So after being gone for what seemed like forever, I knew, as usual, it would take some getting used to and catching up once I got back home. No matter if you're gone for a month or a day, everyone always wants to know where you've been, what you've been doing, if you were somewhere else how was it, was it better there than it is here? So there's a lot of going through that with my coworkers, produce stores, neighbors, waiters and people that know me but I don't know them.I always try to make the 7 hour journey from the capital and allow myself that day and a complete day to myself to unpack, mess around the house, get groceries, you know, resettle. This time, my plan was rudely interrupted. I returned home on Friday to Bajram Curri to seemed what to be a completely different town. The roads were plowed, people were out and about, the sun was visible and the snow had accumulated into 15 foot mud splattered eye sores.
This would work out perfect, I would have Friday night to hang out with my sitemates who I hadn't seen in a while and all day Saturday to renest into my apartment. Wrong. Friday was great, Garrett, Eric, Kim and I hung out and had another normal night in my apartment. Simultaneously (I'm not exaggerating), the next morning, Kim and I both woke up puking. Not to go into any more detail that I have to it was kind of like this scene from a popular movie right now (warning: while though hilarious, a bit graphic).
This continued all day. Now, we had drank a little the night before but this was not from drinking. Let me take you back to the night before my Peace Corps interview in Raleigh. I woke up at 4:00am with this same kind of sickness and actually was so poisoned by food I had to call in and reschedule my interview. Culprit: Sushi from Harris Teeter.
I've also had food poisoning in Albania twice before (cheese and a mystery food) and let me tell you, it's no fun feet being sick in a Turkish toilet, although I must say I've gotten better. "What did you eat?" you might ask. Well, Sunday, when Kim and I could actually talk about food (still not at the point of eating it again) we narrowed it down to one meal where it could have been: chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions or cheese. In all foreign countries the food is just something you accept, in on way or another. Albania actually has, for the most part, pretty trust worthy produce, meat and cheese. I stay clear of the 'village milk' which is straight from the cow but we all choose our battles.
Anyways, since my readjusting day was taken away by recuperating, I did all my errands today. My water depot was also fixed! Three weeks with no water and finally I got to do laundry today and fill up my tank! Oh happy day. I also spent the afternoon celebrating the water by watercolor painting.
I also found out on my days away from my community that our grant was funded! The first project I wanted to do when I came to Bajram Curri was to fix up the basketball courts and that's what we're going to do! It started at PDM with Endrit a few months ago, we wrote the grant and found out last week that we were awarded the money. It's so exciting and something tangible that the community can see which is great. We invision restarting the community basketball teams as well which will hopefully play into the new sports stadium being renovated at the end of town. Even though I miss playing basketball like crazy, this is an awesome way to keep in the game.
