Chris in Albania

I am going to Korca

I found out that I am going to
Korca (actually called "Korcha", the c is with a tail, ch). Korca is
about 30 km from the border with Greece in the South East of Albania.
I am not sure how accessible it is to Greece, as it is surrounded by
mountains I think. It is a very large town and seems to be quite
clean, someone told me it is called the Paris of Albania. Another guy
in my group will also be there. There are four current PCVs there and
I will be working with one of them. I will be working with the RDA
(Regional Developement). Apparantly, my director is a good guy.

In other, less exciting news, we went swimming yesterday in a very cool lake and then a few of us got into a mudfight. A picture of me all messed up is in the photo album.

I will give more news on Korca when I find out. Most of you have better computer access than me, so you could find out before me.

Take Care!

Open Response to Dave Stadler

I talked to Sarah Hoffman the other day. She is in PC here in Albania and has been for a year now. I found her weblog a while back and it was a great introduction for my experience here. If you are interested in PC in Albania, here website is great: http://hoffmans14.blogspot.com check it out.

(Dave Stadler wrote me a letter. Below is my open response).

Dear Mr. Stadler,

Thank you for your letter concerning my well-being here in Albania. You make a number of points which I am very happy to respond to. Your first point: you're wrong. Get over it.

And your second point, quoted here in full with only minor edits:

---
"#2 - When the f*&k does work actually take place!! Right now I am thinking
that the PC has sent you on a two year vacation. Everyone just gets to say
that it isn't a vacation because you don't see the places you go on the
travel channel! Next set of pictures I want to see you actually doing
something constructive. Even if it is just helping Nana shake out the
rugs. Earn your keep around there"!
---
You were my boss for quite a few years and you are quite aware of my work ethic throughout those years. I guess that may not help my arguement. Seriously, we in the Peace Corps actually do some “work”. Five days a week we have five hours of Shqip (Albanian language) class. (“Shqip” is pronounced “ship”, but the letter “q” is a “ch”, so there is a slight “shchip”sound, but it is just one syllable). And if you think you, with you’re A.D.D., can sit through five hours of a language class with only three students, well sir, I’d like to see that happen. Then one day a week, after language class, we have four hours of extremely boring information sessions covering such riveting topics as what to do when you have a cold or stomach ache. We had session where we learned what to do if we find ourselves disagreeing with a cab driver about the fare. Again, I say, riveting. Then on Fridays, we spend 8 hours in information sessions regarding our jobs. Most of these revolve around how the government is supposed to work and how it may or may not be that way in reality. These sessions can actually be interesting. One day, a young guy from a group called “Mjaft!” (which means “Enough!”) talked to us.

Mjaft is a group kind of like Move On, but it is supposed to be not-partisan. They seem to do pretty well. At first glance, they look a lot like one of those hippie groups that you probably belonged to in college. But the great thing about such a group in Albania is that it seems to actually work. There are a number of reasons for this. For one thing, these are clean-cut kids who are actually trying to improve their country, not a bunch of pot-smoking “down with the man” types. Mjaft’s tenants are about changing the culture. This takes many forms. They say “enough” to corruption in government, and try to make transparency a part of all political processes (their business cards are all see-through (which means transparent, Dave) a cool touch). They work for change on women’s issues. I would get into this area here, but misogyny and the general situation for Albanian women is a subject I will address in an upcoming ten-page tirade. Anyway, they were a very inspiring group. Last Friday, we met with current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) who are working in the IT area. One of them had written a translation of the more important functions of Windows. Education about computers is an area that is in high demand here, and the language barrier is a huge roadblock to even beginning to educate people.

Beyond the five days of five hours of language and 12 hours of Peace Corps stuff, we have a number of projects and homework assignments to do. The first week, we had to walk around the town, ask people where the important places were (like the city hall (Bashkia in Shqip), the police station, the taxi stand, etc., etc.) Now I know this sounds like project most cubscouts do to earn their wolf badge, but think about it, it was our first week in Albania and we know how to say “hello”, “I’m sorry”, “My name is Chris”, and “goodbye” and that’s it. And think about doing this in some really small country town like Lecompton Kansas and no one speaks English. So that was fun. We were also supposed to meet the mayor in the first week, which seems like a walk in the park, right? We went like five times and got answers like, “He’s at coffee, he’ll be back soon”, and then we’d come back and someone else would say that he was in a meeting in Elbasan all day. We finally did meet him last week and he was a good guy. He is going to help Brett, the current PCV here in Belsch, get ten computers for the school, and he is also going to let us use his photocopier for one of our major community projects, a student paper.

