Dispatch from Albania # 1 Nov. 16, 1999

[I’m spending 2 wk. as a volunteer photographer in and around Tirana, Albania, for the International Rescue Committee. This organization was set up in 1933 by Einstein & Reinhold Niebuhr to help refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Since then it has expanded worldwide and has the lowest overhead of any org. of its kind, i.e., spends approx. 96% of its funds on the people and their food, water, medical aid, construction, and psychological help. Kathy Torgerson is a Palo Alto woman I’ve worked with on non-profit volunteer jobs. Our "mission" is to put together a brochure to help raise money for the refugees here.]

Arrived today at noon from Rome.

Its true. Not much works here. Electricity & phones have their own temperaments. But I am lucky to be staying in a 3-rm comfortable apt. with Kathy and our "body guard" Boyd. I’ve been here 6 hr. and realized 6 times that I am in a 3rd world:
· At the Tirana Airport where several people and a mangy dog milled on the tarmac as we landed.
· Watching the guards at the airport with their large Russian guns
· Driving into town amid piles of roadside garbage, wrecked cars, and semi-finished houses - some wrecked, too.
· Experiencing the biggest hazard so far while driving to our apt. in a United Nations truck: potholes. (Boyd just told me I need knee-high rubber boots and depth-detecting vision that can measure whether the holes are inches or feet deep. [Thanks, Jeanne, for telling me to watch where I step.]
· Trying to dial the United States & learning not doable from our apartment, therefore no e-mail either. Must do from IRC headquarters or perhaps the Hotel Tirana International. So much for the fancy digital camera I bought!
· Mopping up water from the inside window ledge after this afternoon’s storm.

At least nothing is life-threatening so far.

Our driver drove Kathy and me - this time in a range rover - to supper with the IRC Tirana director Rupert and his young family. Joining us were his brother and 4 other IRC workers, all from Australia and each totally committed to helping people in need. Learned: more people in Albania have TV than have phones.

Home to electricity and hot water but no heat. Slept in pajamas, robe, sox, and some of the long underwear a friend had insisted I bring. First time I’ve been cold since skiing in storms in the High Sierras.

Tomorrow: I hope to look closely at people’s faces and begin taking photographs of something, somebody, some places. I will try to use what Russell Baker calls "fresh eyes" to see this poorest of all European countries that already is to me in only 8 hours... a living heartbreak.

Love, Carolyn

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