Last week in many of our classes, we read a story about Prince Harry and Megan Markle's wedding. Our textbooks are published in the UK and there a few years old. In the story, it described their wedding as a "fairy tale". When I work with the second teacher, he often has students translate the text. In most classes, only one or two students participate. No one in the one class knew the Albanian word for "fairy tale". Besim asked me if I knew the word and I did. Mainly because I have a book of fairy tales in Albanian that I have been trying to read. Besim then berated the kids for having 10 years of English and not knowing the word and I had only had 10 months of Albanian I did.
It is easy to see why some students fail to learn English here. The teachers call on the students who are good at English in class, and those who aren't good at English are ignored. I try hard to get every student to participate in class, but that is not easy to do. Many come to class too tired or too hungry to participate. Most kids get up just in time to come to school and they don't eat breakfast before arriving. And like teens in the U.S., they often stay up too late at night gaming, texting, and watching videos on their phones.
I wish, I could say that my Albanian language skills were getting better, but it is taking time. After coming back from the holidays in the U.S., I did feel like I was understanding more. But at school when I speak with students, I use English as much as possible. Sometimes we use Albanglish combining words from both English, Albanian, and the dialect Albanian often in the same sentence or phrase. It works, but it is not pretty.
On Friday, we had our first Albanian lessons with Shpresim of the New Year. I wanted to finish up the last two lessons of our main language book. I skipped them earlier to do the TEFL lessons for the classroom. This lesson was about an Albanian fairy tale. The tale was about a woman who had 12 sons and one daughter. The daughter's suitor was from a faraway land and the mother and 11 sons did not want her to marry him. The youngest son, however; thought the man was a good choice, he made an oath to his mother that he would bring the daughter back to visit her mother. But there was a war and all the brothers were killed during the war. When the youngest son was killed, the mother went to his grave and cried out "Now how can you keep your oath to me and bring your sister back to visit?" After the mother left the gravesite, the tombstone turned into a horse and the dirt into a saddle. The spirit of the younger son rode the horse to get the sister and bring her to her mother. Shpresim said that this tale represented the strength of the oath. Once it is made it must be carried no matter what.
Sunday, we went on a hike to Uji i Bardhe (white water). It was a hike from Kaçanik and we did it last summer with Sami and Valon. Last summer, we hiked to Uji i Bardhe, and then went on to Shtraza where someone picked us up and brought us back to Kaçanik. For this hike, we went to Uji i Bardhe and then back. It was a small group of just 6 of us, as the rest of the hiking group did an overnight trip to Albania.
As we started the hike, it was gray and foggy. The temperatures were just above freezing and the snow was melting; creating a thick fog that blocked the sun. As we walked from Kaçanik up toward the mountain, there was more snow and the fog layer, snow-muffled sounds, and hoar-frosted trees made it dreamlike. Up ahead we could see patches of blue sky as the fog layer thinned and we could see patches of sun. When we hiked into the sun, it was a fairy tale scene as the snow glittered and sparkled. The pine needles on the trees were white snow needles, made longer and frostier by snow crystals. For a while, we followed wild boar tracks and a fox trail to find our way to the picnic area.
Once we arrived, the guys made a fire and roasted sausage. One guy shared Rakia and coffee-flavored candy. I did not think I would enjoy winter hiking so much, but as long as it is not too cold hiking on the nearby trails is relaxing and fun.
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