Lori Merrill's Sabbatical
May 6th:
My task today has been kind of boring, but we did get essential work done. We have been put in charge of creating the name tags for the conference. This involves utilizing many colors of paper to distinguish between the different cities that will be attending (Mitrovica, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beirut, Kirkuk, Nicosia, Kaduna, Mostar, Belfast, and Derry/Londonderry), as well as being able to identify volunteers, staff, and interpreters. The problem is we can't use certain colors because they could be offensive to particular groups (no blue for the Jerusalem delegation, no red for the Mitrovicans, green is OK for a bunch of cities but can only be used for one, etc.). Who would have thought that name tags could be this political? On top of that, different groups call some of the cities by different names. For instance, one of the cities in Northern Ireland is called Londonderry by the Unionists who want to stay a part of the United Kingdom, but it's called Derry by the Nationalists who want to separate from the United Kingdom and unite with the Republic of Ireland. We had to call the city Derry/Londonderry on the name tags to make sure that no one gets upset. The same thing is true for Mitrovica- the Serbs have a different spelling for the city than the Albanians, so we have to put both on the name tag. All this is not very complicated, but it makes a fairly straightforward task a bit more time consuming.
After getting half of the work done, we took a break and went to Charlie's to get a Cappuccino and ended up having two-- Cappuccinos here are the best in the world! When we got back, we took a bit of a nap, and then the family upstairs (our landlords) came down with lunch--a food called Pleeya (spelling unknown), which is a baked layered cheese and dough dish with very little spice, and a yogurt drink.
As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, the family doesn't speak English and we don't speak Albanian, so it was a bit of a guessing game to figure out what everyone is saying. They are incredibly nice, and being with them has become my favorite part of each day.
My task today has been kind of boring, but we did get essential work done. We have been put in charge of creating the name tags for the conference. This involves utilizing many colors of paper to distinguish between the different cities that will be attending (Mitrovica, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beirut, Kirkuk, Nicosia, Kaduna, Mostar, Belfast, and Derry/Londonderry), as well as being able to identify volunteers, staff, and interpreters. The problem is we can't use certain colors because they could be offensive to particular groups (no blue for the Jerusalem delegation, no red for the Mitrovicans, green is OK for a bunch of cities but can only be used for one, etc.). Who would have thought that name tags could be this political? On top of that, different groups call some of the cities by different names. For instance, one of the cities in Northern Ireland is called Londonderry by the Unionists who want to stay a part of the United Kingdom, but it's called Derry by the Nationalists who want to separate from the United Kingdom and unite with the Republic of Ireland. We had to call the city Derry/Londonderry on the name tags to make sure that no one gets upset. The same thing is true for Mitrovica- the Serbs have a different spelling for the city than the Albanians, so we have to put both on the name tag. All this is not very complicated, but it makes a fairly straightforward task a bit more time consuming.
After getting half of the work done, we took a break and went to Charlie's to get a Cappuccino and ended up having two-- Cappuccinos here are the best in the world! When we got back, we took a bit of a nap, and then the family upstairs (our landlords) came down with lunch--a food called Pleeya (spelling unknown), which is a baked layered cheese and dough dish with very little spice, and a yogurt drink.
As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, the family doesn't speak English and we don't speak Albanian, so it was a bit of a guessing game to figure out what everyone is saying. They are incredibly nice, and being with them has become my favorite part of each day.
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