Chris in Albania: Beginning of July

I am now in my third week in Korça. I’m getting into the routine of work, which so far isn’t too difficult. I am running into some Access problems, but it gives me something to work on.

I have about a 20 minute walk into work each morning. I pass a very nice and peaceful park, a favorite for a lot of the elderly guys in town. They are usually sitting around quietly talking or playing dominoes. I then cut through a lot of the back streets to get to my office, all cobblestone and whitewashed walls around. There are a lot of nice old houses along my walk. Sabina had the idea of taking pictures of some of the houses and mapping out a walking tour of them. It sounds like a good idea and she and I may start on that soon.

Apparently Dave sent me a package to Belsh (where I was in training), but I haven’t been able to get there yet. Thanks Dave! I hope there is nothing that can mold in there. And I got a package from Angela with tons o’ spices and a box of Poptarts with SpongeBob on the box. I have the spices displayed prominently in my otherwise sparse kitchen. Thanks Angela! I also bought some overpriced

Tabasco

sauce in the super market here. Again, this certainly isn’t the Peace Corps experience you read about where people have to walk an hour to the well. I certainly have been spoiled here.

Speaking of spoiled, we were all invited to the ambassador’s residence, which is in a subdivision/compound in the capital. It was strange to see, it reminded me of many of the bases I’ve seen in

Europe

. Nice manicured lawns and semi-nice houses that are a little boxy and all exactly alike, all surrounded by krazy amounts of guards and walls. The ambassador was throwing a 4^th of July party for all of the Americans in the country. It was an interesting mix of people. The Marines were selling Margaritas. I talked to them a little, they reminded me of all of the military guys I’d known from when I lived on bases when I was a kid. There were a lot of Mormons there, and I of course talked to them a lot. I talked to two younger guys and then an older couple. The older couple had just gotten here and were a bit overwhelmed but excited to be here, much like I was. I talked to a bunch of other (non-Mormon) missionaries that are in the country, most of them for only a few weeks. One girl was from

Kansas

so that was cool. The picnic was great, with free hamburgers, hotdogs, beer, and American baked goods a-plenty. We all had our fill.

That night, I went out dancing with a bunch of folks from our group until about 4 in the AM, which is a bit early for going out in the capital. Pictures will follow shortly, with “003” in the beginning of their names.

Peace Corps is having a conference here in Korça all next week, so there will be 10 other volunteers descending upon my otherwise sleepy little town. Brett, who was my neighbor in Belsh, and Katharin, who is in my group, will be here, so it will be good. A number of other folks from my group will be visiting the weekend before and after the conference, so I should be a little busy having fun in between the sessions.

That’s it for now. I hope everyone is doing well. For those of you who haven’t emailed me in ages, SHAME ON YOU!! Keep in touch!!

Comments

Well, now that you have this really cushy job and a fab crib, we all want to know if you miss helping Nana shake out the rugs? And Jon is correct, you are using the phrase "good times" with reckless abandon these days. Do you want me to send you a thesauras? And what happened to Duffman's post?

Posted by: Blake Pridgen | July 07, 2005 at 12:15 PM