Day to day life shots..

Projects that started this summer & dealing with the winter..

Well here we are, literally 6 months after we started and the final logo was decided on today. After many, many numerous revisions, meetings and decision making, the mayor and the Kukes Regional Council decided on a logo for the municipality of Bajram Curri.

I learned many lessons during this project. I've worked with picky clients before with my design work, ones that think they know what they want but really don't or have a vision and want exactly that even a trained design eye thinks differently. This was definitely one of those times where I had to swallow my personal preferences and opinons and give them what they wanted and envisioned. I realized that while my time is short lived here, this logo will represent this municipality and town for years and years to come and I should give them exactly what they want, even if it goes against what I think looks the best.

I've only been living here a short 8 months and who am I to say what would represent them the best. I also learned how it feels to not be involved in the design decisions but just be given orders after the decisions have already been made with no input. I believe that this would happen in bigger design and marketing firms and I think is a good learning experience because it's not always an easy thing to do, especially since I put so much time into the design work I do. That's not an experience I have had yet, outside of school, because all of the design work I've done I was either the sole designer, begging for any kind of constructive feedback, or a freelance designer, only taking direction from the client.

So now that the logo has been decided on, it will be in the letter head of all of the documents that the Bashkia circulates out, locally, nationally and internationally. My new project is designing a flag for the logo that will represent the city as a whole. It's really great to be doing work here that actually relates to what I studied in school and I think after doing this logo and the tourism website my opportunities will open up to more projects. I had the mayor of Bujan, a small village outside of Bajram Curri, approach me at a Cafe last week wanting me to design a logo for the village of Bujan.

It's hard getting back into the swing of things after being gone for IST and the GAD conference for over a week, probably because it's about ten degrees colder up here than it was in Plepa. Nothing like getting up in the morning and the buckets of water you use to flush your toilet with are frozen over.

Also, nothing like the fire going out in the middle of the night and waking up and being able to see your breath in your living room that now serves as a bedroom.. that'll really make you want to get up in the morning let me tell you what. I've officially started buying items that should be refrigerated and putting them outside on my porch, it's really effective. Doing dishes kinda sucks because I can't feel my hands when I'm done and I'm at about 1 shower a week. But overall, it's not that bad.. I mean it could be worse.

Developing and organizing communities..

C.O.D. volunteers of group 14 in Plepa for in-service training last week.
It was good to hear what other volunteers in my sector have been doing and share ideas.

Selective abortion in Albania..

It's been a problem for generations and now is just skewing the population even more. Selective abortion can be explained by the parents finding out the gender of the baby and then deciding to abort the child solely based on its gender. I have heard horror stories, women going through procedures over 10 times because the ultrasound turns out to be a girl and the family doesn't want a girl. It has been suggested by private European companies that Albania, along with some other Balkan countries take away the option completely to tell the parents the gender of the child. It is something that stems from traditional beliefs and believing that the male of the family is more important and powerful than the females.


According to a recent report from the Council of Europe, in Albania 112 males are born for every 100 females – a rather disproportionate figure compared with the ratio of natural demographic growth. Albania has a similar situation to some other Caucasian countries, while Kosovo is among the most problematic countries in the Balkans.


“Selective abortion is not a new problem in Albanian society,” states a sociologist, active in women's rights. “In the traditional patriarchal system, daughters are thought to be born to be given to a husband, and therefore are in some way external to the family. And traditionally they don't carry the family surname. If a family only has daughters, they say that family will become extinct,” she explains. Read more here..

Developing genders..

Last weekend was the Gender and Development conference in Plepa/Durres. Over 50 kids from all over Albania were able to attend this conference due to a grant won by the G.A.D. from Vodafone. The conference was three days and included activities that brought awareness to gender issues in Albania, ways to talk to people about them, how to promote gender equality and fun activities to encompass all of these ideas.

I chaperoned two boys from Kukes, Ditjon and Erjon, because Emily is still out of the country. I left at 6:00am Friday morning and was dropped off on the side of the highway to scale the stairs to Kukes. I checked out Emily's apartment to make sure everything was still good since she's been gone, picked up some materials for the conference and I left with the boys around 12:00pm. We arrived to Plepa and got settled in, had dinner with the rest of the participants and had one session that night where the kids were split up, boys on one side, girls on the other, to make collages on how women and men are portrayed in the media by cutting out magazine pictures. We then had a discussion about it and it was so inspiring to see how passionate the kids were about the topics.

The next day we had our first session on role playing gender scenarios and discussing solutions to the problems. Once again, just hearing how opinionated and passionate the kids are, boys and girls, was so refreshing because these kids, are the next leaders of their communities, and coming to events like this only pushing them further in that direction.

