A Club in the Hands of the Politically Correct – Part 7

Greetings:

Now, let’s bring you up to speed: the morning of Wednesday December 2, I had just finished my session with my high school class. The media reports on PC/Albania were the sole topic for almost an hour and a half – and of course my part in the headlines. When there weren’t any more questions, nothing left to say, we still had about a half hour left. Field trip. I took the kids next door for cokes and juice and we just kicked – later munchkins, see you next week – and then I headed off for my day at the university in Tirana, pretty damned anxious whether or not the dean saw the reports and cancelled.

I had asked Megi, my former Peace Corps language teacher and my close friend, to go to the university with me and give me her feedback on the presentation. (OK, don’t be alarmed; Megi’s given me permission to use her name – everyone in PC/Albania knows who I’m talking about anyway.) She had seen her picture in the media photo of our lunch with the American missionaries. The funny thing is that when I had set up the lunch she really tried to beg off, but I told her that the missionaries would enjoy the conversation with someone close to their age. Once again she agreed, and we set off forTirana and my university presentation . She had to deal with a lot: I was rattled, she had to calm me down; and she had to handle her own front-page notoriety. Except for politicians, Albanians do not like to bring attention to themselves – and again, they are very protective of their reputations. Don’t give anyone reason or cause to speak ill of you. And now Megi had family and friends who wondered how she fit into the scandal! Did she get harassed? Holy hell.

***

Our bus back to Elbasan got in late. As we walked back along the boulevard I simply told her to go home, I felt like stopping at the Coffee House for a drink. She laughed and said if that’s what I was up to, I could buy her a tea. We sat outside and I went in to order; the place was deserted; the staff looked up, I could see they knew, I said, “Yeah, it’s been a tough day. Klajdi, Megi will have tea and you can fix me a scotch – a double.” He could see this was a bit out of the ordinary and I probably looked like hell: “Buddy, you go outside, sit and I’ll get it for you.” I joined Megi and in rapid order the staff came out one at a time. Kristina first, leaned over, gave me a big hug, “Bill, we don’t care. We know you. We love you.” Well, I’m just about a total basket case by now. Klajdi served us, another hug, and by the time we finished up, a couple more, hugs I mean.

With Klajdi and Gramoz

Now, the Coffee House in Elbasan had always been the hang-place for me. Up until the October ELTA conference events I would quite often meet my PC counterpart/former-counterpart a few mornings a week at his favorite café, make plans, and then I’d head out and set up shop at the CH (they play some nice American R&B over the pipes). I’d spend the day working with students, finishing the edits on an article contribution to a volume set to be published in the states, and prepare my lessons for the fall term. After the October Shkodra conference and Ms. Scott’s Facebook post, along with my subsequent isolation, the CH was my refuge; with the December media circus it was my safe haven. If you pull up my Facebook page you can see how much I counted on my Coffee House friends through this whole thing.

(Another note regarding the effect of the media notoriety – it’s an Elbasan sunny afternoon as I’m writing this. A couple of LDS missionaries just walked by and I looked up – they averted their eyes. Yeah, I suspect I have some noteriety in the mission home, too. Quite often during my time here I’ve bumped into different sets of Mormon missionaries in Elbasan, Durres, Shkodra, Tirana. Usually they would be the first to say hi to the American and I would give them greetings from Salt Lake City. We always had a nice visit though they knew I wasn’t a candidate. I’m guessing the mission in Albania went through some PR heat with four of them pictured just below the sex scandal headline. I haven’t spoken to any of them since this hit the national news. Very unfortunate they had to deal with it – and I miss talking to these kids.)

***

Now, this is where I left you hanging at the end of the last post – the “despicable.” Readers, the last post was the most difficult to write up to this one. And to this point this has all been about me getting through crap. This one brings horrible memories along with disgust, anger, doubt in the human capacity to do the right thing, etc. Hit the thesaurus and plug in any of the words you come up with – most of them will work. This post I have only been able to work on for maybe twenty minutes at a stretch and then I have to let it go. The recollection of these events revisits a physical ache that is almost as real as that which I felt at the time all this happened.

For just a moment measure your take on malicious gossip – is it really that big of a deal? How far-reaching is the damage? How accurately can the Politically Correct club be wielded? Is it a surgical strike – as those who hit me with it in the Pre-Service Training might have thought? Not hardly. Collateral damage abounds. The volunteer complainants and the vituperative Ms. Scott had effects that surely had not been considered, but I doubt it would have made any difference to them anyway.

