An All Turp Affair or Fun With Condoms

I hope this post will illustrate the finer points of turp in regard to condoms. Turp is shame. We've all turp'd ourselves sometime, somehow, someway and today I turped a bunch of local youth. Yesterday, my counterpart and I had our first lesson in a local high school. It was a decent lesson and I'm glad we were able to make it happen. At the end of the day yesterday my CP said we are going to give out condoms at the same school tomorrow. I asked if we were going to give a lesson on STI's or family planning or how to use a condom and she said no, that they already had the lesson. I asked when. She said October. I suggested to hand out instructions for condom use. She disagreed, but I won because I was more koke e forte (stubborn) than she was. TADOW!

So I wrote up some stuff and we wrapped the condoms in the info and went to the school the next day for the big distribution. I was hoping that we would sit at a table for a few hours talking with students and informing them, but I doubted seriously thats how things would go down. Essentially we set up a table, put the condoms on it and waited for the bell to ring (its a hand operated cow bell and its badass). The bell rings and herds of students start walking to class. When they see the condoms they speed up so the janitor shoves the table in their way and we start handing condoms to all the boys. He asks me to stop so I do. Didn't catch why (maybe I was turping myself...) I'd say 75-85% of the students had the Turp. Occasionally, both male and female students would take them of their own volition, but most accepted them begrudgingly. The worst part is that all the administrators, teachers and my counterparts from the health center were laughing. It was as short as it was brutal...the entire event lasted for less than 10 turp filled minutes. I'm down with that janitor though and when I saw him on the way to the internet cafe I gave him daps.

The good news is that my work situation isn't unexpected. My counterpart operates within the cultural/work ethic stereotypes I learned about in training. She has a lot of upside too. She is a good classroom manager, is comfortable speaking in public, is friendly, helpful and, most importantly, does do some work. I was a little worried (put the odds at 1 in 4 against it) that we wouldn't end up doing the lesson on Wednesday and she followed through. BAM!

On to different news. My city is still the shit. For all of you who don't know that being "the shit" is a very good thing, now you know. There is an amazing lunch spot where you can get bean soup, pilaf, and a mountain of white bread for 150 leke. Add a fried egg on top of the rice for 20leke. I have eaten lunch at Locali Linda almost everyday. There is a gym where my fellow vol and I bej ustrime (do exercise)...shirts optional! I live above a bar and I am friends with the owner. He blasts Frank Sinatra while he cleans up after closing. There are a grip of wild dogs that roam the streets and at night they are always killing each other. During the day they sleep at the bank. There is fresh air and the water is clean (comes from the tallest mt in Albania, Kolrabi). There is a river close by you can swim in. There are more hiking trails than wild dogs. Peshkopi has a great pizza spot. Its close to the border (Macedonia). There are at least two ping pong tables and one functional basketball hoop. The people are friendly and generous. Fresh and natural fruits and vegetables are sold everywhere. Not a bad place to get placed.