Not Good

Overall a bad week.
A couple of Fridays ago we had our Outdoor Ambassador Beach clean-up day...all went very well...The next Friday we had our follow-up Outdoor Ambassador meeting and only 3 kids showed up and none from my school...hummm...after doing some digging I learned that the Director sent a letter home about it....As of now I have 2 stories about the letter.
From the School Director he said...I sent a letter stating the OA is not affiliated with the school and is not responsible for the children after 2:30. I can live with that version
From the kids they say.... it said that they cannot go to classes on fridays or participate in the trips/hikes/beach clean-ups etc...
If the kids are right, I want to ................. the ..........you get the idea..
I have drafted a letter to the parents...I hope with the approval of the school Director, it will invite them to a meet & greet and Q & A of myself and the other Peace Corps Volunteers and my Highschool kid assistants. I wanted to do it this Friday but my other PVC are out of town...
Work Stuff,

• Met with the CAAP website people finally after 2 months of email trying to set up a meeting. That project will start in a week when they back from holiday.
• My Dof A website is done and waiting to be approved by the director, then waiting for it to got to Tirana for appoval...meaning it will never get off the directors desk.
• School Teaching going good, until the OA my crap we will see what happens then.
• Tutoring 3 to 5 hours a week
• Survey...whatever...if director is out of town...no work is done on it..he is gone 4 days a week.

Just got all three eppisodes of Jurrasic Park...cannot wait to get my new computer to watch it. For the last month I have been dragging a bit. While I can still go to the gym and play pingpong etc..my mornings I have cobwebs and in the middays I am just wipped out.

So so long ago

In a nutshell, here is what happened this week

• Went to a local village to teach a girl to juggle. She is going to be in a play and is a clown. She is a quick learner..and hopefully what took me years to learn while sitting on the bench during baseball, she learned in a few months.
• The new PCVs arrived a few weeks ago and one stayed at my place to see the life and times of a PCV. His name is Chris and will be placed in a village about 30 minutes from me. 3 other girls stayed with the other girls here in Lezhe and for a weekend we kinda had a back to college weekend..hiking playing pingpong and had power hour (a drinking game where, whenever the music changes, you take a shot of beer)...every 1 minute it changes..there is a website to log onto for more info on such fun games. One of the girls is a very good pingpong player. The 5 girls and 1 guy and I crashed the "All boys" bar showing girls can drink and play pingpong too. The boys in the bar are getting used to the weird American...first I play a lot of pingpong/second I am older than all and beat most of them, third, I brought a dog in, forth brought in girls that drink and play pingpong and lastly, they watch the NFL playoffs one night with the Americans....
• I did my presentation to the new PCVs on the business environment of Albania what to expect and what we can do to help.
• Went to Skrapar, a small village 6 hours south and with 4 other volunteers and 5 highschool kids as guides we went on hikes to caves the communist dug to hide from the mean Americans. The sencond day, our guides picked us up at 7:00 am and we then headed to natural caves to find bats flying around our heads. All in all a great weekend with movies, homemaker stir fry, and good company.
• Last week was Bills birthday dinner. 3 of us went to a village 1 hour away and had dinner with his former host family.
• Work update..Website is as complete as it will be...the Director after 8 months still has not given me information and is getting tired of me asking for it...now instead of saying next week..he just changes the topic.
• CAAP website..first meeting should be this week...we will see.
• Outdoor Ambassadors...had a great beach clean-up week 30 bags filled 15 kids lots of fun and Frisbee football and futbol.
• The next meeting only had 3 people and had some disciplining to do...not a good feeling after that one.
• The survey is still in the studying stage...the big push to get it done was this weekend...nothing came about it...so that just means I have to go out of the D of A to get things done. We asked the farmers what was needed...according to them/the results we cannot help them a more than we do...My fears that I stated before the survey came true... I recommended training our surveyors ...it did not happen...recommended a date to complete the survey...never made and still not completed....Surveyors not really taking it seriously...bingo again.
• So what i have is 100 document..sitting on the desk in my office all in Shqip and nobody is looking at it..
• To days a good thing to be followed up by a bad thing...a bunch of kids always ask where I am going...I always say to a bar/cafe to read...this time I said you get a book I will buy you a drink/cola.That first day when well. Yesterday I invited a 12 year old girl to join us, and the boy got mad since girls "don't" belong in cafes. So much for trying to change a culture, maybe he will show up anyway and get over it.

