brenna journeys.: 8/1/11

Wednesday

It's a small world after all..

After playing basketball for four years I never thought I would have connections overseas and actually get to meet one of my teammates families. But that's exactly what happened. Katerina was a freshman on the team when I was a senior. She was born in Albania but grew up in Greece and came to America to play basketball in high school and in college. When I found out I was going to Albania for the Peace Corps she was one of the first people I contacted to get an inside look of the country.

Katerina's mom is from Tepelene and I happened to be traveling to that town for a cookout that a volunteer was having there. I asked for the first and last names of her relatives before I went and was determined to find them. I walked into a grocery store and asked the clerk if she knew this person, her grandfather, and the clerk made a few phone calls, told them an American was waiting for them and within minutes Katerina's aunt picked me up in their car and took me to their family home where I met her grandma and other relatives. They showed me pictures they had of Katerina, which was really surreal, because most of them were from Peace College where I met and played with her. I gave them a picture of the team and we exchanged stories, as well as we could, about life and hardships.

I never thought that I would be able to connect with her family and when I did it was almost like it wasn't happening because it felt so impossible. They were the epitome of Albanian hospitality and warmth. Her grandma kissed me on my forehead as she thanked 'Zot' or God for me and Katerina meeting each other. I returned back to the cook out to tell me Peace Corps friends that I went and met one of my college teammates families and they were dumfounded by how small the world felt at that moment. I'm still kind of in shock of the awesomeness that it was.

Monday

Party pa USA!

Click here to view this summer's next hit!

Sunday

Record heat in the Balkans & other news in Albania..

Map of the Balkans..

This is one of the hottest summers in the Balkans in recorded history. People have been reported to fainting in the streets and there are an outrageous amount of wildfires soaring through the woods; I have noticed them here in Albania across the country. Wildfire operations have been put in place in Kukes, the region directly to the south of Tropoje to help and try extinguish the fires. Greece and Albania have been receiving help from other parts of Europe to help extinguish these out of control fires. This might explain why my friends in Kukes never have water when they're supposed to..

Albania in other news...
American-Albanian archaeologist find ancient wine bottles off the coast of Albania..

Albanian woman weds a Serbian man..

Teens fight deportation from Canada back to Albania..

Northern Albanian miners go on hunger strike..

Confusing & contradictory thoughts..

As I've mentioned before, women in this country do not have the same lifestyles as the men do. Men and teenage boys have pretty much free rein to go down to the river, drink coffees all day with their friends and cousins and stay out late at night. The women typically are responsible for making the meals, aren't allowed to go to the river without their families and can only go to specific lokals with their friends or families for coffee.

I've acquired this weird satisfaction when I see women doing things out of the gender norm, even if it's bad for them.. I know, I know.. strange things are happening to me. Example #1: Seeing an older woman smoking a cigarette. Women typically don't smoke and if they do they smoke in the privacy of their homes. Back in the America, I would look at an elderly woman smoking a cigarette and wonder what her intentions where exactly. Example #2: Seeing a produce woman drinking beer during the day while she sales her produce. Women also typically don't drink in public, except for weddings or special occasions. I actually wanted to high-five her for drinking on the job.

When I reflect, this cognitive dissonance is kind of backwards, but I can't help it. Anything I see or hear about girls or women here doing things 'out of the social norm' for girls here makes me happy, even if it is something not necessarily good for them. I've heard the comparisson of Albania ideals compared to America in the 1940's and 50's, where women are in the kitchen, etc. but I still can't help feeling some since of woman power seeing an older women smoking a cigarette at a lokal with only men, drinking her coffee alone.

I know this sounds crazy but even for it to be older women is a big deal.
The younger generation here is making strides in gender equality, slowly, but it's moving at least. It's said that 80% of the students attending universities in Albania are women. You can definitely see progression in bigger cities and in the South of Albania. It's been so much of their culture for so long that it's not even questioned by most.

