Sunday, March 17
We have been in Kamenice for two weeks and had three weeks of language lessons. I got my first evaluation and my language teacher was very kind with her comments. (Albanian is among the top 20 hardest languages to learn.) It is, also, hard learning a language this quickly and while there is definite progress, there are times when I feel like I know nothing at all. Last week was an easy week for language classes. We spent less time in language class and on Friday, we did an activity with three food stations. We practiced going to a "green market" or farmers' market. We learned a few key phrases and used them with our teachers and classmates. We also had a restaurant station, where we order food at a fast food restaurant and a sit down restaurant. Lastly, we had a food station where we learned to read recipes and make traditional Albanian food. In my group, we learned to make Spinach Pita (spinach with layers of thin crispy and flaky crust with spinach and cheese in between), pasul (traditional bean soup with meat), and stuffed cabbage. I am practicing my Albanian, by reading recipes in Albanian online.
After the food centers, we each got 5 euros to spend at the local farmers market. I bought cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes for 2 euros, but then I went over budget when I bought a large jar of local honey for 10 euros. It will last a long time. We really did not have to say that much to get our items, although I did attempt to use Albanian.
Ramadan is both occasion for renewal and a cleansing as Amar the 15 year old describes it. But it is also very challenging time for our family and all Muslims that observe the fasting period. The family gets up before 4 am to have a last meal before sunrise and then they do not eat until close to 6 pm. They also do not drink any liquids or smoke (for those that smoke). One of our volunteers lives with a family that chose not to fast, because they did not want to give up smoking. It is a choice, but many do it. Ganimete always has the food ready for dinner as soon as it is time (the time changes by a minute or two each night) and then she goes immediately to the porch to have her first cigarette of the evening. Then she joins the rest of us for dinner. Dinner can be pretty much done by the time she sits down, as the family eats very fast. I do not eat fast, so I am always there to eat with her. In the family, as soon as you are done eating, you leave the table. I am always last. The family has seemed tired this week. Selver and Ganimete are asleep when we leave on most mornings, even on the mornings that class started at 9 am. The kids have school and if we start at 9 am, they leave a little a head of us, so we see them in the morning. The school is very close by for them and they get up basically in time to leave for school. They are both fasting, so they do not eat before school.
Our excitement for the week, was that we have gotten a chance to meet Paul and that allowed us to take our first outing from Kamenice. Paul is one of the volunteers from KOS8, which means he arrived in October and was sworn in to Peace Corps in December. Paul, like us, is one of the older volunteers. He has been here 5 months and he is the veteran that we can look to in Kamenice. His is assignment is Kamenice and he will serve here for the remainder of his stay with Peace Corps. He is also a Rotarian and has been a Rotarian for over 30 years. Paul was actually out of town our first week here and that is why we didn't meet him sooner. (https://www.facebook.com/PeaceCorpsKosovo -- Scroll down and you will see a photo of Paul in Zagreb taken with visiting students from Penn State).
One of the Peace Corps rules for trainees, is that we can not leave Kamenice unless it is with our families or Peace Corps staff. We had planned earlier in the week to have dinner with Paul on Saturday. He suggested we take the bus to Gjilan (about a 40 minutes bus ride), but since we are not to leave Kamenice unless it is with our host families, we had to ask for permission. Fortunately, we were given permission to go with Paul to Gjilan.
We caught the bus to Gjilan at about 4:30 pm. It was a small bus and it was not crowded. We arrived in Gjilan to rain so we stopped at a small shop and got umbrellas. Unfortunately, between the rain and the dark, I did not get any pictures of Gjilan. Gjilan is at least twice as big as Kamenice and it had a very nice city center and a pedestrian walkway with outdoor seating and variety of restaurants. As it was still daylight when we arrived, none of the restaurants were busy as those who are fasting wait until sundown to eat. After a bite to eat, we walked to an Irish Pub. At the pub, they played songs in English and there were TVs to watch futbol (not of the American kind). It could have been in the US, except that most people were drinking small cups of coffee instead of beer. We caught the last bus to Kamenice at 8 pm. We passed several nice looking shopping areas and malls as we left Gjilan. It was nice to get a different view of Kosovo and I am looking forward to the time when we will be able to travel more.
The flowering trees are blooming and the grass is turning green. I am glad that spring is upon us.
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