Stone by Stone...

Rozafa Fortress, Shkodra (2009)

We say, "Rome wasn't built in a day."

Albanians say, "Gur, gur behët mur."  Stone by stone the wall is built

One word at a time, we are learning the language.

One conversation at a time we learn another piece of this country's story.

One experience at a time, the eyes of our cultural understanding are opened a little bit more to see a bigger picture.

It takes time.  We might grow impatient but we are growing. And building our wall.

An exclusive 'club'

The process of adopting a child from Albania is a pretty unique experience.  On average (for the past ten years), about eight Albanian children per year have found families in the United States.  We're a small club and on the rare occasion when we meet each other in person there's an immediate understanding.

Since arriving here in September, we've been blessed to meet two families walking the adoption journey in Albania.  Both arrived around the same time we did in September (one family arrived a few days before me, the other a few days after Nathan), and this past week, both finally completed all of the legal steps to go home with their children.

Last Sunday night we met together for supper to celebrate and say 'goodbye'.

The folks below are Bethany Christian Services staff.  They came to Albania just a few months before we came to adopt Ellie in 2006.  When we met them, they had four children in their nest.  This fall they returned to Albania this fall (after marrying off one daughter, and dropping two others off at college in the States) with only one still at home.

Bob likes to tell folks that he met Ellie and Reni before we did! ;-)

We rejoice that we know of THREE more families coming to Albania over the course of the next several months. (Two of them we will be meeting in person for the first time and the third we are blessed to already call 'real life' friends.  They will be returning for their second Albanian-born daughter!)

One of those families is coming for "JM", a little guy from Reni's orphanage whom we met in July 2010 and advocated for on this blog for over a year (you may have noticed that his image was removed from the sidebar over the summer). He had some medical ambiguities, so he sat on the waiting child list for a long, long time waiting to be chosen.  I'll tell you there was great rejoicing in our house this summer when we got an e-mail from the couple whom God called to step forward and call him 'son.'  Over the course of the last few months we have fallen in love with this couple through their blog posts.  JM is a blessed boy indeed to be going to a home where he will learn about Jesus from parents who follow hard after Him.

The cost of adoption is high.  That's not a surprise to most.  While a family has to prove that they have the ability to financially support the child they seek to bring home, it doesn't necessarily mean they have the money sitting in the bank to pay for an adoption in cash.  I know this family has pinched and scraped and cut back, even going from two cars to one.  They are having a number of fundraisers to pay costs of each step in the process.  While most of us aren't within driving distance of their neck-of-the-woods, they are currently hosting a fundraiser which isn't limited by distance.  Click here to find out about some shopping opportunities from some of your favorite vendors where the proceeds benefit their adoption fund!  It might be a good way to kick off your Christmas shopping!

And someday, Lord willing, you'll see their faces here as we hug them goodbye and see them go home as a family of three!

Ellie's Language Lesson

When our new friends here learn that Ellie and Reni were born in Albania, their first question is, "Do they still speak Albanian?"

Due to their age at the time of adoption, they weren't even verbal.  And from what we have learned, most children adopted internationally usually forget most of their first language within the first six months in their new country.  Difficulties with speech and language can occur when a child has partially learned a first language, then has that language learning interrupted and subsequently starts language learning all over again with a set of new sounds, rhythms and vocabulary.

However, children between the ages of four and eight are at the best stage to acquire a second language.  That is Reni and Ellie ages exactly.  We've noticed that in spite of hearing Albanian on a limited basis (basically only Fri/Sat/Sundays) they are picking up vocabulary.  We would be thrilled for them to have more immersion experience, and perhaps someday that might come.  Their educational needs for the moment (Ellie's attention challenges and Reni's mobility) make Albanian school difficult for now.

Last night we pulled Ellie into a simple language exercise with Vera.  She is holding a 'gameboard' with images depicting six emotions.  Vera moves a photo of Ellie, Reni, or myself and places it on an emotion.  She then makes a true or false statement about the person and emotion and Ellie says "po" (yes) or "jo" (no).  This is only one phase of the overall exercise, but the point of this phase is to gauge comprehension (we have not yet moved to mimicry).

A Little Musical Inspiration

Last Saturday we visited the H*pe Center and Abby (who has a degree in Art Ed) led everyone into a short lesson about an artist from the 19th century who used music to inspire his artwork, from the choices of colors to the shapes and lines of his paintings.  Splitting the students into two groups in two rooms, she played two distinctly different types of music.  Equipped with the same tools, they were given 45 minutes to have fun and let the music inspire them!  Afterwards, the work was laid in the hallway and they were invited to examine the others' work and guess as to the style of music which inspired their art!

