Wow! It has been forever since we have posted, partially due to travel outside the country, partially due to work and lack there of with in the country. I guess there are 4 major events that we will discuss and 1 major event that we will avoid. The avoided is the disputed election for mayor of Tirana, the capital city. The original count gave the socialist incumbent a victory by 10 votes but as they have opened the ballot boxes for city council they have discovered that there were votes placed there as well, enough for the Democratic candidate to pull ahead. The question now is whether to count the "misplaced" votes or to not. Demonstrations have taken place in Tirana as well as other cities around the country to push for their opinions. As for the mayoral races in the rest of the country it seems like all the bigger cities in the north (including Shkoder) have gone or stayed Democratic. The larger cities in the south have remained to changed to Socialist. The big change in the north was Puka, which was socialist, will have a democratic mayor.
The first thing I will discuss in some detail is the Ultimate Frisbee "league" I'm trying to start. Working with "The Door" again, we had 10 ultimate discs shipped from Disccraft to Albania and I began "coaching" one group of boys in their gym. The gym is literally a basketball court sized area with little or no out of bounds, so we have adapted the rules for this size of a field. We don't have pulls, and any disc that touches the wall or ceiling is a turnover. The boys seem to like the game because of how closely the game resembles soccer. I have been working to get the game outside, but when the weather turns nice for a few days and before I can schedule a place outside it turns nasty again. Also I have been helping World Vision take care of their growth and the practice times from 12:20 - 1 Tuesdays and Thursday was interrupted many times by me having to go out and take pictures with World Vision. So as of now I have 1 possible group of boys and am no further along with anything than I was in February, and I was hoping to be outside playing with 3 or 4 teams by this time, but avash avash (slowly, slowly).
Secondly, Tiffany successfully held a race here in Shkoder. She worked with Jessi and The Door to hold a 3 kilometer race from the center of town to the top of the castle. If you remember the pictures of the castle it is quite a hill. There were over 100 participants that signed up to run and we had over 80 finish the race and turn in the race bibs. I participated in the race itself along with a few other Peace Corps Volunteers and our Country Director, and finished first out of that group. I didn't place in the top 3 but ran a personal best of 12:30ish. which for 1.8 miles up a pretty steep hill isn't too bad. There were some issues with the race finishing order, but it was all worked out in the end and it is an event that Tiff hopes to hold again next year. Kastriot wants to hold a race twice a year! It even inspired some of the Peace Corps volunteers to attempt a half-marathon in September in Ireland. We are hoping to make it and I would like to run the 13 miles in under 2 hours, considering the winner of the Boston marathon finished his full in under 2, I hope I can run half that in the same amount of time.
Thirdly, we had an opportunity to take a vacation with Tiff's parents. They made it out of the US for the first time ever, voluntarily. The map gives you an idea of where we travelled. The black lines are by plane, red by train and the blue lines by boat (Royal Caribbean Cruises).
We met in Milan, travelled to Florence and Rome by train, caught the ship in Rome and sailed to Athens, Kushadasi Turkey, Rhodes Greece, Istanbul, and Naples. Everyone loved Florence and we would love to go back to see more, specifically the Uffizi Gallery with some of DaVinci's and Rafael's artwork, but we did get to see The David, and it was remarkable. I wasn't really impressed with Rome although Vatican City was an exception. The Colosseum and many other fountains and buildings weren't as spectacular as I had built them up to be. I also really likes Kushadasi, the city was modern and clean but not ultra touristy like Istanbul. Tiff's parents also came back for a few days to Shkoder where we got to show them around our city a little as well as take them to Kruja (the most touristy place we have in Albania).
Finally, we had an opportunity to meet the new trainees that will be moving in and around the Shkoder area. We will have a new TEFL teacher coming to Shkoder, there will be a COD in Vau Dejes and Koplik (both are smaller cities about 1/2 hour from town, and a Health Educator in Koplik as well. We are excited to get to spend more time with the new volunteers and help them adjust to life in the north of Albania. While we were down at their training in Elbasan we took time to have a "working vacation." We have never explored the South west coastline and we decided that pre-tourist season would be a good time to do that. We picked two cities to visit since we had 3 days to explore, Himare and Vlora. We went to Himare first, and if it wasn't for the 5 and a half hour furgon ride we would be visiting there a lot more. It had to be one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. Crystal blue water, white marble rocks jutting right out into the ocean and in some places forming small tide pools that we could watch small crabs and other creatures scurrying around in. The volunteer there also had a beautiful apartment. The downside is she is by herself and about an hour an a half from any other volunteer, but we offered to trade her sites and she said no so she must be happy there. Vlora was also pretty but it had more of the feel of a big city on the ocean. Kind of like a Long Beach in LA. The city was a little more dirty and bigger. I'm sure I would have liked it more had we not just seen Himare, but I've also been to much worse too. Here are some pictures of Himare that I took with my little camera. I packed light for this trip, 6 days with only my book bag and a sleeping bag, plus an extra pair of shoes in a plastic bag tied to the outside of my book bag. Have I mentioned I love spring in Albania, you can pack like this and be totally fine, 6 pairs of underwear, 3 tshirts, a dress outfit and a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts, plus a light jacket for the cool evenings. Looking forward to seeing more of the country this summer and fall before winter sets back in. We've decided to explore more this year, helping other volunteers with projects around the country instead of hunkering down in Shkoder waiting on our own projects. I think that is all for now. Hope the spring is good for you all and that it stops raining long enough to enjoy some of it outside!
