So now that training is wrapped up and we're all at sites, things SHOULD calm down. To an extent. There are always challenges when you plop 40+ Americans down in new countries, away from friends & family, many for the first time. While our 3 night staging in DC went off without a hitch, our drama started right after on the plane ride to Albania.
I can no longer really sleep well on planes - even on red-eyes (unless I've saved up the miles to splurge on biz class/lie flat seats). However, on the flight to Albania, at one point, maybe not quite halfway through the flight, I'd managed to drift off a bit when I was jolted awake by the sounds of a kerfluffle. I looked around, glaring, to find the source of the disturbance, and saw that about 3-4 rows back from me, in the middle group of seats, several Trainees were gathered around a passenger (NOT a Trainee) who was having some sort of panic attack or something. As you can imagine, Peace Corps types are naturally drawn to "help" - and we had a cohort of Health Trainees, so naturally there was lot of "assistance." Until someone finally said, "It might help if most of you stepped back to give this person some air." Of course, in the moment, all I could think about was me me me and my ever-so-rare airplane sleep, but as it turned out the person was okay so I didn't have to feel TOO guilty about my selfishness! lol
Once training commenced, it was actually fairly chill for a while. And, at the end of the day, we ended up losing NO ONE during training - which is a rarity. But, again, that doesn't mean we missed our share of drama. Over the course of the 11 weeks of our language classes, for example, fully 70% of our group in Montenegro had at least one meltdown/breakdown in class. As you can imagine, 5 hours a day of language, while coping with a new environment, new home, different culture, living with strangers, spending all day long with a variety of folks you've just met - both locals and Americans, can be stressful. And 5 of the 7 of us Lost. It. in class at least once over frustration with the language (often triggered by other Trainees "just trying to help"), and/or breakdowns due to external factors (e.g., family issues back home). While I don't know the percentage for the Albania Trainees, I know from talking with some of them they had their own fair share of drama during language - particularly thanks to some, er, "large personalities" in their group ("Shut up!" "No, YOU shut up!" "You're a racist!" "You're a victim!" etc.).
All but one of us missed at least one training day due to illness, with one being (briefly) hospitalized. But, honestly, it wasn't a lot.
Host family drama was pretty rare on the whole, but there was more than one "interesting situation:" Like when one Trainee (Albania) had to be moved to a different host family after his host brother (early 30s) got in a huge fight over the phone with his ex wife, and then proceeded to DESTROY his parent's living room in a psychopathic rage. Said Trainee shared pics of the destruction, which is not appropriate for me to share, along with an audio recording of the dude losing his shit and tearing up the house. To be fair, something like this could easily happen in, say, Appalachia, but when you're living abroad with total strangers, it can be a bit scary, to say the least. Luckily, the Trainee ended up sharing with another Trainee, with a very nice host family.
Another Albania Trainee had a host family desperate to find her a husband. One of the very first questions the locals ask here - in Montenegro & Albania - is, "Are you married?" And woe to you if you're not because then it's game on to find you a spouse! This trainee was chatting with the host fams one evening when they asked her if she'd like to go into town with them on the weekend. She readily agreed, thinking it was a chance to do some shopping, maybe have a meal out, etc. No such luck. They drove into town, dropped off said trainee at a park (I think?) for a "surprise blind date" with a local and then took off! Happy ending where they hit it off and ended up getting married?? Um, no.
As for me, I managed to Break. My. Bed. one night. I had a pretty nice set up, as I've already shared, with an airbnb type set up above my host parents' house. The one down side was I had no comfortable "lounging" chairs - only some kitchen table type chairs that weren't comfortable for extended sitting to watch TV, read, play on my phone, etc. So I generally sat/reclined on the end of my bed for that kind of stuff. Well, one night, I sat on the bed, leaned back to read, and then SNAP/CRACKLE/POP, one of the wooden slat supports collapsed. I was SO. Embarrassed. Even tho I hadn't flopped down on it or anything. Too embarrassed to tell the host fams, so I put it on the Peace Corps Homestay Coordinator who is an awesome human being, he was very amused by it, and offered to "break the news" to my family to make sure there was no language miscommunication (my excuse in asking him to tell them! lol). Of course my host parents were very chill about it, teased me about not telling them myself, said it had probably been weakened by a tourist stay or last year's trainee (the infamous "fat policeman" who ended his service early). And they promptly hired a local guy and his friend to come and fix it promptly.
Our last bit of drama actually occurred the night before swearing in, while we were in Podgorica. As part of the swearing in, a member of one of the host families speaks as part of the program. Unfortunately, said member was rushed to the hospital the night before for an emergency appendectomy! Talk about timing - although, imagine if it had ruptured DURING the ceremony/while she was speaking. THAT would have been a trip! And, luckily, another family member of another Trainee was able to step in. And we're official!
So training is done! Coming soon: reflections on my new site, my school, my new host family, etc. And hopefully a pause on too much drama......ooops, school was canceled my second day here due to a called in bomb threat! Duh duh duh! Apparently, these happen on occasion - always a hoax, and "coincidentally" always occurring near the end of term! Stay tuned for more exciting adventures in Peace Corps! :)
Disclaimer: Any thoughts, observations, opinions, etc. are of course mine and not necessarily the views of Peace Corps.
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