From Jim:

….  On the domestic front, my new area of expertise, the past 2 weeks have been busy moving into the new house (see description below). The house came with a stove, refrigerator, washing machine, couch and a chair.  The rest is empty!  So I spent several days looking for items that will not be in the things arriving from home. Things like a kitchen table and chairs, computer work station, dishes and silverware, bedroom furniture, cleaning supplies and the like. But the shopping opportunities for these types of things are very limited and of poor quality. Most people go to Macedonia, which is 20-45 minutes away (depends on the length of time at the boarder), or Tirana, which is 4-5 hours away but this wasn’t an option for us. We don’t have a car and our passports are in Tirana getting work visas-STILL. In the end, via local staff, we found someone who makes furniture and are having him make most of the items. It will come out cheaper and of better quality than if we had purchased it here and the designs and sizes are what we want.

When not being domestic I’ve been fixing computers, interviewing local NGO’s and looking for volunteer or work opportunities. Fuji’s computer crashed just after we arrived and it took two weeks to recover from it. Remember, I’m a Mac guy so this was a crash course in Windows. Luckily I made friends with the director of the cyber café and used his knowledge and recovery software to get things running again. The next project is moving all my Mac data onto the new Windows laptop I got for myself. I’ve had to surrender to Europe. This section of Europe is not a Mac world so I had to join the Windows world. It’s been interesting and fun and having specific problems to solve is a very good motivator.

We’re off to language classes on Friday in Tirana for 2 weeks. We’ll get there in time for a Saturday dart tournament that two of Fuji’s SNV colleagues are organizing. It sounds like a hash but only with darts! Classes will be from 9 – 13:00 each day and I’m setting informational appointments with international NGO’s for the afternoons. Fuji will be working on the grant in the afternoons L

Oh and how could I forget, I got a new toy! A TV satellite dish! I now have 64 satellites that I can surf. Currently I’ve found 4 but best of all it gets radio so we have been listing to National Public Radio (NPR) from home. It is comparable to the BBC and we’ve been listening to it more than watching TV. ….

Clip about the house …The house is a two story with 2 bed room upstairs with a balcony off of one. Downstairs there is a kitchen/living room, utility room which will probably become our bed room in the winter (more later on houses and insulation or the lack there of), a nice bathroom and a sitting room off of the main entrance. Outside there is a long front yard with apple trees and grapes. No back yard so to say but we are at the end of town and up the side of a mountain. So out the back yard is a corn field that leads to a canyon and interesting trails to who knows where. So we've got some exploring to do.

The house is about a 15-20 minute walk from downtown and the office. The road up was once upon a time a real road but now it is just a track of rocks, sand, gravel and water running down it between rows of dilapidated apartments. It might even take longer to drive up than walk as there is a short cut for walkers. And we are literally at the end of the road. They put up a 4 foot cinder block wall with chicken wire on top bringing the wall to 6 feet all around the house.

Everyone said we needed it so that the locals, especially kids, wouldn’t be coming by and bothering us. It is not needed for security but since we are an attraction and Albania hospitality is extremely gracious and they don’t understand personal space the wall is the only way to get that (it also keeps the dogs, cows, goats, chickens, etc. out). In fact last night I had a 14 year old girl, who spoke English, come to the fence yell into the house for me to come out and talk to her. Ah, to be wanted!

 

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