Staging in Philadelphia and the start of Pre-Service Training

It’s early Friday morning and I’m starting my fifth full day in Albania! But getting ahead of myself! I arrived in Philadelphia last week for our “staging” – some send-off preparations before our trip to Albania. My group numbers about fifty-five; split pretty even between women and men. I think the youngest I met wasn’t too much older than twenty-one and maybe two dozen in their thirties and forties with three married couples. Coming on to my sixty-eighth birthday I’m the oldest of the group. The respect that Albanians tender toward the old seems to have infected my Peace Corps cadre – they always seem to be on the look-out to make sure I’m where I’m supposed to be and that I’ve got everything I need. Cracks me up.

Staging in Philadelphia was pretty intense but a lot of fun. Spent quite a bit of time discussing the gender and cultural differences we would encounter and it was obvious that many of the volunteers had concerns – in light of some of the questions asked I was pretty impressed with the patience by the PC staff. I realized pretty quickly that the concerns about stray dogs, for example, really had more to say about the anxieties that most had in leaving a pretty safe environment and heading off to wherever. Let’s face it, when you first got the news I was headed to Albania I bet many of you wondered whether you could find it on a map (thank goodness for Google search, right?)! And here are a bunch of people many of whom haven’t been too far out of the country for any length of time if at all. Even as well-traveled as I have been my kids had a bit of concern.

Carrie Hessler-Radelet the Director of the Peace Corps, visited us on the second day and gave us a pretty inspirational talk. OK. I don’t remember all of the specifics but a visiting head of state from Africa shared with her that his road to the presidency started decades earlier when a Peace Corps volunteer taught him as a youth. It seems that because of this PCV’s effort (Peace Corps Volunteer) he was the first of any rural student to advance to the higher education that country offered. It was only after this visit when the PC tracked down this volunteer (probably as old as me now) – had he any idea of the impact he had, did he realize what had happened to this former student? But the president of the country remembered him throughout his life. BAM! I told Carrie that another story along those lines would have been pretty tough to handle. So, we got through the two full days of staging and off. I connected with a couple of dear friends living in and near Philadelphia and convinced one (kidding, she was happy to help) to take three boxes (count 'em) if clothes and stuff off of me and ship the whole load to Albania in a few months. You can't believe the overweight expense, and I couldn't imagine lugging this stuff around for even a few days (future volunteers: pay attention). 

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Group 18 (G18) the night before leaving the USA

We left Philadelphia on Saturday morning and traveled by bus to JFK where we boarded the 7pm flight to Tirane by way of Vienna. The trans-Atlantic trip was as much of a joy as it always has been – mitigated greatly by the service of the Austrian Air stewards – rated number one in Europe! The airport surroundings in Tirane bore a striking resemblance to Salt Lake City – mountains on the west and the east. Then a bus trip through Tirane and off to our Pre-Service Training (PST) in Elbasan. Bags all over the place but well-minded by the staff. The hotel here is comfortable and very pleasant and the food is great – the internet is a bit hit and miss but not that big of a pain. The very long Saturday to Sunday lessened the jet-lag – I hit the sheets Sunday night solid and with another good sleep Tuesday I was on Albania time with no problem.

A room with a view

Outside the Tirane Airport with Mitesh

I’ve been adopted, so to speak, by Mitesh – born in India, lives in California. My difficulties getting an update to this blog had little to do with the iffy internet. Evidently I got locked out of Google because of a hacking concern coming out of Albania. (Yeah, not just the banks, but let Google know you’re out of the country!) My kids will be happy to know that Mitesh walked me through it and I’m back on track (after three days of frustration – seriously, he came up to me tonight while I was dealing with this and said, “Bill, do you need a Snickers bar?). When I get a handle on the pics I’ll edit and load some more.

With Adrian, Kyle, Sue, Cristin, our trainers Megi and Erion, Nate and Juli

With Pier, Nicole, Nate, Juli, and Kyle in our language study

The PC staff is outstanding – very attentive to our concerns and anxieties (which I have none at all), and the language trainers (all of whom are local) are quick to tell us not to be too concerned and that we will get it. Our first full day reviewed the medical, security, banking, and admin procedures. Following which we were feted to an amazing dinner out at a local restaurant – about a dozen courses that just kept coming, each of which could have fed me for a day! The food was all new to me and it tasted great. Four different deserts! Monday and Tuesday we devoted to culture and all of those different nuances – an American affirmative nod means no in Albania, and visa-verse. Buying my first pack of cigarettes yesterday was quite the comic endeavor – the pack went back on the shelf twice before final delivery; and the OK sign (which I delivered at what I thought was a successful conclusion) is not what we think it is!

Locals!

