12 Peace Corps/Eastern Europe Book Suggestions

Reading during Peace Corps is a remarkable way to improve intelligence while filling the days and hours of free time that you will inevitably have. During my time here, I've read 58 books so far that I have kept track of on Goodreads. I'm quite a big fan of the IMDB-esque website for books. Here I've shared books I've read, quotes I've found, ranked books and found recommendations for further, and researched others that may be of interest in the general theme I've been targeting.

The Peace Corps library and regular scouring of other PCVs books, is somewhat how I've been put on the path of reading books with an Eastern Europe history and/or Peace Corps theme. It has formed a principle for me to focus on reading books related to my current experiences. Understandably, I splash in a few side-liners but for those that may be interested, I'm sharing my thoughts on some of the more relevant books on these topics, hoping to inspire the new generation to consider focused study of the culture and history in which we are immersed. Sharing in reverse order, latest to earliest reads.

1- Women Who Become Men- This very small book is a collection of journal articles with the topics covering the phenomenon of a patriarchal society accepting a form of cross-gender transformation. It's a detailed account of the writer's experiences in studying sworn virgins, in addition to the history of the women's movement and other gender based studies of Albania.







2- Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey- This book is a great work of investigative journalism into the lives of Roma people, their history and their current plight (at the release in the late 90s). In the first section of the book, the writer is living with an Albanian Roma family on the outskirts of Tirana in the mid-90s. She's offer a fascinating portrayal of the chaos that was the post-communism times in the capital with the influx of personal transportation, rampant poverty and even a visit to a maternity ward that is left with next to nothing supplies due to theft, in a society that is without abortion options.

3- The Gremlins of Grammar- While not on the same theme, I'd encourage any volunteer to pick up a refresher book on the English language. You will inevitably be teaching English in some form, we almost all do and it is one of our strengths. This particular book had a good flow, and was easy, comprehensive reading.








4- The Accursed Mountains: Journeys in Albania- Probably all Albanian PCVs should read this. Taking place shortly after the fall of communism, the writer gives his prospective and shares his experience of the opening up of this insular country. He travels through areas that we so well know- Korca, Gjirokaster and even a brief trip through, what was then, the village of Saranda. He does a great job of describing the personal gain seeking male, who is filled with fear and prejudice of his own country men; as well as geographic descriptions and risky traveling.






5- Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History- This is like the textbook of the modern history of Balkan countries, in 368-page, paper-back copy form. While it does not spend much time describing Albania, it gives an in-depth depiction of all of the surrounding Balkan countries through history, personal accounts and interviews. It is a bit dense at times, but worth it to power through, to gain a complete understanding of the history of 'balkanization' (see my quotes on goodreads).








6- Birds Without Wings- This fictional writing is a beautiful edition dedicated to telling the story of village life in Macedonia/East Macedonia & Thrace. It is about the changes that take place as the Ottoman Empire comes to an end, the internal struggle in the community as neighbors who lived together for generations are now pitted against one another in religious strife. As well as an overlapping history story of the rise of Mustafa Ataturk, the Balkan Wars and the creation of Turkey as a country.






7- Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle- This is a wonderful read for any (R)PCV and those considering it. An interesting portrayal of life in the PC in South America at the start of the organization's existence. The descriptions of pre-service training and actual service within the country, showed for me how far we have progressed as a government entity and how hard-core we used to be. At the same time, the volunteer faces some of the same emotional turmoil we all face with integration and project creation.









8- Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad- While not my favorite read, these short stories are inspirational and educational.










9- Cafe Europe: Life After Communism- Not as in depth as say, Balkan Ghosts, but this book gives a good glance at coffee culture and the challenges facing post communist countries.








10- Exit Into History: A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe- Now we're really digging into the vaults of my memory, with a book I read my first summer as a PCV in 2011. Along the same vein as Cafe Europa, this gives us an overview of post communist life in other Balkan countries.









11- Only Bees Die: Peace Corps Eastern Europe- In actuality, this is not that great of a book. I read this prior to coming to Peace Corps Albania, and for that intent it's an OK read. The writer is placed in northern Albania but doesn't fulfill his service. While it may give a few incites about packing and pre-departure work without the close of service conclusion, I find it lacking in a full experience.

12- Living History- While not related to the topic at all, this is currently what I am reading and it has started to put me into the return-to-America mindset. Reading about Hillary Clinton has inspired me and caused me to take a closer look at my own personal goals, and how I'm going about building what I hope to be a high achieving life. 

10 Peace Corps Anxieties

Most of the time I hide the anxiety I feel about my life as a pcv in albania under movies and hanging out with other volunteers. If you google anxiety everything you will receive is so mundane and unspecific. What about this angst? What about this merzit-ness? Why can't tell me what to do about pc angst?