To go into further detail on this, the 24 of us PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) are in 6 small towns surrounding the city of Elbasan. Each of the six groups has to come up with a “community project”. We have our language class in the high school. The school painted all crazy colors, Triane-style (side note- Tirane is the capital and has this crazy mayor that many people love. He was a basketball player, a successful rap-artist, and an artist. He had this crazy idea of painting the buildings in Tirane all crazy colors, and many people dig it. Our small town of Belsch followed suit with the school.) But the school needs a lot of improvements. They don’t have much money and the school grounds are basically mud pits. There are some really good kids in our school, so we decided to invite the school senators to a meeting. We asked each of them to come up with one thing they would like to improve about their school. They came up with about 15 items. We then had each of them vote on what areas they wanted to work on. Computers and related stuff won out. Luckily Brett is working on that currently. They also were interested in getting stuff for their science lab, which apparently they had a few years ago, but now they just read about science in books. So we are going to work with them on raising money and finding a place to get the stuff. There are some ideas they had which are more inexpensive, like an English club and a school newspaper, so we are working with them on each of these areas. Good stuff.

Beyond that, we have lots of homework. Language homework and Peace Corps stuff too. I’ve had to read a book on the decentralization process in Albania as well as a bunch of laws on government support of small and medium business. Again, I say, riveting.

Now, seriously Dave, I do plan on taking some pictures of our meetings with the students. But beyond that, what would you take pictures of? Do you take pictures of yourself picking your nose at work, looking at your fantasy football crap? No. So if you want a picture of me reading a bunch of boring Albanian law books, I’d be happy to oblige, but it certainly isn’t a picture anyone would put in their photo album. I think there actually is a picture of some of the guys in my group studying. It’s the one where they are drinking beers and looking at papers. So don’t tell me we aren’t working!

Beyond all of this work that is measurable in time, there is a lot to be said about the mental work of constantly speaking and listening to people in a language that you didn’t speak a lick of one month ago. If you haven’t been through that, you can’t even begin to understand the amount of energy it takes to constantly pay attention to a language you don’t understand. Five hours of language class is so saturating for my small brain that the last thing I want to do is spend the rest of the day trying to pick out the few words that I understand. That being said, I am amazed at how much of the language I now know. I have half hour long conversations (albeit mostly simple conversations) with my host family, with the occasional difficulty, but I usually have a general understanding of what they are saying. And when my American friend Brett talks in Albanian, I pretty much understand what he is saying most of the time. I can’t have a philosophical conversation in Albanian yet, but give me another month and I’m there. Anyway, my point is that many of the people in my group have experienced the same exhaustion from constantly having to actively work at conversation all day long.

So we do work. That being said, we do have a lot of free time. I’ve gone hiking quite a bit since I’ve been here, I’ve had a couple of five hour long domino sessions, and we PCTs do spend a lot of time together talking and just hanging out. We had a birthday party for one of the girls in my group on Sunday. Most of the people in my group were there, and a few people were there from the group that has been here for a year. It was good times. A few of the guys got a mean four-square game going and a lot of Albanian kids got into the competition. We had another birthday lunch for her yesterday, organized by the language teachers. We ate lots. Many a frog leg was eaten. One of my language teachers braved the frog legs despite her aversion.

Ok, finally to your third point, regarding my pictures. Yes, even though I never went to KU, I am proud to display the ‘hawks here in Albania. On that note, I would much appreciate it if you send me a hat, preferably blue, with the Jayhawk on it in your care package. That would be sweet. And, I am not fat. Wait til summer, I’ll be emaciated. I’ve actually been exercising a bit, so I’ll be all buff when I get back.

And please, please do not share with me that I am missing some really good Daily Show episodes. That’s just not helpful. I don’t watch the tv here much, not because I am a non-tv snob, but because the most watched shows are a game where contestants spend a half an hour choosing different boxes with various prizes, a dubbed American dating show (I think it’s “The Bachelor”), and direct ripoff of American Idol. So just keep your tv reviews to yourself unless you want to mail me a bunch of shows. Thanks.

