Dispatch from Albania # 14 Nov. 29, 1999

From: Cdcphotog@aol.com
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 10:56:42 EST
Subject: #14 fr Albania
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Dispatch from Albania # 14 Monday, Nov. 29, 1999

Another hazy day caused by the Denver-like inversion layer.

Boyd put Kosi in his backpack and went to work to avoid the landlordís visit.
But he couldnít take the smelly evidence. Dang! Oops. Boyd just called that
Kosi jumped out of his backpack and ran away. Now Iím sorry for all the
negative thoughts I had about the little kitty. And I know Tough Boyd is
disheartened.

I forgot to tell you about yesterdayís adventure. Involving you-know-what:
Large blue Mercedes. Driven by the proud mayorís 10-yr-old son with his
8-yr-old brother. Manual shift. Boy had to stretch to reach the petals and
stand up to see out the windshield. Brother bopped around inside the car,
riding shot-gun. We IRC folk + mayor were zipping along a rutty road, got
honked over, and lo and behold, those little boys passed our Land Rover! The
mayor/father smiled. So pleased. Kathy and I couldnít believe we were on the
backroads of some unknown Albanian village being led down a narrow, dusty road
by 2 little boys in a 4-door Mercedes. But they led us to all the places we
needed to visit. At the end of our tour, we saw them parked over in the
middle of a soccer field, kids swarming around. They were Kings for a Day.

Yesterday was also the second saddest day to me: Photographing a water pump
that eked out water from the ground for the whole community. In a small
stucco building the rusty pump barely worked, dripping oil & goo, surrounded
by a big puddle of polluted water full of cigarette boxes and candy wrappers.
How would we like to rely on this for our drinking water!

Today, Monday, we met and photographed 2 more hosts and refugee families. The
32-yr. old mother of 4 children came here from Kosovo in April. She had a
deadened look and only a few teeth left. But her handshake was fairly strong
& her apt was the cleanest room Iíve seen in Albania. (Filling stations are
spotless, but homes/offices/apts. and the rest of the world in Albania are
not.) Her children & other children spend time outside playing such games as
London Bridge, tag, hop-scotch, and Ring Around the Rosie. Some of the
smaller children entertain themselves with discards found in the garbage,
such as an aerosol can and a rock, ìbuildingî them into a car that follows a
ìroadî around a puddle. One 4 yr-old used a piece of wood as a boat, floating
it back and forth across his puddle. And many children use sticks or boards
to bat stones, to draw in the dirt, to fence with, or just to hold. The only
toy we saw used was a set of 2 plastic balls on a string. The children wrap
the strings around their fingers, knock the balls together, then try to
accomplish a yo-yo trick like ëRound-the-World. This can be played by nearly
any age, done individually as the child or teen-ager walks around, or
performed in groups with fierce competition (similar to the yo-yo contests,
Peggy & Ted, that we saw in Stockton at the Asparagus Festival).

Smile-of-the-day: Kathy spotted a beautiful bird by a so-called creek.
Iridescent blue feathers. A flash of life in this garbage-strewn swamp.

Carolyn


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