The Hands Behind the Product

Last week I wrote about how we've been working towards preparing for a couple of bazaars next month (one at the Emb*ssy and another at the Sher*ton Hotel).

We wanted to create a small "human interest" piece to include with each item sold, to hopefully make the product more meaningful for the buyer and let them know whom they had just helped with their purchase. 

Saturday morning before kids' club, we did an impromptu photo shoot with a few of the ladies.

It's such a blessing to know these women and their children (who are regular participants in programs at the center).

We can't wait until we get to see the finished merchandise!  It's a privilege to see the pride in their eyes from creating goods (they brought some pieces by for us to see after Friday night church).  Now we pray that there will be a market for their work!

Directionally Challenged?

On top of our language class three days per week, we meet three evenings per week with our language helper, Vera.  These learner-driven sessions are dictated by language acquisition projects (LAPs) we were given during the language training at M.T.I.

During these times with Vera we have learned vocabulary and common phrases/commands for everything from rooms in the house to places in the community and ways to prepare food.  Today we learned the vocabulary related to the parts of our body around our head (neck, cheek, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, hair, neck, etc.) with the various verb forms for "to point" or "to cover" the specific part with our left or right hand.

One of our favorite parts of doing LAPs comes at the conclusion of all the progressions when we get to ask cultural questions related to the topic.  For instance, are there hand gestures that might be inappropriate here?  Do you have any expressions like "she has a green thumb" or he "talks out of both sides of  his mouth?"

Vera shared that Albanians have an expression for a ravenous person -- someone who chews on both sides of the mouth at the same time.

But the interesting gem was not a phrase or idiom at all.  She told us that in years past, most folks in the village did not differentiate between their "right" and "left", so when it came time to lead armies of villagers in the military, commanders came up with a unique method for giving directions.  They would give recruits an onion for their right hand and a clove of garlic for the left hand.  When wanting everyone to go right, they'd yell, "qepë!" (onion).  To go left, they'd yell "hudhër!" (garlic).

Supposedly, some people still remember their right and left this way!

So how do YOU tell your right from your left?  :-)

On the mind...

I've lost track of how long we've been here. I had been counting the weeks, but sometime after 'eight' I think one tends to lose track.

I've come to realize they were not exaggerating at our pre-field training about how tiring it is to adjust to life in a new culture.  I feel like small things tire me out more than they used to, things definitely take longer to do than they used to, and we probably engage in more problem solving  for every day tasks than we ever used to.

Then there is the ever-present stress of walking by sick and dying animals each day (our neighborhood is full of street dogs, curled up on stoops, with oozing sores), seeing the same child day-after-day standing in the smelly dumpster scouring the trash (while he should be at school), the gypsy baby sleeping on a sheet of cardboard on a chilly sidewalk at night while his parent begs, and being approached by beggars on a regular basis with needs, legitimate or not (we've learned not to sit outside or by coffee shop windows while we study).  Last week in one 30-minute walk I passed by three bi-lateral amputee men -- two begging, one on the sidewalk too busy to beg, devouring a bunch of bananas.

Yes.  It's a lot to weigh on the mind.  Therefore I shouldn't be surprised that we are all looking forward to a break soon. This year Albania's Independence Day and Liberation Day line up exactly with Thanksgiving and "black Friday".  We may just go away (not far) for a few days.  We'll see!

On a brighter note, here are our two fierce little Native Americans (they were studying the discovery of America and subsequent settling by pioneers):

And two happy kids with some love from America!

Last week with Ryan and their personalized loaves of homemade bread he helped them make. 

(They studied bread in almost all of their subjects, including Bible - love My Father's World integration of themes through all subjects)

Last Friday in Vlash I asked our friends above to teach us a few of the steps for some Albanian folk dances we'll need to know by March for Women's Day.  I'm a hopeless cause.  I think I'll appoint myself photographer instead!  Think anyone will notice?

Finally, we are gearing up for a couple of holiday bazaars in Tirana next month. For the last several years Planters has tried to assist some of the women in Vlash by helping them create various crafts to be sold here and on a limited basis, abroad.  Most of them cannot get permission from their husbands to find employment in Tirana, but even if they could, jobs in shops are difficult to come by for any woman over the age of twenty-five (can anyone say age discrimination?). In the past, the funds they have earned through their handicrafts have helped them earn extra money for things like heating oil, medicine, and for one, her first indoor kitchen sink!

