Week 1
The highlight of August was a long-awaited visit from my mom and sister (their last visit was in November 2020). Alas, they arrived as we were at our most depleted after weeks of summer camp. Thankfully, they were content with some days of slower schedules that included visiting friends, enjoying some treats and the occasional nap! We couldn't remember the last time we were able to slow down like this! August is a month where most everything shuts down in Albania. Folks either host family visiting from abroad, take personal vacation, or lay low to avoid the heat. It makes it an ideal time for us to take a break from programs, though traffic everywhere was crazy. I blamed it on a Covid travel lag.
We were pleased for Mom and Hannah to meet our new teammates, Luis and Laura!
We retreated for a portion of the time to the Planters apartment in Tirana where we enjoyed simple pleasures like donuts and coffee and shops just a short walk away!
We usually ventured out later in the day to avoid the heat. Below, we are outside of Albania's national football stadium after introducing them to a new-ish fast food restaurant with amazing shish-kabobs
Below, Reni learned the art of crisping perfect bacon (yes, vacation for us means hot breakfast!). He agreed he would happily fry bacon if we paid for it.
Because my mom and I can't sit still for long, we also spent hours and hours sorting and purging closets and cabinets! We found some treasures languishing in storage to bring out to use in the village!
Below, enjoying lunch with Teza Vera.
Reni's birthday gift request was a shelf on which he could display his Lego builds from childhood. We went back to the village to watch The Chosen one evening and afterwards, Nathan installed Reni's new shelf under his lofted bed, including cleverly hanging some air craft with fishing line.
Week 2
During Mom and Hannah's second week in Albania, we traveled to southern Albania for four days where they got to see some of Albania's historical treasures like Butrint (a UNESCO world heritage site) and the stone city of Gjirokaster.
This may look like a posed photo below, but after hours in a stuffy car with barely-functioning air conditioning, we couldn't get enough of the fresh sea breezes at this castle overlooking the city of Saranda.
Our destination was a small, family-owned hotel in Ksamil, owned by friends of friends. They have a covered roof-top terrace that we used for playing board games and assembling puzzles.
As you can see, we got some sun too! Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the village!
One of the big bonuses to visitors is the fact that they can bring us things we can't buy here! Nathan had been eyeing this pickleball set on Amazon for months. Mom and Hannah were able to bring it over for us and below, we tried it out for the first time on our new court!
It was so much fun! We later shared it with the village kids who now ask to play "big ping pong." ha ha
Of course, Mom had to see the Koni family's new home, still in progress.
Week 3
Too soon, it was time for Mom and Hannah to depart. They left on August 15 in the wee hours of the morning, and 8 hours later we were back at the airport to pick up our next guests, Rick and Lori Lampen! They were joined by Mike Banks who had been serving youth at a conference in a nearby country. The three work in our agency's member care department and their 'job' is to help us stay healthy as we work in a cross-cultural setting with all the stresses and demands that accompany this.
We planned a day trip for our team to see the Shala River in northern Albania for the day after their arrival. The river outpost is accessed by riding in a ferry boat for about 45 minutes. As we approached the ferry terminal, the skies turned ominous, and it started to sprinkle. We boarded the boat and between the wind and the rain, we were shivering and quickly wrapping ourselves with beach towels! Such weather possibility never crossed my mind! I kept reminding myself, "This will make a great story someday!" followed by praying, "Oh Lord, please protect us from sickness!"
These little boats (below) bring a couple dozen passengers each to an outpost with a restaurant, lounge chairs, a zip line, kayaking and swimming.
It was a special time for our team to just have fun together. Instead of running our various different directions, overlapping here and there when ministries allow paths to cross, we could simply enjoy the experience of a place new to most of us.
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| Lest you be jealous, one of the two kayaks above was missing a hunk out of the front end, seeming determined to function more as a submarine than a kayak, ha ha! It added to the adventure! |
Ellie desperately wanted to kayak, so I was so glad Nathan took her out on the water and she could enjoy that experience.
The next day we met at Jeta as a team (no photos of this, :-( ), ate lunch, then enjoyed a time of teaching from our visiting colleagues.
We talked about how we as families and teammates navigate lives of transition and change, using the analogy of a bridge. This was followed by a demonstration of how we can help each other in various phases of transition and crisis.
Harnesses physically demonstrated how we are tethered to each other and can pull each other down without the proper support.
Mike then encouraged our hearts with reminders and a challenge from the Word.
Rick and Lori spent a lot of their time with us in the role of listeners. We took them to Tirana another day to meet up with our colleagues based in Tirana. Of course, we had to show them the center for a quick photo with the statue of our hero, Skenderbeu!
In certain parts of Africa, you go on exotic animal safaris. In Tirana, Reni has his eyes peeled for luxury cars. Please don't ask me about this vehicle. I walked right by without even noticing it! I still don't know what it is or what makes it special.
Also seen in Tirana... this is one way to stand apart in a crowd!
Knowing that we would be hosting guests in August, we asked our interns and the Acostas if we could wait to take them to see Kruja so we could make one combined trip. The weather was lovely!
We love seeing our shopkeeper friends who own businesses in the old bazaar whenever we visit Kruja. Many of them, even those we don't know personally, have seen our family visit 1-2 times per year for the past nine years and remarked on the kids' growth!
A large part of experiencing a new place is trying the cuisine. We encourage visitors to step out of their comfort zone for this experience in Albania when we go up to Kruje. This sampler platter is a great way to share a smattering of traditional foods. Below you can see pickled cabbage and beets, olives, boiled vegetables, various kinds of byrek (savory filo dough pie), fried vegetable fritters, and assorted cheeses.
And to prove we didn't build this basketball court for ourselves, ha ha, a photo below shows it in use one late afternoon... For now we are keeping it unlocked and accessible to the village whenever they want to use it. This has been a great place for kids to play while the kalceto is in use for other activities, and it's a place for the kids to play when we don't have staff at Jeta. The taller frame was designed to hold a net to provide shade from the sun. We hope to add that eventually.
And then it was time to say 'goodbye' to the Lampens! We thoroughly enjoyed their visit. As veteran missionaries in South America, they gave us wonderful insight into better understanding our Latin colleagues and the ways in which we might perceive the world and situations differently It was so helpful! We look forward to the day when they can return again!
Week 4
I don't have as many interesting photos from this week. While our programs were still on August hiatus, we took advantage of the large blocks of time to start homeschool (Reni is taking three classes with an instructor live, online), and work on projects, reports and other correspondence that fell through the cracks of summer's crazy schedule.
With a center like "Jeta", there's always something to do! We made the stairwell a little bit safer with this wonderful anti-skid tape by 3M. We think it makes the stairs a bit more visible too! Hannah R brought the tape over for us from America in June, but we finally found the time to install it in August.
Some of you may remember the B family who came to help us launch the athletic programs at Jeta. They never intended to stay long-term as they ultimately feel called to another location, so we knew this day was coming. We said goodbye at a small farewell reception.
Part of Ellie's home school curriculum this year is learning her way around the kitchen. Mom brought us these recipe cards from Hello Fresh and we have thoroughly enjoyed a change from our usual 'routine', along with learning a few new-to-us cooking techniques! Ellie's not the only one getting an education along the way! :-)
