Hashing and Cooper

This is the view from our balcony … On Saturday, Abby agreed to watch the dog while I went to the Hash. The Hash was on a beach south of Durres, Albania’s main port. The trip was a funny thing: there’s a major beach road that runs south through Durres, from which you can see the ocean to the right between all the buildings that have sprung up in the last seven years; then the road turns inward, or perhaps the coast turns outward, and you lose sight of the water, but it still feels like you’re on a beachfront road. A few kilometers later, we made a right turn toward the Plazhi Gjeneralit (the public beach) and five minutes later, instead of hitting the beach, we were heading up. And further up. And further up still, past farmers’ houses and abandoned sheds. At this point, I began taking photos with the camera in my new telephone (00355 68 407 0129, in case you need to know).

The hills were pretty dramatic. Still, all the going up had us confused. But then the ocean appeared, and we started going down. We passed an incongruous deserted military base and then we came out upon a wide beach with a brilliant blue ocean under a blazing sun. We all convened, and started the Hash by immediately turning around and running back up the hill we’d just bounced down in the 4x4.

The trail was tough, and especially so because the first turn was so poorly marked that about 8 of us – including one of the hares (the people who mark the trail the day before) got lost. We spent about 20 minutes running up higher than we had to, dashing back and forth across the hilltops before we picked up the trail further down. From there, the markings led us to the Beer Stop. Unfortunately, I hadn't carried my phone with me on the run, so I’ll have to describe it for you: we came out of the dunes and saw a beach with an outcropping of big rocks. At the water’s edge atop a set of rocks concrete hut with a crudely tented concrete platform perched over the water; the platform was set with plastic chairs and tables. We scrambled onto the platform up and began ordering beers, and toasted each other as the waves broke over our feet. Blue sky above, sapphire sea to our backs, beach to the left and right, and rocky, scrub-covered hills ahead. As we watched, a herd of cows came from around a bend on the beach and began disrupting one family’s picnic. (As the old cartoon goes, “That’s not something you see every day, Chauncy.” “What’s that, Edgar?” “A herd of cows, interrupting a picnic.” “Oh, I don’t know, Edgar, they have some pretty big ants in Albania.”)

After the beer break, we continued running and then hit a cliff wall that we had to traverse in order to reach the end. It would have been a little better to have done the cliff before the beer, but that wasn’t an option. From there, we ran to the finish, and dove into the bath-tub warm water. Afterward, a few of us had lunch at the beachside restaurant while the others went back into town. I was with two administrators from the International School who’ve had long and varied careers – Norway, Dubai, and other places that now I don’t recall. One of the guys and I shared plates of fresh grilled fish – levrek and koc. If any of you come to visit (we have room for four – and after January, the door is open!), we’ll have to take you to Durres for grilled koc. The flavor is brilliant, and paired with a fine beer (a Tirana 2007, for example) and some fresh bread, there is no finer meal.

On Sunday, we took Cooper over to Alwyn and Viki’s for a playdate. Viki is a vice-consul; her husband Alwyn (who writes http://www.ourmanintirana.org/) is passionate about dogs. They have three street dogs that they keep in their yard; we figured that Cooper needs to socialize with other dogs. Unfortunately, I cannot post the video of them playing, but here are the photos of our dog:

Day 10

It's been 10 days.  It seems that the 10 months of Albanian training were highly useful; I've been able to converse with people that I've met, and I've understood about 85 percent of what I've heard.  Of course, it is the 15 percent that you don't understand that gets you into trouble, but that's where Unë nuk flas shqip mirë, me ngadalë, ju lutem comes in handy.  (I don't speak Albanian well, more slowly, please.)  The blackouts continue daily, but our generator works well.

Cooper has calmed down considerably after five days, and he has responded well to some training.  He is my job; I get about three hours out of the house (he stays in the yard) but otherwise, I spend my time playing, training, trying to take him on walks - he gets spooked by the street dogs - and otherwise keeping him entertained and out of trouble.  It is amazing to me that I can spend so much emotional energy on someone whose only thought is "As soon as he turns his back, I'm going for his shoes."

Other news: we had our first "diplomatic reception" on Wednesday, a going-away for one of the younger Austrian consuls at a local bar/restaurant.  Wine bar, buffet, throngs of people.  We chatted with some of Abby's homologut from other embassies and saw people we know from the Hash, and it was quite pleasant, but a long way away from the starched napkin diplomatic dinners of imagination.  I'm still trying to arrange for home internet access, but the company wants 100 euros per month for a subscription.  Our neighbors pay 40 euros.  Albania is known for it's flexible pricing.

