Back in Albania

Here I am back in Tirana, where I arrived, safe and sound, less than 24 hours ago. The trip, via Lufthansa, was excellent as usual, and the Airbus used for the transatlantic flight was packed, as it was JFK airport when I left New York.



During this trip I met some interesting people. Next to me sat an ex CBS reporter, now a mother of 3 kids, who did some reportage from Albania in the late 1990's. She had planned to go through a stack of papework while traveling, but, after a few glasses of red wine she slept all the way to Germany.

During this first leg of the trip, I had a long chat with an Italian maritime inspector from Naples, who was returning home with his wife and 3 grown up children after spending 24 days on a cruise along northern Europe, then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean area, and finally to the US. He spent quite a bit of time telling me why he did not like, and would not return to NY in the future.

In Munich I had a longer than usual waiting time for the Tirana connection because the flight from NY was much shorter than the normal 8 hours thanks to strong tail winds and a more northern route taken by the pilot.

The efficiency of this airport always amazes me, and I took the time to enjoy the comings and goings while sipping a delicious capppuccino at a bar that was doing a booming business serving large breakfasts to lots of travelers. The display of food was incredibly big, varied, and enticing, but the dinner and breakfast served on board within the space of 6 hours did me in.

I refused also the sandwich and sweets offered on the smaller aircraft that Lufthansa operates between Munich and Tirana, while I had a nice conversation with an instructor from North Carolina, who was on a field trip in the company of two of his students . The 2 teenager girls were eager to discover Albania, which they had to research before leaving, as part of their currriculum. Next year they both will graduate in Hotel Management, and their instructor has given a one week course on tourism several times previously in Albania. He told me, in fact, that this was his 10th trip to the country, and was thrilled to have with him now 2 of his students.

One of the girls had never travelled by plane before and looked tired and tense. She had not slept at all during the night and would not even look out of the window, but her companion kept snapping pictures, and being very exited about the whole trip and its expected unknown. She and the instructor kept teasing the other, and talked about their plans in the next 2 weeks, to be spent mostly in the northern city of Shkodra, with a couple days in Tirana at the end.

The trio was going to be picked up by the Director of the University in Shkodra, and being driven there upon arrival. The girls expected to be housed within the University dormitories, while the instructor was booked at a hotel. Their overseas flight was also by Lufthansa, but direct from Charlotte, NC to Germany.

Another American gentleman from Texas, still young, but needing a walker and a portable oxygen machine, was also returning to Tirana, where he indicated having been several times in the past 15 years. I believe he was originally connected with a missionary unit (one of the many still operating in the country today) and he is now running some courses on how to fight corruption.

As usual, I was met at Tirana's aiport. In less than half hour I was in town, where the air was visibly clear after some earlier rain. My friends insisted in taking me to lunch, nothwithstanding my refusal attempts, and then delivered me to my apartment.

It was so nice to find the apartment cleaned by my usual housekeeper, and have the electrical and water connection all setup upon arrival.

My friends also stacked my fridge with all sorts of food and staples, with the big basket overflowing of fruit, and even some flowers on my dining table.

They strongly suggested that I stay awake as much as possible to diminish the effect of jetlag, and I did so by unpacking and getting settled, while enjoying the beautiful strong breeze that was coming through my opened balconies. The nights are quite cool in Tirana.

My Internet connection was re-established this morning after I renewed my contract with the local provider.The temperature today is 23C degrees (~ 78F).

Visiting

Yesterday I ventured outside Manhattan to visit relatives that reside in suburbia to catch up with family news and see how quickly the younger generation is growing.

I use the word ventured because, notwithstanding my many decades in New York I must confess of not being really very familiar with the other four boroughs that make up this city (sorry..... no offense meant, suburbanites!!). Transportation from and to the main island of Manhattan has improved greatly over the years, and it is now serviced extremely well by express, and very comfortable buses that speed along our avenues day and night at pretty frequent intervals. Thus, it was no hassle at all to board the bus in midtown that delivered me northward, to destination, in no time!

In the morning I left a quiet Madison Avenue, where, however, several tourists were strolling and shopping in some of the most luxurious stores and boutiques in town, and 45 minutes later I landed in the hustle and bustles of a very busy, and lively community of the Bronx, which is located close to the huge, most famous NY zoo. The heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic whizzed by incessantly along the wide avenues that criss-cross this very green area that also houses New York's Botanical garden.

The Bronx is also the area of NY mostly populated by Albanians and Kossovars, and locally houses many ethnic, mama and papa stores and restaurants, as well as enormous supermarkets. Here everyone seems to know everyone else, and, I am told that when you shop, store owners that know you will give you credit if you happen to forget your wallet at home!

At home, young Marcel was happy in his grandfather's arms, or on mama's lap, while his dad was in the garage fixing his car that was recently involved in an accident.