We have had a couple of challenges that we wanted to tackle this year before the first bazaar. The first has been to include more women in this project (easier said than done in a community where we are newcomers just learning the interpersonal dynamics that exist).  Another has been stepping into this role with a 'system' already in place, a system that we think has a lot of room for improvement. Our desire is to convey some education in how the free market system works and improve the current compensation system to reward  risk, creative thinking, and hard work so they do not become dependent upon us as a safety net.

After hours of scouring Etsy and Pinterest, we found some earrings that we can recreate entirely with locally available inputs. A big shout-out goes to missionary friend Krystal who directed us to the "Hobby Lobby" of Tirana (see my Instagram above) where we jewelry wire, glass beads, and earring hooks.  We found it with only minimal wandering!

We (well, mainly Anna -- the knot is quite tricky to master) made the samples below:

Celtic knot earrings in gold, transparent and peacock glass beads.

The appeal of this product is that we are paying a couple of women a 'per string' fee to string the beads, setting a limit on how many they can create so we are not overrun with unsold product.  This is a task they can do in their own homes (so no one's husband can complain that his wife is associating with someone of lower reputation while working at the ministry center).  And this is a product where we have some control over the final appearance (previous attempts at jewelry making have been hit or miss in terms of marketability).  Eventually we'd like to turn over the entire process to some of the women, but this is where we are going to start.  We're assuming a bit of the risk this year to see how these sell.  We'll keep you posted!  

Finally, after being here for this amount of time (however long it's been), we feel like we've gotten a good survey of the status of the existing ministries and what we can contribute to them.  There are some things we want to tweak in how we contribute, so as you pray for us, you can keep that in mind, primarily our Friday night fellowships and bringing more 'meat' to the figurative table.  Thank you!

Directions to 'Unknown Road'

In my last post about our weekend out 'in the village', I mentioned that we had a few hours at our disposal between kids' club and our cooking class at the H*pe Center.  We decided that since we were only about half an hour from the sea, it might be nice to get some lunch and show Ryan the Adriatic before he left Albania in a few days' time.

From Vlash, the sea is only about twenty minutes away in Durres, but it's not the prettiest place to enjoy the beach with the port close by and no easy access with all of the development making parking a challenge.  We heard that 'the locals' enjoy going to a slice of beach north of Durres and that it was a straightforward drive from our village home.  Armed with verbal directions, we decided to give it a try!

Had we internet and consulted Google Maps, this is what we would have read: "Driving directions to Unknown road."

We were told to 'turn right at Maminas' and drive until we reached the end of the road.

Apparently, we were supposed to drive to point "C", but since our friend's last visit, they had paved the road beyond, which we didn't know, so we kept driving until we reached point "B"  (see map below) where the road TRULY ended.

It took as long to get from C to B as it took to get from A to C!

We wound our way up a big hill and were met with this stunning view below (shot from our moving car since the road was only one car-width wide and there were no guard rails, we dared not stop!) -- can you see where the sea meets the sky?  I can't really see it either!

We found miles of undeveloped coast line and ended up here:  on the Cape of Rodon at a hundreds' year old church called St. Anthony's.  If we had known where we were, we would have known to hike a little further to see the ruins of Rodoni Castle where Skenderbeg and his family retreated during the siege of Kruje (1450) and were whisked away by boats to Brindisi for safety from the Ottomans.  The castle walls are now partly submerged in the sea...  But given that we were utterly lost and signage was minimal, we didn't know the history that surrounded us.

(above) Yes, that is a communist bunker in the background, behind the church to the right...

Sadly, we were hungry and on the prowl for a place to eat so we didn't stay long.  Our options didn't look promising given the sparse population of the surrounding environs.  We had been told there would be a restaurant with a green roof, practically right on the beach.  That should have been our first clue that we missed our turn off.

The closest thing we could find was a little portable concessions trailer with a green tarpaulin stretched over a metal frame covering about 6 folding tables with plastic chairs.  They had no menus, bit it also looked like they had no electricity so we politely climbed back in the car and kept driving.  