What could be so angsty about receiving on a (semi-) regular basis funding to hang out in another country?
1- Mastering not only the language but the ability to cohesively argue, fight, make your point come across in another language, and convince others that it's worthwhile to listen long enough to get to that point. Fine, Language Performance Interview (?) (LPI) give me an Intermediate despite working and speaking only in this language on a daily basis. I guess that's what I deserve if I can't yell at someone. It's just comical the attempts in the past to yell back at-
2- The gathering of cuni boys on the street or anyone who undermines me. Huaj, huaj, huaj.. ya, that is correct. I am foreign. When you say it in question to each other after first introducing to me, I answer that question for you. Po, jam e huaj. Oh haha she speak she speaks. Ya, that's right I'm not...
3- An American doll, that opens her eyes when you sit her upright. I'm not a quiet, withdrawn person by nature. My experiences in Albania have made me this way. I have transformed from an expressive, artistically inspired, hard worker to a reserved, diplomatic runt in the corner. My communication habits are so minimal now. I take weeks to answer facebook messages that I look at every day, I don't answer calls from numbers I don't know or even ignore my close friends' text messages. Where is the confidence I used to have? It just makes me want to..
4- Scream and shout and let it all out. And find some way to display something unusual and unique. I just want to spray paint a building or just pick up the trash on my own.
5-  I feel so beaten by the system. The little devil and angel start debating on my shoulders and one says 'don't waste your time, be selfish' and the other says 'well, that's not sustainable. go find some happy little kids to do with this', and I realize these thoughts are saying the same thing, don't do it. So we think, well let's take the easy route that so many us have fallen into of..
6- Just passing the time counting the days to leaving. All PCVs will feel like this. That hey, our two years are almost over and why not vacay to the end? Because it causes that much more angst. Take the driven, educated, wonderful people that make it into Peace Corps (ya, that is what I think of all of you) and say oh hey, don't worry about coasting out these next couple months of this huge, life endeavor you decided to undertake. Amazingly frustrating, and actually not what I'm planning..
7- I'm seeking the opposite. Rock it out to the end! This is where I am right now. A third year, so I must have done exemplary things this past year? Well not quite, being that I left what I was doing and started over and went through the annoying PC bureaucracy to finally get the grant I've been seeking in January. With this project..
8- I know that some of the drawbacks are my own doing. That actually, all of the angst listed here can be overcome by discipline of mind and being, by following through and being diligent. That everything I want to do, could have been done if I had consistently been following up on everything everything everything because..
9- No one is really holding my hand and making sure I'm doing any of the work I'm doing. Peace Corps staff, occasionally (as in 1x/year) visit me and casually ask how things are doing. People in my office don't expect me either, I'm a goodwill floater. I float on in and do a concentrated amount of work for a few years. This is actually really lovely, but it also shows the flaws that exist are mainly my own issue. Which is..
10- Exhausting sometimes. It's not a 9-5 pm M-F job. It's an all day everyday job. Everything you want to do, may actually be possible. If you 1- learn the language, 2- integrate and let yourself be the foreigner, 3- assert what it is you want to accomplish. 1+2+3? A simple equation?

Well I can't focus it on much more to even give us an answer. Also, probably because there is no answer. Google dealing with anxiety. Make some to do lists. Lay in bed and make mournful noises. Wah, get over it. You've only got so much time here, and we all know what it is that we have to do. Ick, borrow some enlightened inspiration quote, rally and 'just do it'.

50 lek Meal

This is actually true.

Lentils and bulgur in the top left is this recipe. This is what happens to this recipe if you do a facebook look-over and leave it on the stove for a bit. It  was a good resemblance of the picture in the recipe the day before. A good thin soup, for a base with vegetables perhaps. In it's current state of being cooked down, it's a great goop with cinnamon and sugar. The bulgur came from Sarah C., who received them from Ian R. and have existed in the pc food cycle for far long enough. The lentils, were maybe purchased like a year ago. Time/over need, minimal overall cost.

The rest is pretty simple. Quinoa and nuts from a package from Kara, with a vegan bouillon cube. Pan steamed 1 carrot and a small head of broccoli, these plus 3 other carrots were only 60 lek, roughly then maybe 25 lek. An egg is 10 cents. The orange is from my nice landlord Kiço.

There you have it, a throw together meal in Albania. A combination of passed on items, care packages and some cheaply priced local produce. Overall I'd estimate it as fairly healthy.

COD Objectives.. or what are we actually supposed to be doing here?

Recently, I was able to help someone with a resume review and I was surprised by their gratefulness because.. well.. this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Resume writing is actually a skill I have, is something I enjoy doing and am actually meant to do as a Peace Corps volunteer. Even today, I dusted off my UP203 statistics knowledge to remind myself that oh hey, I can figure out how to analyze statistics from surveys.

Well, I'll be damned I have some skills or something. It came to me then that while we're attending our multiple conferences, we think we're learning, seemingly, a well known agenda to our work. Which we are meant to make aware to our communities through our actions and discussions with colleagues.

G14 COD Volunteers at our In-Service Training in Durres

Perhaps, though this is getting lost in the mess of finger painting, yarn or whatever it is that's happening in the shtepia's art room. Shouldn't a more transparent form of information be available? Yes, we current Community Organization Development (COD) facilitators know what we're doing but do we share these very exact specifics below to the nubes coming in with group 17, the parentals, or wherever the hell these 17 thousand blog views are coming from (um.. what? & pse?)?