After a deliciously home cooked meal and lots of conversation, especially with the father of the household who is currently visiting from Montenegro, we made plans to be visiting each other abroad, since I'll be back in Tirana soon.

By late afternoon I returned to Manhattan, which turned out to be also very trafficked in midtown.

Tokens of remembrance

Thanks to a current article in The Economist's blog, entitled "Postcards from Albania", I was able to enjoy the brief video mentioned in it and to connect to the interesting site of OBC, mostly written in Italian language.

The above reminded me that I should also dust off my family's old files, where I know I have quite a few similar postcards, and many letters and stamped envelopes of the 1930's and 40's.

So many things to do, and so little time to do them......but now am preparing for my next travel to Albania, where I'll be for a few weeks. More to come about it soon.

International Literacy Day

On Wednesday, September 8th, I attended a symposium held at the United Nations NY headquarters on the occasion of the annual International Literacy Day.

[a similar composition used to be also in the middle of the World Towers complex before its destruction 9 years ago]
For this symposium more than 600 people filled one of the huge conference rooms that have been recently built in an annex building to the UN Secretariat (partial view of it is on the right in picture below).

This new UN wing, erected on what used to be a beautiful green lawn along the East River, has a very insignificant, outside look with its white wash color on a structure that resembles very much an hangar.

Walking inside it, however, it reveals quite a different aspect, with huge, long hallways, draped with sculptures, tapestries, exhibits from different world countries, and computerized boards similar to the ones one may find at airports, that display the various ongoing activities within the complex.

[foreign children's paintings]
This new building contains many enormous, high ceiling,and stark looking conference rooms that are equipped, however, with high-tech facilities.

Comfortable sitting and table arrangements have communication equipment available for each attendee, in addition to several computers and projecting units, mammoth screens, and even a special platform for the disabled to access the staging area.

This event was moderated by Bryon Pitts, CBS News Chief National Correspondent and author, and focused on different areas of literacy (digital, emotional, women's, etc.) and creative partnerships (government, civil society, social innovation, etc.).

The keynote opening address was delivered by ex First Lady, Laura Bush, advocating cooperation at all levels for successful implementation of literacy, followed by two moderated panel discussions re: "Literacy for Empowerment" and "Accelerating Progress through Creative Partnerships".

An emotional ending was provided by the keynote closing address of a Sudanese young man, Jacob Atem. He described his life from his humble beginnings as a herder like his father in his native country, later lucky to have been exposed to literacy that allowed him to pursue studies and even earn a degree in the US. He is the Founder of the Home at Southern Sudan Health Care and a former "Lost Boy" of Sudan.

The UN complex is a busy place and, notwithstanding heavy security checks, is always full of visitors. Many are the tours offered in different languages, such as the one I saw below as I was entering the main building on Wednesday. Personally I accompanied there many guests over a period of years, and I also had the privilege once to be included in a special (professional) group for which an evening tour was conducted after the general public access had ended.

[pictures of UN General Secretaries]
Before leaving the place this time I went to one of its shops in the basement to purchase some small flags that needed to be replaced at home. They represents the triangle of the stages of my life in 3 different countries.

Etiquette & good manners

The more we plunge into technicalities and so called modernization the more I find that good manners are being forgotten or discarded, and are instead replaced today by gruff and impolite behavior especially in business related telephone dealings.

As the world continues its speedy transformation into a more mechanized and highly technical arena, human behavior, in my view, seems to degenerate in business contacts. Driven by the erroneous concept that the application of any expedient or shortcuts is the key to success in business, natural politeness and good social etiquette fall in disusage. These patterns in communication are also transparent in email exchanges that are becoming less fashionable due to new twittering facilities. Differential behaviors are even more noticeable, and in some cases even striking, as one travels around in today's global society.

Above observations are reinforced almost daily. Lately I have had to deal a lot with services of all kinds that required quite a bit of phone calling. When one is lucky to eventually speak with a person, after going through mechanized responses of all sorts, one may also be put on hold for quite a long time, or loose the connection because the line is dropped after a while. Some of the respondents may rattle out incomprehensible answers, others may not offer further help in understanding the problem, or pursue a solution, and some even display aggressive manners in their responses.

Other behavioral differences in customer service are noticeable daily also in stores. One thing is to be serviced in a large city like NY (when you are lucky to get a salesperson's attention), another is when you are shopping in the country, away from the hassle and bustle of a metropolitan area. Greetings as you enter a shop are a norm in Europe, but not in NYC, although here, nowadays, there seems to be an effort of attitude change due to the more difficult economic times.

This reminds me that when I was a youngster, I came across a telephone etiquette guide that could be helpful to some people today [LOL]. It was a small booklet of simple examples and suggestions on how to answer a phone call. After many years of learning experiences I am still convinced that staff training is the name of the game for good business, but, unfortunately, today's employment practices have also shed such an effort.