Thanksgiving Visitors

On November 16 we welcomed our friends, Gordon and Carol from Texas, for another Thanksgiving in Albania!

They came bearing a cash gift from their church (and our adopted church in Kingsland), Pack Saddle Fellowship to purchase trees and shrubs for the playground adjacent to Jeta.

We loved visiting a nearby nursery owned by local friends. Carol and I ogled all the lovely olive trees -- from baby saplings to transplanted mature trees. I took so many photos but I'll spare you...

We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving lunch with our WGM family -- a first Thanksgiving for our new colleagues from Argentina.

How we kept our glassware straight -- attaching these Thanksgiving-themed images :-)

Afterwards we enjoyed the unseasonably nice weather to play on the outdoor court.  We were joined by a lot of local friends.

Gordon and Carol graciously painted a bedroom in the Planters apartment in Tirana.  We have a new missionary family moving into the apartment in December and thought that after ten years, it was due for a freshen up.

Carol facilitated a craft for the students at VT Albania and at kids' club....

The World Cup commenced during their visit and while the matches were shown each evening in Jeta, Carol could be found working at the puzzle table, hanging out with our friends.

While we enjoyed a Thanksgiving lunch with our colleagues, we still had regular work responsibilities from 4:00 until 10PM Thursday, and throughout the weekend, with church, kids club, Christmas decorating, and hosting World Cup viewing parties.  That's why we appreciate Albanian Independence and Liberation days on November 28 and 29th -- so we get a holiday break, even if the days don't always align.

We decided to take our guests on a day trip up to Kosova on November 28th.  While it may sound exotic to travel to another country for the day, for my Wilmore (KY) friends, it's sort of like driving from Wilmore to Cincinnati.  While Albania is small and we can drive to any neighboring country in three hours or less, the bonus about traveling to Kosova is that we don't have to get special insurance for our car and they speak the same language (so we can understand all the road signs and communicate wherever we go)!

We visited the quaint town of Prizren for a little bit of shopping and lunch.

We also enjoyed a macchiato at a coffee shop that serves my favorite brand of Kosovan coffee, Prince.  Kosova brags they serve the best macchiato, and I have to admit, they may be right!

A particularly neat sight in Kosova were all the Albanian flags celebrating Flag Day!  They seem even more patriotic than our friends in Albania!

Above, a vendor sells flags for Albania (red with the black double-headed eagle), Kosova (the ethnically-neutral, EU-looking blue flag with white stars), and the flags of the USA.  They also had live music playing outside and a parade of folks in traditional costume walking through the old town.  It was really festive!

From Prizren we drove in search of a bear sanctuary recommended to us by friends. In this part of the Balkans, it used to be a practice for restaurants to attract patrons by catching a wild bear and keeping it in a small cage on the premises.  Many international groups protested the practice and created a place for these bears to detox (one bear had reportedly become an alcoholic from all the beer it had been given) and live in a safe, more natural environment after they were freed, yet somewhat used to domestication.  

Unfortunately, the pin we were given was not accurate and we ended up on a logging road up in the mountains above Prishtina.  By the time we realized our mistake, we didn't have enough time to visit the habitat before closing hours.  The upside to our mistake was encountering snow! 

Of course we had to take photos!  Thankfully we didn't get stuck in the mud!

We got a family photo, too, but we're saving that for our "Christmas card", so that redeemed the navigation error in a significant way for us!

The other bonus, was that we didn't realize the bear sanctuary was so close to our friends in Prishtina, the Meeces!  So we stopped and met them at a local shopping mall and met their newest son, Rohnin, who was born in April.

Nashana interned with us in the village in 2016!

More macchiatos before leaving! <3

All in all, it was a nice day away!

The following day, we packed up our Handmade in Albania orders and the Schranks took them back to the USA to ship for us.  Gordon and Carol, thank you for coming to lend a hand!  Thanks for serving as pack mules and bringing your voices of encouragement!