That is one of the largest herds of goats I have ever seen.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

We finally figured out where we were supposed to stop.  We ate a late lunch outside and kept saying, "I can't believe this is NOVEMBER!".  Finally, we were able to shed our shoes and hike down to the beach and put our toes in the water for a brief thirty minutes...

Proof that our beach visit was impromptu ... no proper swim attire.  Gotta love spider m*n undies.

 I wonder how many memories Ellie and Reni will have like this from their childhood?

We had the beach completely to ourselves!!!

And before we knew it, we had to get back to the real world. 

Thanks for letting me share a little slice of our corner of the Balkans...

Pictionary, Paint, Pickles and Pancakes

It's hard to put into words how full our weekends feel.  Are they tiring?  Just a little.  Are they worth it?  Absolutely.  Fridays start with language class in the morning, then lunch, making sandwiches for the road trip, packing up the car, drive over to homeschool co-op, shop for youth group refreshments (usually while some of us are at co-op), and race across town while eating our sandwiches and drive another 15 kms to the village to arrive in time for evening church. 

This week Nathan provided the message and lovely Eda translated.

We opened up youth group this week to include anyone who came to church.  Ryan had the brilliant idea for the army men shoot-out relay (shoot army men with q-tips through straws).  If you're looking for youth group games that don't involve shaving cream, balloons, eating weird food or making an overall big mess (about all the games I could find online), this is a good one.

Pictionary was also popular.

As well as 'blow-the-cotton-ball-across-the-table-and-off-your-opponent's-side".

We spend the night in the village, something we all look forward to -- such a nice change to be in the quiet of the village and woken in the morning by roosters instead of car horns ricochet-ing off concrete buildings.

Remember how last week the kids made clay pots out of modeling magic?  We had the idea for them to paint those pots this week at Kids Club after they had 7 days to dry.

The paint we found in the cabinets was still in its cellophane wrappers but the consistency was, well, a bit runny, leading us to believe it was probably quite old.  We made a decent mess requiring a little elbow grease and a mop bucket, but chalked it up to another learning experience (up there with the origami stars).  And the kids enjoyed it.  How did we know?  It's always extremely quiet during a successful craft time!

Who knew we'd be moving to an area flush with snails?  They provide endless fascination to Els and Reni.  This is what entertains them while we pack up the vehicle to leave the village...

We had a fair amount of time between the conclusion of Kids Club and our first "class" session at the H*pe Center (about four hours), so we decided to take Ryan over to see the Adriatic Sea before he left Albania in a few days.

Where we ended up is what happens when you rely on verbal directions and no help from a GPS.  No worries-- it was all a fun little road trip, but will have to be another post of its own.  It was a little pickle that worked itself out, with the bonus of seeing something cool and unexpected, but as always, we turned into 'those Americans' who try to cram too much into too little time.  Maybe someday we'll wander back there again...

Meanwhile, we made it back and to the H*pe Center for a time of making pancakes with the youth there.  Oh My Goodness.  I don't know that I've tasted pancakes ever so yummy.  From scratch, folks, down to the homemade maple syrup.  All the meal lacked was a side of some Bob Evans sausage.

Somehow during the course of conversation I learned that three of the youth had previously lived in northern Albania for a period of time with a young lady adopted in 2009 by some friends in Michigan!  Melissa G, this photo is for you!

They made four batches of pancakes (32 servings) and they disappeared.  Anna's the boss of the kitchen.

Below, Ellie entertains the youngest resident of the H*pe Center...

Many thanks to the Hope for the World staff for letting us hang out with your youth on Saturday!  We look forward to returning!

Introducing...

...Ellie, the purple cockatiel, and Reni the Raccoon!

We don't really 'do' Halloween in our family, but somehow the kids figured out what day it was and wanted to dress up on Thursday.  Thankfully the ministry center is well equipped with a variety of animal masks and Christmas drama costumes, so they surprised their teachers by showing up at school in costume!

Ellie wanted to be a mama bird and hold her pet 'real' bird as her 'baby.'  You gotta love her angel wings -- which didn't quite fit down the spiral stairwell.

Elllie told Reni he should be a "Ninja Raccoon"  so he could 'fight the bad guys with his RABIES!"

Those blurs are his bared claws. ;-)

And because we had so many masks, Reni ended up changing his look to be at least three different animals by the end of the day!