Our Quarantine Life, part 2

Things are starting to change for the better here!  

• Senior citizens were allowed to leave their homes for the first time in 40 days and walk for 90 minutes on Saturday.
• Sunday morning, mothers and children (ages ten and under) were permitted outdoor for a walk.  We are blessed to be in the village and have an outdoor space (albeit small), but we know Tirana is full of apartment dwellers whose children have not been outside in 41 days!!  I can't even imagine.
• Last week our weekday curfew moved from 1:30pm to 5:30pm for folks who got permission to leave their homes to shop for groceries.  We still must text for permission to leave our homes, and only one family member is permitted to leave per day, but the window is now wider when we can choose to go out.
• Today individuals in certain job sectors were permitted to return to work, but must apply for permission to drive (still no public transportation) and no more than two individuals are permitted in one vehicle.  They must wear masks and drive with the windows open.  
• The government is promising to lift more restrictions next week. Talks are underway to permit Albanian laborers to cross the border into Greece and Montenegro for seasonal labor -- something that many families in our village rely on for income.  Right now, many Albanians have been trapped at the Greek/Albanian border (and actually, within a number of European countries) when the borders abruptly closed.  It appears that to re-enter Albania, they must stay at approved hotels to quarantine for 14 days.

This is so encouraging when just a few weeks ago, prison sentences were threatened for people who violated curfews, up to fifteen years if you infected someone and they died! 

Meanwhile, on our homefront, much remains the same.  We have had to cancel all of our summer visitors from the United States.  And we are unable to receive mail from out of the country -- thankfully we stocked up on a lot of things, but we have grown accustomed to getting certain items from home like contact lens solution and medications.  Hopefully borders will open by summer's end??

The kids seem to have adjusted to this new normal, while I have found a new incentive to prevent over-buying groceries.  Who knew cleaning  every single food item could consume so much time?

Nevertheless, I am grateful for food, especially the lovely, affordable produce that we can buy here.  I'm also grateful that our regular grocery store is now providing delivery service so we can place orders on WhatsApp and enjoy delivery to our home!  WOW!

Mandi and Arjan brought soaps, cleaning supplies, and shampoo for families in our village that are struggling without work.  We don't want any excuse to keep them from staying healthy!  As a foundation, at the beginning of the quarantine, Mandi was able to procure permission to drive and move about within the confines of the curfew hours. This has been a huge blessing, especially for all his responsibilities like paying bills, banking, and acquiring supplies for the building project (which continues, praise God!).

This time of social distancing has meant more time than ever on our computers.  I love this photo below of Nathan and Reni working side-by-side at our dining table.  Reni is not necessarily a 'quiet', sit-still kind of learner.  His humming and spontaneous chair dancing during math homework was getting to Nathan one afternoon while he was trying to compose a memo so he just stuck a pair of headphones on Reni's head.  Problem solved.

Easter morning we streamed church from our living room with a previously recorded message from Pastor Genti and a live children's lesson using the Resurrection Eggs, then our family enjoyed Easter lunch.  I didn't have access to my our usual meat shop for our traditional roast so meatloaf it was with broccoli casserole and key lime cheesecake for dessert!  I think it was our first holiday meal to eat alone in our 6.5 years here, but we knew that we were not alone in that experience!

We still held our Easter egg hunt.  BIG thanks to Miss Pam who brought special easter candy from America during her trip at the end of February.  Also, Gigi brought some Cadbury and Dove chocolate bunnies which were special surprises.

Reni is laughing because I placed a orange plastic egg amidst a couple of mandarins that had fallen on the ground.

Gigi also brought over in March some special Easter basket gifts I had ordered for the kids.  They each got a book and a DVD -- special activities that I had no idea would be so meaningful in providing something new to do during these days of lockdown.

Our little seeds sprouted and grew in their plastic cups so we decided to transplant them into our raised garden bed.  Now praying that the bugs don't eat them up! 

Our family's favorite active past time has become throwing a football around in our yard.  Don't ask me why, but it's something that gets us outside and something we can do in spite of our differing sizes and skills.

