Friday afternoon was a momentous day. It was our first day of driving independently in this country! After half a day of homeschool, we packed up the vehicle (I still don't know what to call it -- I suppose it's like a minivan, but think "European delivery van" with seats) for an overnight in Vlashaj. Armed with some out-of-date Google maps printouts, we satisfactorily navigated our way to co-op, then high tailed it to beat rush hour traffic in Tirana (while eating ham and cheese sandwiches on chewy Albanian bread) to drive across town, plus another 17 km beyond to reach Vlashaj by 5:30.
On Friday evenings there is an informal church service in the ministry center and we wanted to invite the youth to join us on the upper level following church for Uno and popcorn. Somewhere the message was lost and nearly the entire group of attendees (about 25 individuals between ages 3 and 40) came upstairs for 'game night'. Needless to say, we were caught a bit off guard by a crowd four times larger than we expected, but Jesus multiplied our 'loaves and fishes' to be just enough!
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| Poor Abby learned that the "house rules" here vary considerably from the way she's always played! Of course she was more than good natured about it! ;-) |
The crowd dispersed around 8PM and we made up our bunk beds, put the kids down, and collapsed with gratitude that we had made it though the day!
After watching a beautiful sunrise and our neighbors drive their livestock up our street, we ate a simple breakfast Saturday morning and headed downstairs for kids' club. We told Reni that he had to wear his 'power boots' -- and he did for a while, but was extremely self-conscious in them. After about 45 minutes we took them off and he was his old self again.
During one of the songs, the children march one way,
then change direction and march the other.
Ellie loved the singing so much that she started singing the songs in (her version of) Albanian on the way home. It was so sweet! I take it as a sign that she's trying to learn the language. I even heard her chastise her bird in simple Shqip this afternoon!)
We learned earlier in the week that the lesson would be on the life of Abraham, so I put Anna and Abby in charge of coming up with a craft. Anna had the idea to make origami stars (based on God's covenant with Abram in Genesis 15).
Lacking table space, Anna demonstrates the folds on the wall.
Needless to say, with translation, it took a bit longer than anticipated to walk through all the necessary folds. The English class released and a few of those students decided to come in and take up the challenge too...
Eventually the younger kids (i.e. most of the boys) gave up and started playing their own games (though we were amazed how long they stuck with it). One particular boy took a special interest in Reni and I can't believe I caught the moment below... be still my heart. Reni has made his first Albanian friend.
Getting close to the end!!!
The boys (led by Reni) decided they'd much rather have paper airplanes... though a few sneaky ones made off with Anna's sample stars too!
We made it back home by mid afternoon and crashed with tired bodies but happy hearts! Looking forward to many more weekends to come!
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