Homeschool Fun

How do you like our green pumpkin?

Beautiful Albania | Berat (Calling all window washers...)

While we have the girls with us this fall/winter/spring we want them to see and understand as much of Albanian culture as we can squeeze in.  We are fortunate that it's a small country and a lot of places can be seen in day trips, so we don't have the expense of overnighting.  Last month during Ryan's visit (and before the time change) seemed like a good time to visit the city of Berat so he (as well as Abby and Anna) could get a view of a different part of Albania (albeit less than 65 miles from Tirana).  Nathan and I last visited in 2004 so we were looking forward to returning, armed with a better understanding of what made this city unique.

I thought some of you might also enjoy a glimpse of this pretty little corner of Albania that, according to Reni, is usually filled with "broken stuff."  :-)   That little boy is pretty wise for his 52 months of life.

To give you a little context, Berat is nestled between two great mountains (Shpirag and Tomorr) and divided by a river (Osum).  There is a fantastic legend about two brothers named Shpirag and Tomorr who fought each other over a woman named Osumi, to the point where both died and Osumi drowned in her tears.  The story captivated Ellie's imagination -- and cemented the names of these geographical landmarks in my memory!

But Berat is primarily known for its dense concentration of Turkish architecture.  In a country brimming with partially built concrete houses and crumbling communist-style apartment buildings, this city holds a rustic charm that is a refreshing change from our typical views.

Also known as the city of a thousand windows, both sides of the river are lined with homes that literally appear stacked upon each other leaving many to joke, "If you fall out the window, don't worry, you'll just land on the roof."  

Above all these homes sits an immense castle/fortress that was built before 200 BC.  It was here where we spent most of our afternoon.

We drove partway up to the castle, then parked and climbed the remainder of the immense hill to reach the little town within the castle walls.  Upon reaching the top, we discovered there was ample parking.  Oops.  There is now a nominal admission charge (about $1 per person) to pass through the gate, but once inside, there are lots and lots of little stone alley ways to explore.  We wandered around looking for something to eat, but only found one place.

The restaurant was empty of customers but open for business in the early afternoon.  The owner dropped some menus in our laps then just as quickly picked them back up again.  In Albanian he said something to the effect of, "Forget this.  You should eat traditional Albanian food."

Then he started bringing plate after plate from the kitchen.  Thankfully, these Asburians are adventurous eaters and relished the opportunity to eat an authentic meal.  And thankfully, the bill was pretty reasonable, considering we didn't ask for a single item we were served (aside from our beverages) and we had no idea the prices for any of the dishes he brought out!

We found it quite ironic to be sitting under a needlepoint of what appear to be George and Martha Washington by Mount Vernon?  Or maybe it's Schonbrunn Palace?  Who knows, it just didn't appear to fit our surroundings!

I don't even know where to begin to describe the dishes we ate... they included beans with parsley (lower left), some sort of cooked spinach and egg (far upper left), cooked green and red peppers and ground beef (mid right), greek salad with white cheese (center),  byrek with cheese and spinach (lower center), and egg plant (lower right).  The peppers and beef dish was our favorite.

Byrek (burr-eck) -- the unofficial national dish of Albania -- is basically a savory layered pastry (filo dough) that depending upon where you are geographically holds cheese and some other filling like spinach, tomatoes, or chicken or ground beef.  It's best fresh out of the oven, but usually it's been made ahead of time and reheated (albeit not always thoroughly).  The best byrek I've ever eaten was at the Greek restaurant in Elbasan and was served on a hot iron skillet as a hot pocket of filo filled with chicken, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms.

I'm a sucker for taking photos of arched wooden doors and stone walls...

Sadly, haze and dust clouded our view of the normally majestic mountain vistas.

Visiting places like this leaves me in awe of the heritage Ellie and Reni have running through their Albanian veins.  Such a hard place to live, wracked with centuries upon centuries of wars from invading armies in this crossroads between greater Europe and the middle east. At times like this their very existence seems miraculous to me.

An obligatory 'cannon shot'

Yes, this ancient stone road is just as slippery as it appears.  I can only imagine how horses and donkeys made it up in years gone by, pulling heavy loads.

Okay, I couldn't resist including this photo below.  

No, this isn't our vehicle, but it does seem like it's calling our name...

A small billboard outside of town confirmed the rumor we heard earlier that a whitewater rafting company had opened outside of Berat.  Adventure sports are still relatively new in this country (day-to-day life has enough excitement to meet most folks' need for adrenaline surges), so we are really curious about this possible activity.  Combined with the beauty of the city, I found myself wondering why this wasn't a tourist destination yet ... then we left the city limits and the road literally fell apart.  Our poor Caddy.  Maybe we won't be returning again for a while after all.

