A view above Kelmend Province from Hoxha's Balcony |
Balkan Peace Park Project in Vermosh, Albania
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Leaving Vermosh
Life in Vermosh
Cricket in Vermosh |
There were a lot of surreal moments in the three weeks that I spent in Vermosh, from hidden mountain villages to rapping middle schoolers to what was perhaps the country's first series of regularly scheduled cricket matches. But as I prepared to go, I mainly thought about the last weekend I was in the village, when nearly everyone else had left the house and I was alone with my book on the balcony, enjoying the wonderfully temperate mountain climate, a departure from the blistering heat of the south, and soaking in the calm that settled into the valley with the absence of my fellow travelers.
Week 3 - Lessons in Lepushe
Lepushe |
During my three weeks teaching in the Vermosh valley, I tried to focus on giving my students a basic understanding of the language they would need for some tourism-related businesses. We spent time going over vocabulary from hotels, restaurants and touring, and then I gave the students the choice to prepare a short presentation from one of these categories in pairs or small groups. The resulting skits capped off our three weeks together, along with a reading from a small brochure that the group produced to advertise the community and the postcards that I had each student write to supporters of B3P.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Week 2 - Learning in Lepushe
Dinner with Arlinda |
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Week 1 - Landing in Lepushe
Hanging out on the Porch |
With a little over a month of retrospective, I can say that I was entirely unprepared for what awaited me in the Vermosh valley. That's not to say that it was a difficult experience, but rather that all of the craziness of the first week needs to be understood in that context. I had some kind of idea that I was going to come to this mountain village and teach English, but I didn't know what the comprehension level of the students or how old they would be, or very much about the village or its culture beyond the minimal information I was able to scrape together via the vanishingly small number of websites that mention the area.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Arrival and First Days in Albania
Overlooking the Highway from Shkodra |
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Back from the Balkans
My monthlong adventure in the Balkans came to an end yesterday, and now that I'm back in the land of the German Shepherds (a reference that will be clarified later), it's time to make up for lost time and start posting. I'd hoped to be able to put up pictures and stories on a more regular basis while I was in Albania and on the road, but unfortunately the limits of technology and time prevented me from doing so. Fortunately, everything is still fresh in my mind, and I'll be putting up posts over the next few days recounting my time both in Vermosh and on the road.
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