Ditëlindjen time! (My birthday)

This marks my first birthday in another country and I celebrated it in Albania. Emily and Kim were here for my actual birthday day and made it as special as they could with being here. I woke up and went to the Bashkia for a while to check in with my office and tell them people were coming up for my birthday. While I was doing this, Emily and Kim decorated my apartment with decorations that Kim had gotten in Durres and homemade cards. Kim also brought up avocados (she lives in the 3rd biggest city in Albania and has access to a lot of things I don't) so we made guacamole for my birthday lunch!

Oh, I found out I had the same birthday as Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, which is amazing. Same year and everything, wonder what he did for his birthday. I got a lot of 'Happy Birthdays' from people in the community, which in Shqip is "Gezuar ditelindje" (giz-oo-ar deet-lean-dee-aye). The phrase that Albanian's say after they wish you happy birthday is 'edhe 100 vjec' (eh-dhey nunt-chin vee-itch) or 'another 100 years' which i got a lot too. Cutest story, this little boy that lives in my apartment complex met me in the stairs and said "Brune, do you have a birthday today?" and I said "Yes Rici" and he said the Albanian "edhe 100 vjec" and it was so cute. He's probably around 2-3 years old and is always playing outside the apartment complex.

Other volunteers arrived the next day on Emily O. birthday, I'm just a day older than her and we had a joint birthday celebration. There were about 15 volunteers that took the journey to Bajram Curri to celebrate our birthdays and we had so much fun. It's weird though, I spend a lot of time by myself and being around large groups of American's is kind of weird now. Just like actually sitting down on a toilet when I use the bathroom is kinda weird...I actually get uncomfortable when there's a Western toilet inside of my usual Turk.

Usual birthday festivities: First and most importantly being with my life-long friends and family, a cookie dough icecream cake from Coldstone Creamery (a tradition since I worked there in highschool), sushi and making my family eat it even though they didn't necessarily like it, partying for a week because it was the first week back from summer vacation, sooner or later eating at Mellow Mushroom, purchasing a birthday dress or outfit to wear to dinner or going out...

Birthday festivities in Albania: Making guacamole because I haven't had access to it in over a month and it was special, recieving AMAZING presents of honey nut cheerios, home made scarves, headbands and Nutella from other Peace Corps volunteers, cliff jumping in the Valbona River, drinking fake Stela and Amstel and eating homemade, stone oven baked pizza at the Hotel in Bajram Curri, having most of my friends in the PC come to my home and enjoy my town, wearing cotton pants and a tshirt to dinner.

Not that many differences and I can honestly
say I had a great birthday in Bajram.

River time on my birthday..

Our birthday group by the Valbona River.

Corey, Sam and John jumping!

The other birthday girl!

Kip doing tricks off the rock..

Bukur. Ribs up.

Girls shot.

Birthday girls..

Birthday girl #1, Emilu, August 23rd 1988.

Birthday Girl #2, Brune Micka, August 24th 1988

Wednesday

My first Albanian wedding experience...

It seems that every volunteers experience becomes a bit more richer after they attend an Albanian wedding. I have heard awesome wedding stories and a few horror stories from weddings in Albania. Summer is dubbed the wedding season and I was fortunate enough to be invited to a wedding in Kukes. Jetmir, the groom, and I have been working together on the VisitKukesRegion.org website and plan to work together on his website for the Regional Council of the Kukes Region. Jetmir is an Information and Communication Specialist at the Regional Council in Kukes.

Weddings are usually week long celebrations and the 'official wedding' happens on Sunday. This is the ceremony we attended and I use the term 'ceremony' loosely. Unlike weddings in America, there is no ceremony; only a party. We were served 4 courses of meat all through out the day, circle danced continuously and our drinks were refilled before they were empty. This is so impressive and uncommon because customer service doesn't really exist here and everything was planned down to the minute, which was also unnormal.

Neither the bride nor the groom danced until the last song of the event and when they did the entire party atmosphere lit up! We threw Leke and them when they did dance and watched from a flat screen them enter and exit the building which was very fun. I had an awesome time and was glad the first wedding I attended was from a good friend and co-worker. FYI, I think at my wedding I would like my wedding presents thrown at me, I think it adds a little flare.