A trip to Albania / Kocani life

After my last posting, two days later I moved into my new place in Kocani. I already love the place, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, I barely had a chance to get settled (though my landlord made every effort to help, like installing a new laminate flooring in my kitchen/living area the same day I moved in), before I left 3 days later for Pogradec, Albania to attend a week-long Youth in Action program training course on Sept 19. The topic of the course was "Give Voice to Minority Youngsters." I was invited to go by my work counterpart, though normally these training courses involve only European citizens. Therefore, it was a fascinating opportunity for me as an American to not only see 'how they do things here' but also meet people from 12 different countries in both Western and Eastern Europe.

Pogradec Albania, short walk from our hotel. Lake Ohrid from the Albanian side. 

Most of our 7 days (well 8 total to include travel) were spent at the hotel, usually outside or by the park area along the lake. We had great weather and it was a good social atmosphere throughout. I did wish though that I had reviewed some of the basic Albanian I learned at our language IST in June, because the hotel staff was friendly and couldn't say much to them other than thank-you and good morning.

After the training sessions concluded for the day, we had chances to see a little more of Pogradec at night, as well as an 'intercultural evening' where each participant (or groups of participants) prepared a table spread that included food, drinks, and a short video presentation about their respective countries. Rather than try to put something together for the US (I was fresh out of Twizzlers and Jack Daniels), I joined up with my counterpart's Macedonia table. Egregious as it was that we had no ajvar for sampling, we nonetheless still had some domashna rakija, smoki, and ressani. It was, naturally, 'timeless.' Other tables included variations on the raki/rakija concept. For instance, Turkey has raki, but it is much more like Greek ouzo in taste than Macedonian rakija. Both the Bosnian and Albanian rakija were closer to the Macedonian variety, though of course јас секогаш повеќе сакам македонска ракија во секоја прилика. That being said, it was great to sample the other types, along with the great food that people either brought or prepared.

Outside of the training course and entertainment, I kept up with my running schedule, which also helped me get to know Pogradec a little better. I couldn't help but snap a few photos with my phone:

Pogradec from the hill above the town. 

Looking north along the coast of the lake from the hill. 

In the process of one of my morning runs, I managed to trip on a rock and went tumbling over into the dirt. Luckily no major damage aside from a few scratches, but I did tweak a muscle or tendon on some rock when I hit the ground so I took a day off two days later. Yep, I apparently needed to have a really painful following day of running in order to have the common sense to take a day off. 

Once we finished up the training on the 27th, I made my way home and immediately set out to get my new place livable...or more specifically, get my kitchen stocked so I could start cooking. Three days later I've got an adequate spice collection and some full cabinets of cooking supplies. As a testament to that, I've cooked meals at home the last four nights, the first time I've had a chance to do that in about a year and a half. Since I generally have ample free time most days (running in the morning and work till 5ish...that is my life!), I get the strong feeling that cooking will become my new hobby. In the past, I've intermittently enjoyed cooking, usually only when I'm making my favorite foods or cooking for guests. Now, it's going to be a major way to pass the time, so I might as well finally get into it for real. After all I am part of the Bonwich clan, so I'll start looking for the Macedonian Cooks Illustrated. 

Beyond the kitchen, I went for a walk yesterday and I realized that I live in a really nice part of the city. I am basically at the northern edge of town, so I'm just a few steps away from the road that leads to the dam/lake area 'Gradce' and what I think is one of the nicest outdoor areas in the region, Osogovo mountain. So naturally on my walk I took some photos, and here are a few that give a good perspective on Kocani and the surrounding area:

The Kocanska Reka (Kocani River), near my house

Looking back  to where I live, one of those houses down there.

Change

The word "change" is clearly a word that has a whole range of meanings, and differs based on the context or even on the personality of the person who uses it. It can be good, bad, or somewhere in between. It's a very applicable word for slogans, protests, homeless people, political campaigns, or even for proposed invasions of sovereign nations. For me, it is less a word I use rather than something that has defined me of late. In the past four or five years, I've had a nearly continuous succession of 'big' changes where either voluntarily or involuntarily the status quo needed to, well, change.

After heading into the Peace Corps roughly 12 months ago, I thought that this pattern might deviate, since typically volunteers spend most of their service, aside from pre-service training, in the same location. But recently I made the decision to make yet another change. On Saturday, I will be moving from my site Obleshevo to the nearby city of Kocani to work full-time with a youth-focused NGO. My reason was simple: I did not want to look back on my Peace Corps service a year from now and wonder why I didn't do enough to make things better. I came to the realization that the only meaningful or potentially meaningful work I had was in a town 10 kilometers away from me. I was spending a few days a week commuting on my bike from Obleshevo, trying to find something, at the least some type of organization that was interested in working with me to offset the days I spent wasting my time and motivation simply 'checking in' at a place that probably at best looked at me as some sort of shiny (or skinny) American hood ornament. I don't think I will ever truly understand why my previous work site wanted a Peace Corps volunteer.

As I spent more and more time in Kocani, and steadily less in Obleshevo, eventually it became increasingly obvious to me that I had to make a big change, but in doing so it would affect more than just my own situation. I had tell my host family in Obleshevo that I am moving Kocani, and it was probably the toughest thing I've had to do since I came to Macedonia a year ago. I was so worried that they would think I'm leaving because I'm not happy with living with them or some other reason. I worried about their financial situation and how my departure would affect that. Thankfully, they were very understanding, since they understand the challenges I've faced with respect to my work situation. I could not have asked for a better host family during my stay in Obleshevo. I'll never forget their generosity and some of the great experiences we've had together, and I plan to stop by from time to time, for a coffee or, more likely, rakija with some meze.

But now I go back to my personal experience with change. In a way, here I am again, crumpling up the piece of paper and starting over. On the other hand, I can make the argument to myself that I'm building on what I've already started, cultivating the friends and connections I've made over the past few months, and finally becoming part of the community in Kocani. I don't think I 'wasted' my time in Obleshevo. I feel like I did what I could given the situation and given who I am as a person. Maybe I could have been more persistent on some things, or held back my personal feelings and tried harder to work with people who clearly had no interest in working with me. Maybe I should have gone 'na gosti' more in my community, learned a few more things, and maybe a future project could have emerged. Maybe I should have gone out to the fields more with my host family, and made more of an effort to learn about farming techniques and crop cultivation. Maybe I should have embraced the fact that the only 'need' I could find in the community that I could help with was adult English class, and maybe I should have turned that into my main occupation as a volunteer. There are a lot of maybes. But I left them unfulfilled, because they don't fit who I am as a person, my current and future career interests, and they are not what I wanted to get out of this 27 month experience. So instead, I made a change. It won't be perfect. I expect bumps along the road, frustrations, and plenty of challenges. But nevertheless, making this change gives me the best possible chance to look back in September 2013 and have no regrets.