Water you talking about?!..

So.. just another day. I went into work and there was a huge council meeting about to happen so I promptly left work and met Garrett for coffee. Around lunch time we decided we wanted to go back to my apartment and make egg sandwiches. Walking up the three flights of stairs to my place we run into a guy that knows Garrett and he's carrying a tube with him. I get to my apartment and realize it was my tube, my water tube.

Back story: As you may or may not be aware of, most people in town don't pay for their electricity or water. People literally make fun of me around town for paying for my electricity on time each month. "Why pay for it? No one else does!" or "We loose power all the time, so what exactly are you paying for?" I actually went into the water place and they couldn't find my papers for my apartment and told me not to worry about paying it. When I asked around town everyone told me that literally no one paid for water. This makes a little more sense due to the fact we only get water 2 hours a day but none the less, if people don't pay, nothing will change.

Okay, so there is also two people standing at a window with lots of papers sorting through them. Apparently, they work for the water company. Apparently this is my first notice that I haven't paid my water bill all year and that includes taking my water pipe. Thank goodness Garrett was there and could kind of give them a hard time for this abrupt notification. It ended with me going ahead and paying the outlandish amount of Lek and them installing my water pipe back in before they left. Recently I've been feeling a lot of pressure to have everything set up for the new Volunteer that's going to live in my apartment and have everything fixed and up to date. I really don't have a problem paying for stuff here, I think that's what our Peace Corps money should go to, the community we live in but sometimes the lack of work over a year being made up in one day kind of breaks the bank.

Not your parent's Peace Corps..

An RPCV wrote an article for the Huffington Post explaining the misconceptions people have on the Peace Corps and actually what Volunteers are doing out in the field in this modern world (even in the poorest, most remote areas). Especially in Albania, a lot of the work we do as PCVs is building capacity by teaching computer skills, internet safety, building online presence or anything along those lines. The majority of my service has actually been just that: tourism websites, town branding, NGO branding, social media, Youtube videos, computer classes, etc. Although this might not be what people like to consider 'grassroots' it's what our world has come to in this meaning.

Albanian's were under communism, shut off from the entire world until 1991. With the development of the computer and internet around this time they were bombarded with things they had never seen before and of course wanted them. This has created, in my opinion, a disconnect between having these things (working non-profits, infrastructure in cities, down to fashion and technology) and the steps it actually takes to getting these things. That's where I feel my service as a PCV has come into action. Coming from America most people think that I have lots of money and that America has zero problems, so that being said it should be easy for me to take what I see in America and make that happen in Albania, oh yeah, and like tomorrow.


A lot of my capacity building stems from my background in marketing and graphic design. It's been pure fortune that I was placed with people who wanted what I had to offer (or was it good placement by the PCV staff?). This week is National Peace Corps week so I'm sure there will be many other articles out like the one published in the Huffington Post.

"And while Peace Corps volunteers have always shared their experience with family, friends and the public, both during and after their service abroad, today they're employing modern technology and tools to continue their work in new ways." This is something that I'm obviously doing right now by writing this blog entry and have been doing through out my service with photos, videos and journaling. I think it's extremely important to share all that I can about my experience here but I hope I haven't done myself an injustice by creating a false idea of what my life is like here. Of course you only get what I show you but I tend to only take pictures of the fun or interesting things. Technology does take a lot away from things and since this is a public forum I try to stay as positive as possible; I would say the photos and videos I make only represent a good 20% of what life is truly like here.

However I do feel like this is one of the things I've been the most proud about is continuously sharing my experiences here, in real time, for everyone back home. Thank you for following my journey and I hope you stay tuned for the final three months of my service. People have already started saying "I can't believe it's been two years,"... well I can!

Community Development Volunteers..

PC Albania tradition, they'll be hung in the PC office. I had 2 uninterested
sitemates so I connected the three of ours..

Best bosses!

C.O.D. Volunteers that made it to the end!

Panda Party with G14..

Gjithmone Gati!

Last week was our Close of Service Conference in Korce. It was the last time our entire group would get together before leaving at different times from April-June for whatever life after Peace Corps brings us. We had sessions that prepared us for the heaps of paper work we have to do and then we have fun sessions like PCV Olympics and "Turp Awards."

It was my responsibility to design the group t-shirts. We decided on "gjithmone gati" or "always ready" for the front and then on the back the shape of Albania containing words that we've learned here and the towns we've all lived in for two years. The shirts were a big hit and became even more popular when we learned that "gjithmone gati" has a meaning that none of us were aware about. Apparently in the schools during communism times this had a very strong meaning. Most that were in school during that time are now in their late 30's or older. Every morning when they lined up outside for their morning exercise and to enter the school the head master would scream something that roughly translated into "We're soliders, always prepared for war... are you ready?" and the entire student body would respond, "ALWAYS READY," which is the front of our shirts. It also was the slogan for forced volunteerism.

