Hard work does pay off!!!

Big Congrats to the Shallas crew for on the success of their all girls volleyball tournament.  After 6 weeks of practicing with the girls and planning the big tournament day, everything went off without a hitch!  Stephanie and I made 100+ snickerdoodles (they all came out.  I have redeemed myself), lots of volunteers came from other sites to support, the mayor's of Shallas and Elbasan both came, and the girls had a great time, they didn't want to stop!  Way to go guys!!!

Nothing Beats a Bar-B-Que

Thanks to our group 10 PCV's, we had a great cookout on Friday complete with real hamburgers and hot dogs!  We even had Lays potato chips! It was great.  Everyone got to the hang out and we all unrolled our sleeping bags and slept on the floor of our training managers home in Elbasan.  It was awesome to have a little taste of home.

Cookie Disaster

Since my last baking exercise went so well, I had great confidence in making my host sister a treat from America for her birthday, May 8th.  I got all the ingredients out and went to town creating the delicious treats.  It was a surprise for her, so I wouldn't let Artemisa help me.  I got the cookie balls all rolled up and placed them in the oven.  Things were going great!  About three minutes into baking, Artemisa looks at me with a worried look.  I peak into the oven, and...DISASTER!!!!  My cookies are just melting in the oven.  I pull them out, but there is nothing that I could do at that point.  The "cookies" that I had intended to create where nothing but one big wad of cooked sugar-butter mixture.  I later realized that I need more flour, but my confidence is already shot.  It will be a while before I try my hand in the kitchen again!

Cinco de Mayo

Although our Tirana group was exhausted from our weekend trip in to the "big city", we had a great time at the Cinco de Mayo Party.  Our host did a wonderful job with the food...it was great to have something with spices!  We had mexican rice, mashed potatoes, spicy fajita chicken, rice pudding, beans and corn, and salsa!  The weather was great and we had a huge turnout from the group...most everyone made it. 

"Me want Cookies!"

So...Stephanie and I were attending a friends birthday party today and we thought it only appropriate to bring something to the Birthday girl.  Seeing that we are poor volunteers, we opted to make cookies...Snickerdoodles! Great Idea!  A real taste from home!   The only problem is that neither Steph nor I has any experience cooking in the States, much less in our less familiar Albanian kitchens, that lack any sort of measuring cup, flat cookies tray, Pam spray or American luxuries of the like.  When we were visiting Burrel, or host volunteers had given us may recipes to take home and try, so we decided on Snickerdoodles, seeing as we could find most of the ingredients!  

We met at Stephanie's house to prepare our special treats, and Stephaine's host mom was definitely interested to see what the Americans were up to now!  Steph and I in the kitchen was like the blind leading the blind!  "What's the difference b/t self rising flour and regular", she asks me?  "Have not idea," I reply!  "What's cream of tarter," I ask?  "Who knows.  Don't have it, so...let's just add more baking soda," Steph says to me.  To add to the uncertainty of our whole little baking bonanza, the oven is in Celsius and our mom has told us the temperature is not that constant...at least that is what we thought she said in broken Shqip.  

We got them made up and baked, and amazingly, they turned out Great!  We were and still are so proud that we were able to conquer the kitchen! 

It's Party Time!

Last night we had a big family party for the brother of my cousin (I guess that makes him a cousin, too) He was in town from Canada, where he lives.  Rob was invited to come for dinner and the whole family came too.  Very My Big Fat Greek Wedding!  Mami had been telling me all afternoon that we were having a huge sheep.   She kept showing me with her hands just how big it was going to be.  She was very proud to show it off when it finally arrived.  We just all pulled meet right off the carcass!  It was very good but a little salty and a lot fatty, as lamb tends to be.  All in all, a very great send off for Lufta before he left to go home.

Another Beautiful Day in Belsh

We have been blessed with another day of good weather here in our little town.  After a week of rainy days, the sun is awesome!  After a productive morning in language class, Amber and I went on a long walk around our lake.  I am back at the house, and amazingly have had internet here for several days in a row.  I am soooo excited!