Yours,

Chris

Religion

Sorry for the delay in getting another posting up, I’ve had some struggles with the internet as of late.

We’ve lost another dude to love. I hope we are done with that, we can’t take losing many more people. We started with 27 people and four weeks later we have 24.

So here’s a run down of what’s been going on. Last Thursday, a bunch of us met in the town of Cerrik, which has more restaurants and an internet café. Brett had the wise idea for us to go to the abandoned industrial plant. It was certainly good times. It was huge. We clumb to the top of a three storey building, which was cool. Then Kaija decided to climb to the top of this huge cooling tower on the crappy ladder that goes to the top. I’ve since dubbed her "Kaija- Ovaries of Steel". Brett then had to climb it too because his M.O. is to impress the ladyfolk. Nikhil then decided to ascend, just cuz that’s how Nikhil rolls. And no one better damn question how Nikhil rolls. I have some pictures of this feat-I hope they are up now.

Brett has gotten me hooked on the old man’s game of dominos, which are played a bit differently than in the US. We had two 5 hour days there. It was constructive, though, as I learned many new words in Albanian, none of which I am supposed to use in mixed company.

But that’s not what I came here today to tell you about. I’m here to talk about religion.

It is said about Albanians that their religion is Albanian. I think that is most probably an apt description, but there is much more to the religion of Albania than that statement would lead you to believe. I’m not all that much different myself. I call myself an agnostic through and through, but I certainly have a strong belief system that I’ll go on for hours about for anyone willing to sit through such a boring polemic. I even wear a necklace of Father Pio (thanks, Angela!), who is supposed to protect my health, even though I am not a believer in any such thing. I’m not taking it off though, I have been pretty heathly since I’ve been here, which is saying a lot, as in Armenia I had it quite rough. But I digress.

Just below my house is a small mosque. There are a few Musselman dudes who hang out there and play a lot of soccer. I do hear the call to prayer quite often, as it happens five times a day just like anywhere else in the Muslim world, except here no one pays any attention. The first time I ever heard the call to prayer was one of the most moving moments of my life. I often say that that moment was one of the reasons that I decided to major in religion. We were in Egypt, in a tourist store. I was fourteen or so. There were about eight workers there (it was a pretty big store). They were just normal Egyptian guys, nothing memorable enough to mention. The call to prayer happened and most of them disappeared to a large, empty, and dark room. They left the door open and I watched them pray. It’s difficult to explain why, but it was so extremely moving to see. I remember thinking how deeply connected a culture must be if the majority of people stop the mundane things they are doing five times a day to stop for five minutes and pray together saying, "there is no god but God". It hit me hard and hasn’t left me. Islam is a problematic religion, especially because of its misogyny. That being said, it has very powerful ritual. So it was a bit of a letdown to see people ignore the call to prayer here.

Most of the lack of spirituality can be attributed to history, I believe. I guess that’s kind of a misnomer. Let me explain. Most of Albania was Christian when the Ottomans took over. The Ottomans had a really smart way of converting people. If a family was Christian, they had to pay taxes and their oldest so was drafted to be a Janissary in the military. So most people said, "sign me up". The north still has a high concentration of Christians, I believe partly because the terrain and the people are so rough that not many people could get in to inforce such laws.

Add to this that from the 40s to the 90s, Albania was communist and officially atheist. Take religion away from a culture for a full generation and you succeed in killing most of it off.

So I really hadn’t thought about religion in Albania much until I arrived in Berat last weekend. When you get off of the bus in Berat, you stand right in front of the largest mosque and the largest Orthodox Church in town. It is quite a striking picture. The mosque and church are like mirror images of each other, complimenting one another. It was striking to see them existing such harmony, especially with violent history these two religions have had. But I had to remember that Albanians are Albanian first and then Christian or Muslim, or at least that is my conception at this point.

