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Since I work out of my home, going to WalMart at 9:30 PM worked. We were there until 12:30 AM! Each of them had a huge basketful of items. When we left the store it was very cold outside so I got in the car and started warming it up. When I heard the doors close I took off – and left Neritan outside putting his items into the trunk – I guess I am a bad driver after all!
We got to their hotel at 1AM and that was the end . . . I thought.
A few months later I got an e-mail from Arian saying that he talked with his family and friends about all that we did and what a good time he had and wanted to show his appreciation by making me the Honorary Chairwoman of the Stop AIDS NGO of Albania. When I read this e-mail, I was so excited I couldn’t breathe and forwarded it to my boyfriend before I called him.
Allen told me he would take me to Albania to accept this honor.
GCIV says that their home hosts are citizen diplomats and that their goal is to make a difference in the world one handshake at a time. I really hope this is true because let me tell you about all the hands I got to shake.
Upon arriving in Albania, Arian took my boyfriend (one condition of sending me to Albania was that he got to come along, too) and me to his home for dinner, where we met his father (the Executive Director of Stop AIDS NGO), his mother, wife and two children. It was my turn to be home hosted.
The next day we got to see Arian and his staff at work. We first saw their offices and then went to see the Stop AIDS van, where they worked with heroin users. Arian works closely with the police department, and they have an agreement to not go near the Stop AIDS van so as not to deter their clients. The staff was giving the addicts coffee, cookies, conversation, clean needles and condoms. They trusted Arian so they confided in Allen and me, and showed us the hollowed out cars where they lived. They asked me about America. When we left, I shook their hands. I think that “one handshake at a time” applied to them also.
We visited the Country’s Director of Public Health and discussed their problems (lack of funds and no out-reach programs). In the same building we visited the testing labs where Arian brings the blood from the addicts with whom they work to test for HIV infection. So far, no one has tested positive. After that we visited the “Gypsy Grammar School” (located in an all Romanian area of town) and discussed at length the problems the principal had. I told him about some of the programs in place for students from poverty stricken families speaking a foreign language in the US.
It was an extremely busy day and that night there was a small ceremony attended by the directors and employees of the Stop AIDS NGO. Memo and Arian Boci gave me a beautiful plaque naming me the Honorary Chairwoman of Stop AIDS NGO. In reality, this plaque represents the efforts and dedication of all GCIV home hosts who go out of their way to shake one hand at a time to make a positive difference in this world.
Famous Albanian Mother Theresa once said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not here yet. Let us begin today.” Today, let each of us reach out to shake one hand at a time and change the world.
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