The Hands Behind the Product

Last week I wrote about how we've been working towards preparing for a couple of bazaars next month (one at the Emb*ssy and another at the Sher*ton Hotel).

We wanted to create a small "human interest" piece to include with each item sold, to hopefully make the product more meaningful for the buyer and let them know whom they had just helped with their purchase. 

Saturday morning before kids' club, we did an impromptu photo shoot with a few of the ladies.

It's such a blessing to know these women and their children (who are regular participants in programs at the center).

We can't wait until we get to see the finished merchandise!  It's a privilege to see the pride in their eyes from creating goods (they brought some pieces by for us to see after Friday night church).  Now we pray that there will be a market for their work!

Directionally Challenged?

On top of our language class three days per week, we meet three evenings per week with our language helper, Vera.  These learner-driven sessions are dictated by language acquisition projects (LAPs) we were given during the language training at M.T.I.

During these times with Vera we have learned vocabulary and common phrases/commands for everything from rooms in the house to places in the community and ways to prepare food.  Today we learned the vocabulary related to the parts of our body around our head (neck, cheek, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, hair, neck, etc.) with the various verb forms for "to point" or "to cover" the specific part with our left or right hand.

One of our favorite parts of doing LAPs comes at the conclusion of all the progressions when we get to ask cultural questions related to the topic.  For instance, are there hand gestures that might be inappropriate here?  Do you have any expressions like "she has a green thumb" or he "talks out of both sides of  his mouth?"

Vera shared that Albanians have an expression for a ravenous person -- someone who chews on both sides of the mouth at the same time.

But the interesting gem was not a phrase or idiom at all.  She told us that in years past, most folks in the village did not differentiate between their "right" and "left", so when it came time to lead armies of villagers in the military, commanders came up with a unique method for giving directions.  They would give recruits an onion for their right hand and a clove of garlic for the left hand.  When wanting everyone to go right, they'd yell, "qepë!" (onion).  To go left, they'd yell "hudhër!" (garlic).

Supposedly, some people still remember their right and left this way!

So how do YOU tell your right from your left?  :-)

On the mind...

I've lost track of how long we've been here. I had been counting the weeks, but sometime after 'eight' I think one tends to lose track.

I've come to realize they were not exaggerating at our pre-field training about how tiring it is to adjust to life in a new culture.  I feel like small things tire me out more than they used to, things definitely take longer to do than they used to, and we probably engage in more problem solving  for every day tasks than we ever used to.

Then there is the ever-present stress of walking by sick and dying animals each day (our neighborhood is full of street dogs, curled up on stoops, with oozing sores), seeing the same child day-after-day standing in the smelly dumpster scouring the trash (while he should be at school), the gypsy baby sleeping on a sheet of cardboard on a chilly sidewalk at night while his parent begs, and being approached by beggars on a regular basis with needs, legitimate or not (we've learned not to sit outside or by coffee shop windows while we study).  Last week in one 30-minute walk I passed by three bi-lateral amputee men -- two begging, one on the sidewalk too busy to beg, devouring a bunch of bananas.

Yes.  It's a lot to weigh on the mind.  Therefore I shouldn't be surprised that we are all looking forward to a break soon. This year Albania's Independence Day and Liberation Day line up exactly with Thanksgiving and "black Friday".  We may just go away (not far) for a few days.  We'll see!

On a brighter note, here are our two fierce little Native Americans (they were studying the discovery of America and subsequent settling by pioneers):

And two happy kids with some love from America!

Last week with Ryan and their personalized loaves of homemade bread he helped them make. 

(They studied bread in almost all of their subjects, including Bible - love My Father's World integration of themes through all subjects)

Last Friday in Vlash I asked our friends above to teach us a few of the steps for some Albanian folk dances we'll need to know by March for Women's Day.  I'm a hopeless cause.  I think I'll appoint myself photographer instead!  Think anyone will notice?

Finally, we are gearing up for a couple of holiday bazaars in Tirana next month. For the last several years Planters has tried to assist some of the women in Vlash by helping them create various crafts to be sold here and on a limited basis, abroad.  Most of them cannot get permission from their husbands to find employment in Tirana, but even if they could, jobs in shops are difficult to come by for any woman over the age of twenty-five (can anyone say age discrimination?). In the past, the funds they have earned through their handicrafts have helped them earn extra money for things like heating oil, medicine, and for one, her first indoor kitchen sink!

