Brass Tacks

There have been more protests since my last entry and more have been planned for the future. The parties are gearing up for the local elections on May 8th which will be heavily monitored by local and international election observers.

My site-mate and I (Team Peshkopi) won our grant to create a community NGO. We got around 1200USD to help pay legal fees and to hold trainings for fundraising, lobbying, strategic planning, leadership and one other topic which I can no longer remember. The trainings are actually being done pro-bono by some very generous individuals who could probably charge upwards of 150 euro a day for their services. Without the trainers’ charity this project would not have been possible.

Progress has also been made in regard to creating a women’s handicraft producer group. Myself and two other volunteers have been looking for markets for traditional hand made goods outside of Albania and have received some initial interest from gift shops and stores in the US.

Team Peshkopi has been asked to help with the development a 5 year strategic plan with the UNDP and regional government. In what capacity we will be working on this project remains unclear, but its nice that someone, somewhere, feels we are qualified to help in someway, somehow.

You may have noticed that my blog has recently broken past the 1000 view mark (see the counter on the right hand side). I would just like to thank all my family, friends, followers and both domestic and in-country government monitors for inflating my blog’s internet value. I hope to add annoying advertisements, spam emails and pop-ups to capitalize on my growing notoriety.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some blueberry muffins to bake.