Hungry?

I am glad Bajram is only once (actually twice) a year! This is the holiday that ends the Muslim month of fasting. This holiday lasts for three days. During these three days you visit your friends and family. At each visit you eat lots of sweets - always Baklava and some other assortment of cakes. Now since I am an international, I get special treatment - more Baklava on my plate and extra encouragement to eat EVERYTHING that is on my plate. I just don't understand. My Albanian friends do not have to eat ALL the baklava. When they leave some on their plate no comment is made, but when I do I am encouraged to eat more. I am told, "you didn't eat anything," when I have just come from three visits where I ate at least two pieces of cake or Baklava and drank many glasses of soda and coffee.

I made the mistake of starting off this morning with a piece of baklava, actually maybe the mistake was eating the second piece. (It was really good and I knew no one else would make it this way - with coconut inside instead of nuts.) After this my next visit was cancelled and I stayed longer than expected at my friend's house. This led to eating a mandarin and a small piece of pite (cabbage pie.)

I then went to the village school where I used to teach. First stop – the director’s office. Here I found the director in the middle of a meeting with some Ministry of Education officials. All was put on hold to greet me, the token American, and make comments about how Albanian I am, how I should marry an Albanian guy, and how I should stay in this country forever. (These are common topics at every visit!) I exchanged numbers with a guy whose daughter lives in Boston and whom I am now supposed to call when I go home for Christmas. (Everyone has a relative somewhere in America.)

I then proceeded on to the teacher’s lounge. I didn’t quite make it that far, but saw some teachers outside enjoying the beautiful weather, so I stopped there to talk with them. We chatted for a bit (I got to tell my story about my recent marriage proposal - after I was asked if anything is new in the guy department – again a common question.) Then we finally moved inside. Some teachers went to their classroom while I stayed with others and drank coffee. Before I knew it, three teachers and I were walking out of the school. Wait? Wasn’t there still another hour of school? No, its still a holiday, the third day, half of the students had already left so the teachers decided they were done too.

I spent the rest of the afternoon making three visits to these teachers and the director. At each house I had to eat a plate full of cakes and baklava. Interestingly enough I also left each house with something. I left the first house with a hand-knit table topper, the second house with a large bag of apples, and the third house with a plate full of pite (cheese pie). I love that village!

At the second house I went to I was surprised. I do not know why things like this still surprise me, but they do. I am slowly understanding how small a country of 2.5 million people really is. About two months ago I went with one of my students here in the city I live in now, the capitol city, to visit her family in the village she is from. This village is near my old city and near the village I was in today. Well it turns out that she, my student, is related to one of the teachers at the school, whose house I was at this afternoon. This teacher and her mom were visiting this other family on Monday and my student was there. For some reason they started talking about me, and they realized they both knew me. I guess I had told my student I used to teach at this village school and really liked the village. I am glad I said such positive things.

So, I drove home with a full stomach and made it just in time for bible study. But for some reason, after everything was over I was still hungry. I decided upon some brown bread and ajvar (pepper paste) for dinner. Now I am full and satisfied…and I don’t need to eat baklava again for awhile.