A Change in Greetings

If you have ever visited Albania before, you will have been educated in the etiquette of the proper greeting.

And I don't mean the first time you meet someone or even when they make a formal visit to your home.

It's a little unwritten checklist of questions you ask and physical gestures you perform to show respect to the other person.  I appreciate the tradition and follow the custom even though at moments, the "American" in me wants to get right to the point and be efficient with my time, when the formalities seem unnecessary to repeat with someone I just saw a few days ago.

"Greetings/Welcome/Come in"
"Good morning/day/evening."
"How are you?"
"How is your family/wife/children?"
"How is your work?"
"Are you tired?"

This is repeated by both parties and it includes standing up when someone enters a room, shaking hands, embracing, and kissing, depending upon the closeness of the relationship, and so on.  And depending upon how long it has been since you have seen the person, the questions will continue to cover additional areas of life.

Yesterday we were in Tirana for Ellie's piano lesson, then later, our monthly homeschool co-op meeting.

During our parental conversation time, the weather and everyone's coping mechanisms for dealing with the cold and frozen pipes and general lack of water dominated the discussion.

At one point one of the fellow missionaries (who has lived in Albania since 1995) noted that funnily enough, a new question has popped to the top of the greeting checklist in the last week  -- as if the gravity of the weather conditions has gotten so severe as to supersede centuries'-old traditions.  I'm also pretty sure it's motivated by an even deeper human need to know if someone is suffering more or less than you.  Now, everyone is getting straight to the point and asking.

"DO YOU HAVE WATER?"

There is a reason that Jesus called himself The Living Water to the woman at the well.  It's the basic building block of life.  We can't wash our hands, brush our teeth, take a shower, cook, or even flush a toilet (much less drink!) without it.  We, along with most of our friends in Albania, are getting a stark reminder of this reality for our physical needs this week.  [And to continue the analogy, sadly, we tend to forget the necessity to regularly access the Living Water for our spiritual needs.]

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Last night we picked up Pam (our dear friend and the kids' primary teacher) at the airport after her two-month visit to the States.  As we pulled into her village to drop her at her home, had it not been 10:00PM and nearly pitch black, I would have had Nathan stop so I could grab a picture.

In front of the large pallati (apartment) complex in the center of her small town, in the place where automobiles are normally parked, were a line of several trailers holding large water tanks.  It was a sight I have never seen before -- and an indication of the severity of the problem and the length of time that has transpired,

Today marks eight days since the deep freeze began. For a while the forecast predicted a warming trend this weekend, starting today (Friday), but then returning to cold again on Monday.  At a certain level, I think everyone around us has been gutting it out, knowing an end (or at least a break) was in sight.

Added to that confidence,  Nathan had found some work-arounds with our water set-up so we almost always at least had water in our bathroom, if the pipes to the kitchen were frozen or if the city hadn't delivered water to our tank.  We went to bed last night, sleeping better knowing that we were soon going to get a reprieve from the daily stress we had been experiencing, and maybe get in a 'normal day's work', without spending so much time problem-solving and creating alternate methods for getting menial tasks accomplished.

You can imagine our feeling when we woke up this morning to no.water.at.all. It looks like BOTH of our pumps are kaput.  We are going to wait a few hours and see if warmer temps help, hoping that maybe a piece of ice was jammed up inside and that they haven't died completely.

Thank goodness we have access to the Living Water any time, no matter the temperatures, no matter if there is electricity, or operational equipment.

Do you have water?