(Now, an editorial note: the next bit is strewn with names redacted; I know – it can be a bit confusing. It was suggested I use fake names, but then I’d be confused! So, do your best and I’ll try to be as clear as I can.)

Six weeks after the Shkodra conference and the Pilgrim (aka Ms. Scott) posted her libel, and just a couple of weeks before the media exposure, I got this email from Megi:

From: Megi
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2015 9:59 PM
To: William Karl Martin
Subject: Hello!

I have to tell something. Today I had coffee with [redacted – the PC/Albania Language Director]'s assistant. She told me that [the Lang/Dir] asked her to tell me that somebody from PC Tirana's office has seen us at the Coffee House. And they do not want me to meet you because of Bonnie Scott. That Bonnie may write something about me and then I can’t work with Peace Corps anymore.

I don't know what to say! This is ridiculous!!

I wonder if you can fully appreciate the text and sub-text of this email. As I have indicated, jobs are scarce in Albania; even a seasonal job during the three months of volunteer training is precious, especially in the employment of a US government agency. The money and another line on the CV (which lines are few) are worth whatever it takes – and here is a bold threat to my friend’s livelihood coming out of the administrative offices of PC/Albania. I was used to getting crap from volunteers, ignored by PC/Albania staff, etc. Additionally please consider the anxiety some volunteers and staff could have had wondering if they might be the next to get hit with Ms. Scott’s self-serving club. Don’t discount this. One volunteer commented to me when I got into these “clubbing” posts, “I don’t mind you sharing my thoughts on this, but don’t do anything to hint as to who I am; I don’t want Bonnie targeting me.” Amazing. The whole damn thing was starting to remind me of a bad take on the McCarthy era witch-hunts.

Anyway, I was pissed. I connected with Megi, “This stuff is beyond belief. I don't even know what to say. I'm OK, and you are too.” I connected with a couple of close volunteers on this and they were stunned beyond belief. “What the hell is going on? Are these people crazy?” Megi and I visited quite a bit about this. “Well, kid, what do you want to do?” When she figured out what I meant, “Listen. This is not right. I will have to leave the Peace Corps.” “Whoa! Hold on! Let me talk to [redacted] – she’ll get to the bottom of this. This is not policy.” Megi didn’t have too much hope but let me give it a shot.

I talked to my staff member friend and she was just as shocked – as furious as I was. I told her that if this wasn’t straightened out in quick order there would be another complaint into the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) – hell, it wasn’t like they were strangers to disturbing communications coming out of Albania, what’s another one? Before she had the chance to visit with the Acting Director (the new director wouldn’t come on board for another couple of months) expressing my hope that he would confront the people behind this threat, I screwed up big time.

The day Megi and I first talked about this I was sitting with another volunteer, a good friend. I told him about this new piece of crap coming down. In the course of our conversation a teacher/trainer on Peace Corps staff came up. She sat down and I continued the conversation and brought her into it. I should have known better. Well, I went on, pretty animated about the whole thing and said the source of this threat rested with only one person, the PC/Albania Language Director, an Albanian. The teacher/trainer said that could not be the case; I asked her if she was crazy. “None of [the Lang/Dir]’s assistants would take it upon themselves to do anything like this without her OK. You teacher/trainers wouldn’t dare get on her wrong side and her assistants wouldn’t either. If [the Acting Director] doesn’t do something about this bullshit I’ll put a complaint into the OIG if Megi doesn’t do it first.” The volunteer was uncomfortable but agreed completely with my take on this; the teacher/trainer excused herself and left.

As I was walking back to my apartment a bit later I ran into another teacher/trainer. He and I had gotten to know each other quite well (I thought we were friends) and he knew Megi. I told him about the situation; I wasn’t ready for his response. He considered what I said for a minute and then remarked, “Bill. How do you know this is what happened? How do you know that [the Lang/Dir]’s assistant even talked with Megi over coffee?” I was blown away. “First of all, why in the hell would Megi make up something like this? For what reason can you even imagine?” He couldn’t answer that. We said goodbye but just before I walked away, “But you know, my friend, it’s certainly easy enough to figure this out. All [the Acting Director] has to do is ask [Lang/Dir’s assistant] if she had coffee with Megi and what the conversation was about, she’ll have a choice to either tell him the truth, or lie for [the Lang/Dir].” Big [expletive deleted] mistake on my part confiding in these two teacher/trainers. Megi had shown me the text message from the assistant asking Megi for coffee to discuss “something” and it should have been easy enough for the Acting Director to get to the bottom of it. But no, it got complicated, and it was my own damn fault – I shouldn’t have mentioned any of this to these two teacher/trainers who owed their positions to the Language Director’s whim.  

