Turn off the lights...

Ah the return to normal life has finally come. We are now without power from 10am to 4pm. Last week we had power 24hrs a day. Alas, that bit of wonderfulness is over.

I am super busy again this week with random stuff. I hope the lack of power doesn't screw everything up.
Tonight I am going to a the graduation ceremony for Katie's class and tomorrow is the big party. It should be fun.

The power is out and the Internet will be gone soon. Hopefully I'll be able to post more soon.

Meet Marisa...

Marisa (left) and Jamie from Vlora

The Berati crew would like to introduce you to Marisa. She is the new volunteer in Berat. She arrived in Berat a few weeks ago. For the next two years she will be keeping herself busy, hopefully, in various health education/promotion activities.

Katie and I are excited to be the experienced volunteers in town. Now we have someone who looks up to us and cheerishes every profound word of wisdom we dispense (yeah, that's probably not the case but you don't live here so you have to take my word for it :) ).

So join me in wishing Marisa shume sukses (much success, tough one huh).

And apparently I have a theme of randomness if that's possible. This weekend I wanted to take pictures but I couldn't find my camera. Shume keq (very bad). I even cleaned my house, well at least tiddied up a bit. No luck. I remembered last having it in car of Katie's counterpart on our way back from Kucove. Yesterday I saw her and asked if I left the camera in her car. She said no. I was nervous then because if it wasn't there, then I had no idea what I did with it. After telling her that I had lost it, she smiles and tells me that indeed I did leave my camera in her vehicle. She had just now seen it. Turns out she was joking with me. Yay for being comfortable enough to joke around, boo for me getting scared. And if you haven't noticed, I am prone to losing stuff.

A little R&R, PC style…

Beni, Marisa, Tiger, Ryan, Sara, and Jamie
Below: Ryan and his new best friend


I absolutely love my kiddy pool. I’m not sure if I mentioned before but while in America (said A-mare-i-kuh, somewhat in W style) I bought a large kiddy pool. Probably second only to the copious amounts of peanut butter I brought back with me, the 13 lb. pool was my best buy. When I moved to my house last November and saw the rooftop terrace and a water source, I knew what had to be done. The pool is roughly 10’ x 6’ and 30” high. Plenty big enough for lil ol’ me to relax in. Turns out it’s even big enough for a few friends too.
This past weekend I had my first mini-pool party. Marisa and Beni, Ryan, Jamie, and Sara, who came for the afternoon to relax after Ryan wrapped up a successful week-long leadership workshop, and one inflatable tiger toy all lounged in my wonderful pool. We had a great time just chilling and listening to music.
My terrace has great hosting potential. In fact I am thinking of turning my place in to a boutique hotel. I wouldn’t have any competition in Berat. I know what demanding tourists want. I have lots of room and I live in a quiet part of town. My rates would be affordable and guests would get to hang out with me. Maybe that’s what I’ll do post Peace Corps.

Random bit of news, I found my flash drive. No not the nice one that was stolen in Belgrade but rather the one I lost in October. I thought I had lost it at a language training in my hotel room. Nope. Not so much. Today I decided to wear a pair of black pants that I don’t wear too often. I feel something in the pocket. I reach my hand in assuming it is a pack of gum. Nope. Not so much. It was my flash drive. Nice. I guess I hadn’t worn nor washed these pants since the end of October. Kinda sad but at least I found my flash drive.