Life in Lezha

May 28, 2006

After three nights in Tirana I arrived in Lezha this morning for a week-long orientation with the NGO I’ll be working with, I’ll be moving to Lezha for good at the end of June. I had a second go-round today with host family introductions with the couple I’ll be staying with in Lezha. They’re an older couple in their sixties, they have two sons and two daughters who are all grown and no longer live at home. My host father, we’ll call him Don, is the owner of brick factory just outside of Lezha. It is an antiquated factory to be sure, but one that is still in operation. Grandpa seems to still oversee the daily operations of the factory, he looked to be about eighty and I was surprised he still put in days at the factory – he’s actually only sixty.

Things went smoothly in general today. I slipped up at one point, I usually just respond with a “yes” or “good” when I don’t know what is being asked or said to me, today I apparently gave the impression that I was married. This led to a series of questions like “where is she? What does she do? Why is she not here?” The conversation had been going so well, we talked about my family, where I’m from, what I’m doing in Albania, and then I was hit with several questions about some woman. It eventually came full-circle, I backtracked and told Grandma and Grandpa that I am, in fact, not married.

“But Beni. You said you were married.”
“I’m not married, I have no wife.”
“But why did you say you did have a wife?”
“I made a mistake”
“Why”
“I forgot I wasn’t married”

Sound like a reasonable explanation?

May 30, 2006

The last two nights have seen two consecutive dinners with my host Grandparents; this is two more times than I have eaten with my training host family in Labinot Fushe in nine weeks. Each night a different son or daughter has brought their family over to the shtepi for dinner, last night it was a daughter, her husband, and their two sons. It was a nice dinner, one son spoke enough English to get me through the questions that I don’t understand at all and usually just respond to with “mire.” At one point last night Grandpa said something that everyone found hilarious. I laughed along heartily not having any idea why I was, I think it was the perception that I understood what was going on that prompted Grandpa and his Son-in-Law – two men with abundant guts – to stand up, lift up their shirts just exposing their bellies, compare how each was endowed, and then bump their stomachs together a few times. At this point I was genuinely in tears laughing and nearly rolled off the couch.

The family has a large two-story house, it sits on a hill overlooking the brick factory compound, grape vines line either side of the driveway leading up to the shtepi. Unfortunately, I think the grapes are probably grown not make wine, but rather raki, a drink similar to grappa and with hazel – raki deserves its own five-hundred words, I’ll get to this sometime. As I mentioned, the house is large, I have the entire second floor to myself, which has, I think, four bedrooms. Grandma and Grandpa sleep downstairs where there are another three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a large living room with a fireplace, several couches and chairs, and dining table.

There are two small couches in an L-shape in a corner of the kitchen, in the middle of the room is a small coffee table. This arrangement seems to be the favored dining venue over the grand living room that I described, which is complete with a dining table that could easily seat six. Last night, there were seven of us crammed around the kitchen coffee table, it was certainly cozy.

I think that all this has to do with the television that is in the kitchen. It’s not that people are glued to the T.V. during dinner, there’s lively conversation but the T.V. is constantly on providing background noise. Last night we watched some show in English that I’m pretty sure was American. It was about Superman, except it took place when Superman was in High School before he knew he was Superman and he was just Clark Kent, his friends were Lex Luther and Lois Lane. I’ll try to defend myself by claiming that it was just the appeal of watching a show in English, but I kinda got into the teen angst Superman show, I’m definitely watching next week.