and walked into the church. We were welcomed with songs in shqip and then took our seats. Church service lasted about two hours which included songs and a sermon. Everything was in shqip and the people just sang so no instruments just voices. There is something so basic and real when you take away all things that in a way make it more personal. Just words. Don't get me wrong I love all that goes along with worship and I truly miss that, but when you take that all away at the end of it all when you are there all that you want to do is worship and in the most simplest way you do that and in a weird way I felt closer. I may not obviously have know every word, but when it came down to it we all were there for the same reasons we all want to worship and we did just that. After church the family that started that church invited us up to their house ( which is right above) and wanted us to stay for lunch. ( A barbecue!) Let me tell you how thrilled I was. We had chips, ketchup and hotdogs. I think I literally ate about 6 helpings, but I am really ok with that because it was well worth all the calories and I will do it everyday! I was so amazed at how gracious they were. Just opening up their home allowing all of us to come up and feed us and I mean feed us! I was literally in heaven and for those few hours I felt that I was at home because it felt like it was something that I would do at home have a big meal and just sit around for a few hours and talk. It was a little piece of home for those few hours. After our time in Elbason I headed home because I wanted to get in a run. Julie and Niko wanted to join, but I am not sure how serious they thought I was because Julie ended up heading home after about ten minutes, but I was impressed with my brother who ran with me for a little over an hour. It was so funny to run with him because we definitley have a language barrier, but we just passed some smiles and enjoyed the view. I am sure they think I am crazy by now because I will stop all the time and just stare at my surroundings and stare with awe because it never gets old for me it's unreal twenty four seven, it's marvelous. Running is obviously something new, but I am hoping by the time I leave in May that I can open a few minds to this new idea and that maybe my brother will continue this when I am not here. Here is another point I have come to terms with while being here. Sometimes when you go to a place that has so many issues your first thoughts are well who do I know who are my connections so that I can have them send something or send money, but then I realized what good does that do people or a community to just give them the things. What happens when you leave because usually everyone leaves and what will they do then. I feel that it is my job not only as a volunteer, but as a person to TEACH these people how to do things give them the knowledge and let them use the resources they have so that when I do leave they will know how to do it themselves. I feel this is hard to come to terms with because as a person who wants to see change or progress ( which does not always mean that something is moving forward or good) it's easy to come into a situation and want to fix it the way I think it should be done when in reality the way I think doesn't work for the people of Albania. You must take a step back. Any who to nights dinner not only included bread ( that would be funny if you lived here because we eat it all day everyday) but a discussion which I was included because I knew what they were talking about. ( The day finally came!) Affection is a huge thing here not the way you and I think of it as a normal thing but the word love, affection, boyfriend anything that falls under that category the category that to me is important because I believe when you love people you should not be ashamed of that and you should show and let people know they are loved and appreciated. Here it is the complete opposite the word love or Public Display of Affection has a bad following. Here if you see people out holding hands they must be married and rarely do they hold hands because there is shame behind there love and they feel that it is a closed door policy ( which I know some agree) but there is no such thing as dating ( people do it in secret) and usually if you do date someone and you break up and then say get another boyfriend you almost are excluded in some ways and it is seen as 'slutty' so people here usually date one person and tie the knot or do it in secret. There is no such thing as having a boy over to meet your parents or going out alone with a boy. If you have more than about three coffess with someone ( Like three outings) you are pretty much together and that is your boyfriend. (Yikes!) Anyways I did have a point and that was that my parents kiss and they know I love it because it shows me that they really care about one another and my sister Julie doesn't agree with it because she thinks its shameful and we tried to explain to her that its ok and it shows me that they love and respect one another. It's just so interesting to me to see this side of it because it's so extreme in my mind and I don't understand how something so innocent and essential to life ( love) is turned into this bad thing. Anywhooo... my little brother definitely lightened the mood when he pant-zed .. oh how I love him!

I am really excited for this next move to Fier. I am not ready to say goodbye and leave Thane, but I will always remember that this is where it all began and these people made that all come true. I will have a site mate which is pretty exciting because most volunteers don't have one so I won't be so alone. There is also another volunteer that has one more year left and he will be living there. So there will be three of us remotely close to one another all working in different areas of work. Other volunteers are ranging anywhere from about an hour an half away to five hours.

Thomas Kinkade- Somewhere out there is a unique place for you to help others- a unique life role for you to fill that only you can fill.

4-20
I woke up to another rainy day in Thane, Albania. I am beginning to have a deep appreciation for the rain except that I can't run when it rains. I officially have a running buddy my 13 year old brother who has taken a liking to it. We are now doing early morning runs (tomorrow at 6). I am super stoked to have a running partner and can't wait to partake in some events around here once I get settled. I am currently sitting up stairs on the balcony with niko who is trying to use the sewing machine. ( Julie started something) And Julie is listening to my ipod trying to practice the words to One Republic -Apologize. She and her best friend have taken a particular liking to this song and we now practice it and I get to sing it everyday which shouldn't be allowed. (Ha). Andrea and I ( my friend, not brother yes this can be confusing) are getting ready for our lessons this week. We are going to give a lesson to the kindergarten class which my little brother is in about dental hygiene, a lesson to the 9th grade class on Thursday which my sister is in on Exercise. I am a bit nervous for these projects because then they will really know that I can't speak any shqip. We will have one of our health Teacher's with us to translate the information which is a plus. This will give us a taste of what we might be doing out on our own on a daily basis. And the following week Andrea and I are going to do a Community out reach with the women in Thane with our focus on breast cancer awareness. I am excited to just get out there and be in the class room or in the community even if all doesn't turn out the way we had hoped. I believe in baby steps and this is it for us. I am excited to have Andrea by my side because we both have the same attitudes about most things which makes this whole experience that much better.

4-22
So all that planning and practicing came to an end today when Andrea and I completed our practicum. ( Minus the big one next Tuesday which is our presentation to the Nurse and the women in the community) For the most part I would say it was a success and of course our downfall was not being fluent in the language, but with time it will all run a bit more smoothly. The kindergarten class absolutely loved our work. I think any kid loves anything hands on so that's what we did. We just made sure to have as many activities as we could and relate it back to our main point and that was brushing teeth! Taking care of your teeth is an issue here because people don't go to the dentist so they lose a lot of teeth and I have met so many people who will not smile because they are really self conscious about the way their teeth look. And the 9th grade class perceived our message well. They were really interested to learn about heart rates ( resting, maximum) and how it plays a role in having an efficient workout. I hope this message can continue to be pounded into these young kids because it's not reinforced and smoking/internet/junk food is affecting them right now and they don't realize it. It's playing a huge part in their every days so different from the other generations and they are clashing. ( Of course that is seen everywhere, but a thing like exercise is not even being introduced nor implemented.) This whole experience of getting into a class room with no teaching background can be a bit intimidating, but the main thing that I learned from this whole thing is that these kids thrive when new information is given to them and they appreciate the smallest of things, like you coming into a class and teaching for 30 minutes. I am excited for our big presentation on Tuesday because it's about breast cancer awareness and I am very passionate about this topic and I am going to do my best to have as much of my presentation as I can in shqip because I want the women to see that I am very serious about this message and I hope it shows them that I am trying here.