1st month

I know it has been a long time since we have updated, but now is as good of a time as any so this is our first month as residents of Shkoder. I have been working with World Vision every day generally going in at 9 and getting out every day around 2 or 3 but some days I get out as late as 5:30 or as early as around 1:30 depending on what is going on at the office. My days have been filled with creating a filing cabinet, going out to visit some of the villages and most recently filling out annual progress reports. These are required for every sponsored child in the area which for Shkoder is 298 children. I can't believe other cities that have twice or three times as many children as we do and have to do an APR for all of them. It seems like "grunt" work and I have been frustrated at times when I get "sent" home (Alketa, my counterpart tells me I can go home if I want, which means either go home or sit around doing nothing) but overall I think I have had a better experience in terms of amount of work than other volunteers and less work than others. I also got to spend a couple of days in Tirana at an emergency action plan training with 15 other volunteers mostly from our group. I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time hanging out with friends from training and learn some important stuff in the process. July should be an interesting month as there is a party in Lezhe for the 4th of July on the 3rd-4th and we will camp out on the beach. Then on the 9th there will be another party in Tirana hosted by some embassy people. I think we also want to plan another trip somewhere for a few days but we aren't sure if it will be south to Gjirokaster and Berat, or stay north and visit Puke, Fushe Arrez, and maybe even make it over to Kukes and that area. I guess time will tell. Again for those who want an address to send packages E-mail me and I will send you the address, just let us know when you send something so we can watch for it. We have gotten 1 package already, and look forward to more. Things that we can always use: contact solution (just don't list it on the contents of the box), peanut butter, candy (starburst, peanut butter M&M's, reese cups, rolo's etc.), Terry needs a new pair of tennis shoes if he ever hopes to play soccer again, tampons, note cards (preferably 3x5 blank), reusable grocery bags (you can usually buy them for $1 and use them as padding for other things). We also have more that we would like but ask us in an E-mail if you want more detail. We hope all is going well in the States and hope to see some of you in Albania soon!

TnT