Unë Jam Vullnetare

Cerrik crew at swearing in

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Today was the last day as a trainee and we swore in as PCVs. Everybody got all dressed up and we had a nice ceremony in a theater in Elbasan attended by our host families, Peace Corps staff and other dignitaries. The mayor of Elbasan came and the US Ambassador, John Withers, actually swore us in. By the way, I love the Ambassador. The best word that I can use to describe him is "jolly." He has this big toothy grin and always seems to be happy. The ceremony consisted of some remarks by our Country Director, the Mayor of Elbasan, the Ambassador, our Training Officer and best of all a speech (in Shqip) by Courtney and Greg, two volunteers. Before and after the ceremony, we all went a little bit picture crazy!

Following the ceremony (and some tearful goodbyes from host families) many of the volunteers went out to enjoy one last beer all together! In the afternoon, a few of us decided to journey out and find a place to dance. So we had our first experience with an Albanian disco. Ok, first, it was like 5 in the afternoon and we were almost the only ones there. I think that the people working there thought that we were nuts! Crazy Americans!

Anyway, we finished up the day by breaking in the kitchen of one of the volunteers that will be staying here in Elbasan and cooking dinner. After a few setbacks, they succeeded in making something that resembled baked spaghetti (someone called it spaghetti stew). Ok, here was the problem: at some point, the fuse with the stove on it blew (but we didn't know at the time) and so the pots of water on the stoves weren't heating. Someone came up with the idea of just putting the uncooked pasta into the sauce pot and sticking that in the oven (which we thought was still working). After this was done, someone figured out that the fuse had been blown all along and reset it. The pasta was already in the sauce, so there was nothing that we could do. Really it came out fine (I thought is tasted good) although it was a bit starchy. Anyway, it was filling!

So now that I'm actually a volunteer, what am I feeling? Scared to try to get all my bags through Tirana on mini-buses. A bit nervous for my move up to Peshkopi. Excited to get to work. Sad to be leaving the other volunteers.

Next stop, Peshkopi!!