From Albania with Love - Peace Corps Adventures: Marshallah and village living

Marshallah! Shume bukur...

My COS (Close of Service) date is set, and I just bought my airplane ticket back to the US. My last day in Albania will be May 18th, 2016. It felt strange to actually click the purchase button and confirm the ticket. As if not buying a ticket means that I would stay here indefinitely! The thought had crossed my mind. I even held off pushing that button until the last possible date... Does that mean something?

I will be spending a few days in Istanbul, Turkey before heading back to San Francisco, and then... well, that will have to wait until my next post. Needless to say I do have some tentative plans and rather exciting prospects. I felt that I could use a few days to reflect on this tremendous experience I have had here. The eventuality of my departure doesn't feel real yet.

That time I was a regular on an Albania fitness TV show!

I have been living in Albania for more than two years now. I feel relatively confident in speaking with people in Albanian. I have gotten over the aversion of the impromptu coffee with strangers and fully embrace a spur-of-the-moment circle dance. Yes, Albania has grown on me and I am going to miss this life; the picturesque environment, byrek and pilaf, as well as speaking Albanian with people everywhere I go. I will certainly miss my good friends Steve and Megi, my Tirana buddies (you know who you are!) and my fellow PCVs. Here are a few additional things I will particularly miss:

Circle dancing the night away!

1. Life in Librazhd (my site of service) - Guys shouting 'hello' to me in countless variations of slang, dialect, cursing and English as I walk down the main street in town. Yes, I shall miss my life as a 'katunar' (Albanian for 'villager'). Walking beside donkeys, the call to prayer sounding from the Mosque, waking up to the rooster's crow, and grandmas wishing me 'Marshallah' when I get back from the gym. Ahh Librazhdi!

Celebrating and dressing up with smiles

As a city-dweller for most of my life, this has been something new for me - people actually noticing where I'm going, asking about my day, inviting me to coffee, and chatting with me on a regular basis. It felt a bit strange at first, but I began to feel a sense of connection from these actions. Now I know I will miss it. Especially my close Albanian friends and my host family.

My Albanian Family

2. The burgeoning art scene of Albania - Although artistry is not anything new to Albania, many foreigners are not familiar with the entirety of artistic expression in Albania. After all, art can be highly controversial. In these post-communist days, you can discover musicians, dancers, painters, sculptors, writers, performance artists, architects, and even those with renowned skills with mosaics right here in Albania. You just have to know where to look. ;-)

Albanian punk rock band 'PMS' (yes that's the name! lol)

3. The activist community of Albania - I have met some of the most amazing, brave activists during my service here. In such a short period of time, they have helped transform the landscape of LGBT society in Albania. I even had the opportunity to partner with some of them to raise awareness of LGBT issues and human rights in regions across the country through a grant project. I will also miss some wonderful Allies who, despite potential implication, are willing to place justice and equality over personal discomfort.

Activists paving the way for a better world

4. My fellow PCVs - I've met some great friends among Peace Corps volunteers and will surely stay in touch with many of them for years to come. We travel together, call each other in times of joy and times of sorrow, work on amazing projects together, support each other through illnesses, injury and other unexpected events... and of course, we share tales of such adventures every time we meet.

Peace Corps Albania Group 17

5. Visiting rural village areas - Through the breast cancer outreach project, I have had the opportunity to call the distant rural villages of eastern Albania my 'office.' Getting to work with women in isolated areas to raise awareness of health issues has really been a joy. Partnering with my counterpart at the public health directorate, we've made connections across the region, bringing health professionals together for the first time ever. I'm definitely going to miss this!

Reaching out where information is needed the most

6. Kampi Pa Emer Summer Camp

No 'best of Albania' list would be complete without mentioning Camp No Name! It has really been an honor and a privilege to be a part of this annual summer camp in Librazhd that provides so much more than a week of fun and games. It is about inclusion, understanding, love and friendship. It is also about living a healthy life full of possibilities and achieving great things through cooperation. With growing numbers, this camp has planted seeds in the lives of countless Roma and non-Roma Albanian youth in Librazhd, the results of which are already visible in the togetherness of these kids (who are now young adults!). This was also the first time I got to be a camp counselor after going to summer camp every year as a kid. It was a great experience working with Albanians and other fellow PCVs and I will miss this a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing visionaries Alba and Joey (the founders of this initiative) when I get back to the US!