Project Kineta

The illness of our professor delayed us getting started working on our projects here in Albania for almost a week but gave us some good time to see some of the city and get to know some of the students we will be working with. Professor Ted Lewis who was teaching in Italy at the time was flown in to temporarily replace Professor Houston and we were able to get back to class. Just the other day we got the opportunity to go and visit the community our projects deal with. This community is known as Kineta, it is a small residential neighborhood that is on top of former swamp area. After the fall of communism in Albania in 1992 people began moving to this area and illegally building houses on the land that was there. There was no form of infrastructure set up for people to live there so they created their own, ditches where dug to manage sewage, garden hoses and other plastic hoses run to carry water, and self spliced power lines for run electricity. The community has spent over 10 million dollars on this infrastructure but because it was all spent individually it accomplished very little. Our projects deal with improving these areas as well as others.

PROJECT KINETA PHOTOSHOW

Professor Houston

We began classes on Monday afternoon where Buie Seawell, an ethics professor from DU, discussed some of the ethical issues we will be facing and Mark Taylor, a Construction Management professor from DU, talked about project management. Buie left and Syl Houston, a professor who has been traveling with us, was going to build on what we had been learning from Professor Seawell. The day that he was to begin teaching he came down with some type of food parasite and had to spend the day in bed and over the toilet. He remained sick for two days but was feeling better Friday afternoon. That night he woke up from his sleep throwing up blood. He was going in and out of consciousness but was eventually able to call and get some help. We rushed him to the hospital here in Tirana. Albanian hospitals are about what you would expect in a third world country so the facilities were not very good. Our professor did not feel comfortable with the facilities or the doctors and requested that no procedures be performed in Albania. We had already begun the process to get him air-lifted out of the country but were encountering some difficulty. His blood pressure was dropping and he was continuing to vomit up blood; it was becoming clear that something had to be done or he would bleed to death. The decision was made to stick a scope down his throat into his stomach to see if we could tell where the blood was coming from. The scope was not able to find any holes, ulcers, or any other cause for the bleeding, it was clear however that his stomach was completely filled with blood. We decided that he needed to get out of the country as soon as possible. We were able to get a medical plane to Tirana but then the doctors here felt that his condition was not stable enough to make the trip. For several hours they were trying to get him stable enough to travel, during this time his blood pressure almost dropped to zero twice. It was decided that something had to be done and it had to be done immediately. He had just thrown up again so the doctors did the scope one more time before cutting him open just to check and make sure there wasn’t anything they could do from the inside. They got the scope into his stomach and Houston began thrashing and rolled over onto his stomach. This gave the doctors a perfect view of a little hole that blood was squirting out of. They could see each heart beat. It was a blood vessel that had burst in his stomach and was not stopping because of the asprin he had been taking from being sick. They were able to cauterize the spot and create a temporary patch. They kept him in Albania for another 24 hours while he was being stabilized and then he was flown to Germany where they were able to fix the problem more permanently. While in Albania he lost a lot of blood which was replaced by blood several of the students on our trip donated. In the end his blood was entirely replaced two and a half times. This caused some minor complications during recovery in Germany because most of the blood he got was universal donor blood not his actual blood type. He is doing much better now and last I heard he was getting ready to fly back to Denver. Please keep Professor Houston in your prayers as this was a very frightening experience for him and he still has a lot of recovery to go through.

Tirana, Albania

I have really enjoyed the first half of my study abroad experience, now it is time to switch gears and do some real work in Albania. We are staying in Tirana, the capital city, on Mount Deity at a resort know as Château Lindza. Tirana lies in a valley about 30 miles inland from the sea. Driving through the countryside I was shocked at how green it is here, we passed several small farm houses and people busy at work with their daily life. It almost feels like I traveled back in time the way that the people here just live off of the milk their cow produces and the vegetables they can grow in their garden. A much simpler life than we are accustomed to in the states. The actual city of Tirana is much more modern. They have been subject to lots of corruption and scamming which creates a very unique culture. The most recent revolt or revolution of the people was only eight years ago in 1997 when the whole country was destroyed by pyramid scams. The latest thing is gambling, there are electronic casinos on every corner and big pushes for some real casinos to move into Tirana. I have enjoyed getting to know the Albania students we will be working with on our projects. They are very friendly and lively similar to other Mediterranean and Balkan cultures.

TIRANA PHOTOSHOW

Sailing in Greece!

This part of the trip was one of the selling points for me and something that I have really been looking forward to. Our group of 20 students was split up into five teams and put on a sailing yacht with world class skippers. Four of the five skippers were members of the first all women’s Americus Cup team! We spent a week learning about the boats, sailing, and team building. Our last two days in Greece we were on the main land in Athens. I saw the Acropolis and other Greek ruins and also made it to a Greek night club!

GREECE PHOTOSHOW

Weekend in Italy

Probably the craziest weekend of my life! In 54 hours and $50 I saw Venice, Florence, Pisa, and two of Cinque Terre’s five villages. I had Thursday night through Saturday night off and was determined to see as much of Italy as I could. Tyler, Ben, Ashley, Liz and I set off on an adventure I thought could only come from Hollywood. From relaxing gondola rides in Venice to packed sleeper trains, 2:30 AM sight seeing to relaxing naps on the beach it was the best we could have possibly done with the time we had. You’ll have to ask me about running from the corrupted train conductors and diving off cliffs into the Mediterranean!

ITALY PHOTOSHOW