The first thing I will discuss in some detail is the Ultimate Frisbee "league" I'm trying to start. Working with "The Door" again, we had 10 ultimate discs shipped from Disccraft to Albania and I began "coaching" one group of boys in their gym. The gym is literally a basketball court sized area with little or no out of bounds, so we have adapted the rules for this size of a field. We don't have pulls, and any disc that touches the wall or ceiling is a turnover. The boys seem to like the game because of how closely the game resembles soccer. I have been working to get the game outside, but when the weather turns nice for a few days and before I can schedule a place outside it turns nasty again. Also I have been helping World Vision take care of their growth and the practice times from 12:20 - 1 Tuesdays and Thursday was interrupted many times by me having to go out and take pictures with World Vision. So as of now I have 1 possible group of boys and am no further along with anything than I was in February, and I was hoping to be outside playing with 3 or 4 teams by this time, but avash avash (slowly, slowly).
Secondly, Tiffany successfully held a race here in Shkoder. She worked with Jessi and The Door to hold a 3 kilometer race from the center of town to the top of the castle. If you remember the pictures of the castle it is quite a hill. There were over 100 participants that signed up to run and we had over 80 finish the race and turn in the race bibs. I participated in the race itself along with a few other Peace Corps Volunteers and our Country Director, and finished first out of that group. I didn't place in the top 3 but ran a personal best of 12:30ish. which for 1.8 miles up a pretty steep hill isn't too bad. There were some issues with the race finishing order, but it was all worked out in the end and it is an event that Tiff hopes to hold again next year. Kastriot wants to hold a race twice a year! It even inspired some of the Peace Corps volunteers to attempt a half-marathon in September in Ireland. We are hoping to make it and I would like to run the 13 miles in under 2 hours, considering the winner of the Boston marathon finished his full in under 2, I hope I can run half that in the same amount of time.
Thirdly, we had an opportunity to take a vacation with Tiff's parents. They made it out of the US for the first time ever, voluntarily. The map gives you an idea of where we travelled. The black lines are by plane, red by train and the blue lines by boat (Royal Caribbean Cruises).
Finally, we had an opportunity to meet the new trainees that will be moving in and around the Shkoder area. We will have a new TEFL teacher coming to Shkoder, there will be a COD in Vau Dejes and Koplik (both are smaller cities about 1/2 hour from town, and a Health Educator in Koplik as well. We are excited to get to spend more time with the new volunteers and help them adjust to life in the north of Albania. While we were down at their training in Elbasan we took time to have a "working vacation." We have never explored the South west coastline and we decided that pre-tourist season would be a good time to do that. We picked two cities to visit since we had 3 days to explore, Himare and Vlora. We went to Himare first, and if it wasn't for the 5 and a half hour furgon ride we would be visiting there a lot more. It had to be one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. Crystal blue water, white marble rocks jutting right out into the ocean and in some places forming small tide pools that we could watch small crabs and other creatures scurrying around in. The volunteer there also had a beautiful apartment. The downside is she is by herself and about an hour an a half from any other volunteer, but we offered to trade her sites and she said no so she must be happy there. Vlora was also pretty but it had more of the feel of a big city on the ocean. Kind of like a Long Beach in LA. The city was a little more dirty and bigger. I'm sure I would have liked it more had we not just seen Himare, but I've also been to much worse too. Here are some pictures of Himare that I took with my little camera. I packed light for this trip, 6 days with only my book bag and a sleeping bag, plus an extra pair of shoes in a plastic bag tied to the outside of my book bag. Have I mentioned I love spring in Albania, you can pack like this and be totally fine, 6 pairs of underwear, 3 tshirts, a dress outfit and a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts, plus a light jacket for the cool evenings. Looking forward to seeing more of the country this summer and fall before winter sets back in. We've decided to explore more this year, helping other volunteers with projects around the country instead of hunkering down in Shkoder waiting on our own projects. I think that is all for now. Hope the spring is good for you all and that it stops raining long enough to enjoy some of it outside!
No comments:
Post a Comment