Biker dudes

Friday, I had 5 bikers stay at the house. 4 from England and one Albanian...the Albanian spoke the most American English of the bunch having spent 9 years in the States and going to school in Indiana. They crashed on the floor and slept 2 in the bed...good guys, it was their first night of five days..their blog is www.facebook.com/pages/braking-in-albania/67696485800. It has been 15 months since I have been on a bike and I wish I could have gone with them. Went to Mozart for dinner and then Leslie, other PC volunteer, came over first thing in the morning to cook them French Toast.
On Friday, we had our Third Outdoor Ambassador meeting. We had 20 kids and while it may sound good I was pretty mad...in typical Albanian Fashion...a prominent but very flaking woman who was supposed to be my Albania counterpart in this, had the key and promised to be there... did not show up until the last 5 minutes. Even after several phone calls from me and the kids she knew......she never returned our calls. The first 30 minutes were outside standing around playing games and discussing our homework, until someone was able to get a key.... I now have my own key...... I made a big deal with these kids about starting on time and this was the second time we have had key problems. Albanians always have neser, but have know idea what setting an example means. They just know that if they all are flakes, nothing at any level will be expected of them and therefore, neser is the busiest day of the week...This is why PC is here I guess.
As for the weekend...lots of reading...Saturday was great, did a lot of reading outside, today was rainy, a lot of reading inside.
The website are going to have make big progress this week but I only have 2 days to work on them. M/T..wednesday is my teaching day, Thursday is a travel day and Friday is my presentation. As for the weekend that will be shot since I just found out that all of us in Lezhe will get new PCV staying with us for the from Sat to Tuesday... As long as the weather is good it will be fine..if not lots of Coffees..Good thing we have 50 or more cafes and about 10 of them are good places to hang out. The rest are old man bars...

Frustration update

To give you all an Update of "My Projects" here we go:

*Website on cruise control for Department of Agriculture
*Website for CAAP a non profit organization in Tirana...will start working on this week
*Survey of 100 farmers and had 9 people implement...90 interviewed...and nobody is writing a report...now has been two weeks...we have the "report writing team" ready but have too much work to do such as playing cards and shopping and skype to do a report....ARG.
*Started an Outdoor Ambassador youth group..now up to 13 kids but still in the developing stage. I will be glad if I get 10 to come regularly(we learn about the environment and go on hikes in the summer).
*Assisting classroom English 3 hours a week
*Teaching classroom English 2 hours a week
*Private tutoring 1.5 to 3 hours a week
*Business Presentation to New PC volunteers who came in this week to be done April 3.

As for other stuff...I have been feeling really bad the last couple of weeks. While most of the day I am fine...the last hour or so at work I am crashing...Last night I went to bed while it was still light out and a hard time getting out of bed this morning. Today, I am out of gas spending only a few hours on work. Latest Quick Meal...Cook 2 diced apples in a sauce pan with sugar and cinnamon until soft...pour Kos (plain yogurt) over the top...shume mire and easy. Found a couple of Basketball players/hackers like me to shoot around with a couple times a week...At my age and with their smoking...games move real fast and full of competition.

This not having a computer is killing me..I share with 3 people now and just as I get into stuff, they need their computer or as I have just spent lots of time working, the power goes out for 5 minutes to 6 hours each day.

This week I have 5 bicyclist staying at my place...one gets the couch and the rest get the soft warm tile floor...Lucky them.

Lots has Happened

March 13th 2009

Since my last blog entry, I have officially started the Outdoor Ambassador program here in Lezhe.  Wednesday afternoon I get a call to meet someone in for cafe in 1/2 hr.  Dila,  a woman in charge of the Student government program made some of her kids partake in it.  We talked a bet and suddenly on Friday/today was our first meeting...not the turnout that I had hoped, 4 highschool kids, but a start. It went well and so for the next 60 some Fridays I have to show up .......Arg...too much time.  

As for my computer, maybe I can watch movies, but to do work on it..it shuts off...the motherboard is shot.  Not a good time for it to got out.

 My director wants the website finished and freaked out a bit after someone from Tirana told him how hard it as to build....Now he wants to pay someone to come in and do it. He has not even seen mine yet.   He should have paid someone in the first place and had them wait 5 months for information from his staff. I am still missing 20% of the information and most of that is the information I had asked him to give me....I just got an email from another peace corp volunteer....his website has taken him 1.5 years to make and he still waiting for stuff.  