This kid LOVES football and would love to play able-bodied sports.  His arm ain't bad!

Friday nights we still hold our regular Bible study but on Zoom.  The photo below shows each of us showing our different perspectives of the same beautiful sunset.

One weekend we hosted virtual family reunions for our extended families.  We were thrilled with the participation!  We realized that we had much to thank God for... and it was sobering and enlightening to hear how all of our lives -- scattered across the country and world -- had changed as a result of the pandemic -- from those of us working in nursing homes, hospitals, or performing civic duties like jury duty!

So, working so much from our home, we are easily distracted by watching the activities of our neighbors.  This roof repair (below) had us holding our breath for several minutes!

During one of Mandi's trips to our village, he brought a large quantity of oats and baby food donated by the Food Bank.  With Genti's recently acquired permission to drive as part of his pastoral duties, he and Nathan stopped at a local grocery store and purchased flour, oil, and rice to supplement the food bundles and then traveled to Metalle. We hadn't visited since the quarantine measures went into place.

Incidentally, oats are NOT a food Albanians are accustomed to eating.  We had to explain how to prepare them and ways they could be eaten.  

One of our kid's club friends helped us locate the homes of our friends to make sure we didn't miss anyone!  Nathan said the families were overwhelmingly grateful, but assumed the distribution was part of our celebration of Easter.  Nevertheless, it was a blessing to help in some small, practical way.  Thank you to all who support the ministry here which enables us to help in times like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEO1nCD7XZ0&t=3s

Click the link above OR watch the embedded video below to see the status of the building project next door!  Nathan provides a 360-degree virtual walk through of the work site.

Forgive my bragging, but Nathan has taken the time to acquire and learn new software for streaming our weekly church services.  Because of his work, we may have one of the most professional looking productions for a church our size. :-)  We can stream Genti's preaching in one box while sharing the relevant Bible text in another, or Ellie playing the guitar in one box while projecting song lyrics in another. In addition he's making special opening and closing graphics.  I appreciate the time he puts into making our church services accessible and professional!  We did have to move the recording up to our home for a better wifi signal and acoustics. We are encouraged by the number of folks who are watching from beyond the borders of our village!

The photo below is for my friend, Linda S, who was here in March.  I love watching our grape arbor go from a bunch of naked brown, snaking sticks to leafing out to a lush green tunnel! It happens so quickly at this time of year, changing daily.

Many folks here have similar kinds of structures, some that cover the entire front of the home.  In a part of the world that lacks many shade trees, arbors actually go a long ways towards keeping the first floor of homes cool and sheltered from the summer sun.

Just a reminder, if you are receiving these updates by e-mail, we do not receive any 'reply' messages as these are sent by Feedburner.  Thanks for loving our family and having an interest in our lives here in Albania!

Reni's New Legs | A Video Collection

In December, Reni got a new pair of prosthetic legs that have revolutionized his independence.  We've shared about that often but friends from afar kept asking us for videos to see them in action, so I've found a series of VERY short videos of them in use to post here.  Reni's not exactly keen on attention, so it's tricky to capture him, especially when he's most active!  He's rather quick!
NOTE:  if you are getting this post via e-mail, the videos might have links in the attachment, or you will need to actually visit this blog's online page (click here).

This first video is of him walking around the University of Kentucky hospital complex within minutes of putting his legs on for the first time.



While we waited to see the prosthetist for final approval to leave, I caught Reni practicing a few dance moves.  Here he is...



The next day we woke up to frost and a giant frozen puddle where we were staying.  He told me, "Mom, I want to see what it feels like to walk on ice!"



You can't imagine how our hearts rejoiced to see Reni overnight doing such 'typical' kid stuff like playing in the snow.  Below, he's playing outside with his cousin, Elisha.


The video below shows Reni engaged in a nerf war with some of his neighbor friends... He trips in the middle, but you see how he can bounce right back up...



In February Reni attended Night to Shine.  Nathan caught this brief clip of him showing off his moves.  But I think it might have more to do with his hips, than his legs, ha ha.