We have had a couple of challenges that we wanted to tackle this year before the first bazaar. The first has been to include more women in this project (easier said than done in a community where we are newcomers just learning the interpersonal dynamics that exist).  Another has been stepping into this role with a 'system' already in place, a system that we think has a lot of room for improvement. Our desire is to convey some education in how the free market system works and improve the current compensation system to reward  risk, creative thinking, and hard work so they do not become dependent upon us as a safety net.

After hours of scouring Etsy and Pinterest, we found some earrings that we can recreate entirely with locally available inputs. A big shout-out goes to missionary friend Krystal who directed us to the "Hobby Lobby" of Tirana (see my Instagram above) where we jewelry wire, glass beads, and earring hooks.  We found it with only minimal wandering!

We (well, mainly Anna -- the knot is quite tricky to master) made the samples below:

Celtic knot earrings in gold, transparent and peacock glass beads.

The appeal of this product is that we are paying a couple of women a 'per string' fee to string the beads, setting a limit on how many they can create so we are not overrun with unsold product.  This is a task they can do in their own homes (so no one's husband can complain that his wife is associating with someone of lower reputation while working at the ministry center).  And this is a product where we have some control over the final appearance (previous attempts at jewelry making have been hit or miss in terms of marketability).  Eventually we'd like to turn over the entire process to some of the women, but this is where we are going to start.  We're assuming a bit of the risk this year to see how these sell.  We'll keep you posted!  

Finally, after being here for this amount of time (however long it's been), we feel like we've gotten a good survey of the status of the existing ministries and what we can contribute to them.  There are some things we want to tweak in how we contribute, so as you pray for us, you can keep that in mind, primarily our Friday night fellowships and bringing more 'meat' to the figurative table.  Thank you!

Directions to 'Unknown Road'

In my last post about our weekend out 'in the village', I mentioned that we had a few hours at our disposal between kids' club and our cooking class at the H*pe Center.  We decided that since we were only about half an hour from the sea, it might be nice to get some lunch and show Ryan the Adriatic before he left Albania in a few days' time.

From Vlash, the sea is only about twenty minutes away in Durres, but it's not the prettiest place to enjoy the beach with the port close by and no easy access with all of the development making parking a challenge.  We heard that 'the locals' enjoy going to a slice of beach north of Durres and that it was a straightforward drive from our village home.  Armed with verbal directions, we decided to give it a try!

Had we internet and consulted Google Maps, this is what we would have read: "Driving directions to Unknown road."

We were told to 'turn right at Maminas' and drive until we reached the end of the road.

Apparently, we were supposed to drive to point "C", but since our friend's last visit, they had paved the road beyond, which we didn't know, so we kept driving until we reached point "B"  (see map below) where the road TRULY ended.

It took as long to get from C to B as it took to get from A to C!

We wound our way up a big hill and were met with this stunning view below (shot from our moving car since the road was only one car-width wide and there were no guard rails, we dared not stop!) -- can you see where the sea meets the sky?  I can't really see it either!

We found miles of undeveloped coast line and ended up here:  on the Cape of Rodon at a hundreds' year old church called St. Anthony's.  If we had known where we were, we would have known to hike a little further to see the ruins of Rodoni Castle where Skenderbeg and his family retreated during the siege of Kruje (1450) and were whisked away by boats to Brindisi for safety from the Ottomans.  The castle walls are now partly submerged in the sea...  But given that we were utterly lost and signage was minimal, we didn't know the history that surrounded us.

(above) Yes, that is a communist bunker in the background, behind the church to the right...

Sadly, we were hungry and on the prowl for a place to eat so we didn't stay long.  Our options didn't look promising given the sparse population of the surrounding environs.  We had been told there would be a restaurant with a green roof, practically right on the beach.  That should have been our first clue that we missed our turn off.

The closest thing we could find was a little portable concessions trailer with a green tarpaulin stretched over a metal frame covering about 6 folding tables with plastic chairs.  They had no menus, bit it also looked like they had no electricity so we politely climbed back in the car and kept driving.  

That is one of the largest herds of goats I have ever seen.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

We finally figured out where we were supposed to stop.  We ate a late lunch outside and kept saying, "I can't believe this is NOVEMBER!".  Finally, we were able to shed our shoes and hike down to the beach and put our toes in the water for a brief thirty minutes...

Proof that our beach visit was impromptu ... no proper swim attire.  Gotta love spider m*n undies.

 I wonder how many memories Ellie and Reni will have like this from their childhood?

We had the beach completely to ourselves!!!

And before we knew it, we had to get back to the real world. 

Thanks for letting me share a little slice of our corner of the Balkans...