The interviews for survey are almost done..We have 90 of the 100 needed.  Its a good thing that they are not ready because starting then, they will have to sit for a month or two or three before they do anything with it.....

As for my Teaching...So I go in at 8:00 like always and was then told that my classes don't start until 9:30 and that I will, starting today have my own class of 5th graders to teach.  That is along with my "special group" of 10 that also started today..that turned into 16 kids.....some how I missed that memo too.  I told  the director how he should have called me as he had told his other 30+ teachers...all-be-it all nuns who work/live there. ...He did a lot of back paddling to get out of that....

To borrow a line from C&R Clothiers 20 years ago..."What a difference a day makes" and roses smell different now.

Was up Bergie

The seminar I went to was regarding the Outdoor Ambassators..It was the group I am trying to get going in Lezhe. Only 4 groups have started one in their sites and all are having trouble for various reasons. Most of the volunteers cannot get parents and kids to commit to something that is free...but if they have to pay they will not even participate in the first place. My problem is I cannot find a person to take on the responsibility of kids and who speaks english. The ones that do speak english are already teachers and want nothing to do with kids outside the week. I have one last hope and that is organizing it through the private school in the spring and summer. There I will have a set group of parents that know me, kids that know me and hopefully will fall under the safety umbella of the school.
Upon my return from the seminar, Oreos family said are late in returning..I have her again until Wednesday. I took her to a locale/bar today...she barked at some guy about my age, he jumped, gave me a look and never entered the bar...
Hey Bergie, if you are reading this....Good to hear from you for the first time since early 1980s. I guess it is good that I now have a facebook account.
My newest big project is putting together a presentation for the new volunteers. My topic. Business and the Business Envirnment. I am not reinventing the wheel since last years presentation was solid, I only have to update it and put in anything I think can be added. I hope to have it in 3 parts Part 1 our role as volunteers...and some background on the history of business and the business mess. Part 2. A college professor on the business enviroment currently, and part 3 either how to start a business or have a actual business owner come in and talk. My day 9-12 on April 3.
My computer is on the Outs...it looks like I am going to have to buy a new one.

I am trying

Too those few who read my blog...Sorry for all the bad grammar and spellings. It sounds so complete and good as I write it, but upon review...someday I will have to fix it....
Today is the last day of Oreo, I am going to Tirana today and Oreo goes to a Brazilian Missionary's home for her last days in Lezhe...After that, she goes with her family and unless i visit them in another city, I won't see her again. A good dog, but not a great Ambassator to the dog world. She barks at many, even those with good hearts, which scares the people here. For many, the first response is to try to kick her or scare/tease her back. I brought her to work on 3 occasions and even the veterinarians get freaked out.....I almost smacked one of my best friends out of my anger, when he smacked Oreo after she barked at him . Last night I made a spaghetti dinner for the family of 5 next door. (Only adding to the rumor that I am a housewife in training) Men NEVER COOK or wash clothes or clean house) The family has had me over for dinner several times and for the last few weeks have been visiting Oreo while I am at work. While the 2 youngest kids 5 and 3 get scared, Dad is good with them and shows them that Oreo is harmless, only loud. As for the dinner it was good, not my best since I did not use enough meat but good. Even the kids ate it and they never eat pasta with sauce, only with butter and cheese.
My computer should be coming home from the shop today...the Department of Agriculture said they will pay for repairs...so cool...I was supposed to go on a few interviews today regarding the survey, but since it is raining, the director felt it was better to drink coffee and not go out to the villages...Exaggeration maybe...but I will have a least one coffee today as I play on the borrowed computer.
This weekend I am going to Tirana to a seminar on getting an Outdoor Ambassador program started in our community ....I have exhausted my personal resources in getting help in starting-up in this area since few volunteer for anything and to do it with kids...NO WAY...I am trying to get a female to help so that girls parents would let them participate but so far no one,
not even males want to do something new.....many feel that getting involved with kids opens them up to public humiliation/shame if something goes wrong. Also, if an unmarried female helps out, then rumors may also fly about "Us" if a married woman helps, the husband will be shamed by "Us" and he letting her do something outside the house...I may have to modify the program and do it at the private school where I work..There, the parents/teachers trust me and
since the teachers are paid for the time and under the school direction, helping out, will be more socially acceptable.