As to be expected there's a lot of paperwork that goes along with closing your service at the end of two years with the Peace Corps. Today marks the day that the group that will 'replace' us arrives in Albania. I'm a member of Group 14 (the 14th group of Volunteer's that have been in Albania) and
today Group 16 arrives in Elbasan to start their two year journey just like I did not that long ago. The first week in April I will probably meet the person that will take my place at the municipality. I'm in the process of filling out questionnaires and plugging in names and numbers so the new person can know who will be willing to work with them and projects that I did that were successful and one's that didn't work out too well. Another Volunteer made this
Youtube video for the new group about what our group has learned in our two years here.
When I think about my first impressions of Albania when I was living with a host family and how foreign everything felt it makes me realize how far I've come because everything feels too normal at this point. You start doing a lot of reflecting on what you could have done or what you wish you would have done as well as looking back on all that you have actually accomplished, even if at the time it seemed small and not important. I've now been in Albania for over two years which means 1/12 of my life has been spent living in the land of the double headed eagle.
Weekends are starting to fill up and in the 7 1/2 weeks I have left here it seems that I've become very busy. Weddings, going away parties, site visits for the new Volunteers, hopefully a basketball camp,
speaking to the new Volunteers in Elbasan, planning my C.O.S. trip, wrapping up projects here in town, spreading the word in town that I'll actually be leaving soon and in fact won't be living here for the rest of my life.. It is nice to have something sort of planned out for when I go home and not have that
blind falling feeling again like I did after college.
This past weekend we had two visitors to Bajram Curri, Eric's brother and a PCV that has never been up here before. It's really easy to get frustrated here and especially at the end of service to just be waiting around to go home. After having two people who had never been here to see what we've done and the relationships we've built here it made me realize I'm about to leave it a little over a month. The weeks and weekends are filling up with things to do before I leave Albania and I'm beginning to feel like I don't have enough time.
Although Bajram Curri is one of the most conservative places still in Albania I've been able to make relationships with men my age and in the high school but I feel like a lot of that has to do with having male Peace Corps Volunteers here as well. When our friend was up here from the south she kept saying "Where are all the women?" or "Brenna, you've done really well making friends here" and it made me realize that as a single, foreign woman I had sort of breached the sex divide in friendships. We had a beer with two of our closest Albanian friends while the other PCV was here and discussed rumors in Albania about different places in Albania, spoke in Spanish, Italian, English, Albanian, Serbian, Japanese and German, when the power went out we started my Ipod up and sang and cheered in the dark.