So this one is more just for fun than it is to show off Reni's mobility.  When you're in quarantine, it's the simple things one finds entertaining.  Like chasing a trespassing chicken out of the yard.



Thanks for caring about Reni and his development!  We are so thankful to Shriner's Children's Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, for great service, and to his prosthetist, Eric Miller, who listened to our wishes and suggested these new legs which far surpassed our expectations of what he would be wearing at this age!

Door Delivery -- The Village Version

AMERICA HAS UBER EATS -- WE HAVE MANDI!! (Armand). Mandi got permission to drive at the beginning of this crisis and comes to Vlashaj at least twice per week from Tirana to meet with contractors and check on the building progress.

Today he brought me a basket of wish list items I haven't been able to find in the village markets. Before Corona (BC) we shopped weekly at a European chain grocery store in a shopping center on the edge of Tirana. In the village market, the product offerings are much slimmer and offer very few recognizable brands. Today, Mandi brought us deli ham, sausage, Hellman's mayonnaise, canned kidney beans, tortillas and canned corn. I've already started my next list which includes pineapple, celery and broccoli. :-)

One thing we can say about this time of quarantine is that we are never bored! We might feel trapped -- but we are not bored. As the head of our WGM team, Nathan has been in zoom meetings daily relaying information about changing restrictions in Albania, communications from the embassy (esp now that all commercial flights have ceased and land/sea borders are closed) and reporting back to the local team mission directives and decisions. Yesterday, though it was Sunday, Nathan spent several hours learning a new software program to better live-stream our church services. Today he gladly left his work at the dining room table to meet with a contractor to discuss the gutter systems and insulation (Albanian construction is more different in its steps than I even realized). Shortly after that I got a heartbreaking phone call from a church member asking for financial help because of being unable to work. We knew that it was a difficult call for that person to make and know it is just the beginning of a season of really hard times in our community. A good number of families here rely factory work (which are largely shut down) and on sending family members abroad for seasonal agricultural jobs. With Mandi nearby, he agreed to pick up boxes of food for this person as well as a handful of other families we know are struggling.

The newest round of restrictions unveiled over the weekend means that Nathan and I can no longer take our bi-weekly date to the market (the only time we leave our house and while we could do so it felt like such a moment of freedom to do so). We can now only send one family representative to do shopping, and only with permission via a text message which has to be applied for at least 24 hours in advance.

But though we haven't been able to go anywhere, it's been an incredible blessing to church hop on Sundays across a variety of different streaming church services offered by many of our providing churches. Such a blessing and feeling of connection with back home that we don't typically get to experience!

Yesterday we caught Ellie trying to sneak a wad of paper into the trash and noticed her licking the tell-tale signs of chocolate off her lips.  Apparently, she found a secret stash of Hershey bars in the deep freezer being saved for s'mores some day.  She explained that she and Reni were playing a Star Wars card game (like the one in which Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon).  They felt to keep things interesting they needed stakes of their own.  Oh my.  What have times come to.  Incidentally, we do not condone gambling, but we are so grateful these two are still finding things to do together and rarely complain about the lack of going out.  They have not left our house since March 10 (21 days as of this writing).

Hair gel covers a multitude of imperfections

Today things felt desperate and I was finally able to convince Reni to let me cut his hair.  I was less successful in getting him to pose for a good photo -- He gave me one shot.  The neckline is a little crooked but his argument was, he couldn't see it and likely not too many others would see my mistake either.  He had a point.

How We're Spending Our Quarantine

I don't know when to say our 'quarantine' began.  Going by when our freedom of movement was significantly curtailed, I would say March 12??

• We had our first case of Covid-19 in Albania announced on March 9.  
• On March 10, public transportation was suspended and schools closed.  
• March 12, I drove for the last time (a hastily made trip to a supermarket to stock up on groceries).  
• March 13 we were forbidden to drive private vehicles and thus the reality of 'staying home' began.  
• We had guests until Wednesday, March 18 but I couldn't even join Nathan in taking them to the airport.  
• Then, it was just "the four of us."