The next evening the Acting Director called me. I hadn’t had a conversation with him since my termination in September, and as you know he did not respond to the email I sent out to the staff regarding Ms. Scott’s October Facebook post. But now he calls – assuredly simply wanting to put out another firestorm coming out of PC/Albania. I sent this email out to him after our late night conversation:

From: William Karl Martin

Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 11:31 PM

To: [redacted]

Cc: [redacted]; [redacted]

Subject: Megi and OIG

Dear [redacted]:

Thanks for your call this evening. I have copied [redacted] because she was the only person on staff that I felt I could reach out to regarding this situation and as you indicated you visited with her on this today. I have also copied [redacted] since he is over the upcoming PST [Pre Service Training] and this will concern him – I can’t imagine that he hasn’t been apprised of the situation.

After our conversation I was a bit optimistic, in fact I called Megi to let her know that you would handle it and get back to her. Surprisingly, this did not calm her. I couldn’t understand why. No matter what you do she gave me the sense that her days with the Peace Corps are numbered simply because she will have angered [the Lang/Dir] and “the environment will be bad.” I felt worse, of course.

I know you do not know Megi well, but until my separation she was my language tutor and still worked with me after. I have discovered that she is disarming, kindhearted, and trusting, completely honest, and hates gossip and intrigue as much as I do. I have helped her with job resumes and cover letters; she has spent considerable time talking me through my waves of depression. I also know that more than anything she just wanted this whole thing to go away and was distraught with the situation, and distressed with me getting involved. She only contacted me out of absolute anxiety and grief – that should be evident in her email. Her concern was that she was being targeted and did not want to lose her position with the Peace Corps. Consequently, I think you should call her as you sort this out – the last thing she would want to do would be to cause me any additional anxiety so if you have any question about her email to me be rest assured that Megi had no motivation to promote this.

I say this to a great degree because I know [the Lang/Dir] is a force to be reckoned with in PC/Albania. I also know that people on her staff report to her and follow her wishes in order to ingratiate themselves. There is a sense of fear which I easily picked up on during my PST. Having talked to you I’m pretty sure it was not Tirana concerns on the Bonnie Scott thing that initiated this, but one of [the Lang/Dir]’s staff here in Elbasan, [redacted], for one reason or another (she is an unhappy person and systematically reports). And that [the Lang/Dir] without conscience acted (perhaps upon [staff member] and [staff member]’s withdrawal from me – I don’t know) and gave directions to her assistant to threaten Megi. The only motivation I can possibly consider for [the Lang/Dir] is her desire for control, or sending a message to her people not to step out of line the way she defines it – I saw this in PST, too. No one could make this scenario up.

My point: While you agreed that if this was the case it was wrong (to use your word, mine were stronger), it is your use of “if” that bothers me. I can see this could get into a one-word-against-another situation, and if you are simply looking for an easy way out you might just decide to slap some hands and walk away from it – I wouldn’t agree with that action but I would understand it. If Megi were left with that, then she would have nothing, no protection against an adverse working environment.

An easier way out is simply this: you contact the Regional Office or OIG yourself and let them sort this out. I told you what I thought [the Lang/Dir]’s actions would result in back in the states; I suspect the RO or OIG would take a similar position. Or short of that, do what you will with [the Lang/Dir] and her assistant, send out a statement to all Peace Corps staff reminding them of their freedom to associate with ex-volunteers as they choose. I doubt a written apology to Megi will be in the cards – we certainly don’t want anything down on paper, right? – but a personal assurance that her position is secure and that she will be protected against reprisal and a recommendation if she decides to leave.

Give it some thought, and call me later in the week. As I said, I still intend my own option with the OIG if this is whitewashed. Please take the time, find out the facts, deliberate and do what’s right. Don’t be offended, my typically high expectations regarding human behavior, especially with Peace Corps, has been dampened of late.