Well, let's just say that we're the new idea of volunteers and hopefully this will spark up some interesting conversations around town in the last two or three months before we leave.

En route to the conference...

People that lived far away from the conference had a layover in Tirana..

Next morning on the way to Korce..

Basketball on Valentine's Day..

New Short Barazia Gjinore Film..

Sunday afternoon..

Jam goc per respekt..

Last night it started to snow a lot again. Instead of staying in and cooking we decided to go the hotel and get pizzas and have a drink while they cooked. This turned into a raki fest and a mini party that lasted for hours. Since it was snowing no one was at the hotel and we had it to ourselves. We saw our friends, the hotel owner and the waiters, hanging out so they decided it would be a good idea to get some raki. Typically drinking raki in public like this is not something I do but tonight, why not?

I was sitting at a table with about 10 men and we were throwing peanuts and trying to catch them in our mouths and just having a good ol' time. Of course the questions came up about why I wasn't married, why did I not have a boyfriend, the typical stream of questions. Then I was told I needed to be a "homemaker" in order to find a boyfriend which directly translates into "girl for the house." I then clearly stated, "nuk jam goc per shpi, nuk jam goc per qef, jam goc per respekt." "I am not a girl for the house, I am not a girl for fun, I am a girl for respect." Everyone got a kick out of it, you would have thought I just said the awesomest thing ever. This sparked conversation about women's roles in Albania, especially in the north, where it is more conservative, and got them talking.

Obviously, drinking with them in public is something most Albanian women wouldn't do but because I'm a foreigner I have a litte of a free card. Then what I said turned into a song and the entire table started singing this three part phrase. It was pretty badass.

Raki night at the hotel..

Genti and Gen, two great friends and waiters at the hotel!

Raki night.

It was snowing so we were the only ones there..

Lunch the next day..

Somethings we do when there's no power..

Today, you shined.

So our youth basketball league has become pretty much an every week thing which is amazing. It gives us something to do during those hours between lunch and dinner and the kids really appreciate us opening up the gym for them. They're such good kids and we're really lucky and it's also good for them because it gives them something to do besides hang out in bars smoking cigarettes all afternoon.

I know I've blogged about basketball earning me street cred and today was just another example. I mean of course I'm the only girl in the gym but that's no big deal, it was like that at the YMCA in America. I've also talked about how girls and women here, especially in my small town, have a very conservative role in the family, loosely compared to women in the 1940's in America. The kids that all come and play are in the high school and all boys. We've also started playing with workers in the Bashkia, who are also all men.

Today, for some reason, they thought I was super good. I was assigned someone to follow me wherever I go which is crazy because they're usually pretty lax on defense. If I did score or even touch the ball the guy guarding me would get an ear full from his teammates. I kept hearing, in Albanian, "she's crazy today" or "how does she make them?" I didn't really think I was playing any different than I usually do but after the game, someone from the other day came up to me and said, in English, "Brenna, today you shined." Well damn, what can you say to that but thanks. Basketball has always been a part of my life and it's awesome, once again, that I've gotten to be this involved with the sport that I love in my community.

Super Bowl Sunday..

Life is back to normal here in Bajram Curri. I feel like the winter has let up just a little, enough so we can stand it. In December I couldn't even sit in my house comfortably without being under 4 blankets, with a hot water bottle and my fire; now, I'm leaving my door open during the day because it's been so nice outside this week. The power outages are still common and annoying, but you take what you get.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and I'm not planning on watching the game. We didn't have power yesterday and I don't know why it's so exhausting but there's no way I could stay up until 4am tonight. Being in a country that doesn't celebrate something that your culture does is kind of weird. In America right now I'm sure TVs have been litered with Super Bowl commercials for weeks, stores have food packages and t-shirts of the teams playing have been showing up in Walmart. Kind of like when I was in a Muslim country (Morocco) for Christmas. It's almost nice because it gives you the freedom to celebrate how you want to and you don't get sucked into all of the commercialism that goes along with most holidays in the States. Today, I chose to go to sleep instead of staying up to watch the game.

To think that I've only got 16-18 weeks left here is ridiculous  In some ways I feel like I just got here but most of the time I feel like I've been here forever. Work is pretty slow currently but I've been keeping busy updating my resume, applying for schools and making more Barazia Gjinore videos. Garrett, Eric and I have actually been spending more time together, if that's possible, I think to cope with the lack of all other activities going on. We've got a pretty constant basketball open gym happening every week with about 11 boys from the high school, playing and running drills that me and Garrett make up. Lack of after school activities is one of the biggest issues through out Albania and everyday I can tell how much it means to them that we've invested in doing this every week.

I'm not planning on leaving BC until our Close of Service conference in mid February which is in about 2 weeks. Valentine's Day is coming up, we'll see if we choose to partake in any activities for it.