Highlights from Jan's Visit

Our family blog wouldn't be complete if we didn't document our September visit from my college friend, Jan!

It's always special when friends and family go to the time and expense to visit and get a glimpse of our lives here. I suppose that can put a certain level of pressure on our roles as hosts, but visits from Jan were a normal thing before we lived in Albania, so having her here wasn't too different, in some respects!

She was amazingly flexible and accommodating of our ministry schedule and home school routine, but we did make time to show her some of our favorite places 'in the neighborhood.'

I have to admit I just went through the folder of her photos and am sharing a few of my random favorites here (in other words, all photo credit belongs to Jan!).  This post might set a record for the number of photos including yours truly, ha ha.

One of our first days included a trip up to Darshen to distribute back-to-school backpacks of supplies.   It was wonderful to have someone else document the experience and not bear that responsibility alone!

We had gorgeous weather and sunshine as you can see!

Ellie (and her parents) taught the kids a new song, which was a lot of fun...

After handing out backpacks we paid a visit to our friend, Xhesi, then Nathan pulled out the drone for a new perspective on this mountainside community.

Here is some of the footage he put together:

On our return trip, Jan and I crossed off one of my Tirana "bucket list" activities which was to finally climb to the top of the clock tower in the center.

Just looking through these photos I think Jan picked the best time of year to come!  Look at that sunshine and clear, blue skies!

Jan also got to try her hand at some Albanian cuisine!
(below: fergese -- a baked dish of cheese and peppers)

We took a Sunday afternoon trip to my favorite city, Berat, to photograph some quaint Ottoman architecture.

And then some days, just because you have company, on the way home from grocery shopping you make a spontaneous stop at an old castle for coffee (or, if you're a child, a peach soda) and to watch the planes land.  Where else can you do that?

(the aforementioned spontaneous coffee stop was at Preze, a place we can see from our living room window but which we had only visited once!)

One of Jan's greatest contributions was helping me photograph dozens and dozens of knitted goods for the village knits online shop!  You know how some projects can seem overwhelming until the cavalry comes to the rescue?  Jan was the cavalry!  We spent at least two long afternoons photographing the products on models and Jan took over the (very hard for me) role of wardrobe consultant!  On top of that, she took dozens of detail shots off models and tagged all the items as they were posted online.

So the least we could do was pay her in scoops of gelato.

Jan is a wonderful game player, not to mention she's great with kids, we all enjoyed many a game and puzzle together!

For the sake of time I'm not including photos from the kids clubs and church services she attended, nor the suppers she made and the babysitting she did while we were at meetings... but hopefully we balanced the work with some 'play' and she got to see a lot of new-to-her places.

Jan, thank you SO much for your partnership and friendship with us, going back more than 20 years now.  I'm so glad you came to see this part of the world which is so special to us and add to our collective memory bank of shared experiences!  See you next summer in DC!

Sunset from my kitchen window -- they are pretty spectacular and I can never seem to do them justice, but Jan got one too good not to share!