The End is Near

Earthquakes, financial crises step back.  I am closing service in four weeks.  The countdown calendar has been made, not because I'm so anxious but because there's so much to do.  Mon is leaving in two weeks, which means this week is goodbye before she heads up to Tirana for meetings and medical examinations.  What?  Yes, it all begins now: goodbyes to colleagues and friends, American and Albanian.

Last night, I got back from a visit to my training site and host family, one last trip with the Goca e Shtermenit (The Shtermen Girls, my training group).  Three of the four of us came.  We visited all our host families, ate a village lunch, and saw the ostriches one last time.  Shtermen is a special village.  It's famous for frog legs and weightlifters, but it also has an ostrich farm and Chinese radio towers manned by, well, Chinese.  It's such a small place to have an international presence and so many unusual things.

In Shtermen, I found my host family had finally opened their Internet cafe.  My host sister, who is in high school, is engaged, and my host mother is concerned about my prospects.  If I ever exceed expectations and snag a man, she is planning on coming to my wedding.  My host father is going back to Italy to make some money.  My host brother has outgrown me and both of his parents.  Two girls about my age also had news.  One is pregnant with her second child, a girl.  The other has finally found work, not in her field of study, but work.  I couldn't have asked for much more from the visit, and I followed it by returning to Elbasan and eating dinner at an extraordinary Greek restaurant with the Shtermen girls.

Now, the end begins with coffees, dinners, cocktails, Cinco de Mayo with volunteers, and packing.  I remember being alone in my apartment when I first arrived, and I had this overwhelming feeling of the last time I would be in the apartment.  It was empty then, and the next time it would be empty would be the end, and the time is almost here.

I've learned a lot being in Peace Corps and Albania.  Some things are silly, like measuring distance in time instead of miles or kilometers.  Some are essential, like wearing rubber soles while operating my stove.  Some I won't need when I get back, like always talking to the electrical company before scheduling an evening event.  Some I can't put into words, and I only hope come with me back to the States.