In this interview, you’ll hear from Nathaniel Wilkinson, a Peace Corps (CED) Community Economic Development volunteer in Albania. Nathaniel shares what daily life looks like, the work being done, and how service has shaped their personal and professional growth. You’ll learn about housing, cultural differences, project work, language learning, and what it’s like to live and work in a new country. This interview offers a real look into Peace Corps service and what future volunteers can expect.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Social Identity
- Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. What do you do as a Peace Corps Development volunteer in Albania?
I’m assigned to a local government’s EU Integration and Projects unit in Albania’s northern-central region. The municipality’s strategy is to focus on projects relating to youth development, tourism development, and environmental/cultural preservation. We are currently applying for cross-border collaboration grants with various municipalities and NGOs in Montenegro and Kosovo to complete projects in one of the mentioned fields. My counterpart has also asked me to coordinate additional volunteers from the European Solidarity Corps (or ESC, Europe’s own youth volunteering program, similar to the Peace Corps). In collaboration with ESC and local youth volunteers, I’m aiming to complete additional projects in fields aligned with the municipality’s strategy.
2. Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps and serve in Albania?
I’ve always had an interest in international cultures and had a strong desire to live abroad during undergrad. The Peace Corps approach to language learning, cultural integration, and “do-no-harm” approach to their operations offered exactly what I wanted. Albania’s organizational development program aligned well with my academic background and will hopefully springboard me into a career relating to international development after service.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. What is your housing like in Albania?
After living with a wonderful host family at site for six months, I decided to move into a vacant apartment in an adjacent building. The apartment building is a concrete complex, constructed by political prisoners during the communist regime. Concrete does not offer much insulation, and households adapt to this by sectioning off their homes into cell-like rooms. A communal living/dining room will have a wood-burning stove or furnace to stay warm in the winter, while every door and window is opened to maximize air flow during the summer. I still usually eat dinner with my host family once a week to maintain that relationship
4. What moments or interactions stand out during your service?
Only a few weeks into service, and after work one Friday, I went down to a bar where I’d befriended the owner. My friend was busy with clients, but a few locals invited me to sit with them. After sitting with them for an hour, they invited me to attend a family gathering in the mountains that weekend. I called my host mother and put her on the phone with my new friends to explain the situation.
After making sure that she knew where I was, what I was doing, and that she was comfortable with it: I climbed into a screaming-orange van, drove an hour into the mountains, purchased a sheep, drove another hour, slaughtered the sheep, slept in a cinder block structure in a room with 5 of my new friends, feasted on the sheep the next day, then returned home – all in the same clothes that I’d gone to work in on Friday morning.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about living or working in Albania?
The gender dynamics/roles have been the biggest surprise to me. Spouses serve a much more functional role, necessary for navigating family affairs and domestic life. The beauty standards for women are very high; oftentimes, you will see girls who look like they’re going to a prom or homecoming dance, and they’re only going for their evening walk with friends on a Tuesday. The boys, meanwhile, all wear skinny jeans and white/black T-shirts in the summer and puffer jackets in the winter. What matters more to the men is their haircuts; they’ll visit the barber once a week to maintain their skin fade.
6. What challenges have you faced in your Development work, and how did you respond?
A phrase I remember vividly from high school theater is: “hurry up and wait.” I think this also applies to the nature of local government work. One is frequently working with many different entities, either locally, nationally, or internationally. Each one has different priorities and timelines that require different levels of attention and patience. Hurry up, submit this grant application, and then wait a few months for a response. In the meantime, drink a coffee and call a friend from home.
7. What secondary projects have you worked on during your service?
One huge benefit of Peace Corps Albania & Montenegro is the huge number of other volunteers currently here, and its established presence in the region. Thus, there are lots of volunteer-established and maintained initiatives that offer great mediums to engage your community. I’ve been involved in programs like Girls Lead Our World (GLOW) leadership camps, and Write On! creative writing contests.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to future Development volunteers in Albania?
Don’t expect to be given directions by your host agency. The nature of volunteer work is misunderstood here, and Albanians oftentimes feel uncomfortable giving work to someone they aren’t paying. Thus, my recommendation would be to continue to be present in the office every day, but go in with a task in mind every morning. During my first few months, these were oftentimes language-related: read a chapter of the book I got from the library, Google Translate my news feed into Albanian, invite a non-English-speaking local for a coffee and have a conversation, etc.
9. How did Peace Corps training prepare you for service?
Pre-Service Training (PST) prepared me both inside and outside the classroom. I spent hours making large strides in language acquisition at school, and then had time to establish a wonderful support network of peers after class. I really appreciate how PC acclimates its volunteers into new cultures – while everyone is having their first bouts of culture shock in a host family, you go to class with Americans who are all experiencing the same thing. The solidarity you find in other volunteers creates incredible friendships that will last far beyond service.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
10. What would you tell future volunteers to pack—or leave behind?
I’m a light packer; I only checked one bag. Albania has the advantage of having access to most European amenities, so I really don’t feel as though I’m missing anything. Even if your site is in a tiny village with no larger markets, you’ll have access to a larger “banking city” where you can do all of your shopping.
11. How has language learning been for you in Albania?
Language acquisition has probably been the most fun challenge I’ve faced. Studying makes a great default activity to do in the office, and living with a family that doesn’t speak a lick of English makes great motivation. My mother and sister recently visited me after almost twelve months in the country, and I was able to translate nearly everything over dinner with my host family.
Social Identity
12. How has your personal identity shaped your service experience?
My personal identity was shaped mostly by the liberal college scene where I last lived in the States. There is a contrast between those I lived, worked, and played with at home versus those I interact with on a daily basis now.
13. Did your identity lead to specific challenges or situations?
I can’t recount a specific situation, but my social awareness has led me to change my mannerisms. Where it is completely normal to act silly or even flamboyantly back home, men here present themselves as much more traditionally masculine. I’ve even defaulted to dropping my voice an octave when speaking Albanian.
14. What advice do you have for volunteers who share your identity?
Be ready to live under new norms with your host family. Where you’ve been expected as an adult to do your own laundry, have privacy in your bedroom, or help with domestic chores, you may now come home to a bed made differently than how you left it, your laundry folded, etc. It may initially come off as an invasion of privacy, but you’ll come to realize that it’s your host family’s way of signaling that you’re one of them. They want you to be comfortable and taken care of.
Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
15. If you share content online, how has that shaped your service?
I made an Instagram account to post vlogs (nathania_albania). It’s been a fun creative outlet to share observations with friends/family back home. I’m also involved with our country desks volunteer communications team, which allows me to help create social media posts for marketing purposes and give input on how our country desk communicates with its stakeholders.
16. What final advice or thoughts would you share with future volunteers?
The best piece of advice I was given during PST was to go to your site with intentions, but not expectations. Intend to connect with your students, your host family, or other community members. Intend to learn local recipes, music, dance, etc, but if you enter service expecting anything, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, wake up every day ready to say “yes” to every unknown and unexpected opportunity that presents itself.
Are you thinking about joining the Peace Corps? If you’re curious about service and ready for something new, apply today. Like Nathaniel, you can live abroad, work with communities, and grow in ways you didn’t expect. Apply to the Peace Corps and take the next step.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Albanian Government.