Later that evening, we walked down the hill from Steve’s house (Steve is the guy Ray and I were staying with last week) to the old mosque at the foot of the hill. The muslim guys invited us in and showed us around the mosque, showing us the 99 names of God written in Arabic on the walls, and explaining the history of the place. It was built (if I remember correctly) in the 15th or 16th century. I told them that it looked to be in great shape for being that old and they said, "well, it was refurbrished in the 18th century". I was still impressed. They were really nice guys and very excited to tell us about their mosque. The mosque had a decent sized grounds, including two other buildings that were once schools. The head of atiquities had an office there. It was very nice. The next day we spent an hour in the ethnographic museum, the director of which showed us around and explained everything to us. I hope to go into more detail about this in the future. We then walked up the hill to the castle overlooking Berat. It was awsome. The view of the town and the surrounding mountains was great, and the castle itself was very impressive. At one time it had 42 churches in it. It currently has 14 and one mosque, which is called "the red mosqe". I have a picture of it in the Albania photoalbum to the right, it looks like a chimney. It is apparently the oldest mosqe in Albania. We went to the main church in the castle, which had over 100 "icons", which consisted of various religious paintings and other pieces. A guy who worked with them showed us around. It was a great collection. I have a strong affinity for religious relics, even though the meaning I personally attribute to them is more historic than it is spiritual. I have a strong sense of piety for the culture of the past, even though I lack the piety that they had.

We then went to two other churches in the castle, and another guy spent a long time explaining everything to us. One of them looked like an old house from the front, because the Christians made it look that was when the Ottomans rolled in to protect it from their destruction. It worked. We walked around the castle a bit more and talked to some of the people who lived in it (apparently, a thousand or so people live in the castle walls still). Throughout the weekend, we went to a number of different churches and mosques, which was very enjoyable. I really appreciated Berat. All of the religious places were kept well, being in them and talking to the people who cherished the places or their respective gods was very moving.

I hope to revisit religion again in the near future. I feel as if this story line has fallen a bit flat, the muse hits me at times that I do not have access to a computer and when I do have access, the muse seems to have absconded with my brain. Hopefully my next reflection will be more insightful. Until then...

week three

We lost Bobby to love this week.  It was really difficult to see such a great guy go, but love prevailed as it does.  I hope his girlfriend appreciates him as much as he deserves to be appreciated, he is a great guy and she is a lucky woman to have him.  Losing Bobby felt like a loss in the family.  We are such a tight-knit group, and it seems as if we have known each other for so long, each with his or her own place in the group dynamic.  I never thought I’d have to think of our experience here without him.

So now we are three in Belsch.  At coffee a few hours after we learned about Bobby leaving, David said, “jeez, the one American in this town that I didn’t hate and he had to leave”.  Good stuff.

Last week, a group of us went to Librazhd for the day.  It was good times, and although I think Belsch is by far the most beautiful of the towns we are in, I think the folks in Librazhd have the best set up.  It is a sizable town in a bowl surrounded by mountains.  So it has beauty and a large enough town to have a few internet cafes and more than one restaurant (we have one).  I have been going to Cerrik quite a bit for the food and internet and to hang with the PC folks there.  Nikhil has his own apartment, that jerk! Anyway, we went to a field by the river in Librazhd.  It was a nice weekend.

We are all being sent to various places around the country this weekend.  It is a kind of, “get used to being in this country on your own” thing, although we are going in pairs and will be visiting current PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers as opposed to us Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs)).  It should be an adventure. 

I thought I had sheep brains the other night, but I think it was just intestines.  Two nights ago it was stomach in a warm milk and butter broth.  It wasn’t all that bad after I stopped thinking about what it was.  The food in general has been pretty good.

Language is still a struggle, but I am not as overwhelmed by it as I had been.  It takes a lot out of you though, as even the most basic of conversations require dedicated attention to be able to understand.

Other than that, the weather has been warm and will continue to be so (such is the nature of spring I guess).  My host grandma and I are still getting along like peaches and herb, which is fun.  A bunch of us stayed in Elbasan yesterday and had a few beers together, it was good to see everyone again.

Okay, not much excitement in this dispatch.  I am sure I will have some crazy stories after my trip.

week two! Many pictures- none up yet

So the various computers I use have various reactions to my camera and as my own comupter is sans energy for the time being, I am unable to support my story with pictures. Alas, they are many and beautiful.

This week has been difficult for me a bit. I am struggling with the language a lot, not expecting to be this far behind. I'm working on improving the situation.

I have been eating like a maniac for some reason. I have had two full lunches and a full dinner many days. I don't know what the deal is. In language class yesterday, I used the sentence "Une jam elegant", which means bacially " I am cut" or "I am buff". My teacher said, "No you're not, you are fat! I told all the other teachers how much you ate the other day and they didn't believe me." I tried to protest that eating a lot doesn't make me fat (look and Jon Granat, UofF folks) to no avail.

