Finally some work!

Hello everyone, it has been quite a long time since I have written in this so I guess I will have to consult my calendar to remember just what the hell I have been doing with my time. It has been a busy month and pushime is officially over which is great. Recently I have been working on several projects, with and without my primary agency.
Work with the Bashkia: This month my Bashkia sent in the report for our familiar tourism project. Rubik is surrounded by 11 villages that are incorporated within the Bashkia’s jurisdiction. My counterpart started an initiative to increase the economic base in two of these villages by housing foreign tourists with villagers. We have been visiting, evaluating, and discussing with these families on their capacity to house and entertain tourists. We are currently building relationships and getting the proper documentation to write grants for guest homes for several of these families, so far we have established 3 families which I have mapped their location and evaluated their homes. The evaluation part was my favorite. Since I am the only foreigner that the Bashkia has access to, I was taken to the three homes two months ago to have lunch at each home, meet the families, and evaluate the accommodations. I wrote about this experience a few entries ago but at the time I didn’t fully grasp what I was doing there. My language is slowly getting better but I still have constant misunderstandings.
I am also working with my Bashkia on a project for a Foreign language lab that would be located in the 9 year school here in Rubik. Some of you may recall me sending out an email about this. If anyone would like information on how you can assist the municipality of Rubik with this project please contact me at monsbm@gmail.com. Ow, I guess I better explain this. So, in order to gain entry into a University in Albania you must speak a foreign language proficiently. I am a little fuzzy on the details because we haven’t actually started writing the project yet since we are still looking for funds but, I know that in order to get into a public university in Albania, which means it is free, you must pass an English language exam. This is huge for youth in Rubik. We only have one English teacher for the first 9 years and one teacher for the last 3 years of school for the entire town and the 11 villages which accounts for about 7,000 people…I am not sure how many students that is at the time, one more thing to add to the list of information to gather. Anyway, with my site mate and myself added, the town only has 4 people that are qualified to teach English and since that is not my primary or secondary interest in Rubik I have yet to teach a student. The goal of a foreign language computer lab is to prepare the youth of Rubik for the language exams they will have to take to get into college. The lab will be complete with language programs for English, German, French, Italian, Greek, and possibly Spanish (the number of languages depends on funding). These programs will be paired with headsets that are capable of instructing the youth on speaking and comprehension. I have seen the programs work at a private training center in Tirana, but the courses are far away and cost too much money. I won’t bore you anymore with the details of the project but we are looking for possible fundraisers back in the states. If anyone is involved with a philanthropic organization or knows someone who would be willing to donate please let me know and I can have the appropriate materials sent to them. Part of the process is to generate interest so contacting me will not result in expectations on my part of participation. Enough talking about that.
Secondary work: I still occupying my free time with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) work. We are still meeting contact from the previous volunteer who ran the project and this week Tauscha (a group 11 PCV) and myself will be meeting with a University class to explain the project, which will hopefully result in me teaching a class in how the process works and a hike with the students. PC is all about building the capacity of host country agencies and people so the eventual goal is to hand this entire project over to Albanians, the University is a great place to recruit interested parties. We are also meeting with a Director of Environmental and Geographic studies at a European university, a Minister of tourism for the National government, and a guy who has a Geographic consulting company. I am really excited. This is all within the same days as a COD (community and organization development) conference; this is the sector of PC that I am in. The other work I have been doing is consulting the Qarku of Kukes, Qarku is the regional council (Albania has 12 regions) on their process of drawing property rights to be put in a digital data base. I am in no shape or form qualified to do this type of work in the United States but here I am helpful to a country that is experiencing a slight brain drain (educated people can make more money abroad, so they leave). It is a little overwhelming but the people that I am helping in the Qarku are extremely bright and hard working.
Per qejf (for pleasure): This month has been great. Three weeks ago we went camping on a lake created by two damns that were built by the Chinese a few decades ago. The lake is called Shkopeti. We made camp on the other side of the lake from the road to Burrell, near a small collection of homes belonging to subsistent villagers. In order to get to the camp we crossed an awesome “Indiana Jones” type bridge that was mostly made of wood and had several missing planks, it was great…especially when some friends I went with got half way across and then had a near breakdown!!!
I also went to a Folk festival in Gjirokaster that is only held every four years. This was awesome. Two of the PCVs in Kukes, James and his wife Jen, got us a ride to Gjiro on a bus with the Kukes folk band, the ride to Gjiro round trip costs about three days worth of allowance so it was great to get a ride, and plus they played music and sang for the entire 8 hour drive. In Albania, people aren’t really used to driving long distances and the roads tend to be winding and rough, so the drivers often stop every hour or so for a café break, and for the young people to throw up!!! This was pretty fun cause at one place where we stopped, the band got out and played for twenty minutes while the kids, who are also part of the group, did the dance they were going to perform at the festival. Albanians are probably the most hospitable people I have ever met. The director of culture in Kukes insisted on paying for everything. For the whole trip, both ways, we must have stopped at least 10 times to have a café (which is always accompanied with a raki), a beer, or lunch. Albanians take great offense if you try to pay for your own drink or food if they invite you. Even if you invite them for a café they take great offense if you pay for it so I have learned not to even try, I have even been told not to thank them. Just yesterday I had some friends come up for a hike that got rained out. When Alex arrived I met her at a locale because we were on our way to meet Seth, Tauschia and the others up the hill. It had been raining all day so furgon traffic was slow but a driver who was going to Lezhe, about an hour and a half west of Rubik decided to drive Alex to Rubik…for free…just because she is American (and partly because she is a girl). I insisted on paying for the drinks (Alex paid me back of course but it is shume torpe, very shameful, for a female to pay for things) and he had a bit of a hissy fit, little of which I understood, which mostly consisted of him yelling at me about respect. I love this country. Where else is it an insult to buy a drink for a guy who just drove an hour and a half out of his way, during working hours, for free. Fantastic!!