For the past month or so I have been working with my counterpart, Yllka to create a summer camp for children who are from families who live below the poverty line. Up till about 2 weeks ago I thought it would happen. To fund it, we had written a Peace Corps Partnership grant. This basically means that people who I knew back home and reached out to, who felt like donating to this camp, would be the main financers of the project. Today as I went online to check to see how much money we were still waiting for, I was disappointed to find it no longer listed. As we had planned on having this camp at the end of this month I knew that the funding needed to come by early June. Today is Memorial Day so no one is in the office to ask if this means that the project is being stopped because we didn't get the funding we needed or what exactly are our options. If the project is being stopped I am in for one bad conversation with Yllka later. If there are some other options well then maybe there's still hope.
I'm sad that this is just one more project that most likely won't happen but at least I tried. I hope that this will be an eye opener for Yllka. She hasn't been very active in helping me look for funding. Hopefully this will be a learning expereince for her as well. Yes I am American but no I am not rich nor am I conneted to people who have access to hundreds of dollars.
The summer is about to start so with that I have hope for sunny days and more small successes. The new group is swearing in on Thursday. I'm no longer the new kid! Best of luck to them. Just remember that patience is key to being a successful PCV here in Albania. Oh and go for every coffee you can :) Time to go find Yllka and have a chat. I may need a hug later...
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