An Albanian woman came and spoke about domestic violence and gave her personal story about her abusive spouse and the repercussions she faced when filing for divorce here. There is still a very shameful attitude towards divorce here and it is not very common. Domestic violence is more prevalent than statisticsc may show because most women do not report the abuse because of no trust in the police and for fear the abuse will only become worse.

I really think the conference was a success and hope the kids go back to their communities with a mission. We finished up the conference with interviews for the documentary. The only downside is the kids that participated were volunteers, all from the southern part of Albania (which is more liberal and progressive) and they all were very passionate, not a bad thing, but just gives common answers and not a lot of diversity for the interviews. Once again, I was so impressed with all the kids that attended the conference and all the volunteers support in order to make the conference go as smoothly as possible.

Gender & Development Conference in Plepa..

Role playing session where teens acted out scenarios on gender issues..

Conference room at Hotel Tropikal..

Project design session. Each group of kids developed a project to do when they returned home. 

Gender roles session. 1 person makes the salad, 3 people eat and 1 person cleans up. Open
discussion after about work at home and why women are the only ones doing it.

Peace Corps G.A.D. committee and chaperones for the conference.. 

Ohhh Xhoniiii..

My boys from Kukes and two girls from Pogradec..

Volunteers and participants in the conference...

My Kukes boys, Ditjon & Erjon..

Lovely ladies of the Peace Corps..

Team building session...

Discussing their group projects..

Morning beach walk in Plepa..

Der Albaner, a German film..

So this weekend I woke up with a nasty cold. It's been building up to it so I kind of prepared myself not to do anything crazy this weekend.. not like that ever happens anyways. I spent the entirety of the weekend in bed, except today, when I had to go out for eggs. I slept.. a lot and also watched a lot of movies I have on my harddrive from other volunteers. It still freaks me out to see Albania referenced in things by surprise. Like on an episode of Family Guy or today during the movie "Inside Man" an Albanian tape was played of the former president and dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxha.

Most portrayals of Albania in American pop culture has a negative undertone, usually relating to mafia activity or trafficking. In the Family Guy Episode, Peter had just created his own country called "Petoria" and was at a U.N. meeting and sat in the back 'where countries no one cared about sat' and he was right beside of Albania. Now, Family Guy is known for its offensive humor but it was quite a surprise to have the country referenced at all. The most famous Albanian reference in American movies is probably the movie Taken where the Albanian mafia (specifically Tropoje) takes two American girls living abroad and sales them into sex trafficking. On that note, last week was International Trafficking Awareness Day and I came along this documentary on sex trafficking in Eastern Europe. It was very enlightening and appalling that this is going on so openly.

A movie I recommend for any of my friends and family to watch what Albania looks like, specifically the town that I live in is "Der Albaner" or "The Albanian." It's a German made film but is shot in Bajram Curri about two years ago and is about a young man who falls in love with a local village girl. He may not marry her though because he father has already promised her to another man who can pay a larger bride dowery for her. The two lovers find out that she is pregnant and her boyfriend travels illegally to Germany to try and make enough money to buy her from her family to wed her.

Click here to watch the movie that was taped in Bajram Curri and Valbona. If you can get past the different language thing and just watch the interactions and locations, it might give you a better idea of where I live. The high school of my town is there, a few bars, the border at Kosovo that I pass through every time I leave my town and some traditional Albanian homes, like the ones that are guesthouse in Valbona. It gives a truer depiction, in my opinion, of Albanian modern day life and the push and pull between the older generation and the current generation. I believe the movie won a few awards in independent film festivals, but for me it's pretty cool to see my town in a movie.

Relative news, well to me at least...

The emotional roller coaster of living abroad..

Metta World loves Peace Corps nickname

Freed from Gauntanamo, Chinese man makes pizza in Tirane

Prosecutors seek jail for former Albanian PM

Tirana airport to add another terminal 

Energy sources in Albania are low for the winter

80% of Albania's population against making their country 'Europe's landfill"

Didn't want it until I thought I'd lost it..

After returning from traveling outside of Albania, I must admit, my life here has taken some getting used to again.. This has been my first week back to work and it's been pretty hectic to say the least in the Bashkia the first full week of the year. I'm still going to staff meetings every morning at 8:00am. Staff meetings that about 90% I don't understand, but I think just showing up every morning and sitting in them and actually being there is something. Every morning, once the Mayor has gone through everyone else and asks them if they have any problems or concerns he looks back at the back chair at me and says, "Brenna, a keni problem?" Every morning I respond with a "jo, falimenderit" and the meeting is adjourned. That little interaction has led to many coffees together and shume respekt, I guess just the fact I show up every morning and just around town in general, the town's pretty small and word gets around fast. I wonder what will happen that one wonderous day I do have a question or a problem.. My office has now moved to the mayor's reception office where I sit on a couch and use a coffee table for a desk but you know, I don't hate it. I'm right in the mix of things and people that see me in the Bashkia also see me on the street and recognize me as a worker in the Bashkia which is nice, as an American to be integrated and as a woman to have some sort of respect as a worker outside the home.