My host grandma is my hero. The woman is a hoot. She has this cat that always follows her around (her familiar) but she constantly shoos it away. She was tisking at it one day and I said in broken Albanian, "oh, you love that cat", and she said, "yeah, to eat!"> She also took this axe into the house and I asked her to pose with it and she went chopping away on the ground. Good stuff. I'll hopefully have pics up on Saturday, but who knows.

Yesterday, I went on a little hike that ended up lasting 6 hours. Bobby (another trainee), Brett (a current volunteer and my neighbor), and an Albanian kid headed out for a small mountain that was about 4 miles from our town. We got to it and Bobby thought we should go home as it would be dark soon. Smart idea, but the rest of us decided to climb the mountain. So we clum' it. It was an amazing view. we could see numerous lakes all around, and the town of cerrik, which is the town nearest us with PC trainees. Again, I hope to have pics up soon. There was also a water pump station on the top, and we drank heavily from the broken pipes. I'm sure I'll get geardia soon, but it was good.

Brett invited me to dinner at his house, and his host mom had an unnaturally large spread prepared. It was good times.

We are in elbasan today, Elbasan is our "hub" city, twice a week all the PC trainees meet together to go over various PC related stuff. Next week, however, we will be traveling to visit current PCVs throughout the country, so we have to get comfortable with traveling alone in Albania. I volunteered to go a long way. I am excited to see a large section of the city. I of course will take obscene amounts of pictures and post them some day.

Take care everyone and keep in touch. My email address is [email protected]

First Week in Albania

So it's been less than a week since I have been in Albania, but it seems like it's been much much longer.  My group met in Philadelphia for three days to go over Peace Corps paperwork and to get to know each other.  There are only 27 of us, so we got to know each other very quickly.  I am in a wonderful group.  It is amazing how lucky I am to be with the folks that I am.  There are 20 guys and only 7 girls (the horror)!  But the group is really great. 

We left Philly with our bags packed for our new adventure. Over the first few days we quickly learned that we had all gone through equivalent experiences over the recent past.  We had all dealt with the same questions over and over, and had read the same books in preparation for the next 2 years of our lives.

On our decent into Tirana from Rome, all of us were gawking out the window to see this new home of ours for the first time.  The rolling hills the extreme mountains and the lush valleys put a smile on our faces.  It was then that I realized how we all had gone through such extreme changes to get to where we were. 

We spent a few days in training all togetherin Elbasan (a few hours south of Tirana).  Elbasan is a pretty sizable city, quite a bustling. We went into a walled area of town that was remarkable   The wall was built over the years by three empires:  The Greeks first, then the Romans, and then the Turks. It was a symbol of the history here.  Inside was an odd mix of the old and the new.  A modern taverna was built on top of a bunch of Roman or Greek era ruins.  To an American it seemed a bit blashemous, but it seemed to fit in here.

One of the most notable things about Albania is gender.  Women are not outside much at all. In the daytime, there are a few women who are out and about, usually in groups, rarely with men.  Even less can be seen in the cafes, and after dark, with thousands of men walking around, you may see one or two groups of women.  I thought Armenia had a large difference in the roles of men and women, but nowhere near the level of Albania.

The food here is much better than I expected.  The Peace Corps Volunteers from the earlier groups kind of complained about the food, but to me it is ok.  Ask me again in a few months and I may have a different answer about that. 

We had a few days in training in Elbasan, I had dinner for the last few times with my new best friends.  We really all did get along like Peaches and Herb, it was hard to leave everyone.  Our language teachers organized a dance for us on the last night, and a few of us kicked up our heels Western and Albanian style.

So on Easter Sunday, Bobby, David, Jimmy, and I headed off for the sleepy town of Belsh.  We kept hearing that we had the best gig in the joint and I think everyone was right.  We dropped off a number of people in Kuqan and Cerrik, which are towns in between Elbasan and Belsh.  Kuqan (pronounced something like "ku-chan") was pretty much on the main road, and Cerrik was a bustling large town.  We were in each for about 15 minutes as we said goodbye to the PC folks one by one.  Belsh is a 45 minute drive, one of the longest for our group.  After we crested the hill, the first thing we noticed was the lake.  The lake is probably 1/2 to 2/3 a kilometer in diamiter one way and a bit  less than that the other.  My house overlooks the lake and so does Jimmy's (he's on the other side), if he is on his porch and I am on mine, I can see him.  Most of the town sits around this lake, but there are a few roads that lead away from it for half a mile or so with houses on them.  Just below my front porch is one of the two mosques in town and just below that is the lake.  Thre are green rolling hills all around.  My host family has chickens and grows olives, beans, and grapes.  I feel like I am in some villa on the Medeteranian.  I guess I kind of am.

