Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Winter Wonderland? I Think Not.

This past week has been extremely cold and a little miserable, weather-wise. On Wednesday, it snowed for the first time in over 12 years. The air was frigid and the wind was pretty unbearable. I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to meteorology, but I thought that it was near impossible for it to snow at the beach/along the coast. I guess it is more likely to happen than I thought.


The weather forecast for the entire Balkans area is snow, snow, and more snow. The winter season is known to be quite chilly in this part of the world, however this year the snow fall and cold temperatures are at an extreme. There have been multiple avalanches blocking roads and trains, below freezing temperatures throughout the Balkan Peninsula, and an absurd amount of snow fall throughout the area.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Barisha, issued a "National State of Emergency" due to the worst winter in decades. In addition to Sali Barisha's announcement, Peace Corps Albania has put into place a "Stand-Fast". This means that Peace Corps Volunteers cannot leave do go anywhere. PCVs must stay put not matter if they are in someone else's site or their own. The "Stand-Fast" order has been for the past two days and it looks like it will stay like this for another day or two. Hopefully the weather will get a little better and warmer toward the end of the week so we, Group 13, can still attend our COS conference.


This season has brought heavy snow fall, below freezing temperatures, blocked roads, isolation of small villages, power outages, and deaths. It has been one of the worst winters in the Balkans in over a decade.  Lets just say, I am looking forward to spring.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

GAD Conference: Plepa, Durrës


Since August 2010 I have been a member of Peace Corps Albania's Gender and Development Committee (GAD). Many Peace Corps countries have this committee and work on gender issues present in their respective country. GAD Albania is a group of 6 volunteers who work to spread information about gender development, issues, and roles throughout the country of Albania. As a committee we have made it our goal to educate and empower the Albanian youth because they are the future of this country and the ones who will need to start and encourage this transition.

In addition to the Gender Education Manual and the Educator's Training we held in the Fall, we also organized and facilitated a Youth Leadership Conference the 3rd weekend in January. 50 teenage boys and girls from towns all around Albania came together for a long weekend to attend the conference. There were sessions and activities that touched upon leadership qualities, financial budgeting, everyday life skills, body image, and project design and management.


Courtesy of Brenna Mickey
The project design and management workshop taught and allowed groups of Albanian youth how to design, create, organize, and fund a small educational project within their various communities. By attending this workshop, students became knowledgeable about how to write a project proposal and grant of their own and facilitate a  community project. Since attending the conference, students have been given the opportunity to design, write, and submit a project proposal to the GAD Committee with the hope of winning a small amount of grant money to fund their community project.

The GAD Committee applied for a Vodafone Albania Foundation grant in order to be able to fund the publication and printing of our Gender Development Education Manual, Educator's Training, and the Youth Leadership Conference. Without the grant money from the Vodafone Albania Foundation we would not have been able to hold these educational and promotional conferences.


Courtesy of Brenna Mickey
At the Youth Leadership Conference I presented on how to create a project proposal and grant request to a small group of Albanian students as well as helped further the beginnings of their proposals. I also led two fun activities focusing on relationships and teamwork. The kids seemed to enjoy the activities and understood the point of the exercises.

The Conference, as a whole, was a success! Everything ran smoothly, we were able to accomplish our goals, and, most importantly, the kids seemed to have tons of fun!