Busy work week – week of July 18th in review

I continue to fall behind in posting!! The past couple of weeks have been almost as much of a whirlwind as the trip to Macedonia.  Work is definitely busy, with plenty to do within my own department in addition to opportunities in other areas.  On Tuesday (almost two weeks ago now), I took a trip with the Public Affairs Office up to the city of Shkodër, about two hours north of Tirana.  The Embassy has had a State Department Fellow up there for the past couple of years; Elizabeth has been teaching English at the University of Shkodër.  Apparently the Embassy works to cultivate relationships with educational institutions in order to encourage English language study and to promote opportunities for Albanian students to apply for scholarships to study in the U.S.  So the purpose was to meet with the Director of the University and with the English Language Department faculty.  I was just along for the ride. I have gotten quite adept at taking photos from a moving vehicle, and since this trip was neither leisurely nor for pleasure, “drive-by tourism” would have to suffice.  One of the public affairs officers who was on the trip is knowledgeable about Albanian archaeology, and as we passed through the town of Lezhë on the way to Shkoder, he asked the driver to slow down long enough for me to snap a picture of a castle at the top of a hill, with an interesting ruin down below.  He explained that this was one example of three layers of history:  Ottoman on top of Roman on top of Greek.   Pretty amazing – and I wish I’d have had the time to jump out and check it out more closely. Shkoder has a castle at the top of a mountain, too – I think it is of Ottoman vintage. I only saw it from a distance.  There are really castles everywhere…  Up in Shkoder, we had a great visit over lunch with the English language department – a group of mostly young women –very congenial, and with excellent English despite the fact that most had never been to an English-speaking country. 

I should mention that joining us on the drive to Shkodër was an American man named Clarence – he is an actor and university professor who somehow got connected with the Albanian theatre scene.  He is working on putting together a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and had flown in to Tirana to work with the Tirana Drama Theatre (not sure that’s what it’s called). What I learned from him was that Albania, during World War II, did a lot to protect the Jews from the Nazis.  At great personal risk, under the Italian and then Nazi occupation, Albanian families hid Jews just as many in western Europe did. To this day, Albania is very supportive of the nation of Israel.  Accompanying Clarence was a man from the Albania-Israel Friendship Association; they were going up to Shkoder to meet with the university’s drama department.

Wednesday was another special day. A man who works for the US Department of the Treasury in an advisory capacity to the government of Albania connected me with the General Director of Albania’s Public Debt Directorate, Mr. Xhentil Demiraj (pronounced Genteel Demireye). I got a chance to sit down with Mr. Demiraj for about 45 minutes; we had a very interesting exchange about Albania’s debt issue (debt is currently at about 60% of GDP), what the government is doing to reduce it, and how the recent financial crisis has affected Albania.  I was a bit intimidated going into the meeting, and had asked my US Treasury contact to make it clear to Mr. Demiraj that I am far from being an expert in economics!  I was relieved to discover that he was very down-to-earth and willing to explain a lot of what his role is in counseling the government and what many of the challenges Albania faces in terms of its economic development. 

On the way to Shkodër - in town of Lezhë

Beautiful mosque in Shkodër



English language faculty from University of Shkodër