Taco movie party

Some volunteers live in towns that are frequented by lots of visitors . . . other volunteers, foreign guests, couch surfers etc. Peshkopi is not one of those towns. I rarely get visitors and almost never have people (besides Kenji) over to my house. So it was kind of nice this week to be able to play hostess. We had two young Korean girls visiting the World Vision office (South Korea is our Support Office- they raise the money for all the programs in two of the ten offices in Albania). Orgerti, from the Tirana office, jokingly suggested that we could all go to my house and watch movies and that I could cook for everyone. He was only joking, but I thought it was a great idea. I decided to make what is kind of becoming my specialty: chicken tacos. The night before I made about 30 tortillas (my tortillas get more round every time I make them) and then right after work I went home and cooked up chicken and made salsa. I also decided to make an apple pie since one of the Korean girls said that she loved American apple pie but could never find it in Seoul! (she had spent a year going to school in the States).

Everyone (the Koreans, Orgert, all my coworkers, and Kenji) came over and hung out while I finished making the pie. Orgert brought chestnuts that he roasted on top of my wood stove for an appetizer. When the pie was in the oven and everything for the tacos was ready, the Albanians were introduced to real American hospitality: serve yourself! In Albania it is very uncommon for the host not to get everything for the guests and even buffet style meals are uncommon. But I grew up in "serve yourself" household and I don't presume to know how you like your tacos! Even though they were a bit messy, everyone loved the tacos and the pie. After we finished eating we turned my living room into a movie theatre- borrowed the projector from the office and turned one of my couches around so that we could project the movie onto the wall. It was great!

Part of me is glad that I am not on the "beaten path" with people staying with me every week (I really do feel bad for the PCVs in Elbasan sometimes), but it was also nice to have people over. So if you feel like going off the beaten path, you are welcome to come up my way. I'll make some tacos and we can see if we can borrow the projector . . . and there will always be pie!