I’ve mentioned before how internet-savvy my little southeastern European host country is. Many of my Albanian colleagues and friends and even my students have cell phones with 3G capabilities, there is at least one internet cafe on every block, and everyone–and I mean EVERYONE–has Facebook. The world has progressed in such a way that if you’re not online, you miss out on a lot of interaction, and that’s particularly true in this country. My 9-year-old host brother has a Facebook, my 60-year-old counterpart has one, and some of my students even have multiple accounts. And I can’t even tease them about it because now I’ve got two accounts myself, and you’ll soon find out why.

On my first day in Albania, another Volunteer advised us to create Albanian Facebook accounts designated for communicating with people we meet here, particularly our students. Not all Volunteers choose to do this, but I’m…