Thanks for your time.

Bill

William K. Martin, PhD

Nikola Koperniku School, Elbasan, Albania

http://wkmartin.blogspot.com/

Yeah, I was optimistic this would get sorted out. This type of pressure on an employee of PC/Albania was obscene. However, nothing happened. Before my friend could visit with the Acting Director he already knew the situation and this is how it was explained to him:

It seems that all the teacher/trainers were up in arms about Megi spending time with me and they were concerned with all the rumors going around about me and the damage to PC/Albania. The teacher/trainers took it upon themselves to straighten Megi out on what was appropriate behavior and with whom she could or could not socialize. Yeah. Right. Like they would even care – and then to think they would have enough hutzpah to elect one of their members (in this case the Language Director’s assistant!) to have a heart to heart with Megi! Not hardly – initiative is not quite a hallmark trait in Albania. An assistant who has never visited with Megi outside of the confines of the training center, but now is stepping up on her own volition (without any notice to the Language Director) to do her best in explaining to Megi what it means to tow the Politically Correct line?! Not a chance – not even in a parallel universe!

Bullshit. What happened is that one or both of the teacher/trainers in whom I confided recognized how pissed off I was, my threat to go to the OIG on this, and connected with the Language Director immediately to warn her about the storm coming out of Elbasan in her direction. She set out to cover her tracks. The first thing on the day after, I can see her walking into to the Acting Country Director: “Oh [Acting Director], something horrible has happened! The teacher/trainers are spreading gossip about Megi and Bill and they got together and decided to tell Megi that she could no longer friends with Bill! I am just sick about this! I hope Megi is OK and everything can be calmed down!” Or something like that. Right. If the teacher/trainers had these feelings they would have run speedily to her rather than moving alone as a group; this was an identifying moment for the Assistant Director – and that he bought into this is a joke. An old term, “milquetoast,” comes to mind.   

I talked to some teacher/trainers coming through Elbasan after this – there had been no gossip or rumors going around about Megi and me from any of them; in fact they all liked Megi and she got along with them well. Excellent relationships and she was highly considered. Nope. My take is accurate: The Language Director guided by whatever motives (show-of-power-on-steroids is my best guess) instructs her assistant to pass the word to Megi; she expects Megi to tow the line; Megi tells me; however, I go ballistic and threaten OIG, God, or whatever; I confide in anyone that will listen; I express my outrage to two teacher/trainers; they give the Language Director a heads up and she goes into damage control; the Acting Director calls me to calm my outrage; and finally, the Acting Director buys into the Language Director’s dissembling and he whitewashes the whole episode. Yet another instance in this whole story going back to August which makes me wonder – where has the human sense of integrity fled? Are we reduced to simply fumble-butting our way through life, driven by emotions and fears? Have we lost our sense of living on purpose?

OK – a word on the Acting Director. This guy got put into a tough situation after he assumed control in the wake of the former director’s sudden departure: not only did he have to attend to his job but his expanded workload, and then he has to deal directly with a highly energized volunteer contingent up in arms about presumed sexual misdemeanor cover-ups. Damn, I felt sorry for the him. I always thought he was a pretty good guy but totally out of his depth – likely a great bureaucrat, but hardly a leader – the kind of guy who will measure the flow and just go with it. More than anything he wanted PC/Albania simply to calm down and just get back to work. But rather than get to the bottom of the Language Director’s detestable behavior and the prevarications she fabricated to cover her tracks (and in covering her own ass she basically trashed the reputations of those who worked for her), he let it go – not one of his finest moments. When I say he let it go I mean just that. Not for one second do I think he believed the Language Director – he’s too damn smart for that, he just simply ignored the problem. But this is understandable (and when I say something is understandable, don’t think I consider it acceptable) – with everything he’s had to deal, now with I’m accusing his Language Director just before PC/Albania is preparing to welcome another group of volunteers to start their service. So, a lot of work to do on the language front: picking staff, training the trainers, finalizing the course structure, etc. And here I am asking for a house-cleaning. No wonder the whole thing was ignored. It was a very pragmatic decision, but I hardly think one he will look back on (if he does at all) as a moment of where he showed up. But pragmatism has been a recurring motif in my experience with DC and Albania Peace Corps – he can console himself knowing he has plenty of company.  

