This week, we taught at the school we have dubbed the pink school (shkolle pembe in Albanian), because of its color. It is actually named Deshmoret i Kombit and it is grade 1 - 9. We had classes in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. I did not have a lesson on Monday and did not teach the 6th graders. I just had to do games with a group of students. We did a "telephone relay", the Banana Song, and we did a ball toss with English words game. This was a group of 4th graders and it went well. Yesterday's lesson was giving direction with 5th graders and the entire lesson went really well. We had a great group of students. I drew the map we used with both groups.
The front of Deshmoret i Kombit
This is the map that I drew
Today, we worked with groups of 4th graders today and we did a Earth Day lesson and while they always suggest ways we can improve, they did not find too many problems with our lessons. We were given permission to deviate from the textbook and that was really fun. We are glad it is over as we were evaluated each day by 3 to 4 people. It is a relief to be done with that part of our training.
We did not have the ability to print at school and we had to figure out how to print from our computers and then get copies made in town. We found someone to print at the community center from a USB drive and then we found a business to make our copies and he gave us a discount because we are volunteers.
The recycling bins at the school, we don't know if they are really used
Our group of five teachers has really gelled in the last few days and we met this morning to complete our lesson at a cafe before walking to school together. We made it to school before the heavy rains started, but our evaluators did not and as a result they were late today. Fortunately, we knew how to find our way to the correct classroom and we started the lessons without them. They finally arrived after our lesson started, but we all felt good that we managed on our own. It was raining even harder when it was time to leave school and we were not sure how to get into the city center. None of us had thought to put the taxi numbers in our phone. While we were still deciding our next move, a taxi pulled into the school to drop off a afternoon teacher off and we waved at him to stay. He waited for us while we walked through the parking lot and then he drove us to the city center. The taxi driver did not even charge us for the ride.
As I have said before, the people of Kamenice appreciate Peace Corps volunteers. Last Saturday, our class met at a cafe for the first part of class and someone at the cafe paid for our coffees. This has happened more than once in our stay. We know that some of us will go to locations where they are not familiar with the Peace Corps and that Kamenice is a special little bubble.
Last Sunday, was a very beautiful sunny day in the high 70s or low 80s. I went to the community center to help with Access Kamenice, which is an international organization which provides opportunities for students to improve their English and learn important leadership and life skills. My Peace Corps language teacher works with the program and invited us to come and help. I went with another volunteer and it was a lot of fun. They students were there from 10:30 to 1:00 and the topic was to come up with an Earth Day Project to be done at the community center. They have 150 euros for their project. They divided into groups and worked on their projects. Then they presented their ideas and decided on their final project. Next Sunday, they will carry out their projects. The students must use English while participating in Access as some of them speak Serbian and some speak Albanian. English is their common language. Another goal of the group is to help the Albanian and Serbian communities to work together. In the end, the students decided to plant flowers and shrubs, to paint the benches, and to create earth day posters. They also plan to clean up the trash around the community center. Many of the students we had met before as they were the same students who gave up a day of their spring break to come to our English classes last Friday.
One of the groups presenting (One wants to be a doctor and another a computer programmer
It was beautiful day and the students choose to work outside
This was one of the posters that the students made
Tomorrow is a big day for us as we will find out our site placements in the afternoon. On Friday, we go to Prishtine, where will meet our permanent host families and then we will head to our new sites for the weekend. We will make our way back to Kamenice on Monday by bus, as they are slowly pulling away the safety nets, so that we can operate on our own in our new roles and new communities.
I feel like since Ramadan ended, we have had more time to get to know our family and we are communicating better. On Monday, I was home ahead of Thom and had coffee with Ganimete while she made flija. We were able to have a simple conversation over coffee. Now, we will have to start all over with a new host family. At least, now we have a little bit of Albanian.
Last Wednesday was Bajram and our family went visiting. We went on a walk to the cemetery. We had seen it on a distant hillside on our walks and decided we should see it up close. I have included the photos and some other photos that I have taken over the last week.
The fog on the hillside as I left the house today
This is a view of the stream by our house that runs into the river (Earth Day is needed)
This a rare bird that migrates through Kamenice, Thom talked
to a wildlife reported who was photographing the bird
The little dog that follow me out of his yard
The breakfast Ganimete made for me on Sunday
This was Thom's breakfast on Sunday
The kids play games on someone cell phone - Kids are the same
Cemetery in Kamenice
Forsythia
Wisteria in bloom on a building on our walk
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