The Journey Begins

First week in Kosovo

“First time in Kosova?” No, second. “oh” -My interaction with the border police at the airport

So I have been asked by a few people at home “where are you? What’s going on? What do you eat? Why Kosovo? What does it look like?” and so many more questions that I really don’t know where to start. I guess we could start that after I don’t know how many trips to target, I definitely forgot a few things but as Marisa said on day one, “Learn to live without it”. I had an emotional morning at the Youngstown Diner, having breakfast as each of my siblings fought with each other and I ignored them and stared out at the river and onto Fort Niagara. Soon enough I was on my way to the Buffalo airport, saying goodbye and on my way to Philadelphia for staging. I get off my tiny plane and meet my first friend. We finally get our bags and head to the airport. Now we go through a day or two of staging training and I am looking at the faces of people I will be surrounded by for the next 3 months and 2 years after that.

After a bus, a flight with over a 2 hour delay, another flight, and another bus… I am officially here.

“First time in Kosova?” Said the border guard. “No second” I told him, “oh” He says.

Most of you know I was here in the summer of 2017 for my study abroad I guess after graduating from RIT it only made sense to come back, and Peace Corps was the perfect path. It’s hard for me to describe things because I have seen it before, and some things aren’t new to me. The red roofs, certain foods, endless amounts of coffee, and wonderful people. At the same time there are also so many things that are new such as living with my host family, my host Mom’s cooking, and being outside of the main city for all of training. I am also learning Shqip (Albanian) which a friend already told me months ago I would never be able to learn, so now I am determined to prove him wrong. Our cohort of Kos6 is split up among 3 villages, and then we are broken down into smaller language groups. We have a packed schedule so that we can learn the local language, culture and customs, and other skills for TEFL and so on.

My host family consists of My host mom, father, and younger sister and brother. No one speaks english (With the exception of a few words from my host sister) but my host mom speaks fluent German so it’s been a lot of Albanian, German when I don’t understand something, and maybe 3 words a day of English. My host grandmother and I have slowly had a few conversations that I can understand. We talked about Baklava the other day and I think we understood each other so that was a big moment. My host mother also said “Ne shkojmë” and gestured and I understood that we were leaving and going so that is another small but big victory. One of the other PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteer) to live with my host family described these weeks as feeling like a newborn and having to relearn how to live your life. I really felt that when I had to ask her how the shower worked because I didn’t want to ask my host mom. I am thankful for all of the PCVs and RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) who have given enormous amounts of advice to new trainees like myself. It’s going to be an interesting ride.

I will try my best to continue to update and I won’t be able to get a video (like I promised some back home) until later. Although another small victory for me is actually sitting down to write this. I think this is the first thing I have really written outside of Java’s and it had no deadline.

For now, Tung! It’s Bijram and there is a lot of baklava to eat.