Want to know what it's like to live - and volunteer - in Albania? Here's a story for you. We interviewed expat Stephanie Scott a few years ago, about her Heart Tours Books that teach about the world. Now, we've asked her about living, volunteering, and working with her family in Albania. It's an amazing story - here's what she had to say...
WE: What volunteer/humanitarian projects have you done in the past?
SS: War Trauma Therapy projects: From 1994 – 2004, during the Yugoslavian Wars of Succession my daughter Bernadine and her husband Michel Ramond formed Balkans Relief Mission, an NGO for the purpose of bringing in food, clothing, school supplies, toys, and medicine to refugee camps, military hospitals and children's centers in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their team along with student volunteers used a wide variety of activities to encourage the children through clown & puppet shows, art, dance, and musical shows performed for the displaced families and their children. In partnership with SFOR and UN police we produced mine awareness & drug prevention programs for the schools in the city of Sarajevo.
They also formed a musical band with local musicians that performed concerts at the SFOR (NATO) bases for thousands of soldiers with the purpose of boosting the morale of peacekeeping troops stationed in Bosnia. For several years we taught English conversation, computer literacy and art courses for students ages 10-17 at the Red Cross center in Breza, a small town near Sarajevo.
WE: You're working now on humanitarian projects on Albania - can you please tell us more about that?
SS: We are working with Millennial Hope a local NGO here in Albania. Last year Ildiko and I opened “Biblioteka Perla” a free English-Albanian library for the school children in our neighborhood of Tirana. International schools and individual donors donated over 200 books to the library. This year we will be adding an activity center to the library so that we can teach art and crafts, theater, and have a “story-tellers” corner. Biblioteka Perla is situated in Ildiko’s flat for the moment as we look for a rental space to set up closer to the main street in our neighborhood. There are very few parks, children’s museums and attractions here for children to enjoy so a library-activity center is high on the list of fun projects. By the way we are always happy to receive educational material, playground equipment or monetary donations to help us set up our projects and keep them running.
Bibliotecka Perla
Clown Therapy A group of happy clowns from Millennial Hope visit the children’s cancer ward of the main hospital here in Tirana bringing cheer to these little patients through music, skits, balloon sculpturing, & encouragement for their parents.
Children's hospital, Tirana, Albania
During rainy season we teamed up with another NGO from Norway to distribute food and material aid when the villages in the northern part of the country were flooded.
Albania - flood trucks bringing aid
Michel, Sean, and Daisy at flood in the center of Skodra
WE: Why is working on such projects so important?
SS: I like working with NGOs around the globe on different humanitarian projects as it is just one of the small things that I can do to help children and their families. Not everyone is as privileged as we are in the USA with a democratic society, food on our table everyday, a safe environment, good health care, a good educational system etc. I like doing my part to change the world through love and care of the children and parents I meet in my life.
WE: What would you advise people looking to work on similar projects? How can they find them?
SS: When working on my first project, I met others who had more experience and we sort of “networked” together to open new projects up in other countries. When I started on my first adventure there weren’t any computers or internet around, so we connected through the mail and word of mouth. Nowadays there is: www.idealist.org, the Peace Corps, UNICEF, UNESCO, and different educational and missionary projects that you can volunteer for.
WE: What is Albania like?
SS: The people here are friendly and everyone wants to speak a foreign language, especially English. They see English as a way to a better job and a new life in another country. English teachers are in high demand at the schools and universities here. Albania is a land of contrasts! High alpine mountains covered in snow while the hills below are still green and full of fruit, olive trees and vineyards. There is a long coastline with unspoiled beaches, castles on the hills, clear lakes, and wild animals such as lynx, brown bears, wild boars, fox, and deer. There are many archeological sites from ancient Greece, the Roman ruins, castles and forts from the Ottoman Empire, WW1 & WW2 bunkers and other historical points of interest. Albania is the crossing point into Europe of many world empires.
Bernadine with her university English students
WE: What is it like, living in Albania?
SS: If you are up to the challenge, Albania is a very unique experience! The country is hoping to become a member of the European Union and a modernization push is slowly improving the country. These are some of the things that Albania needs to tackle since the fall of the old communist government in the 1990’s.
This is a small list of what we go through living here: There are water shortages all over the country, and the water is undrinkable, electric cuts are commonplace, many streets are not paved, infrastructure is nonexistent, (underground pipes, cables, sewers, drainage) scores of electric wires attached to poles, has no formal system of recycling or garbage pick-ups so people literally throw out their garbage by the side of every city street and sidewalk, After living in other European cities it is quite shocking to see so much rotting garbage everywhere! Water and sewage leaks from broken pipes running down the streets, very deep serious potholes! There are only stoplights in the very center of Tirana and lots of dirt roads and mud everywhere.
When we first arrived in Tirana very few streets had names outside of the city center. So if we wanted someone to visit us we would describe our area, what shops, parks, stadiums, schools, and landmarks were around. There are also no street numbers so our address is: start at the lake, go to Dynamo, over to Botanic Gardens down to Euromax and across the hill to the yellow house on the left. Or I’ll arrange a place to meet and then bring them up to our flat.
I would like to add that hopefully there will be good sidewalks, traffic lights and crosswalks! As it is now many times we have to walk in the road and dodge the cars to get across the street, as no one here will stop or slow down for you. Plus we make sure we don’t go out after dark as there many wild dogs in packs wandering about the city.
WE: Thanks so much, Stephanie - your journey is inspiring!