(Before I turn to the rest of the story with Megi, I’d like to share an intercultural dynamic that should help you in my following take on the Language Director. Taking credit or sharing credit in Albania is a bit of a foreign idea. A leader in position here will rarely give public notice of someone else’s work when that work was in the leader’s benefit; acknowledging successful delegation somehow diminishes the individual’s reputation to do his or her own work. And if someone happens to be bypassed on credit deserved, well, the slight is either ignored or the relationship is damaged forever. The culture doesn’t applaud people for trying to right their wrongs, instead, people benefit by blaming others for their mistakes. I think those volunteers working in community development have a better understanding on this administrative mindset – and maybe completely different from mine. My time here has been in education and I’ve seen some evidence of this, but I’ve noticed that educators here are also careful not to diminish the perception of their authority – to one student’s question I once remarked, “Good question, I don’t know the answer to that.” Not a big deal, but after class some students expressed shock that I would admit this – stunned – they had never heard those words from their professors.)

Many of the volunteers in my group, individuals with significant experience in English language pedagogy have offered ideas to the Language Director to improve the language program in meeting the needs of the volunteers. Rarely were these suggestions taken into consideration. During our PST the Language Director always gave the appearance that she was receptive to suggestions regarding course improvement, I know a few who followed through and offered ideas but nothing ever happened. Some of them really took ownership in this effort to make the language acquisition easier for future volunteer groups – a lot of time and effort. But their ideas were ignored. One volunteer and I were talking about this several months ago – as you know I had some very serious difficulties getting the language down and I often wondered if for some of us there wasn’t a better way. We both knew volunteers who made some pretty good suggestions, but we both laughed when the volunteer said, “Well, can you really see [the Lang/Dir] sharing the limelight? No, she’d rather keep it her way than make it better.” Yeah, funny.

***

So what happened with Megi? She and I were having dinner at the end of a day in Tirana, I think it was my first meeting with a university and I was surprised when I got on the bus that morning that she was headed for Tirana, too. Cool. Let’s meet after, have some dinner and travel back to Elbasan. This is about three days after Megi’s coffee and mend-your-ways conversation with the Language Director’s assistant.

While at dinner the Acting Director calls her. I’d been telling Megi that he’d get to the bottom of it and things would work out. Well, she takes the call and I go out for a smoke. I come back to hear how it played out. “He called to tell me he was so very sorry that I was the target of horrible gossip; the teachers were out of line telling me to quit being your friend; [the Lang/Dir] hoped that I would continue working with the Peace Corps and not let this bother me.” Amazing. She told him if that was his conclusion she would have to quit, the environment would be horrible; the Language Director would be friendly on the outside but would turn all the teachers against her. He didn’t believe she would do that, please reconsider. Seriously? Another intercultural note here: perceived or real slights, embarrassments, etc. have the tendency here to be felt for years, lasting impressions, there was no way the Language Director could live with Megi around as a constant reminder of her misconduct. BAM! That was it; Megi was out.

Well, Megi was right. I mean she didn’t go back; she left the Peace Corps, but word got around that the reason she left was that she was a troublemaker and caused the whole problem herself. The Language Director had sent an email to all the teacher/trainers explaining Megi’s departure in these terms. I wondered why she would even send out an email; but the circumstances of Megi’s absence did cause some to wonder and the she probably felt a bit of self-justification probably couldn’t hurt. Another teacher/trainer told me about this communication (described as “bizarre”); when I asked if I could get a copy of the email, the response was (in the Albanian idiom) there wasn’t a chance in hell. Well, no problem; if the OIG follows-up on my complaint the email will be in the files.

So, a bit of transparency here; the biggest difficulty liars have is keeping their stories straight. (Did Ms. Scott remember that she had claimed the victims talked to her “directly”? Probably not. To be a good liar really takes a lot of energy and “clear” thinking.) The events surrounding Megi’s departure are transparent; the Language Director’s cover-up is so clumsy that just a small effort in checking the stories out would reveal her baseness in all of this. And it’s quite stupid, when you think about it. She screwed up, motivated by whatever, and could have just acknowledged her stupid mistake; hell, people make mistakes, errors in judgment. If anything, Americans are forgiving, but they despise cover-ups – Albanians on the other hand rarely admit to error and I doubt the teacher/trainers know how to conjugate the verb “sorry” – they certainly didn’t learn it from the Language Director.

