Fatigue

I've pretty much slept and laid around the house all day. I've finally dragged myself down to the internet cafe to make a much needed check of my email. I guess my body had just forgotten what a full week of work feels like. When I got home last night, I just crashed.

Last week was pretty busy with work, and it was really nice to be doing something. We had a group-organization training for teenagers in Keneta at our office Mon - Wed from 9 to 4. The training went really well, and the end result was the formation of a teen project group that we will be overseen by Co-Plan. The group was able to elect officers, write up some guidelines and regulations for the group and plan their first official activity. For that activity we went to Mt. Dajti yesterday. It is the highest mountain of the ridge line that surrounds Tirana. It was alot of fun. We chartered a bus to get up there and about 20 teens went. We played volleyball and soccer, rode horses and cooked out lunch. It was a good time for the kids to really get to know each other, and for me to continue to try to learn all their names. (Albanian names are not the Christian names I'm used to like James, Ann, or Michael, they are more like Kushtrim, Flamur, or Marilena.)

Plus this week I've been working with Katharine on creating our English discussion and professional development group for NGO professionals in Durres. We announced the group at a collaborative meeting of the NGOs here and we had alot of interest in it. We will be having that class on Tuesdays, and then on Wednesdays we are doing another English/Discussion group for some high schoolers. I am also going to continue my English classes in Keneta on Mondays and Thursdays and I'll be taking over Joe's classes there since his service is done in November. So my schedule will be pretty full.

This week I am going to be working on translating the urban plan we just finished for Keneta, and we have some more meetings with the community groups to discuss the plan and the next steps in the process.

One kind of funny story. The volunteer from my group that was with me in Belsh and left in week three had resigned and gone home because he wanted to be with his girlfriend whom he had met about 5 months prior. Well I just found out that after he went home, he and his girlfriend broke up and now he is in Solvenia teaching english with another organization. I wish him the best, but I still think it is kind of funny.