Even I have to look at the COD objectives we use to fill out our Volunteer Reporting Forms (VRF), a quarterly program that we use to record the impact which we are having within our communities. I had troubles finding the document but that may be more due to my lack of understanding of the workings of sharepoint (still, after 31 months).

Yes, that's right fellow American friends who think we're just tokin' and layin' by the beach, we have paperwork to give your government to say what we're up to. Organized Hippies Unite! :)

I refer to our objectives document when filling out this paperwork because for one it is fairly new still. Last year we were involved in conferences where we reviewed our program's initiatives. We gathered in Tirana for some reimbursed debauchery, hard earned from our serious discussions of how we wish to reform our program and which breakfast cereals would be most important to import into Albania (cred- J.Budahazy).

The COD program after this seemed to evolve from more of a planning focus to include more broadly the secondary initiatives we found that we were more closely producing, such as youth development, social media and other more web based changes, among other things like encouraging people who are seeking employment.

I used to joke with Tani, my friend and Albanian teacher in Ksamil that I ought to make a little business card or a tshirt that lists all the skills I have that I'd like to share with the community. How far fetched really is that idea though? Of course, I had thought the headlining comment of the tshirt ought to be Free American Labor or Free American, or something equally comical and enticing.

New Years Resolutions, Lists and New Plans

On December 30th I tried to start a new resolution, I followed it well for a day and on the 31st thought of some better ideas. They began SMART and then just very general. I read articles and weighed the options I had about what it is that I most need to be working on.

The problem is just this, in an attempt to be continuously doing this for myself, making plans and seeing them through, I try many different ways of approaching it. Resolutions begin for me if it's the beginning of the week, at the three month mark or the sixth, post reaction to a closing of something, or just a daily markering on scrap paper that I might need to try to shower..

A resolution hasn't been forthcoming. I can't seem to decide what should be my initial resolve. Isn't that what we all experience? We have ideas of what it takes be to the ideal person that we are striving to be. Is the most important step to decide what that is before we begin? To have some specific tangible objectives?

That questions seems to be what holds me back. Where do I begin? Well a start is always the best idea. So, I'd like to resolve to more frequent blogs that may not necessarily have any clear decisions. These types instead of the more warm and fuzzy style of a build up of a peace corps achievement or the struggles and the solutions. Maybe also blogs may not always be clear in understanding or purpose, but offer me an opportunity for some writing and experience. Kaq

Hobbying

For Joyce's birthday Stella and I made some things for decorations. I'm sort of an avid pinterest user using it to organize projects for the home, activities to do at home, cooking, traveling and posting my own blog. I believe in being a great tool but also a giant time sap. So, I try to use it effectively and work through doing the things I'm looking into. Here's one such experience. It was a fun gathering of the deep south.

Other fun things with Stella. :)

My Big Solo Trip

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” 

― Pico Iyer

A solo 5 am return from a night out, was what greeted my first morning of my extension leave trip. Scrounging for a spot on the floor, as the couches were covered by my fellow volunteers crammed into my dear friend's house, all of us here for the final night of the Korca Beer Fest. I'd escaped here earlier in the week (#textedout), on the second day of the fest in order to get away from the consistent hordes of visitors in Saranda and the obnoxious heat that stifles everyone's ability and drive to do anything. Korca was cooler, literally. People from all of the groups and even Macedonians were coming together, some of us for the first time to meet, drink, fight, drink, dance, eat, cry, cook, and bumper car (#FF- Bumper car in British English is Dodgins). But this trip began on my last night, and my first day of my trip.

First of all, dear readers you may be wondering why I took a big trip in the middle of my service. Peace Corps suggests/requires that volunteers extending take a month off, and technically then have 13 months longer. As a year extender, I received a third of my readjustment and air flight comparable to returning home. Plus, I threw in a little savings from Grandma and Grandpa Brandes. Admittedly, I wasn't the best college student and believe that education can be found in different manners.

While traveling, I learned quite a bit about the places I was visiting through free tours with knowledgeable young people who had lived in the area their whole lives; visiting museums of art, history and culture; and seeing the churches, city, architecture and the people first hand. Sociology, geography, urban planning, theology, and endless other topics were brought to mind throughout the trip.

Well… as you may recall I’ve been back a few times, three times actually, to the Unites States.  This earned me a joke award at my group’s close of service conference, for person who attended the most weddings in America while in service. Ya, I did and they rocked. Thanks M&D.  I’m not avoiding home, I just wanted to do something else. I signed up for Peace Corps to get out and see the world more and this was the right time to do so. Like Peace Corps, I want to consider that this trip is something I’ll share, which can be inspirational and enrich our lives.

Inspirational, was definitely what it was for me.  Once off on this trip, there was no worrying about deadlines, PC drama, and all the other things that usually compound into problems. Time was spent just being, just enjoying life in whatever way I wished. Being solo just made it that more special and interesting. The raki bar in Sarajevo during the rain, climbing the hill in Dubrovnik, this road vs. that one, these were my decisions.