My last "Peace Corps in Albania" post

Greetings my dear family and friends:

Monday, August 31, 2015 was my last day as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was not by choice but by what is called “early termination.” I know this is a bit bizarre that I should use such a public forum for this announcement, but since there are a few out there following my adventures, I felt I owed you an explanation. This will also serve, I think, to do some good for future volunteers: do not ignore the application instructions to include all information required. I omitted two events which I considered minuscule – and which were also considered such by many of my fellows and local staff here. In the course of the application, if I had even taken the time to think about them, neither would have disqualified me from service.

Just so your brain doesn’t go into overtime I’ll tell you one: A few years ago I was charged with shop-lifting. I know, as the guy in Princess Bride would say, “inconceivable!”

Fortunately, the twenty-something kid was caught on the store video – but it took months before someone would look at me, the kid, and then come to the obvious. Stolen identity, charges dropped. Now, the three-digit IQs out there might conclude that “charges dropped” would translate to “no charges.” Keep in mind I’m just pushing three digits myself, and I did not include this and another event, just as bizarre, on my application. So, the inconceivable happened.

I especially liked Inigo Montoya’s line: “You keep using that word; I don’t think it means what you think it means” – evidently so, because in the estimation of top (top) people my failure to include the charge gave cause for my end of service. And despite my Country Director’s best efforts, alas, it was determined that these omissions violated the letter of the law and the rules and regulations which the Peace Corps must require in order to validate its volunteers (“list all charges”). A dear friend of mine here has used a phrase in other situations which I think can apply to my actions: I was simply a foolish “son of a mother flower.”

As to what’s next for me, in the few short months I have lived in Albania I have grown incredibly attached to the country: it is a land of wonderful, good-hearted people and the kind and generous affection has been reciprocal. I don’t know when I was ever this happy.

Thankfully, this will not negatively affect my relationship with the university here in Elbasan: they still want me to co-teach in the fall term and my own class in the spring. All my work with ELTA (English Language Teachers Association) is intact, too. Ymer (my former Peace Corps counterpart) still wants me as his right-hand American academic in place.

So, all in all, I’m still going to be able to do the good I had set out to do as a Peace Corps volunteer. A bit more of a financial sacrifice in not having the Peace Corps resources on this stuff, but that’s of little concern in light of the big picture. I wish all of my former companion volunteers the very best (thanks for the good words and the heart-to-hearts). Let’s face it, retiring in the Mediterranean is not that bad.

I’ll open up a new blog: “Teaching and Living in Albania,” so anyone interested can keep track, and especially my kids who have been a great support to me as I’ve dealt with this, yet, another life event. At the close of my video conversation when I broke the news to my kids, my daughter, Alexis, got off a most memorable line. We had visited for about an hour or so, very difficult for everyone in the first fifteen, twenty minutes, but then quite upbeat - they were all relieved how I was dealing with it. Anyway, toward the end Alexis starts laughing, when I asked she said, "Well, Dad, you won't have to worry about being too cautious on being politically correct anymore - you were never very good at that!" Funny.

My very best to all of you. XOXO