My host family is great. There are two brothers, Admir ("Adi") and Dolant, 16 and 13.  My host dad works in construction, he is nice but a bit quiet. My host mom is a hard working woman and kind.  They are good to their kids and good natured.  The kids too are very good natured.  Adi helps me learn Shqip (Albanian, pronouced almost like "ship").  I also have a host grandma.  She wears all black except for her white headscarf.  She has very deep emotion, which is palpable.  She always shakes her head at me in this almost inperceptable way as if to say, "why would you leave your poor mother to come live here"?  She actually asked me why I hadn't called my mother (I can't because we have almost no money on our phones), and she said that my mother must cry.  I showed her pictures of my parents and me at the airport just before I left, and I told her the we all cried, then she started to cry a little after I had told her that.

On a lighter note, on the first night here in the house I went to the bathroom after everyone else was in bed and I tried to open the door and I broke the handle off!  So here I am, in the middle of the night, a stranger who can only say , "Hi, my name is Chris"., locked in these people's bathroom.  I laughed quite a bit as I was trying to escape.  Luckily, Adi got up after a few minutes and get me out.  The next day I told the dad (Ramiz) that I was sorry and he said it's no big deal but I could tell from his gestures that he was saying, "stupid American, don't you know how to open a damned door"?

I am also lucky to have a current Peace Corp volunteer living right next to me.  Brett teaches English and the whole town loves the guy, so we are in like flin.  The four of us PCT (trainees) eat have been to the same cafe 6 times in 2 1/2 days.  We are now friends with the waiter and his buddy, who's dad owns the lake.  Today after class, we had lunch on the veranda (which is on the lake), Armando (the waiter) bought us all beers and we spent 2 hours having a good time and learning a little Albanian in the sun on the lake.  I kept looking around and kept thinking this is way too nice.

Not everything is roses here for us.  Learning the language is a bit daunting, we are learning a lot very quickly. We have side projects we have to work on. We are supposed to work with "the community" for some positive end , starting soon.  I am currently overwhelmed with adjusting to the culture of Albania and getting to know a few people in Belsh AND learn the language.  It's daunting to think that in a few weeks I have to say, "hey kids, let's do a city clean-up project"!  Time will tell. 

I hope that I will be able to upload some pictures.  If not now soon.  There is no internet cafe in Belsh, we are in Elbasan one or two times a week, so I will be able to email people once a week or so for now.  Bobby and I talked about venturing out to Cerrik sometime, so I may be in touch more.

If you want to call me, send me an email and I will give you the number.  BE SURE TO CALL YOUR PHONE COMPANY FIRST!!  Get some kind of an international plan, which costs like $5 a month, but you usually get 25 minutes or something like that free.  Without that, you could be charged $5 a minute, with it, it will be more like $.25 or $.30.  I don't have to pay for incoming calls or text messages. 

Disclaimer

I need to figure out how to put this on the sidebar, but:

THE VIEWS AND CONTENTS OF THIS WEBLOG ARE SOLEY MY OWN, AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS NOR POLICIES OF THE PEACE CORPS OR THE US GOVERNMENT.  THE PURPOSE OF THIS WEBSIDE IS TO INFORM FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF MY EXPERIENCES.  ANY REPRODUCTION OF THIS INFORMATION FOR PUBLICATION IS FORBIDDEN.

I'm here and okay

So I wrote a long story of my first week with PC and of course there were problems posting it from the computer here.  I will work on that tomorrow.  Things are great, I live in a villa overlooking a mosque and lake.  It's too nice.  We had beers out on the veranda with our new Albanian friends the other day for lunch.  I have loads of pics I hope to have up tomorrow.  If anyone wants to call me, let me know via email and I will give you my number.  Be sure to contact your phone company for an iternational plan.

Take Care!!!