It’s been 10 days.  It seems that the 10 months of Albanian training were highly useful; I’ve been able to converse with people that I’ve met, and I’ve understood about 85 percent of what I’ve heard.  Of course, it is the 15 percent that you don’t understand that gets you into trouble, but that’s where Unë nuk flas shqip mirë, me ngadalë, ju lutem comes in handy.  (I don’t speak Albanian well, more slowly, please.)  The blackouts continue daily, but our generator works well. Cooper has calmed down considerably after five days, and he has responded well to some training….
