In this interview, you’ll hear from Isabelle Myers, a Peace Corps Education volunteer in Albania. Isabelle 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
- Fly Like an Eagle
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. What do you do as a Peace Corps Education volunteer in Albania?
My work primarily entails teaching 13-16 classes a week in a nënte-vjeçare school (grades 1-9). I often co-teach with two Albanian English teachers. Additionally, I run extra-curricular activities that help students practice English. For example, I planned school-wide and regional Spelling Bees this year, and I have an English Club. I tried to run Model EU at my school too, but that program is geared towards high schoolers. Therefore, I plan on implementing my new Model EU Junior curriculum this fall!
Outside of school, I am the National Coordinator for WriteOn! Albania, a nationwide creative writing competition. I’m also on the WriteOn! International team. We develop the materials for the program as a whole. Lastly, I am a member of PC Albania’s Peer Support Network (PSN).
When not working, I read, write, work on my blog, do crafts and crosswords, take walks, visit neighbors, and talk to family and friends. I live in a super small village in Northern Albania with no coffee shop (which is saying a lot for Albania), so I entertain myself at home.
2. Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps and serve in Albania?
I wanted to experience life in a different culture with a new language, so I applied to go anywhere and do anything. After a year of multiple medical disqualifications and thread-thin hope, PC placed me in Albania’s cohort. Peace Corps has been a wonderful and invaluable experience.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. What is your housing like in Albania?
Like many volunteers in my cohort, I moved into independent housing. My four-room apartment is rather spacious for PC standards and has a kitchen, a laundry machine, a water heater, and water/electricity on a schedule. The water schedule is, par for the course, unpredictable. My housing doesn’t currently have A/C or heating, but that will hopefully be installed soon. My old host family lives nearby, so I can still visit them and my old neighbors.
4. What moments or interactions stand out during your service?
The best experiences during service have undoubtedly been those with host families and neighbors. The people at site welcomed me into their lives and homes. They taught me Albanian dances and Albanian hospitality. They were patient when my Albanian stumbled and fell. They brought me to family events but always gave me space. They are wonderful, and I’m so thankful that they took the chance on a stranger.
Additionally, I visited my PST (Pre-Service Training) host family after about a year at site. They invited me to dinner, and I had a great time having conversations that I couldn’t have before because my language just wasn’t there.
At school, one of my best moments was seeing my quietest student become excited about reading English books from a Darien Book Aid donation. Applying for that donation was worth it just to bring her out of her shell.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about living or working in Albania?
Compared to the USA, Albania lives life on a flexible “schedule.” Especially when I got to site, it seemed that things happened whenever the wind blew them. One day, I discovered that our school had a shortened schedule only when I arrived at my empty 4th-grade class.
Also, the transportation system was a learning curve. I travel in furgons (vans) when I leave my site, and they pick me up on the side of the road. In my experience, you never really know if they’re on schedule, and there’s a lot of guesswork. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In what is now dubbed “the fauxgon incident,” I accidentally took my first trip away from site in a random man’s van.
6. What challenges have you faced in your Education work, and how did you respond?
I have had two main TEFL challenges. The first is learning to work with counterparts from a different culture. It has been a work in progress since day one. Second, classroom discipline and management have been a challenge. I teach alone a good bit, and my students take advantage of the fact that I have little disciplinary leverage over them. My program manager advised me to separate the motivated students if needed. Believe it or not, pull-aside teaching is my leverage.
7. What secondary projects have you worked on during your service?
I am the National Coordinator for the WriteOn! Competition in Albania. As the National Coordinator, I am responsible for organizing Albania’s creative writing competition and the subsequent judging. In 2026, we received 1,078 student entries from a total of 42 schools at 32 different sites across the country.
The role has been one of my favorite parts of service, and I look forward to leading the project again next year. Additionally, the WO! International team has been based in Albania since 2024. We create WriteOn!’s program materials and judge at the International judging.
During the summer, I am involved with summer camps such as GLOW Code, a coding camp for girls. I’m also planning a science camp at my school. And visit WriteOn! Albania’s website: https://writeonalbania.wixsite.com/home.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to future Education volunteers in Albania?
I am my village’s first PCV, so my community lacked experience and protocol for integrating a volunteer. Given that, I have two recommendations. First, formally introduce yourself to each class when you arrive. We entered school in April, so it didn’t feel like there was time in the schedule for a proper introduction between the students and me. In reality, Albanian schedules are flexible, and it wouldn’t have been a problem.
Second, only observe classes during your first weeks at school. Your counterpart (CP) might push for you to teach, but Peace Corps recommends the observation period for a reason. It’s needlessly challenging to jump right in with no prior information about students or your CP’s teaching style.
9. How did Peace Corps training prepare you for service?
PST (Pre-Service Training) is a fantastic language learning experience. The training did not teach the intense dialect at my site, but it provides a solid base of Standard Albanian.
Additionally, TEFL PCVs have Practicum, a 1.5-week period where we teach classes in nearby schools. We were sent to 3 schools with different grades and taught varying topics. It wasn’t a perfect simulation, but it made the real teaching experience at site seem much less daunting.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
10. What would you tell future volunteers to pack—or leave behind?
Albania has most of the things you’d ever need. I was 20 lbs under the maximum weight allowance, and I have been fine. That said, I am happy that I brought warm winter clothes and long underwear. A power bank and rechargeable lamp have proven super useful. We experience frequent power outages, and lamps aren’t common here.
Bring a backpack suitable for both day and overnight traveling. Hiking boots and good running shoes are hard to find here. You’ll room with other PCVs often enough, so headphones are great for blocking out noise in hotels and hostels. If you are an avid reader, bring a Kindle. Bring a laptop that’ll last you through service. Last but not least, bring host gifts!
11. How has language learning been for you in Albania?
Most people in my cohort started learning during PST. We were split into assigned groups based on sector, and those people constituted our language class for three months. Each group had two rotating LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators) teaching us Monday-through-Friday in a classroom setting.
Outside of class, PC encourages you to practice speaking Albanian with your PST host families. My host family spoke a good bit of English and Italian, so I didn’t practice much at home. Overall, my Albanian was average by Swearing-in.
At the end of PST, those of us going to areas with Gheg dialect were given fat packets of dialect. I was one of those people given the fat packet. To be honest, it did not help that much. People in my area have famously intense dialects, so it was an unavoidably large adjustment. I also had some difficulty finding a tutor due to my small site size. All that said, I jumped into the dialect whirlpool with an arm floatie, not a lifejacket.
Nowadays, thankfully, my Albanian is pretty functional. I speak frequently with my host grandfather and my neighbors. Standard Albanian sounds so clear and crisp that it sometimes throws me off.
Social Identity
12. How has your personal identity shaped your service experience?
I am placed in one of the smallest, most rural, and most conservative communities in Albania. As a woman, my freedom and safe spaces are more limited. That said, I rarely feel unsafe. I also struggled to reconcile my own boundaries with Albanian gender expectations (especially in the home). It took some time and adjustment to find myself in the new culture.
Another challenge has been religion. In this village, you’re either Muslim or Catholic. I have to dance around the fact that I don’t necessarily share their belief in a God. Many people find that disquieting.
Also, non-related men and women do not fraternize. My social circle thus consists primarily of housewives aged 30+. I love my neighbors and wouldn’t change our relationship for the world, but there are no younger women here, and it’s not a good idea to casually talk to a man.
13. Did your identity lead to specific challenges or situations?
Reconciling my personal beliefs with gender expectations in the home was a particular challenge. Early on in my service, I made it my thing to help wash dishes and set/clean the table. I wasn’t comfortable with much else. There are still some gender expectations that I will never perform, but I have become increasingly flexible over time.
14. What advice do you have for volunteers who share your identity?
PCVs get a pass on some things because we are “the Americans.” The standards that apply to other young women in my area do not necessarily apply to me. That sometimes means that I am the only woman in a particular space or the only woman wearing shorts, but you just have to get out there and do your thing.
When it comes to gender expectations, immediately establish firm boundaries, and keep that precedent until you’re comfortable with a change. Your boundaries may adjust over time, but it’s much easier to expand boundaries than to narrow them.
Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
15. If you share content online, how has that shaped your service?
I run a blog called “Fly Like An Eagle.” The blog has been a fun way to process and document my service. Other volunteers and people back in the states enjoy reading it, and I truly appreciate their interest.
Fly Like an Eagle
Isabelle Myers and her plan to go to Albania to teach English within the Albanian education system. Check it out HERE!
16. What final advice would you share with future volunteers?
Don’t lose hope during the medical clearance portion of the application process. I have a health condition that disqualifies me from most PC countries. It took over a year and multiple disqualifications to be placed somewhere that would work, but it happened!
Lastly, go to service with no expectations other than change. Expectations get in the way.
Are you thinking about joining the Peace Corps? If you’re curious about service and ready for something new, apply today. Like Isabelle, 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 Albania Government.
