This visit has been planned for months. Understanding the timeline for construction in the village of the new facility we knew March would be a pivotal time for Mom to visit. God has gifted her with a good eye for decor and keen mind in spatial planning so we wanted her to be able to check its status and assist in making some key decisions for fixtures and other design elements. Around the first of the year, it was decided she would be joined by some other friends from Central Illinois who have been long-time partners in ministry here and had expertise to consult on construction choices moving forward.
Of course, no one could have predicted the spread of Covid-19 and the drastic measures that would need to take place in order to moderate its spread. We learned it had reached Albania the day the team was leaving the USA (a Monday). They decided to continue with their plans, understanding that their 13 day trip would likely need to be abbreviated.
The group arrived on the 10th (Tuesday) and came straight to the village for a tour of the work site before continuing on to Tirana, where they would be staying for the majority of their stay (or so we thought).
It's not fair she can look so beautiful after 20 hours of traveling!
Wednesday morning we met the group at the tile store. Here is a sneak peak at our selections...
After lunch at our house, a trip was made to a light store and a local hardware/building supply store and further selections made.
We held a prayer meeting with our staff during what would have normally been the hour for Bible study and youth group. The team returned to Tirana, but not before the country had shut down all restaurants and coffee shops.
I won't soon forget Thursday morning when I awoke to messages that President Trump was calling for a ban on travelers entering the United States from Europe. It took us about an hour before we realized that it didn't pertain to our group, but it was already too late to reach the travel company through which tickets had been purchased. Their phone lines were down. Thus started the first of many epic marathon's on the phone for Nathan. He started at 6:10AM Thursday morning, and was still on the phone when the group arrived around noon. In the end, Nathan booked them new tickets on flights leaving Monday morning via Lufthansa.
Anticipating that they would get to meet some of our neighbors, the group brought hospitality gifts to share. Above, Linda assembles some gift bags with the hopes that we might be able to distribute at least a few items to folks, if even through barred gates.
Jim, one of the team members, is an HVAC specialist. Thursday afternoon, he and Mom were providentially able to meet with the local HVAC man recommended by our contractor. This guy was SUPPOSED to be in Italy, but was prevented due to Albania's travel ban to Italy. Many options were discussed, but in the end, everyone was extremely pleased with the options presented, the expertise of the installer, and were so glad he could meet up with them when he did.
An hour later, it was announced that after midnight, it would be forbidden to drive private vehicles through the holiday weekend. March 14 is "Summer Day" in Albania and typically celebrated by outdoor festivals and eating out in restaurants. This year it fell on a weekend and we suspected the government was trying to squelch a few days of massive movement within the country while folks celebrated. I hastily made a trip to a local grocery store in the next village over. This photo makes it look worse than perhaps it really was. But you get the idea! I realize this is not an unfamiliar site to many of our friends in the USA.
Since we only had a few more days with the group and we didn't want to be in the same country yet not see each other, we made the decision for the group to drive back to Tirana for their belongings and return to the village later that evening to ride out 'quarantine' in the village with us. As all of our programs were cancelled through the end of the month, we put Joe, Jim and Linda into the center below our apartment. Mom and Hannah bunked in Ellie and Reni's room.
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| Hannah works on a word search |
Friday morning the gang hit the outside space hard. They cleaned up our garden, picked up sticks, cleaned out some cardboard left over from the earthquake soup kitchen, and trimmed an overgrown tree.
Reni slipped out to the deck to do his school reading. Yay for sunshine!
The tree above had branches drooping down on the ground on our side of the wall before this photo was taken -- Jim was too quick before I could snap a 'before' photo. When you don't have a chainsaw, a sawzaw works well!
Joe took on the task of cleaning out our chimney! We have such poor quality firewood, this is a task that frequently needs repeating!
Believing technology can solve many problems, Nathan took a video with his phone to view the places in the chimney we could not see with our eyes.
Sure enough, something was lodged in the stack, likely knocked loose by the earthquake. Linda volunteered her long, skinny arms to retrieve the blockage! She was successful!
The kids were so glad to have Aunt Hannah around! They played with her like having another kid around the house. It made me so happy. This has not been their typical way of interacting!
They held foot races in the court yard, using a nerf gun as the starting pistol.
The biggest home project the guys were able to tackle was installing some can lights in our home. Uncertain how much time would be needed for building project shopping and meeting, we had purchased supplies for a few projects in the event we had extra time in their schedule. Little did we know that we would be house bound five days!
We LOVE our wood ceilings, but they do make for very dark rooms in the evening. Though we have a number of table and floor lamps, and the single bulb on the ceiling fan can be glaring by itself and still leave portions of the room in shadows.
