Community Service

Today marked another key milestone in pre-service training: the implementation of our community projects.

During the last several weeks, we’ve received some classes about project planning, needs assessment, and IRB (“intentional relationship building,” or the polite way of saying making friendships that are first and foremost for your benefit). We originally planned on doing a hike, but ending up changing our plans out of practical consideration. Apparently, some parents might not want their children wondering off into the mountains with strangers from another country. Hiking isn’t the easiest sell here either considering the forced activities in the mountains during communist times.

As volunteers, we have our Albanian lessons at a local high school. During practicum, we also taught at the same school. In an effort to give back to our host community and get to know the students better, we opted instead for an activity day at our school.

There was quite a bit of planning involved and we put a lot of thought into what we would do. Luckily we had the support of the school director and translation help from our teachers which made our work a lot easier. We settled on a date and took care of all the arrangements. In the end, we took 60 of the best students and did two hours of activities. We broke the students up into groups and set up different activity stations. After twenty minutes at a station, students rotated to a new station with a new activity. We did face painting, martial arts, English-language games, musical chairs and a balloon toss. The director supplied us with some plants that we planted together.

I was in charge of having students trace their hands and write things about themselves in English. I have sixty hands in my room right now until we try and figure out what we will do with them. They make great reading because they inspire me about the work I will be doing in the future. Afterwards, we did a scavenger hunt. Although we laughed about it in advance, one of the items on the list was 'something living.' We assumed that would mean a leaf or something. Two minutes into the hunt, a few students started chasing chickens. A few minutes after that, the students brought me a stone, a leaf, a flower... and a chick. A live one. I guess they were right when they told us to give very clear instructions during our technical training sessions.

The hard work is now behind us as the weeks of training continue to wane. In some ways, it seems like it has flown by. In other ways, time has dragged. Next week we will go to the capital for a conference. We will meet our future counterparts at the conference, then we will go to our future sites and spend a few days meeting stakeholders and students, teaching classes, and starting community assessments. I can’t wait.

I am very pleased with how our group has performed as professionals and as language and culture students. I was nervous about how the community project would turn out, but I think it’s safe to call it a success. The students are receptive to us. For the most part, they are eager to learn. Although I will really miss my host family, there is a large part of me that is getting antsy to get in the classroom.

Out of the frying pan

On Thursday, I completed my two-week practicum. I taught in three different schools and to several different classes. I also observed a lot, too. I felt relief once the practicum was over considering that we planned classes, taught lessons, and then had language classes all afternoon. It was incredibly tiring. I’m glad that we got the opportunity to do it but I’m also happy it’s over so I’ll have time to focus on other things.

As a group, we were exposed to a lot of different situations that could be our realities once we get on-site. Between the four of us, we taught a few lessons without having the books, without knowing what lesson we were going to teach until we got to the class (meaning we had about five minutes of preparation), minor inconveniences when it came to class planning and communication, and general confusion. Like so many things in life, you plan and plan and then something completely different ends up happening. The other day in language class, our teacher told us an Albanian saying: “God laughs when we make plans.”
But it’s not all negatives. The practicum and the hurdles we had to jump to keep things running as smoothly as possible make me certain that I will be able to do well here. It’s just nice to have some reassurance.

I had a great conversation with my host parents completely in Albanian. It’s hard to express the frustration of having so much to say and having such a limited way of saying it, but sometimes there are just moments of clarity where it seems like you understand everything and can say exactly what you mean to say. It was just one of those moments and I ran with it. It was nice to expand the conversation into something a little deeper. I asked them more about themselves and they asked more about me and my family. I could explain in more detail about my parents and about what my plans for the future are. I could answer their questions about what my expectations of Albania were. They suggested that I stay here in Albania, find an Albanian husband, and teach English in Tirana.

They asked me what is different here than at home. At this moment, I can honestly say I haven’t had to make many adjustments on an epic scale. It goes back to expectations. I don’t even remember having much of a picture in my mind of what it might be like. The first day or so, I was a little shocked because it was all so new. Now it is all normal. The only thing that is really that different is that sometimes we don’t have power or we won’t have hot water. These are incredibly minor things. I’ve been lucky to land in a great family, first and foremost. Although I am tired almost all of the time and too busy to really think about anything outside the professional realm, all of my needs are being met and I’m doing the things I need to be doing.

In fact, morale is so high that during my mid-training interview/review, I was actually told that my “positive attitude” has really been appreciated. At that moment, I had to cover my mouth to hide a grin that could have easily turned into a chuckle. Or an outburst.