The Permet Youth Council Bake Sale

Saturday, February 16, 3:05pm

It was a beautiful day for a bake sale! The weather dawned bright and clear, and even though the temperature was chilly, the blue skies and sunny streets were strong incentives to venture outdoors and stroll up and down the pedonale.

A few weeks ago, the students in the Permet Youth Council began planning their final project for the year. There were many ideas thrown around the room – a Valentine’s Day event, Karaoke Night, and a sports tournament, just to name a few – but eventually, the group decided to hold a bake sale and carnival in the city center.

The logistics of the event were pretty simple to organize. We needed to get permission to use the space, which was easy since I work in the bashkia and my counterpart is in charge of public areas. We also needed tents and tables, which were provided by local NGO CESVI and the tourism office. We needed decorations and games, which the students created at our Youth Council meetings. And finally, we needed the food.

Halloween in Permet

To celebrate the Halloween, 4 very motivated students prepared a community event with face painting, games, and arts and crafts! We were overwhelmed by the number of participants, but glad we were able to share the holiday with others!

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Saturday, November 3, 2018, 8:54pm

Today’s Halloween event turned into a carnival of screaming children, exploding yarn balls, and endless requests for water. But when all was said and done, the girls and I laughed as we shared our favorite memories from the chaos, and we all agreed that it was worth the stress.

We all agreed that it was worth the stress.

A few weeks ago, one of my students, Eni, mentioned the idea of doing something for Halloween. I’d let the holiday pass by quietly the year before, but Eni was determined to do something for the community this October, and we decided on a community event with games and activities.

Together with three other girls, Serena, Emi, and Krista, the four students created a short lesson on the history of Halloween and prepared decorations, four dozen cookies, and the other activities. Serena decided to lead face painting, Krista set up a Pin-the-Smile-on-the-Pumpkin game, and Emi created a spider-themed craft with yarn. Since Halloween was a Wednesday, we decided to move our event to the following Saturday. 

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

My first big project at site was an event for the U.N. World Day Against Trafficking in Persons! With the help of other volunteers and my Albanian coworkers, I organized an activity at the cultural center with guest speakers and a student drama and dance performance! Here’s the story of how it all came together!

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After about two and a half months at site, I was given the opportunity to organize an event in July!

Like I’ve mentioned before on my blog, everything in Albania starts with relationships. Before people will work with you, they have to get to know you first – usually through lots and lots of coffees. So as I was having a coffee with Denisa, the Head of Programming and Development at the bashkia, she mentioned to me that there wasn’t a lot going on in July and wanted to know if I had any ideas for an event.

Once we’d agreed on the major components of the event, I had about two weeks to pull everything together.

So I took the idea and ran with it. I looked up international days in July and stumbled across the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which is July 30th. I suggested using the Peace Corps network to bring in guest speakers from Tirana, and Denisa liked the idea. We brainstormed extra activities for the event together, and we decided to include speakers from the bashkia and an additional student performance!

Once we’d agreed on the major components of the event, I had about two weeks to pull everything together. We were very fortunate to collaborate with speakers from Mary Ward Loreto and Different and Equal and I got my inspiration for the drama from YWAM Perth. While there were many stressful moments during the planning process, the event ran really smoothly and was well-attended! It was my first real Peace Corps success story, and here’s the very long version of how it all came about: