In this interview, you’ll hear from Maria Topolski, a Peace Corps Education volunteer in Albania. Maria 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.
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. What do you do as a Peace Corps Education volunteer in Albania?
I served as a TEFL (Teach English as Foreign Language) volunteer in a shkolla 9-vjecare (grades 1-9 school), alongside three counterparts. School hours ran from 8 am to 1 pm and consisted of 45-minute blocks. I typically taught between 15-18 hours a week and preferred working with children in grades 6 and above. I also ran two after-school clubs once a week: an English club and digital literacy/coding club. Most lesson planning took place in the teacher’s lounge or at home.
2. Why did you decide to join the Peace Corps and serve in Albania?
Because I had grown up in China and other parts of Asia, had once spoken Chinese fluently and wanted to reconnect with the language, and had recently earned my degree in International Relations (with a focus on East Asia), serving with the Peace Corps in China had been my top choice. But the program was phased out soon after I had accepted, so I transitioned to my second choice, Ukraine.
Then COVID and the invasion of Ukraine happened. I was randomly placed to serve in Albania, a country I knew little about. As a Pole, I assumed I would discover some of the similarities I was familiar with among Slavic countries, due to Albania’s proximity and communist history. Of course, Albania turned out to be quite different.
So, after three months of Pre-Service Training, two years of service, and a third-year extension, I finally COS’d in January 2026. Prior to serving in the Peace Corps, I had envisioned a post-service life in China for myself—speaking the language fluently and immersing myself in a culture that meant so much to me growing up. That path was derailed, but I am thankful for the time I had served in Albania. I gained community, friendship, love, and even a dog. Albania will forever be my second home.
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. What is your housing like in Albania?
Host family apartment
I lived in a town of fewer than 7,000 people in central Albania in a newly constructed apartment with my host family for the entirety of my three years of service. My host family’s portion of the apartment was a communist-era building, and I had to cross their balcony to access the newer, adjacent section.
The apartment had modern facilities, including an A/C unit, radiator, and water heater. I had just about every appliance your average American household has (minus a dryer, which isn’t common for most European countries), allowing me to live comfortably during the extremely hot summers and cold winters. This type of housing situation is the norm for volunteers living in larger towns or cities.
Middle-class host family
My host family was a typical middle-class family in Albania. My host father—a serial stroller, always clad in a scarf, and staunchly anti-corruption—recently retired from the municipality. My host mother—curious, nurturing, and extremely outgoing—is a nurse at the local hospital. Their three kids are university graduates who currently work in Albania’s capital, Tirana. Most Albanian villages and towns have a negative growth rate due to brain drain, so I didn’t interact with many people my age in town.
My host family immediately adopted me as their own daughter and were quick to parade me around town, showing me off as the new member of their family. My host mother was an exceptional cook, always making me bountiful plates of traditional Albanian food (I still think about her byrek me kungull and fasule) and going out of her way to ensure I felt comfortable in her home. The Albanian diet can be pretty carb-heavy, but I was lucky to have a host mother who prioritized cooking balanced meals to ensure I was getting my protein and vitamins.
There were moments when I felt babied, but I recognized that this care came from a loving place. Sometimes I wished I had moved into independent housing to gain more autonomy; however, I also appreciated the safety and security of living with my host family and the comfort of having people around me in the house. By then, I was also no longer simply a guest in their home; I was family, and leaving them would have felt strangely like leaving my own family behind.
The neighborhood
I quickly grew fond of my neighborhood, got to know the neighbors, and began caring for the local street dogs living outside of my apartment. Initially, I thought I was perceived as the “crazy American dog lady.” Perhaps to some I was, but I noticed that my neighbors started mimicking my actions and began feeding the dogs as well. I ended up adopting one of the dogs I had fed, neutered, and vaccinated during service, eventually flying her to my grandmother’s house in Poland. She has become my companion from Albania.
Daily life
With regard to daily life, I worked, studied the language at cafes, frequented the gym, hiked the trails of my site, read books, tried all the restaurants in town, and took every opportunity to immerse myself in Albania’s culture. I traveled to just about every Albanian city and qarku (county), formed bonds with people from different regions, and developed numerous interests while developing an appreciation for Albania and its unique history and traditions.
4. What moments or interactions stand out during your service?
Wholesome moments spent with Albanians underscored the importance of togetherness and family life. Albanians love a reason to party, so holidays are a very big deal. During the communist era, religious practice was abolished, and many religious properties were either seized or destroyed while people faced criminal penalties for openly practicing their faith. After the collapse of communism, the ban dissipated. As a result, people were once again able to practice the diverse religions present in the region (Islam, Bektashism, Orthodox Christianity, and Catholicism). I believe this shared experience is what made Albanians religiously tolerant and also turned a good portion of the population into cultural believers.
Albanians today might identify with their family’s stated religion, but often they never actually practice or even know much about that religion. Pockets of more devout communities still exist, but it’s not the mainstream. This present-day religious freedom and harmony is one of the more beautiful things that stood out to me in Albania. Religious affiliation rarely has any meaning—everybody is accepted. Consequently, many Albanians celebrate all religious holidays, and I was welcomed in doing the same.
I had the opportunity to attend Christmas dinners, Iftar meals, and even a Bektashi pilgrimage, where I witnessed the ritual sacrifice of a sheep, which we later feasted on at a picnic—nothing went to waste! I came to realize that it’s the strong Albanian identity that trumps everything else—an identity preserved by the very unity the medieval Albanian hero and uniter Skanderbeg forged to survive.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about living or working in Albania?
Less red tape
I loved the ease of completing certain tasks without having to go through an official institution. For example, when shipping a package domestically, I simply went to my trusty bus driver and had the recipient pick it up at the destination.
On top of that, being an American (especially one who has made the effort to learn about the culture and language) put me in an especially privileged position, which made starting projects much easier. I was able to walk into schools unannounced to meet with school directors and students to promote my summer camps and other projects. A quick introduction did the trick. Can you imagine a stranger walking into a school in the US without a sign-in or official visitor’s badge? Eventually, I became a local figure, which was a result of community integration.
Laid-back approach to work
Secondly, I was surprised to see myself adapt to Albania’s more laid-back approach to work, especially coming from a fast-paced NJ/NY work culture. Similar to the rest of Europe, there’s certainly a greater emphasis on work-life balance, and Albanians lean heavily towards the life aspect. Avash avash (slowly, slowly) and family are the centerpieces of their livelihoods.
For example, a teacher’s 8 to 1 job consists of multiple coffee and snack breaks at the next-door cafe or teachers’ lounge. When faced with a personal emergency, staff members are almost always permitted to leave the premises immediately (or early) to tend to the situation. Yes, it was frustrating at first, but I slowly learned that no job is serious enough to pull you away from a little bit of fun, relaxation, town gossip, and, in some cases, real-life situations that require prompt action!
Albania’s warmth and hospitality
Finally, Albania’s warmth and hospitality were a huge shock to me. Albanians are truly the most gregarious and generous people I’ve ever met. Countless times, strangers opened their doors and treated my fellow PCVs and me to impromptu feasts, even when they didn’t have the means.
In times of crisis, Albanians come together to help each other, as was evident during the Kosovo War when nearly half a million Albanian Kosovars entered Albania as refugees and were welcomed into the private homes of host families until conditions in Kosovo improved.
During PST, my sitemates and I had fruit thrown to us from balconies on the way to language training as gifts (not heckles) to enjoy on lunch breaks. This hospitality stems from the Albanian principle of besa—a pledge of honor that places one’s dignity on the line if trust or one’s word is broken, highlighting the importance of loyalty and of protecting one’s kin or guests. Today, breaking besa will make you lose face, but during the era of Kanun Law (the old code of rules), the consequences were far more dire. My PST host father once told me that a guest is almost equivalent to God himself and should be treated as such. I certainly felt that.
6. What challenges have you faced in your Education work, and how did you respond?
The biggest challenge was the lack of accountability in and outside of school settings. Students face no real consequences or repercussions for bad grades, disruptive behavior, cheating, truancy, etc. The little discipline that does happen is often random, targeting female students, or simply ineffective. It seems like this culture of corruption is a product of what exists on a systemic level. Everybody can get away with everything, and the more powerful and wealthy the individual, the more impunity they have in Albanian society.
It was maddening to see, as the corruption is more brazen than the covert, bureaucratic corruption that exists in developed European countries and the US. Obviously, corruption this pervasive isn’t something I could have fixed on my own, nor was it something I was tasked with by the Peace Corps.
As a school-based volunteer, I did my best to showcase what fairness looks like in a classroom environment and implemented teaching strategies that did so. This included basic things like addressing all behavioral problems the moment they arose, regardless of gender, class status, etc., being strict during testing season (the classic “your test will go in the garbage if you cheat”), and composing rubrics for assignments to demonstrate how they are fairly graded. Creating that classroom culture allowed my counterparts to implement similar methods in other classes and beyond.
I was also saddened to find that a defeatist mindset was prevalent amongst students—another byproduct of the vast corruption in the country and general lack of opportunities. This and a lack of youth engagement pushed many students to believe that their efforts to change the country were useless and sometimes even nudged them into making poor decisions. Luckily, as a PCV working with youth, I was able to implement lessons and clubs that focused on leadership and agency that I hope inspired some, or at least allowed them to see, that the future begins with them.
7. What secondary projects have you worked on during your service?
School trips
The biggest challenge was that my love of travel and exploration manifested itself in planning educational and community service-related field trips for students. Luckily, the teachers at my school shared a similar sentiment and excitement for getting out of town and helped push these initiatives. As a result, I was able to plan clean-up trips to the nature sites of my town on Earth Days, and a museum trip to historical Berat. These activities were thrilling for students, as many of them had never visited sites that were just under two hours from town, let alone traveled out of the country.
Because of Albania’s ongoing problem of brain drain, I wanted to show my students that there is so much to see and learn from in their beautiful country. I hoped to spark their inner curiosity, ideas, and desire.
Coding and leadership camp
However, my proudest secondary project was co-founding Girls Leading Our World with Code (GLOW Code), a coding and leadership camp for girls, with two volunteer friends and two Balkan counterparts. Going into my PC site, I knew I wanted to do something tech-related with my community, and my school happened to have a newly constructed computer lab—part of a country-wide initiative for modernizing and promoting digital literacy/coding starting in the first grade.
Sadly, educators undergo very little training for the government’s stated tech goals, and they struggle with digital literacy skills themselves. As a result, ICT classes are often treated like a free block for students. Beyond that, almost all coding opportunities exist in the capital city of Tirana, giving priority to the youth who are more privileged with greater access to resources.
Finally, there is a significant disconnect between Albanian women’s educational achievement and their representation in STEM. Living in a deeply patriarchal society, girls in more rural communities, where Peace Corps Volunteers serve, face even greater barriers. Most have limited access to computers at home and opportunities to develop the digital skills increasingly important for education and employment.
For more information about Girls Leading Our World with Code:
- Website: glowcode.org
- Instagram: @glowcodecamp
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/glow-together/
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to future Education volunteers in Albania?
Do not set a precedent. Be firm and stick to the job you were assigned when integrating into the community. Some people may try to take advantage of you in the beginning months when things are new and may seem a bit muddled or stressful. Trust me, it’s okay to say no to the biology teacher who is trying to get you to cover all of their classes for the week.
Allow yourself to fall into a more stable routine, learn a bit of the language, build a network of trustworthy and supportive people, and become comfortable in navigating your new environment. After that, start taking more risks. Explore your interests and tie them into the community-identified problems—this will make your primary and secondary projects more successful.
At the same time, always say yes to coffee, outings, and trips. It’s a sure way of building connections with colleagues and improving your language skills. And stay on your school director’s good side—it’ll open up many doors.
Additionally, being a Peace Corps volunteer means being a self-starter, which requires strong personal drive. The work isn’t always going to present itself in front of you—you will have to learn how to initiate certain things on your own and introduce those ideas to your counterparts. The locals have their own lives, so you can’t expect them to hold your hand in the process.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
9. What would you tell future volunteers to pack—or leave behind?
Moving to a whole new country for two years can be stressful, but you can purchase just about anything in Albania. If not, you can go to a neighboring country and buy whatever you need there. Keep in mind that you’ll accumulate an extra suitcase worth of things during service (at least I did).
There are only two things I regret not bringing:
- A pair of sturdy, water-resistant shoes—there is a heavy rain season in the fall, and it’s hard to find good-quality shoes. Albanians also have small feet.
- A power transformer/converter. Sadly, some of my electronics got damaged.
Although it was fun to figure out alternatives when cooking comfort cuisines, I recommend bringing any speciality ingredients required for international foods. Again, you can get just about anything in Tirana, but these items are typically available at a higher price.
Whenever traveling abroad, I bought Thai curry mixes, kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass. I also brought herb seeds because I usually only ever saw parsley, dill, and (rarely) mint plants being sold—and I love fresh herbs. On the other hand, dried herbs are widely available. I also bought extra supplies of my favorite skin care products abroad because, unfortunately, there are a lot of counterfeit cosmetics sold in Albania. Rossmann was the only cosmetic store I trusted.
10. How has language learning been for you in Albania?
Language learning is one of my strong suits and interests, so I genuinely enjoyed the process. Language training was the most exciting part of PST for me, and I looked forward to each class. By the end of my service, I was speaking the language at an advanced level.
It’s important to dive right into language acquisition. Mastering the foundations, like grammar and vocabulary, is important, and knowing other languages is also helpful, but without active use, you can only get so far. Immersive listening and forcing myself to speak, even when I knew my language skills were terrible at first, is what significantly improved my Albanian.
