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.