Albanian Anthropological observations

We have been in Albania for two weeks and have settled into our assignment of tutoring Ashlie and Isaac. When not on school time, we enjoy taking walks about the city of Korçë. There are always interesting anthropological differences to observe. Here are some of my observations and what I have learned from our host family.

I see many older women wearing all black and some younger women also. This mode of dress indicates they have been widowed. The custom is that they continue to dress in all black and never remarry. It is considered shameful if a widow remarries.

I see wedding dresses in quite a number of shops. It is the custom here for a bride to rent three dresses: one for a Friday night feast with the groom's parents, another for a Saturday dinner with the bride's family, and a third for the Sunday wedding which may take place in a church or city hall. After the wedding the bridal couple drive through the town in a decorated car while honking horns gather everyone's attention.

We see old men gathering in one park to chat while women in aprons and shopping bags gather in another for a chat.

We see cut logs being delivered to houses by small three wheeled trucks or donkey carts. Then men proceed to split the logs by hand as they chop for many hours to prepare the wood for heating in the small wood burning stoves that heat these apartments in the winter. I have been told that it may snow as early as November. This town sits at the elevation of 4,000 feet in a high plateau area between mountain ranges. Will tell you later what kind of weather winter presents here. Right now it is feeling very much like fall in the Midwest.

Many of the streets are narrow cobblestone or combo of broken stone and dirt. These also double as walkways as there are no sidewalks in the residential areas. Unlike Prague where we were looking down to avoid puppy poop, here we look down to dodge donkey dung. Many of the streets are currently dug up to put in larger sewer lines in order for waste water to flow more freely with capacity to also carry flushed toilet paper. This makes for the current bit of inconvenience, but we are grateful to have good water pressure to take showers, do laundry, and the water is safe to drink.