I was lucky to live in a town where most people didn’t speak English, pushing me to speak more Albanian. I also worked with a tutor at my site, and over time, she eventually came to consider me part of her family. She took me on excursions, introduced me to different foods, taught me Albanian idioms, and shared books and movies with me.
Social Identity
11. How has your personal identity shaped your service experience?
Being a woman
Being a woman shaped how I experienced and understood my community. Albania is a patriarchal society with traditional expectations surrounding gender, and living in the community made those dynamics more real to me. I can only speak to my perspective, but after state socialism collapsed in the early 90s, there was a bit of a regression to traditional values, particularly in the north.
In my PST (Pre-Service Training) village, I didn’t eat meat with my host family until the return of my host father, who lived and worked in Greece. I was also an outlier in smaller bars and billiard halls, and conversations frequently revolved around finding me a nice burrë (man/husband).
Even school titles reflect gendered asymmetry: male teachers are often addressed as “professor,” while their female counterparts are referred to simply as “teacher” (“zysha”). Of course, some of these attitudes changed once it became clear that I was actually an American.
Women in the community
During service, I developed a strong appreciation for the women in my community. Many of the women I knew worked full-time jobs while still shouldering most of the responsibilities at home, including cooking, cleaning, caring for children, and managing the household. It was startling to see how much was expected of them and how much of that labor could easily go unnoticed. Most of the hardest-working people I met in service were women.
These experiences complicated my perspective on how gender can truly shape a person’s opportunities, responsibilities, and freedom in everyday life. In the US, I was rarely beleaguered by gender inequality in this manner (at least in the Northeast, where I’m from).
12. Did your identity lead to specific challenges or situations?
Growing up in a Polish household, the women in my family always had more domestic influence, so I had never experienced such stark gender disparity. I had also traveled to conservative and patriarchal countries before but had never experienced any issues, likely because I was only a tourist.
Living in Albania as a woman made me feel invisible and undeserved at times. The male volunteers I spent time with almost always received more praise from locals. I felt ignored and disrespected in discussions, crazy for holding views that weren’t even that extreme, and trapped for wanting to do things viewed as “womanly duties” out of politeness but not wanting to set expectations.
While the experience pushed me to become more confrontational and assertive, it also turned me into a self-conscious individual who was always seeking credit for my work—something that never mattered to me. I finally felt validated when other female volunteers, and eventually female students, shared their similar experiences with me.
Instead of sulking in the negativity, I made an attempt to turn it into an opportunity for open dialogue with students and Albanian acquaintances. Even if people disagreed, it allowed individuals to engage in a healthy conversation that encompassed multiple views. Since Albanian classes are primarily lecture-based, students rarely get the opportunity to debate each other in a structured setting/manner.
13. What advice do you have for volunteers who share your identity?
Depending on the context, you can feel both invisible and like you stick out like a sore thumb. It’s good to set an example for the community while also prioritizing your safety so that you don’t risk attracting unwanted attention. Find a balance by analyzing and understanding the community—some are more conservative than others, so actions deemed too extreme can cause backlash, and you definitely don’t want to ostracize yourself. Basically, pick and choose your battles.
Final Thoughts
14. What final advice or thoughts would you share with future volunteers?
For the younger folk: Peace Corps is not a study abroad! Once volunteers are given their site assignments and sworn in (at least in the PC Albania context), they tend to compare their sites to others (who’s got the better site, who lives on the coast, who lives in a tourist city, who has more access to certain luxuries).
We are here to serve a specific area and work and live like the local community, whether it’s urban or rural– it’s what makes service so eye-opening and enriching. You get to experience how other cultures live and, to be quite frank, see how a majority of the world lives. It’s a humbling experience and allows you to develop the empathy and humility many Americans lack.
Really get to know your community. Homesickness is normal, but it’s also important to jump right into site mappingand interacting with locals. This will boost your confidence and allow you to feel more included and at home. Albanians are extremely warm and welcoming and will go out of their way to help you any way they can.
So, push yourself to get out of the house. Go to your local cafe, start a casual conversation with surrounding patrons (maybe even treat them to a coffee or raki), and genuinely try to get to know them. Albanians love to joke—so make jokes! Be your authentic self. The relationships you build will make a difference in your service.
You don’t have to master the language. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put the effort into learning Albanian, but if language learning is difficult for you, know that it’s not the end of the world and you will get by. Albanians appreciate hearing even a minimal attempt at their language.
Are you thinking about joining the Peace Corps? If you’re curious about service and ready for something new, apply today. Like Maria, 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.
