End of PST and my Permanent site

Gositme, Donkey Cart

U.S. Ambassador to Albania, Swearing in ceremony

Girl in Gostime

Swearing in ceremony

Celebrating swearing in at Locale with owner

Swimming in Gostime, girls don't exactly go swimming with boys...

Milking a cow

Shkoder volunteer visit, Rozafa Castle

So PST had its ups and downs but for the most part it was a great experience and we were kept busy the entire time, really busy. We were sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers at the end of may and moved to our permanent sites on May 28th, 2009. The swearing in ceremony was a huge relief and it meant that i would no longer have to live with the restrictions of PST; no more host family, constant reporting on where i was or was going, and no more scheduling decisions made for me. My permanent site is Rubik, which is in the north central portion of Albania. The first two weeks of my service were spent with the volunteer that i would be replacing, which is uncommon the current volunteer usually leaves before the replacement arrives or the new volunteer is moving to a brand new site. I thought that spending these two weeks with a PCV who had lived there for two years prior was great. My shqip is not exactly great and he introduced me to the community and my new workplace. Rubik is a small municipality of 10,000 people which includes the 11 villages the Bashkia (city hall) serves. The town of Rubik is only about 1700 people but is located on the national highway to Kukes/Kosovo. I live in a small communist bloc apartment overlooking the river fan and the national highway, a.k.a. Rubik's main road. The apartment is not bad although i dont have many of the luxuries that are commonplace for Albanian apartments. I have a Turkish toilet, no washing machine, a small balcony, a tiny kitchen, and a bed made from what appears to be a chain link fence. I really cannot complain, when i applied to be a PCV i never thought that i would live in such a place. I pictured a hut somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Service in Eastern Europe is very different, i wouldn't think easier, than service in other parts of the world. There is about two people in my town that speak English and the rest speak a dialect of shqip that is extremely difficult to understand and is even unrecognizable by Albanians in the south. My shqip was not good in any respect after PST but i am trying, slow going but i am trying. We were told time and time again during PST that the first few months (1-9 months) would be extremely hard and slow. Albanians work in a relationship based business environment and with little knowledge of the language it is hard to get any type of work started. My counterpart and the mayor say that i must first learn the language and then, in September, they will have more work for me to do than i will be able to handle. That would be great because as of right now i feel utterly useless. I spend most of my time reading and trying to learn the language with my tutor, which is very difficult since teachers in Albania rather you memorize and regurgitate than actually learn. I have found that with this lack of work i have the time to travel and enjoy the country. Most weekends i spend out of my site with other PCVs who also have little work to speak of. So far i have traveled to beaches in Vlore and Durres,and the cities of Lushnje and Lezhe. I have had some work but it is slow in progress and takes little time overall. Rubik is currently working on a foreign language computer lab for the elementary school that i helped in witting a budget/proposal for and will implement if we get the funding. I am also helping in a youth volunteerism project through the United Nations and World Vision which will work to encourage volunteering in Albania's northern youth (ages 15-25). The project will assist several groups to develop and implement community projects in their respective regions. I hope this project is a success because if we can change the perception of giving back to the community among the youth in Albania it would be a huge accomplishment in my opinion. During communist times, less than 20 years ago, people of all ages were required to work on state run projects like planting trees or building roads/buildings and the state called this "volunteering" so the word has an extremely negative connotation. People here believe that it is up to the state to do anything about the problems they encounter like dirty streets, dilapidated schools, assistance of the elderly or disabled, misguided youth, etc. With this project we hope to inspire a new generation who's only negative experiences of volunteering are told to them by there parents. We are in the beginning stages and have only held preliminary meetings with organizers but are in the process of creating a local television advertisement and will hold our first meetings with the youth the week after next. Other projects i am involved with are pending and i don't want to jinx them by talking about it. Life here as a new volunteer is relatively good, although there are many difficulties and every day is a challenge. I don't really think anyone besides close friends and family will read this blog but if you do and want any additional information feel free to contact me. Internet for Bashkia employees is readily available so i can be contacted easily, unlike some parts and sectors of the country. Naten.