A Visit Home

I am posting this because the whole purpose of this blog was to relate my “Peace Corps experience” and my visit home was certainly an important part of that. Anyway, it is mostly written. The next post, however, supersedes this one. The next post supersedes everything.

Pilot lore has a “rule of three”. If three or more glitches occur in the preparation for any flight, a wise pilot puts the plane back in the hangar and launches on another day. Accidents are forged by a chain of events. Break any of the links and disaster may be averted. As they say, “it is much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground”.

My first trip home in almost two years was in early February. This was timed to allow me to attend a required course to renew my instructor pilot certificate. This is easily done with a two day course, with the stipulation that it be renewed before it expires. Reinstating it after expiration is a bear. I had taken the course just before I left home to join the Peace Corps, but it is only good for two years. A Peace Corps term of service is 27 months. While the course can be taken on-line, the paper work has to be submitted in person so the applicant can be verified by government, picture ID. The Peace Corps allows three “free” leave days related to courses needed to renew professional licenses. Attending the class at home had the added benefit of seeing my old instructor pilot buddies that I have done this biannual requirement with for the past two decades.

I had to leave for Tirana a day early since the protests on the Friday before I left had resulted in three deaths and scores of injured and on the Friday I planned to travel to the airport there was protest of that. The Peace Corps security officer let me know that a “stand fast” order would be in effect on Friday, beginning at 8:30 AM. That meant I had to stay where I was at that time. To comply I had to travel the day before to Tirana and stay the night with a friend in the city. I got on the 8 AM bus from Korca to Tirana. After waiting half an hour, the driver told us there were not enough passengers, so there would be no bus today. The passengers got off the bus and found furgons instead. The next morning I caught the airport bus and loitered for 20 hours until my flight was scheduled to depart. This was probably a good idea for me personally, since my route of travel required me to walk across the center of the city in the middle of the time of the protest. I read a couple of books and had a great meal at the airport café (for about $8. Try that at any other international airport in the world). The custodians at the Tirana airport were very nice about letting me sleep on the benches. At 2:30 AM I was able to check my bags all the way to Boise. My flights to Budapest, then Paris, then Salt Lake, then Boise even left on time.

There was a list of 50 items or so to accomplish. These included everything from meeting with my accountant to go over tax stuff to donating blood. With the help of many friends, I was able to get through most of it. In fact, if I haven’t explicitly said this, Peace Corps service, especially at an advanced age, requires the help of many people back home. These include my trusted friends who have my power of attorney and have sent in tuition checks for a kid in college, signed contracts for rental of my home, made money transfers so I could pay my taxes, and so many other things. I have already mentioned my aviation friends who have supported the Aviation Club of Korca. It continues, mostly to their credit, to the benefit of kids from kindergarten to high school. I have no doubt it is unique in the Balkans, and probably in the Peace Corps, as well. My home librarian helped me get online books on tape and e-books, something that has been invaluable. My banker helped immensely when the arrangements I made before I left proved to be wrong. The people in my former office let me know about important mail and helped me solve many problems. The staff office of my institution helped repeatedly with questions that arose about online access and email. Good friends helped with storage of furniture, boxes of books, clothes, papers and accumulated detritus of 60 years. My old convertible is on blocks in the hangar of a good friend and will be great to drive when I get home next summer. That same friend made sure I had wheels while I was home for my visit. Even my sprinkler guy sends me encouraging emails from time to time. I think the Peace Corps should provide some recognition of partial Peace Corps service for those back home, who make it possible for volunteers to work abroad for 27 months. In my case for sure it is definitely a group effort. If I have not officially thanked all of you, I would like to do so now.

I got in some skiing and some flying and even did a clinic to benefit two worthy local causes (Wilderness Within Reach which flies disabled people to backcountry ranches for a weekend each summer, and ACE Academy put on by the State division of aeronautics to teach high school students about careers in aviation- I wish I could enroll some from the Aviation Club of Korca in that). Dinners and parties were appreciated, and, while it was absolutely wonderful to see everyone, I did gain about five pounds.

As planned, I packed mostly books and donated equipment for my counterparts in Albania for the trip back. This included a 20X20X20 inch box of electronics for Dr. Isufi, the number one item on his wish list when we first met. It barely complied with the current weight and size limits for the airlines. It was well padded and marked “fragile” and had my name and address of the Peace Corps office in Tirana written on it inside and out. No doubt you have guessed that it wasn’t on the carousel at Tirana International after I arrived.

It was a chain of errors, of course. I should have checked more carefully on the routing when I checked in. I should have checked at each stop to make sure it was transferred, especially in Paris where it had to change airlines, but I was lulled into a false sense of security by the ease with which my large checked bag had made it home. I had forgotten another flying maxim, “when everything seems to be going right, you are obviously missing something”.

I spent the weekend in Tirana because the Peace Corps medical officer had scheduled my close of service physical exam for Monday. This has to be done within 90 days of leaving and we wanted to use my travel through Tirana to get it out of the way. My friend, Catherine, from Permet, met me at the airport to help with the large box that never came. With my still limited Albanian, I filed a missing baggage claim with the lost luggage office at the airport. Early the next morning I emailed Delta and Malev airlines to ask for help. On Monday, I talked with the Peace Corps staff and enlisted their help as well. I fretted as each day passed and I heard nothing.

Catherine and I celebrated Valentine’s Day under this cloud. We went to a wonderful Italian restaurant in the trendy Bloku district of Tirana and went to a French pastry shop for dessert not far from that. I left early the next morning to catch the bus back to Korca. There was no bus again, so I caught a furgon. Before I got to Elbasan I got a call that the box had been found, but was damaged. The Peace Corps staff was arranging for it to be delivered to them and they would bring it next weekend when they came for the Close of Service conference at the Hotel Grand in Korca beginning on Sunday. I worried if all the pieces would be there or if it would still function.