These lights, when finished, made a HUGE difference in the feel of the space.
Before, it was challenging to host dinners or games in the evening as it was literally too dark to read at our dining table or on the couches (where we have Bible study). The addition of these lights will be a significant help to us in extending hospitality to our friends!
Sunday morning Nathan and Genti delivered some bunk beds to a family who was forced to move into a tiny lean-to when their home was deemed unstable from the earthquake. We learned that while they had shelter, they were trying to sleep three people in two single beds because that's all the space permitted... Now with bunks they can all sleep comfortably!
Thank you AGAIN to all who contributed to earthquake relief! Without your gifts, we couldn't meet needs like these!
I forgot that Jim and Linda took part in the portrait project back in 2014. Back then, I matched them with our neighbors, S & Z. You can imagine the Schrock's surprise to discover they were staying directly across the street from the couple whose photo has been on their fridge for the past five years! Of course we had to meet -- unfortunately, this visit was limited, but I was so glad we were able to make it take place!
This was as close as we got! Sunday morning we walked over to the construction site and prayed for each room in the new facility -- for the people who would use each space, for God's purposes to be fulfilled.
We ended up on the rooftop with a great view down our village's main street!
We headed up the street to say goodbye to some special friends (because silly us assumed they would be leaving the next day)! We never hugged, though we didn't quite keep a meter between each other.
This was the appropriate handshake at the time. :-)
They couldn't find chicken breasts in the store earlier, so they bought a whole chicken instead. Joe carved it up for us for our Sunday dinner!
Then we found out after lunch that the Monday flight was canceled. A couple more hours on the phone and they were re-booked for Wednesday since Lufthansa were cutting their daily service to only two times per week
Nine people can generate a lot of trash.
Trash pick up is only once per week and since 1.) we don't have garbage cans with lids (if you can find them, they are VERY expensive to buy), and 2.) we didn't think with the driving restrictions that we could drive to the closest dumpster (about 1-2 miles away), we had been storing it in the crawl space under the house.
Unfortunately, cats found a way through a tear in the screen and tore open all the trash bags. Joe and Jim devised the screen repair with pieces of an old hamster cage and zip ties. It's so nice to have a critter-proof room!
(below) Reni devised an obstacle course around the building for exercise! Whatever you do, avoid the acid puddles!
We have never been more thankful than now for our little deck which affords us some place to sit outside in the sunshine! Soaking up that Vitamin D and melatonin! Not to mention, it just gives us more room to spread out when we have extra people in our apartment!
We had eaten supper Monday night and were in the middle of devotions when my phone buzzed, "Flight cancelled." It put us on another course that would last until nearly midnight.
We ended up cancelling the second set of tickets and purchasing a third set of tickets, this time on Austrian. Afterwards, we calculated that Nathan clocked a total of 13 hours on hold. Needless to say, I will probably get a pit in my stomach the next time I hear the United Airlines theme song, and for a long time after!
Tuesday morning I woke with my stomach a knot of nerves. I'm typically an even-keeled person, but two sets of cancellations left me leery that our new plan would stick. Feeling responsible for our guests, I couldn't help but mentally map out Plans A, B, and C if they didn't get out on Wednesday (which by this point, we were hearing rumors that the airport was closing on Friday).... which included, how will we do life and feed everyone if they are here for a month? Not impossible, but potentially challenging.
We tried to keep ourselves busy, which included caulking as many windows as we had caulk for (we eventually ran out and that project was incomplete). The weather is really hard on the building and this is a regular maintenance issue.
Tuesday afternoon the Schrocks were great sports and played with the kids outside in the courtyard so some of the adults could pack and nap before the 2AM airport departure.
Finally, it was time for bed and 'goodbyes'. Those are never easy for Ellie, especially when we don't know when our next visit will take place.
The group ended up being able to leave as planned. We got word before going to sleep Wednesday night that they made it to Chicago. In my mom's words, "The plane was full of Gen-X-ers and aid worker types." Later, I figured out she meant it was full of college students (gotta work on learning those generational names, Mom!) likely going home from study abroad experiences. I guess they felt like the old folks in the group.
In spite of all the stress and anxiety, it was still so good to have them here. We were able to accomplish almost all of the most important things they came here to do (with the exception of clearing more of the ground and re-routing some drainage -- but that can be done with local help). We regret that there were so many people and experiences we were not able to share with our first-time guests to Albania. They had a very limited exposure to this beautiful land and its people, however they never complained! We prayed God's protection over them as they encountered who-knows-what in between here and home. They will all be staying home (as it seems everyone is anyway). Maybe this is what it will take to get my mom to figure out how to order her groceries online! :-) Oh how I wish we had that service in the village! :-)
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