We’ve had our one week visit to Durres, our permanent site, and will be going back there permanently on June 18th. It’s been a great success. We have a very nice host family to live with there until we find our own apartment. We’re supposed to stay with then for 4 ½ months but it’s a 2-bedroom apartment and there are 6 of us in it. Apparently, it’s not unusual for that many people, usually all extended family members, to share a place like this. They have given us the master bedroom and bath, while the parents and the 2 girls share the other bedroom and bath. The mother is a stay-at-home mom and she caters to our every need. She cooks what we want, when we want it, she cleans our room and bathroom, and even did our laundry for us (we’re supposed to do it ourselves, but you have to hang it out to dry, and when you’re gone all day at work, that’s kind of hard to do, except on the weekends). The only real downside is that the dad is a chain smoker so sometimes we have to keep our door shut and sometimes Carol has to step out on the balcony for a breath of fresh air. It gives us more incentive to find our own place, but we’ll miss the TLC!

Our jobs are great! Carol is working for the Women’s Center and had a very busy week already. They do a lot of work in the poor suburbs of Durres where there are a lot of immigrants that have no water and limited access to schools. They’re trying to help them with more than just women’s issues so it’s very rewarding. The language is still a bit of a stumbling block, even though almost all the gals in the office speak English. When she needs to know something, or helps them with something, they’ll speak to her in English. Otherwise, of course, they speak Albanian among themselves so she misses a lot of the daily chat and planning that goes on. She won’t know something is going to happen until they say “Carol, its time to go to the orphanage now” and she just drops what she’s doing and gets up and goes. It doesn’t seem to be an issue or anything, just a little weird not to know what’s going on. But they’re really great gals.

Carol’s boss is her age and is a real go-getter. Apparently, she’s really well connected in Durres, and seems to be able to get people to do things for the organization. Carol says she can learn a lot from her. She also belongs to a gym and wants Carol to work out with her in the evenings after work – perfect! There’s even have a pool of some sort, we think, as the boss said they could go swimming together on the weekends.

Carol says she has probably gained 5 – 10 pounds since coming here. The meals are rich in carbohydrates and they serve you your plate and want you to eat everything. It’s been hard to resist, so we both really need to work out! In fact, Carol has a cook at work. She comes in every morning and collects about 30 – 50 cents from each person and goes out and buys groceries. She then comes back and makes a big lunch that they all share at about 1:30 or 2:00. Sweet!!! Saves a lot of money, too, because if you eat out, it’s usually 3 – 4 dollars a pop, and we usually allow about 5 dollars a day for meals and coffees. We know it sounds small in comparison, but relative to our expense money, it helps a lot! Plus, Carol’s boss insisted the first week she was there that she take a little nap in her office after lunch. She made her go in there and lay down on her couch for 10 – 15 minutes. Too bad, huh? They keep asking her, “Are you tired? You’re working so much!”

Carol goes in to the office at about 9, before some of the others, uses the internet to very quickly download emails and newspapers (dial-up), and by that time the others have arrived and need the computer. Then, someone makes coffee and they all sit around and decide what to have for lunch and catch up on the news (so she thinks, she doesn’t really know what they’re saying!) Then, they do a little work, and before you know it, it’s noon and the boss arrives. She usually gives some marching orders and they all scurry around doing what needs to be done for her. Then it’s time for lunch, which is about 45 minutes, and they clear the table and one of the gals washes the dishes. They go back to work (or to nap!), and then at about 3:00 have coffee break again. Then they work a little more, usually until 5 when the boss sends them all home. Pretty cushy, especially for Peace Corps!

Plus, they do a lot of work with the Youth Parliament, a group of high school students, and they are always in and out of the office all day, looking at photos, making poster, running errands, generally just being sweet, disruptive high school students, giggling and laughing the whole time. There are a lot of “activities” for them to do – Children’s Day, Stop Smoking Day, Save the Environment Day, where they make posters and leaflets and distribute them around town or have a youth rally. Carol’s counterpart (the gal she’s assigned to work with) is the coordinator of that group so she’s helped her a lot with them. But she’s also gone with the Director to visit the schools in the suburbs, attended the weekly Wednesday women’s group meeting out there, been to the orphanage for Children’s Day, and will be helping her counterpart with Summer School/Summer Camp for the youth out in the poor area. She’ll be teaching English classes with her counterpart for 2 weeks (she thinks – sometimes, even in English, she doesn’t get or understand the whole story). There are more activities coming up all summer while the kids are out of school. Plus she’s already helped write grant proposals, translate project reports, and prepare a new leaflet on the process of decision-making (from an already existing English-Albanian document). Always plenty to do and more to come. She’s very glad to be here doing this.

Criss really likes job, too. His counterpart is the IT Specialist for the Museum of Archaeology. He’s an archaeologists who’s been put in charge of IT. So he’s found his man in Criss, and can now go back out in the field. Criss is busy right now working for the Director of the Museum, preparing documents for a big international conference that they’re hosting at the end of September. He’s having to prepare articles for publication, which means a lot of scanning, formatting and printing. Only a couple of people speak English there so it’s been a bit challenging for him (How do you say “print the file” in Albanian? It’s not in the dictionary!). But they’re all very nice and patient – so far, anyway! He goes in at 8 and gets off at 3. No scheduled breaks, except for a coffee now and then, so he’s been going to Carol’s office and helping with their computers (typical non-profit) when he gets off work and the girls feed him their leftovers. “Will Work for Food!”

It was a very good first week for both of us. Of course, there’s always that honeymoon period and we’re sure we’ll get over that in due time. There are 2 PC volunteers who have been here in Durres for a little over a year now, and they’re over it. It just becomes more of the same – a job – but they’re glad they came. We think they’re ready to go home, though!

Anyway, you must plan on visiting us here. Durres is a tourist hub for Albania so there are lots of hotels and restaurants and lots of entertainment in the summer time. If you plan to travel year, try to stop by and see us. We think we’ll be able to entertain you rather easily here, and would love to have you visit! Hope this finds all of you well and hope you have a great summer! We’ll post more pictures from Durres a little later, so check the site again soon. Bye for now!