While I have had the opportunity to travel, it has come with great sacrifice. My dad always reminds me that if people just look at my online posts that they probably would think all I did was travel and eat delicious foods. While this was true for about 1/10 of my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I did live in an under developed country for two years where I donated my time, modern luxuries such as hot water, a western toilet, power.. I lived somewhere where I had to recreate myself in a foreign language, develop work relationships and friends from complete scratch, give up my day to day freedoms by not having a private vehicle, adapt to the social norms as a woman in my small community, prepare every meal that I ate, celebrate my birthday with family via Skype for two years, adjust to the 'avash avash' lifestyle and by living at a pace of life about 70% slower than I was used to in America, juggle friendships with professional relationships (also in a foreign language), live under a microscope and try and try to maintain a good reputation for the majority of the community members...
While all of these seem like hardships or inconveniences, they all shaped my experience, changed my life forever, taught me to be more accepting and learn that everyone's truth is different. Countless Albanian families accepted me as the strange foreigner, adopted me as their own and shared true hospitality, kindness and generosity. I saw people who by all standards have very little, be truly happy, content and full of love. I also saw those same people show me the upmost respect just because of the country that I represented by offering me the biggest portions of meat at dinner and introduce me as their friend and see the pride dripping off of their smile. I listened to stories from 70 year old men and women about life during communism and how if they even said the word "America" that they would be locked up and reputation of their family would be ruined. I was told over and over again that for me to even be in their country was remarkable. If I learned anything during the past two years it's that people are, in general, good. Of course there's a lot of bad out there but I'm a believer now that there is more good.
When I think about what expectations I had for my time in the Peace Corps I remember not really having that many. I had no idea what type of community that I would be placed into, I didn't even know what part of the world I was going to go to. Straight out of college I sometimes questioned if I was even qualified to represent America as an ambassador in a foreign country. I was told towards the end of my service by Peace Corps staff that one of the reasons I got placed where I did was because of my positive attitude. Where I lived was one of the most isolated places in the country, the only way to travel there was through another country, by ferry through the mountains or hiking 5 hours through the Albanian Alps. I think one of things that got me through the past two years living in a community like this was my attitude (as well as my two sitemates). My passion of basketball followed me and I was able to fund the reconstruction of the outdoor basketball courts in town as well as start a youth basketball league. As the first three Volunteers in Bajram Curri we spent a lot of our time and energy into forming relationships with people around town and explaining why we were there, sometimes over and over. I actually used my previous jobs and education as a Volunteer by creating an only presence for various NGOs and my Peace Corps assignment at the town hall in Bajram Curri. So, I guess if I was asked if I met my expectations I would say that I exceeded them.
I've been back in America now for almost 2 weeks and I've gotten mixed reactions when I say I just got back from the Peace Corps. "Oh cool, Albania? What part of Africa is that?" "Thank you for your service." "Peace Corps huh?, I thought about that.. then I grew up." "How poor are the people there?" "Did it change your life?" As drastic and different as these reactions are I think any conversation that I do have about the time I spent in Albania is necessary. Necessary for me to make the transition back to America and realize that the last two years of my life wasn't some crazy detailed dream and also necessary to at least give people some idea about how people live outside of America because even after being here a mire two weeks I realize how easy it is to get wrapped up in day to day frustrations and routines here.. "Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Now that I have had the opportunity to live among a culture that is not my own and since it has shaped the rest of my life I hope I will continuously have the opportunity to share it with people. I know this blog was the first step to that and I really like that I kept it up for the entirety of my service because I will forever have this online journal of my experience.
I want to thank everyone that took the time out of their day to read this blog for the last two years.. I'm going to leave up and add a bar to the side so it's easier to review my two years in Albania. To my PCVs that I had the pleasure to meet in Albania, I know we were all very different but we had to have some commonality to want to join the Peace Corps. I know a lof of current PCVs actually knew me way before they even came to Albania because they read this blog. To my friends and family that sent a letter, a care package, a Facebook wallpost, a funny email, Skyped me, Facetimed me, called my Nokia phone to talk, came and visited me.. Thank you. Communication with Peace Corps Volunteers has sure come a long way over the years and I'm glad that it was utilized in my service.