We've done pretty well at filling our days.  Of course we've done our share of Zoom meetings (Nathan has had four in three days!) and with the kids using my computer for school, I've found myself re-organizing a few closets and cabinets when I haven't been able to catch up on my computer work.  Our to-do list is far from tackled yet!

But we're also finding time for some other good things.  We've had great times of family discussion over the Word,  And is anyone else eating a bit better than usual?  Ellie was thrilled to help Nathan use up some of our supply of chocolate chips to make cookies!

As the reality sank in that we may not have any programs before Easter, Nathan had the idea of recording Eda giving a series of lessons which our young neighbors can watch on their phones or home computers while they spend the quarantine at home.  We have very few media resources of a spiritual nature for children in the Albanian language so we decided to make something ourselves!  

The end product is a series of five minute videos, super-imposing images from the Action Bible over the sound of Eda's voice reading the stories.  She concludes each reading with a series of questions, encouraging the students to respond in the comments of each post on Facebook. She also leaves a Bible verse that affirms the application of each lesson.  We will see what kind of response we get!

Eda chose to begin with the account of Palm Sunday as a means of continuing our studies along the church calendar to prepare hearts for Easter.  There will be a total of 8 lessons.  All lessons have been recorded and Nathan will continue the process of editing the videos together. We plan to release two per week until the quarantine is lifted and we are free to meet corporately again!

You can view an example of one of these episodes by clicking here.

Ellie and Reni have joined the ranks of the 'video educated.'  We moved some desks up to our loft (aka the 'kid zone') and connected the laptop to the TV for a larger-than-life video screen with their teacher, Pam. It's just safer for everyone to limit our contact, even with Pam, in spite of the fact that we are not going anywhere and she is not going anywhere, we both have exposure to a very limited number of folks who ARE out and about. 

 

Sunday night we set a Skype date with our favorite friends in Kosovo.  We played some Jackbox.tv games together online and chatted.  They sent us this photo they took. :-)  It gave us all something to look forward to at the end of Sunday!

Another evening we watched the incredibly moving film, Harriet.  The subject matter is heavy, but it led to some really good conversations with the kids.  If you haven't yet seen it, I can't recommend it highly enough.  You can rent it here.

And speaking of media projects, I'm continuing to shamelessly plug my cousin's project, The Chosen.  In these days of fear and uncertainty, this show is good soul medicine.  Our family loves it.  I haven't encountered a portrayal of Christ in media that has felt more authentic than this.  And the approach of this particular project is an imaginative look at the people who encountered Christ which makes for very emotionally compelling television. The cast is incredibly diverse, it's inclusive of women and individuals with special needs, and features a theme song inspired by negro-spirituals.  Are you curious yet?

As the world shelters in place, the show is starting to pick up international traction. I encourage you to add it to your watch list and don't be the last ones to see this!  Here is a trailer for season one.  Watch to the end of the trailer for instructions on where you can view it.




There is an international effort to translate subtitles and dub over The Chosen into a variety of languages.  If you are reading this and you are an Albanian speaker, you can participate in the translation by visiting this website (click here).  The website relies on a variety of translators to ensure accuracy, so any help that can be given is appreciated, though I have been told that it's immensely beneficial to have viewed the episodes first to understand context.

We found ourselves in possession of a variety of garden seeds so today we planted them in some starter containers to grow in our window sill.  I have a notoriously black thumb, so I'm not especially optimistic, but who knows?

We have a small raised bed in our back yard in which we hope to transplant these eventually.

Last year our garden only held cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.  If these grow, we will greatly expand our produce varieties!

The lack of 'rush' in our schedule has helped us see things we've never noticed before -- like the pair of woodpeckers building a nest in our back yard.  Or the young hawk preying on the little birds hiding in the blossoming fruit trees.

We have also had time to work with the kids on learning how to help with more household chores!  Yay!
And Nathan has conceded to Reni's request to grow a beard.  Pray for me, ha ha. This in between stage is tough :-)

What are you doing in your quarantine? What are you seeing and learning?

