On November 26 at 3:55AM a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Albania. Ultimately it would take 51 lives and leave thousands of families homeless.
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| The black line pinpoints the location of our village home |
I got a text from Tiffany about an hour before the "big one" hit, letting me know they had had an earthquake, but that she was okay. I asked if she had bottled water and had her documents and a change of clothes nearby (it was the middle of the night in Albania, but only 7:30pm in Illinois). She thanked me for the reminder and I told her to try to go back to sleep.
The next few days would be consumed with processing unfolding news from the village, setting up fundraising campaigns, attempting to track down refugee tents, and coordinating offers of aid. And as each day passed, the number of condemned homes in the village rose to 1 in 4. By Friday, we decided that it would be good for at least Mom and I to come and visit in person, so we bought tickets on flight to Albania for Monday. It would not have been possible without Nathan sacrificing to stay and watch the kids, take my sister Hannah to work, and help with my grandfather's ongoing hospitalization, subsequent surgery and transition to nursing home.
We arrived in Albania on Tuesday night and hit the ground running on Wednesday morning. Below, Mom and Tiffany sort bags of donated clothing and bedding.
We only told three people that we were coming. It was really fun to surprise our friends and neighbors with our presence.
There were lots of tears, on both sides...
This home was the worst in the village. It is so unstable, they are not even able to salvage or remove any furniture.
Amazing how clean this table of abandoned glassware was, in spite of a large chunk of wall missing behind it...
You can view a 360 degree, virtual reality video of this entire home here. It's good to view on a phone or i-pad/touch screen. Simply drag your finger across the screen to view up, down, left and right. It's particularly effective for viewing cracks on the ceiling and rubble on the ground.
Below, Mom chats with our friend, Arjana, who has set up some tents in the muddy field across from her condemned home for her family of five.
See the video of this visit here.
These neighbors down the road from us moved their bed into their adjacent greenhouse for shelter from the rain, but wild dogs (attracted to their chickens) enter the greenhouse at night and sniff around their bed...
Our friends just wanted to talk and process what they experienced. Everyone's story was unique,
but all accounts had common elements: extreme shaking, pitch darkness, crashing sounds, and disorientation while trying to escape to the outdoors. Some struggled to escape from jammed doors.
Our neighbors up the street had constructed quite the shelter. It was obvious they understood they would be homeless for quite a while. And circumstances do not alter proper hospitality etiquette.
They had a stove, fridge, television, wood burner, and even their hutch all set up in their tent!
View the 360 tour of this amazing tent here. I love all the typical cultural moments that transpire here, as if we were not even in a tent.
Thousands of aftershocks rolled through Albania in the days following the quake. People were (and continue til now) to sleep in their cars. My colleague Betsy told me about 'phantom quakes' (sort of like having sea legs) which has required her to keep a glass of water in every room to convince her brain that the ground is indeed still (for now).
Reni's buddy, Albi, next to a tent he has been using.
Because so many have lost access to their kitchens, we started serving hot lunches from our center.
Our friends in the missionary community have been fantastic, bringing us food to share, some coming to help serve.
We serve about 50 people each day, though not all eat at our center. We package food and send it to those who are elderly to save them the effort of walking.
The beautiful thing that has come out of this tragedy has been a closer sense of community with our neighbors. This was the hardest thing for me to leave at the end of our trip.
School was canceled for nearly two weeks -- many buildings too damaged and unsafe to re-enter. That meant many bored village kids who came each day to the center to play four square or soccer or basketball for something to do!
One afternoon our friends from the International church in Tirana brought items for the displaced famlies in Vlashaj.
We put together boxes for these families which also included hand and boot warmers, gloves, socks, a solar light for their tents, Vitamin C packets, and granola bars.
A number of charities based in Europe have large quantities of used clothing which some of them passed on to us. We opened the center for folks to come and 'shop'. It was all taken!
One of the more unique stories from the earthquake comes from our friend, Merita. Her son, Flavio, is a buddy of Reni's. Flavio was expecting a baby sister in mid-December... except that she decided to make an early appearance... just four hours before the big earthquake hit! Merita had to scoop up baby Emma from her incubator in the Durres hospital and flee down four flights of stairs with an IV still in her arm. They spent the next two nights sleeping in their family's tiny hatchback.
Now, they are taking shelter in an uncle's house. He is visiting his children in Italy for the winter and so they are bunking at his place.
My friend Linda lives at the highest point in the village. Her family's home literally cracked in half. One of the bedrooms felt sunken into the ground, yet another, the part built on mountain rock, remains intact!
Linda, along with thirteen other members of her extended family are living in the three tents seen below.
To make sure we were accurately assessing the community's needs, we devised an application/survey for families to complete. On the application they could express their immediate, intermediate and long-term needs. Over lunch on Friday, Genti explained the application and how to complete it.
Because of the circumstances affecting the women in our Handmade in Albania project (four of the five are living in tents), we decided to give them payments as soon as we closed the online shop (but before the weekend's craft shows). It was pretty emotional, as you can imagine. Due to the overwhelming support of friends in America, their sales smashed last year's reord. They never needed the funds more.
Friday night's church service was well attended and Genti shared an encouraging word from the Bible about the source of true peace and hope. He gave an opportunity for folks to share testimonies of God's faithfulness to their family through the tragedy. It was a really special time.
Am I the only one who thinks it's strange to play Jenga after a catastrophic earthquake? :-)
Saturday we sold hand made items at the Christmas market at Urban Roots. From the extra fundraisers held (selling special drinks and raffling prizes), they were able to purchase some much-needed cookware and disposable dinnerware for our soup kitchen!
Following the craft show we reviewed applications with our staff. The meeting lasted nearly 3 hours as we tried to figure out plans for the upcoming weeks.
Sunday we attended the big craft show at the Rogner Hotel. This annual Christmas Bazaar is a fundraiser for the abandoned baby ward at Tirana's maternity hospital (where our Els was born and spent her first six weeks of life).
The natural disaster dramatically affected attendance as a number of people who traditionally attend had fled the area or left the country altogether. It was a bit disheartening but we still managed to makes some good connections with others in the expat and NGO world that netted us some more help for our neighbors in the village.
Then, Monday morning it was back at the airport for Mom and I. It was so hard to leave, but we were soooo glad we were able to go. To hug our friends, to tour their homes, to serve them a warm meal... it was priceless. Albania, we will be back in just a few weeks! Ju duam!