Cooper!

We got a dog on Saturday.  As early as our ride in from the airport on Tuesday, Paula and Wakie told us about a puppy that their neighbors on the Ridge had rescued. ("The Ridge" is Rilindja Ridge, and embassy-housing compound.  It looks like a well-done Virginia subdivision, and many of the embassy families with children live there.)  Other embassy personnel sang his praises as well.  We met the puppy on Friday, took him home Saturday night, and renamed him Cooper.

I'll post a photo once I have internet access from home, but to describe him, he has short dark gray and white fur, with a mottled nose and a circle around one eye; he may have a little bull terrier in him.  He came to us mostly housebroken, but he nips a lot; my hands are covered in scratches, and I've been working on showing him who the alpha dog is.  (Clearly, the jury is still out.)  We have started the training, however, and fortunately, despite his taste for human flesh, he has been good with the neighborhood children.  And, as my family will understand, he has a hake.

Smells of Tirana

Dust, motor exhaust, sweat, garbage, cigarettes, but also grilled kebabs.

Next Day

We woke up early.  Abby headed off to work at 7:30 AM, and I left the house around 8:30 AM.  The plan had been to buy a newspaper, spend an hour or so sipping an espresso at one of the kafes, and make my way leisurely to the Embassy to check e-mail and otherwise see what was going on.  Then I wouldthink of something else to do (all of our books and other household goods still being in transit, I don't have a lot of options).  And after 6 hours of walking the streets of Tirana and sitting in cafes, I realized something very important: there is a big difference between leisure and indolence, and if I don't find regular work soon, I'm going to go out of my mind.

Arrival

We arrived in Tirana at about 11:30 AM Tuesday after an uneventful flight out of Dulles International Airport.  After collecting our luggage, we were met by our sponsors from the embassy, Paula and Wakie (Political Officer and Management Officer, respectively), who brought us to our house.  The house is furnished, and there was a welcome kit with towels, dishes, etc., and Paula and Wakie had done some basic food shopping for us, so we were well-enough situated to start.

After looking around, Abby and I set out into the heat and dust of Tirana to look for some lunch.  We discovered quickly enough that the bar-kafes that line the streets only serve alcohol and coffee; they aren't cafes.  After walking for about 20 minutes, we ducked into the first sit-down restaurant we found that was open and looked decent, and shared a kebab with marinated cucumber.  Then we walked back, and took a short nap - we were exhausted.

At 7:00, Paula and Wakie picked us up and we went to the Presidential Hotel for dinner.  The temperature had cooled down, so we ate on the rooftop.  We enjoyed the lights of Tirana until the black-out - KESH, the electric company, has been imposing 6-7 hour black-outs daily. Between the dependence on hyrdroelectric power, the heat, the drought, the increased load from air conditioners (which Albania did not have in abundance even a few years ago), and the faulty infrastructure, the system cannot support the load.  The government had promised that there would be full electricity available in 2007, but there has been little progress on this front.  I'll probably write more about this later.  At any rate, the major hotels and restaurants (and the embassy houses, fortunately) have generators, so we were able to finish our meal in ease and then drive home, and serenaded by the hum of the generators, we went to bed.

Immersion Trip: Day 9-10

Today, a group of us went to Berat, a castle built between the 13th and 15th centuries.  It reflects the culture of the time insofar as it includes both a mosque (now ruined) and a church, the Church of St. Mary, which includes many famous Albanian icons.  The town of Berat is known for having thousands of "one over another" windows, as the photos attest; it also turns out (I just learned while checking out the Wikipedia entry) that Shabbatai Zevi, the 16th century Turkish Jew who declared himself to be the messiah and led a mass movement before being forced to recant, is buried there.



We then stopped in the Gobo Winery on the way home to sample wine and walnut raki.  The wine wasn't bad, but the walnut raki was a clear reminder that walnuts contain iodine.  I suppose it cures what it doesn't kill.

Day 10 was essentially a continuation of Day 9, since we never went to bed - we watched television until 3:30 when the cab came and took us to the airport.  The airport was fairly busy at 4:00 AM, since the flight to Vienna is popular and there aren't many options for getting out of the country.  We got through security easily enough, although strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, the airport security did not identify the oversized bottle of saline solution that I had accidentally packed in my carry-on luggage.  However, they did confiscate the bottle of wine Abby had purchased at the Gobo Winery.  Our teacher, who had met us there along with her 85 year-old mother-in-law, urged Abby to go back and get the bottle of wine, and we'd drink it there.  We passed on the offer.