"BC" | March, Before Coronavirus

Much like we marked time and practices by "before 9/11" and "after 9/11,"  I have a feeling we are going to start marking our time by "Before Coronavirus" and "After Coronavirus." 

Looking at these events that transpired less than a month ago, they already feel so unbelievable, just a couple of weeks into quarantine...  I want to tell myself back then, "Go get a hair cut!"  "Eat that favorite meal out!" "Take a day trip to the countryside!"  "Enjoy the freedom to drive!"

But alas, we took much for granted ... Here are a few pics I found on my camera from those blissful days. :-)

________________________

One day we stopped in at the Valdete Trust to visit Tiffany's English Class.  Nathan is demonstrating a game where he had to ask descriptive questions to guess the name of the person written on the paper on his forehead. It was a lot of fun, as you can imagine!

Initially Reni starting hosting Nerf wars with two friends indoors.  Then as the weather improved, they moved outdoors and let Luli join.  It didn't take long for the word to spread and crowds of boys started forming at our gate each afternoon.  Eventually, there were so many boys, they had to play in shifts!  Eventually they had to stop because they destroyed or lost most of the bullets.  Sadly, Gigi brought more bullets (around 1000, I think!), but not before the quarantine went into effect!  When it's lifted, it will be every man for himself in our courtyard! :-)

The Balkans will be safe as long as these boys have anything to say about it! :-)

Every Friday the kids usually cook or bake something in school with Pam.  As part of their study of Europe, they made a Victoria Sponge cake. We added an blend of raspberry jam and mascarpone in between.  It. Was. So. Good.  The young adults at Bible study agreed!  No leftovers!

March 7 is "Teachers Day" in Albania.  Our friends gifted Nathan with a cake as a token of thanks for his teaching them from the Bible each week!

The kids make some pretty incredible crafts in school, thanks to Ms. Pam.  Unfortunately in our small home I can't keep them all for long so I try to photograph them all, especially their favorites.  This was from their study of Mexico.

On March 7 we visited the Hope Center.  Below, one of my friends writes her well wishes to me on the chalk board.

We made milkshakes which were a huge hit!  Not a common thing here.

This year there are only two girls in the group home, the other +80% are boys!  Ellie loves the special attention she gets!

We had grand plans for expanding our product line at Handmade In Albania with some new spring items, but alas, we didn't get to launch our online shop with the uncertainty of our visitors' return travel plans.  Not to mention, the bulk of our inventory was stuck at Tiffany's apartment in Tirana and we didn't have a straightforward way to get access to it with the driving ban.  

So instead, I will just show you a few of the adorable products the ladies made.  Maybe we will be able to sell these in the fall??

What do you think of this adorable bunny rabbit hat made by Merita?

I am in love with this spring garland I have hung over my door.  There are three more in stock!

Aware that not everyone lives in a cold weather climate, and that not everyone needs ANOTHER stocking hat or scarf, I wanted to try adding some home decor items.  I LOVE these garlands.  They measure about 6 feet long each and can add a special touch on a mantle piece, shelf, door frame... you name it!  They include loops at the ends for easy hanging. My favorite is the solid cream garland (center, below) which I think would be lovely on a Christmas tree!  These were made by Nazmije...

Roshi made several ADORABLE bunny rabbit hats for kids as well as this bunny rabbit garland -- perfect for Easter or a baby nursery!  Like the garlands above, the bunny garland measures 2 meters long.

We also have some pretty spring floral garlands.  And the best thing is, the flowers never die and can be used each year as part of your spring decor (or really, any time of year)!  Bottom left, you can see our pastel Easter egg garland.

Please send me your feedback on these items.  Do you like them?  Would you buy them or be happy to receive as a gift?  We want to know.  It's always a bit scary asking the ladies to try a new, untested product! :-)

These two (below) are such servants!  The day after it was announced we had our first case of Covid-19, I heard noise downstairs and discovered these two were disinfecting everything -- chairs, counters, door handles, etc.

Coming up... how we are passing our days in quarantine. :-)