The walls of the downtown Elbasan Castle

Another view of Elbasan

Yesterday and today we walked into the city a bit more and started our meetings at the PC office – language, goals, language, objectives, language, activities, language, etc. Man, up at six, three cups of coffee, a couple of cigarettes (I know, not politically correct), breakfast, and off to meetings at 8:30 with a half-hour break in the morning and afternoon and an hour for lunch. Like I’ve been telling everyone, I’ve gotten indications that I will be posted in a university but you never know. Anyway, one campus of the university here is about eight blocks from the PC hub. So a couple of days ago rather than hitting lunch (you can always eat) I head off on my own to do some exploring. I walk into this building and wander around the halls checking out the lecture halls. I look in one amphitheater set-up between classes – about seventy kids sitting around and within thirty seconds no one is talking and they all look at me standing in the doorway (wearing levis, black leather jacket, and my winter fedora). I am (and they are too, for that matter) like a deer in the headlights. I start to crack up and I say, “Really?? You can tell I am an American??!!” The biggest smiles you can imagine – and laughing at me they say, “Yes! Of course! Sure!” By now I am laughing even harder and as I leave (before their professor gets there and wonders what the hell is going on!) I wish them a good day. I swear, like they rehearsed it, in one choral voice they say to me, “Mirëdita!!” What an introduction to the students of this country. I know it’s going to get even better than this but what a great start.

One of the PC program managers, Ymer (pronounced oomare – kind of), took me back up to the university during lunch yesterday (remember? you can always eat) and introduced me to everyone from the vice-dean down to the guy that manages all the technical/electronic resources. I had some lengthy visits with three professors (Linguistics, English/German, and British Studies – not entirely sure about the last one) and I can tell that the students here are not that much different than the ones I’ve spent my time with these last dozen years – a few fumblebutts, but mostly levelheaded with dreams, goals, and hopes. Probably regarding this last one their hopes are a bit more intense, seasoned with a bit more anxiety than those held by American students. If you know (or take the time to find out) anything about Albanian history it’s been pretty bleak going back a thousand years. Staying with just recent history, the post-WWII Communist government was in power until twenty-five years ago, followed immediately by a period of civil, social, and economic distress which only in the last ten years or so is starting to heal. Only from what I have read and what little conversation I have had with the locals it seems like the country is on the turn toward a rebirth in all of these elements I’ve listed above. At least I’m hoping that’s the case.

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Our stay is Elbasan is coming to an end – we leave with our host families on Saturday to continue our next step in the Pre-Service Training. I’m going to a small village with a half-dozen or so other volunteers where we will continue our language study and cultural introductions. This will be for about six weeks. At the end of that we find out if the Peace Corps thinks we can cut it and if we do we get sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer; then four weeks at our two-year location, back to the host families for another couple of weeks and then – BAM! – we start our Peace Corps careers!

It will be tough to leave Elbasan, even though it’s only been a handful of days. The city is just beautiful and many of the streets remind me quite a bit of the peripheral environs of Rome or any other European city. Oh yeah, the people here are so friendly – and it makes me want to get the language down as quickly as I can. I’ve received some spontaneous invitations to sidewalk-café coffee and though I can barely count to ten in the language it’s been really nice to connect. 

Old Catholic Church, Elbasan

Graffiti outside the Peace Corps office

Elbasan color!

OK. Another experience - just this afternoon walking back to the hotel: there's this big park - as big as Liberty Park in SLC (about ten square blocks, right?) - I see these men in their sixties (kindred spirits) gathered around four other men playing dominoes at one of these small cement park tables. I nod to the eight or so spectators ("miredita") and watch the game. Albanians take their dominoes seriously - the pieces slamming to the table vigorously if not violently. After the second game one guy gets up to leave; I look to see who is going to take his place; a couple of the spectators look at me and I look down at the table. One of the players is motioning for me to sit down - by some kind of deference received, I'm thinking this guy is the organizer of the game (this is a total guess - as far as I know he could be a former commissar). I mutter in my best Albanian accent, "faleminderit" - "thank-you." Believe me, it never occurred to me to decline - the invitation was like the chair of your supervisory  committee offering a suggestion, got it? I noticed that the commissar kept a running tally of games played on a penciled card but, thankfully, nothing was written down when the game ended and I was still holding three tiles. I got up, made some certainly unintelligible sign language that I had to go eat, bid them all farewell ("mirupafshim"), and we all shook hands. A great day in the park!

Right now I have to head out the door and grab something to eat. My phone isn't the best for pictures so I need to get one a bit better, and as I collect pics from the other volunteers I'll add more of those. I'll do my best to stay on top of this. My best to all of you and "Flasim me vone!" - "We'll talk later!"