The volunteers who got word of this blame-game knew it was all crap. Very interestingly, but not surprising, Megi’s close friends on the teacher/trainer staff avoided her after this. They knew she wasn’t a troublemaker, just as others knew I wasn’t a harasser, but both of us have lost connections with an entire group of former friends, teachers and associates. I pushed her to get a letter of recommendation from the Acting Director immediately before the Language Director screwed that up. To his credit the Acting Director sent out a glowing one within a few days.

***

One last comment on the crap Megi had to put up with in being my friend.            

Megi was my teacher/trainer for a bit during our Pre-Service Training; and later when I needed a language tutor Megi was my first choice – patient as hell. She has been my best friend and my temperature check in all of this since the initial August complaint. Others have been there in critical moments, but Megi was with me or checking in every day. And I confess for most of this time I was not good company and I treated her with ill-deserved sharpness on more than one occasion.

I think it was the week after the media reports when I had my worst moment and Megi got my worst with both barrels. We were sitting inside the Coffee House – it was far too cold outside – my volunteer next door neighbor came in and joined us. I went back to my laptop – probably looking for other media sites with the “harasser” news. I barely noticed my neighbor pass Megi a somewhat crumpled piece of paper. Megi turned to me and said, “Bill, you should be ashamed of yourself!” I went off the edge “What now!!!” It took them awhile to calm me down; the paper was simply the volunteer’s list of Albanian vocabulary he was trying to memorize. I should be ashamed because I wasn’t doing any more study, hadn’t done any for months – but what I was thinking was it’s an anonymous note to the volunteer about the sexual harasser! I know, I know, I know – completely off the charts that I would think this and even more so that I would then react this way. But I’d been hit with so much stuff I couldn’t understand and my paranoia was in full form. “Damn it!! I don’t care what it was!! You can’t say something like that to me!! Just another ‘keep-a-low-profile’ piece of crap!!”

Well, Megi tried to calm me down – but I’m not listening – and she finally got up and left. She told me much later how I had hurt her. And yeah, me – caught up in all my own bullshit, and I piled it on her; and when her picture is just below the harassment headlines, too! And here’s Megi, a bona fide innocent in all this pulled into the dirt by the gossip, selfishness, and agendas driven at the expense of hell knows what. And here I am beating up on her just a few weeks after she lost a very important job because she was my friend.

And think about it, if we track a measure of responsibility for the crap piled on this young lady, it goes back to my early days of my Pre-Service Training. Gossip, prejudice and stereotype not only affect the target of the animosity, but lead to ends that we cannot even begin to fathom. Think about that the next time you consider an untoward word – and what really is the gain? What are the damages?

During this whole time I would often decline invitations simply because I wasn’t good company at a given instance; there were so very few times when I was. That morning sitting at the Coffee House I wasn’t a friend; and as much as I wanted years later to look back on all these events as a “finest moment,” the whole thing brought out the worst in me – and this was the worst of the worst.

***

OK, enough with these Augustine/Ablelard/Rousseau confessions, let me finish this post with some good news, some outstanding news. Megi had a pretty tough time dealing with losing her job with Peace Corps. Now, we had spent hours and days in the months prior working on her CV and job search skills. She wasn’t unhappy with the Peace Corps, but her work was seasonal and Megi has an MA in language and translation – fluent in English and Italian, and exceptional in Spanish. A lot of applications, a few interviews, a difficult time, and now unemployed. (And we all can relate how much easier it is to get a job when you have one!) In January she interviewed with an international company with offices in Tirana. She and her skills were just what they wanted; they hired her and put her on the fast-track. This last week was her third trip abroad for training as an account executive handling foreign corporate clientele and their international conference requirements. YAY! for Megi!! Certainly life after Peace Corps and possibilities greater than she had imagined! When she got picked up, ear-marked as a future exec, well, we were both happy beyond measure. How cool is that!!

With Megi at my Coffee House office - just before another trip abroad!

***

All in all not a bad way to end this post, huh? I know, I started with four “clubbing” posts in mind and this is the seventh. Well, one more to go and that will wrap it up. And then back to more pleasant and interesting posts on my life in Albania – I can hardly wait to give you the news!  

My best to all of you. XOXO