Brownies and Cootie Catchers

This summer I've been holding an English Summer Course every Wednesday for middle school and high school students.  There have been three girls who have come to class every single week so to celebrate the end of the summer, I invited them over to my house to learn how to make Brownies and watch a movie.  Even though the main purpose of our meeting was fun, I still wanted to make it educational.  Luckily, recipes are a perfect way to practice commands.  So as each girl took turns following the steps I read aloud, the others wrote down my directions thereby making their own copy of the recipe to take home.

I'm a big believer in the idea that when learning a language it is just as important to learn about the culture as it is to learn grammar.  My whole summer course has been focused around this idea, with each lesson using themes like the 4th of July and American pop music to learn different language concepts.  So adding a lesson on American food seemed like a natural choice, especially since Albanians are always curious about what we eat in America.  And lets be honest...who doesn't love an excuse to eat Brownies for lunch!

My little bakers.

Most important step...licking the bowl!

Once the brownies were in the oven, we all sat down and watched Thor together.  Sorry to report Dad but I don't think the story translates into Shqip very well.  One of the girls saw the Cootie Catcher I made last week when the power was out and they were hooked instantly.  (By the way explaining the concept of Cooties is surprisingly difficult.  It also makes you realize how weird we were as kids.)  By the end of the day, I had a new friendship bracelet, 4 Cootie Catchers, and some new wall decorations.

Cootie Catchers!

Our finished product.

Some samplings of the art they made me to add to my
wall decorations.

I'm not quite sure if this is quite what the Peace Corps had in mind when they thought of PCVs sharing American culture but I couldn't imagine a better way to spend a hot summer day.  Plus I'm secretly hoping for the day that I'll pass kids playing on the street and overhear them yelling, "Ew, you have cooties!"

Wedding Season

August in Albania is reserved for weddings, and Gramsh has not disappointed so far.  I'm going to save a more detailed explanation of Albanian wedding traditions until I myself experience one in full but for now I'll provide a small glimpse into wedding season.

During PST I was lucky enough to experience many an Albanian wedding as my host family lived directly above their Lokal.  I learned quickly that Albanian weddings include a lot of circle dancing, a lot of clarinet, tons of meat, some fireworks and the occasional celebratory gun shot.

Here in Gramsh I've gotten to witness the pre-wedding festivities as well.  It is tradition for the families of those getting married to throw parties in the street on the days leading up to the wedding in order for the family and neighborhood to celebrate.  Depending on the family and their wealth, these can range from one night to up to 3 or 4 nights in a row.

This past week, a boy on the first floor of my apartment got married and the celebration was like nothing I've ever seen before.  The entire apartment entrance was decorated in streamers and balloons starting on Sunday.  On Monday and Tuesday night, from around 9 PM - 3 AM there was circle dancing and music on the street.  Wednesday night the celebration was taken to a Lokal but there was one last dance on the street when they returned home from the party.  Thursday was wedding day, so the neighborhood got going early with the music starting at 9 AM when the groom left to go pick up his bride.  They then drove around Gramsh in a caravan of cars honking their horns, until they returned to the apartment and the groom's family had one last dance around the couple.  From there their caravan departed again and the party continued throughout the night at the Lokal.

I myself only joined the party on Tuesday night, when my friend Anna and I decided to dance (yes I circle danced and no I did not make a fool of myself, at least not too much) but it was great just to be able to sit on my balcony and watch the party from above.  The video above is from Monday night.  So urime to the happy couple.  Thanks for letting me experience my first full wedding celebration!

Ballin' in Burrel

I spent this past week visiting my friend and fellow PCV Lenae up in Burrel.  Burrel is a small town up in the middle of the north of Albania about a 7 hour trip from Gramsh but it was worth every minute on the furgon to see all the amazing things the volunteers up there have going on.

The main reason I went up to Burrel (other than the promise of chicken fajitas) was to volunteer at Lenae's basketball camp.  She had planned a week long basketball camp for girls with supplies and balls donated from her friends and family back home and one very generous college basketball team.  So off course when I got her email asking for volunteers to come up and help my immediate response was yes.

Now I guess this is the moment I should be honest and say that while I love watching basketball and talking about basketball, my basketball skills probably peaked when I was in the 6th grade.  But my dad had been reading me bed time stories about basketball since I was a little kid and all those years of being a Kings fan couldn't go to waste.  This was my opportunity!

I'm sure you're expecting me to sit here and tell you about how I schooled everyone on the court and am now entertaining various NBA contracts, but instead you're just going to have to settle for my account of a good ole fashioned week at basketball camp.

We had on average 40 girls every day, split into 4 teams based on age.  We focused on a new skill everyday: dribbling on Monday, shooting on Tuesday, passing on Wednesday, defense on Thursday and fun on Friday.  I was in charge of the morning warm up and stretching.  Despite my lack of neon spandex, I still tried to channel Richard Simmons to the best of my ability.  After a warm up and ball handling drills, we split into stations and each team rotated to a different volunteer.  Then we would play basketball games like Queen of the Court or Knockout and the older girls would move on to games of 5 on 5.

I know it all sounds very simple but I have to say I've never been more impressed by my fellow volunteers.  First of all, the organization and planning that it took to pull of this camp was amazing.  Second, the patience and forethought it took to think of ways to explain basketball to girls who had never seen a game cannot be overstated.  And last but not least, the Shqip skills and energy from everyone involved was mind-blowing.

It is no simple task to hold a camp in a foreign language and as much credit as the volunteers deserve, the girls who participated deserve even more.  Thank you for sitting there while we tried to figure out how to say things in Shqip.  Thank you for trusting us enough to dribble around the court blind folded within 30 minutes of meeting us.  And most of all, thank you for not laughing too hard at my lack of flexibility during warm ups.

Just to prove that yes they really did dribble blindfolded.  And no I
did not let them crash into anything.  PS-Thank you Lindita and Zana
for teaching me directions during PST.

Team meeting with Lela and Kuqe.  I guess I finally see
why everyone here thinks I'm Shqiptare.

Lenae showing off her sitting down dance skillz.

Me and some of the younger girls after the last day.

Me and Tu pac, Lil Wayne and Kayce.

Team Lela and Kuqe.  Miss these girls!

And since you made it all the way to the end, I'll share a story with you.  When we were deciding the colors for the different teams, it seemed simple just to choose the colors we already had yarn for.  But what we didn't think about is that in Shqip, purple is lela.  Now it seems like a simple enough word but here is a fun fact for you, Shqip has two different l's.  There is the single 'l' and the double 'll'.  These two letters are the bain of every PCV in Albania's existence.  Now they claim that there is a large difference and from time to time, I can hear it but never in my life have I been successfully able to distinguish between the two when speaking.  So while I was really excited to be team leader for Ekipi Lela, it wasn't until the first day when I was trying to call my team over that I realized what I had gotten myself into.  So while they were learning how to dribble and pass, I was learning how to say lela.  After the first day, I understood that I was saying it wrong.  After the second day, I could say the first l correctly.  After the third day I could say it but only if I said it really quietly (not too helpful on a basketball court).  But by the final day, I am proud to say that I mastered how to say lela.  It was such a running joke among the girls on my team that on the last day when we sat down as a group to go over what we all had learned during the camp, one of the girls immediately jumped in and answered, Jen learned to say Lela!  I think lela might just be my new favorite Shqip word.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  It was brought to my attention today by one of the girls from the camp that Lela is in fact spelled Lejla.  I thought about correcting it in this post but instead here is a more accurate view of my life here in Albania.  Just when I think I've got it all right, something new comes along.