Week 1

[Picking up from October's blog post]... Monday, November 1st we enjoyed breakfast outdoors at the family-owned inn before leaving Kruje. (We were on a mini-retreat hosted by our regional director, Joy, who was visiting Albania for about a month). It also feels like the last day we saw the sun...

I've fallen in love with Albanian breakfast: hot mountain tea, homemade fig jam, crumbly white cheese, fried eggs, petulla (like a mini donut, minus the frosting), tomatoes and cucumbers.
Eating it in the sunshine with a view of mountains... the cherry on top.

We got back to the village in time to attend Pastor Genti's "virtual tour" of Tropoje and Valbona for the students at VT. I learned so much -- and was happy to do my part to mist the students with water while he played a video of riding the Koman Ferry and pointed out villages in passing.

Living in Albania we get to meet a lot of different people... but not everyone is someone who found me on a Google Search! Below is Lisa and her husband, Chris. They came to Albania on a scouting trip for a future midwifery trip Lisa hopes to lead. In the course of their travels through the country they stopped by the village and blessed us with a number of supplies and gifts. We are grateful that they entrusted those to us to distribute to those with needs!

The next day we would take some of those gifts on a visit to a resort on the northern coast of Albania that is housing more than 1000 refugees from Afgh@nist@n. Albania is serving as a 'lily pad' country -- that is, Albania is hosting them until they get their documents for their ultimate destination (if they do not choose to stay here).

We found this statue of Liberty at the entrance to be quite symbolic for these folks fleeing persecution. Most are journalists, judges, politicians, women's activists, etc.

We traveled specifically to meet a family known to my college roommate who visited that country 2 years ago. My roommate (whose name I won't publish here) is working with a network of concerned parties to help extract people in danger who were stranded after our military withdrew. I am photographed above with my colleague (our regional director), Joy, and our new friend, "Jayla." The trauma that her family endured and what they are continuing to process in this transition I can't put into words. I can only say that the news suddenly had a lot of new faces and names to us after this visit. Please pray for this family, though we cannot share their names. They are hoping to emigrate to Canada. We are working to connect them with some friends we have on the west coast (BC). It's amazing to see how God is connecting them from my college roommate, to us, to these friends whose first words after I messaged her were, "We've been praying to help a family from Afgh@nist@n, we just didn't know who!"

Don't tell me God does not see and care. May we be faithful to respond to His nudges.

After the sermon, I facilitated a demonstration with some of the youth to bring home the point. :-)

The first Friday of each month we host our staff for supper after church. It's a great time of fellowship with them and their families. We've been guilty in the past of being 'too busy' so we're trying to be more intentional to foster community within our team.

Weekend Trip to Kosova

Saturday, shortly after kids club and a quick lunch, we met Joy along the highway and drove up to visit our colleagues, the Meeses, where they live and work in Prishtina! They are part of our area team, but we had never seen where they live and work!

The drive on the highway up to the Kosovo border was beautiful! I had never seen it this way before!
Except for the village homes, it could be West Virginia, no?

We arrived after dark on Saturday, checked into our Air BnB and enjoyed supper at the Meese's apartment. Sunday morning they took us downtown to see the Prishtina's landmark, the Newborn sign!

On the pedestrian walk we treated ourselves to cotton candy (only $0.50) and roasted chestnuts!

And of course, we stopped for a famous Kosovar machiato. I had to take a pic of these two who matched the black and white decor...

In the afternoon we visited the church where they serve.

It had a beautiful autumn display out front! Isn't it lovely?

The sign reads: Thank the Lord, because He is good. His goodness continues forever.

How we enticed the kids to look forward to this trip: an opportunity to eat at an American restaurant (nevermind that they had never eaten Dominoes Pizza before!)

Monday morning we got to tour the school where they work. It was a beautiful place!

On the return to Albania, we stopped for lunch in the border town of Prizren. It has a charming little downtown heavily reflecting Turkish influence.

Many tree trunks in the old town are decorated with crochet work....

By Monday evening we were back in the village and back to regular life again!

Week 2

We put some more finishing touches on the kalçeto in preparation for a multi-team scrimmage we would be hosting on Saturday. That included finishing the bleachers (built around some water storage tanks) and installing the trim around the field (to protect the balls from damage).

They aren't fancy, but they were economical :-)

Immediately after Saturday morning kids club, we kicked off our first boys soccer tournament! We were pleased that a friend from YWAM brought his team down from Shkodra. Mandi picked up a van load of boys from Metalle, and along with some kids from Vlashaj, we had a regular little squad! (not all are photographed below).

This kid (Reni) LOVES soccer. He is there every time the field is open. His competitive nature means that he takes the games so seriously. It's providing a lot of moments for character development!

After the scrimmage, we fed the kids (about 50!) hot dogs and cola! They were thrilled.

A few hours later, we went to the Hope Center and enjoyed a harvest party of group games.

We love seeing Ellie and Reni making friends with these students.

The next morning we joined a crowd of folks in the center of Tirana for a celebration of 30 years of religious freedom!

Week 3

The outdoor worship service lasted about 90 minutes before it was eventually ended due to cold and rain. We were proud that "our pastor", Pastor Genti, gave the closing prayer.

Sunday evening we joined special friends to make a team in a Quiz Night fundraiser for VT Albania. We came in 3rd or 4th place -- an improvement over the last time we played together!

The photo below is only interesting to anyone who has visited the Planters apartments in Tirana. They are in a communist-era building and the outside has always been a bit 'rough' looking. Recent beautification efforts have now brought new paving around the building, including the space between buildings which has been a real mess for the 20 or so years that we have been in this part of town!

This is how we feel at the end of every day. And especially grateful for a warm pup who likes to snuggle and help us stay warm on these chilly fall days and nights!

It has taken a saint's patience to deal with the slow progress on completing the kalceto's construction. (Newsflash -- it's still not complete -- they need to bring a crane in to seal all the seams around the roofline).

But in November we finally got our curtained walls to block the cold wind and rain. It also is quite effective at blocking noise during the games too! In the summer, these curtains can be slid to the side or removed altogether to let fresh air blow through.

Tiffany invited Josh Reeve from Tirana to do a staff training on the theology of disability in the Bible. She graciously allowed us to join and hear it all again! Such good stuff!

Week 4

Week 4 started bright and sunny! Nathan and the kids joined our Argentine colleagues who organized a hike to a nearby 'lake' with our young neighbor friends.

Where was I? I was on the couch reading academic articles about collaborative relationships between native and non-native English speaking ESL teachers!

But as you can see, I was not alone! This is Lucy's favorite position when I'm doing homework on the couch.

We had guests arrive from America -- Gordon and Carol Schrank! Because their flight was delayed and they arrived at 3:30AM, we did not get our traditional airport arrival pic. But within a few hours of arriving, we had them up and over at the center for a game of Thanksgiving-themed BINGO with the VT students.

Wednesday night we had a farewell dinner with our friends who are returning for a 4-month visit to Argentina for the first time in 2 years. Our kids will miss each other!

We had a crew for Thanksgiving! Thirteen!

Afterwards we worked off some of our food with a fun game of volleyball.

Friday after Thanksgiving, after our evening church service, we put up new Christmas decorations. Our old tree remains, pitifully out of scale in our large sanctuary now, but we will save up for a larger one next year. I had the idea to hang large decorations from the ceiling -- sort of filling all the vertical space overhead as there are few places to hang decorations on the wall.

I found some stars and balls in our price range. With some fishing line, hot glue and magnets, we were able to hang them from the suspended ceiling grid!