The next morning I, unfortunately, had to get up very early, time to take the minivan to Vlora! Mini vans are, like their name suggests, little vans. The drive up and down between different cities. Like a bus service but privately owned. The driver of the minivan we wear in was ready to go! He was driving like crazy! Very fast and he didn’t seem to be bothers by such trivialities as traffic rules. Looking out of the window we could see a glimpse of the ‘ real Albania’ . The nature looks very beautiful, the infrastructure on the other hand looks a little sad. A lot of roads haven’t been paved. And houses seem to just pop up from nowhere. It doesn’t seem like a lot of planning was involved. Once we reached the hotel in Vlora we had time to rest and meet our roommates. I shared my room with a girl from Serbia.

Saturday the training started. This meant a lot of introductory information. After that we got a chance to see the center of Vlora. We had to take pictures with the locals, answer questions etc. A nice way of getting to know Vlora and the Albanian people. Most people in Albania do not speak English, still they try to help you if aked, try talk to you and are very friendly. Truth be told Vlora is not a very pretty city. But just 20 years ago Albania was still strictly communistic. And communist are not known for their love of beautiful architecture.

In Albania people do not seem to take a day off on Sunday so we also had training that day. It was very interesting to speak to people from so many different cultures. We all have very different backgrounds. The people from the Balkans had experienced wars, some had to flee from their country. The people from Albania had some pretty scary stories to tell about the regime that only ended 20 years before. It’s so cliché, I know, but I am happy to be born in the Netherlands.

Monday marked day three of the training course. Two of the trainers told us about projects they were a part of back home. Those presentations where nice, they gave us a glimpse of what we might be able do after finishing this course. The training included a lot of theatre and the making of posters. This is an interesting way of sharing information. It forces one to really think about the subjects. But it was also a bit hard for me. I’m used to the academic way of learning. I’ve got some distrust towards the learning from each other idea. But for these kind of projects it works rather well.

Tuesday we had a day off. I used this day to explore Vlora. Of the three museums mentioned in my travel guide I managed to find only one. It looked a little different from what I expected. Random stuff on small tables or on the ground. The things didn’t go together at all. Ancient stuff next to things from the 20^th century. It seemed like a bit of a mess. Next on my list, some shopping. Albania seems to have only three types of stores. Shoe stores, clothing stores and stores that sell wedding gowns. You won’t believe how many stores selling wedding gowns one can find in Vlora. The clothing wasn’t very nice so shopping wasn’t too much of a success. The weather however was brilliant. 35 degrees or more and sun, sun, sun.

Wednesday was my favorite day. It was time to think off our own workshops. Now we could, try to, put everything we learned into action. And then of course we got to take part in these workshops. There was a workshop demonstrating what it would be like to be disabled, this was done playing some kind of hide and seek. Another workshop talked about what it was like to be bullied, or to be a bully yourself. This day was a lot of fun. In the evening there was a water and power shortage, that was a little less fun. This continued, on and off, the rest of the time. But stuff like this happens and the people of Vlora did not seem to be too bothered by it. The hotel staff even seemed to think it was funny that I was so bothered by it.

Thuresday was the last day, Friday everyone would be flying home again. Time for the last information, to pack the bags and say goodbye to everyone. This wasn’t always easy. Friday early in the morning it was time to take the minivan back to the airport in Tirana again.

The training course in Vlora was a lot of fun! I learned a lot and I hope I can put it into practice. Sometimes the classes where a little chaotic but that might just be because I am used to relatively strict classes at home. I can definitely recommend taking a course like this one, and I hope I will be able to get a chance like this again too!