Anyways, today there was a feste for 21 years of Democracy in which I was supposed to take pictures for the Bashkia's website.. Since the auditorium filled up quickly and I was snapping photos of the circle dancing outside, I cut my losses and went to coffee with some women I work with who also didn't get in. During coffee I was asked to marry two different people, someone's son and someone's brother. The fact that I'm not married or not engaged by the age of 23 still comes as a shock to most Albanians, especially women, but not today. I sat a table with the two women who were trying to marry me off, both of which were married, a woman who, I would guess, is in her 50's and has never been married and a woman, guessing again, who is around 25 or 26 and not married. How refreshing it was to not be questioned to death once I reviled my singleness and once I said "No, I'm not married, maybe later" and "No thank you for the offer of your son, I'm independent," that it was totally dropped. I was beginning to worry I had lost my mojo, matter of fact my 'foreign appeal' because I hadn't gotten a marriage proposal offer in a while. Glad to know I still got it, even though I wasn't sure I wanted it until I thought I'd lost it.

Anyways, after coffee I tried to go back to the celebration to try and snap some photos of the inside of the auditorium. Well, remember me ignorantly thinking some of my foreign appeal had worn off after being here for 8 months? Wrong. I walked through a sea of young boys who couldn't get into their favorite lokal after school to get a soda because it was closed off. The door was open, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, the sea of people literally parted. Filled with screams of "she works for the Bashkia" and "clear the road, have respect for the American" oh, and "she has to take pictures for the mayor, watch out!" (Sidenote: you'll notice in all the photos of the mass swarms of people leaving and entering, they're all men). At one point I think my feet left the ground as a few men lifted me to the front of the crowd. The level of respect I have for the people in my community continues to grow as their Albanian hospitality continues to shine through, even if sometimes it's overbearing (force fed, not being let pay for anything, being let to the front of 100's of locals). Sure there's a rat kid thrown in there every once and a while or an older man who stares just a little too long for comfort, but honestly, some of the most hospitable people I've met in my life have been in Bajram Curri; minus the fact that a line at the ATM or in general in public doesn't seem to be part of common courtesy.

I was talking to Kim online and she told me about going to see her landlord for the first time since we got back from our trip and she sniffed one time and he took her to the pharmacy, bought her medicine, went and got a space heater out of his own house, replaced the bulbs and took it to her home. If someone could find me a landlord in America that would do that, consider it rented.

A view of traditional Tropoja..

A few of my coworkers...

Holiday season complete..

After spending the holidays in countries other than Albania, it's taken a little time to get readjusted to things here. My Christmas package from my mom finally arrived to Albania and I got to open my individually, carefully wrapped presents while I was on the phone with her, not ideal but still meaningful. Goodies such as bacon and sun dried tomato spread, Grinch PJs, pre-made margarita mix, peppermint chocolate and grey tea were all great additions to my apartment here.

The holidays weren't as hard as I thought they would be, being away from home, but it never truly did feel like Christmas. No waiting in lines for hours buying ingredients for Christmas meals, no holiday traffic, no stress about seeing long distance family members... huh, yeah didn't really miss any of that. Christmas this year was probably the most relaxing holiday season I've had since the magic of Santa and being the youngest in the family was in the mix.

I got to watch my top three favorite Christmas movies: Home Alone, A Christmas Story and Elf. I ate some of the most delicious food I've ever tasted, and although it was 'traditional' Christmas food for me, I did get some mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC in the airport. I spent Christmas eve around a dinner table in a hostel, filed with traditional Hungarian Christmas food: fish soup and potato casserole with sausages and cheeses. I was joined at the table with a couple from Sylvania, a Brazilian guy studying abroad in Germany, two couples from China, a few Hungarians and my fellow American traveler. What was truly amazing is that we were all communicating speaking English and the only two people who's native language that was was the two Americans, the rest were speaking it as their second or third language.

Christmas day Kim and I went on a Danube Boat Cruise for lunch and got to view the city of Budapest from the river as we dined on an extravagant buffet of delicious foods. The day after Christmas we went to see the Nutcracker preformed at the Hungarian State Opera House.

New Years Eve we spent with Peace Corps Volunteers in Bulgaria in the capital, Sofia. We went to an outdoor concert and brought in the new year there then went to a huge downstairs club. My new favorite thing, mulled wine. Maybe next NYE I won't stay out until 6:30am the next morning, but it was nice to have McDonalds for lunch that day. I've been in country for almost 10 months now, which rounds up to a year.. which is nuts. These feet of mine haven't touched American soil in almost a year.

Article in the Winston-Salem Journal..

Click here for the full article and clip from the documentary.

Another view through Instagram..