First Taste of 2 Years

Sorry that it has been so long since I have written anything here. Time has been rather full lately as I am nearing the end of training. Right now I am in Durres. I will be here for this whole week as all of the trainees are having a one-week site visit with their future organizations or schools in the cities where they are going to serve for two-years.

Last weekend we had a conference in Pogredec (in the east next to lake Ohrid) where all of the trainees meet with their counterparts from the places where they are going to work. I met my counterpart Oriana. She is the project director for Co-Plan in Keneta, Durres. She is quite intelligent and we seem to get along rather well. I have been meeting with her in Keneta the last few days and the rest of the week and I am starting to get a little bit of a taste of what I will be doing for the project and what living in Keneta will be like. Keneta definitely has alot of problems. I found out that Keneta is the Albanian word for swamp. All of the area that has been built-up with houses used to be wetlands and agricultural space. So all of the drainage canals built to drain the area back in the 70s have turned into open sewer lines. Smells great. I am trying to take pictures this week and I will post them sometime later.

I am really excited about working here. I think Oriana was glad to hear that I had studied urban planning because she said I look very young, and age is a big indicator of ability here. She didn't know what kind of volunteer she would be getting, and she was worried at first when she saw how young I was. It is going to take some time to build trust with her and the community, but it will come soon enough.

They are still looking for a host family for me in Keneta. Most of the residents there are migrants from villages in the north and the south, so they still have alot of traditional values and are concerned about having a single man living in there house if there are unmarried girls in there family, immediate or extended. Hopefully they will be able to find something in the next three weeks. I move to Keneta for good on June 16 after our swearing-in ceremony.

Wow, I wrote alot. Anyway. Later on.