Like most of the world, a pandemic changed a lot of plans. Most summers find us hosting college interns and teams from America. Of course those visits were all postponed indefinitely, but we also felt we needed to stay close to the work site as the building project entered the final stages of construction. Our decisions have been needed almost daily for choosing ceiling tile, grout color, corner edging, door design, the size of the gravel in the stucco ... and a million other details you don't consider.
Yet after a lockdown that lasted roughly two months, without permission to drive our private vehicles, we have yearned to get OUT and do things this summer while the kids are out of school and before I start classes myself. We set aside a day this month to visit a new-to-us place just a couple of hours away. Enjoy these views of a beautiful piece of God's handiwork on display!
I had never heard of Holta Canyon before, but learned about it while visiting a travel company's website, owned by the husband of our architect. When I asked some Albanian friends, they frowned at my curiosity, telling me the road there was terrible and the canyon was too dangerous. (At that point, I had already booked the guided hike! Oops!)
Our reason for booking a tour was two fold: Albania derives 30% of its GDP from tourism and we wanted to do our part to help support a hurting part of the economy. The second reason was for research.
We want to provide some experiences for our students at VT Albania to see some of their beautiful country and while we realized the particular tour we booked was not appropriate for them, we were curious about the company and its off-road vehicles to see if they could provide an alternate travel experience for our mobility-challenged friends to see the great outdoors.
This canyon is about 2 hours from our home. Our guide, Doni, told us it's only safe to hike about two months of the year as the water level is lowest then.
The kids had been really reluctant to take the trip. Obviously, once they got there, they enjoyed themselves immensely. And the ride wasn't too bad either (see the video near the end). They were great sports for the camera - yay!
Our friend and colleague, Tiffany, joined us, as well as two sisters who won the tour on a TV trivia contest.
The canyon had stunning views at every twist and turn!
There were lots of places we had to walk through water -- some as deep as our waist.
I bought these shoes (below) several years ago and they have served me well hiking in Albania -- from rocks to water to thorny paths... someone else was not so well prepared!
Again, we were soooo thankful for the freedom that Reni's new legs provide him. Special thanks again to Shriner's Children's Hospital Lexington for designing something for him so versatile! He's modeling his Keen's that he finally got to buy when he got his legs with feet. Normally it might seem frivolous to buy a kid a name brand shoe, but in his case, his feet don't grow! ha ha. He will get a solid two years' worth of wear out of these. :-)
Enjoying our jeep ride with Off Limits Albania!
Here's a video of us off-roading in a dry river bed!
Thanks, Off Limits, for helping us make a great memory from the summer of 2020!
We definitely recommend them if you want to make a plan to visit Albania! :-)
One of Reni's best buddies has a birthday the day after his. Last year, they celebrated down in Albania. This year was our turn to head up to Kosova!
After the lockdown, we have never relished travel and a change of scenery more (I'm sure we're not the only ones!).
We had a wonderful time with our friends there. They have a wonderful grassy back yard -- a bit of a luxury in our part of the world -- so we brought some plastic for a slip 'n slide. We also played games, watched a kids movie, had coffee in the Rugove (a canyon just outside their town), and enjoyed some yummy local food. Because of the status of construction in the village, we didn't feel like we could be away more than a couple of nights.
Girls gotta stick together!
Nathan brought some ingredients and an idea from the internet to create this Minecraft inspired brownie sword cake!
For one day they are the same age :-)
https://youtu.be/qCWiDm2O9DY
I had to include this photo of Reni double-fisting the brownie squares (below). I mean, when there are five other kids competing for a limited number of sweet chocolate bites...
I think he liked it!
Later the adults grabbed macchiatos. Which I later regretted when I could. not. go. to. sleep.
The art school in their town recently moved into a new building and their neighbor is the principal. He saw us on the street and invited us into see the last student exhibit. It was pretty incredible -- unfortunately this is the only photo I took (below). :-)
Our time flew so quickly. Impulsively, we arranged for our friends' two middle boys (a year older and 6 months younger than Reni), to come back to Albania with us for a week. I used to do "cousin swaps" growing up and this felt a lot like my childhood. The kids were thrilled!
Because the boys are minors (and we were not meeting half way between Chicago and Peoria but crossing an international border), their parents accompanied us to the border to walk them across. Just before reaching the border, we stopped in Prizren (about 15 minutes from the border) for lunch at a new shopping center. Wow! It was beautiful! We snapped some family pics with the birthday boys.
Once the boys were across the border and in our car, the fun really started...
We had barely entered Albania when we got behind a slow car in a construction zone driving up a mountain. Our vehicle immediately lost power and the temperature gauge shot to the top. We immediately pulled over to let the engine cool.
We did this twice, with each stop lasting more than an hour. The two hour trip from the border took closer to five!
The kids were extremely patient. Thankfully, some kind souls at the second stop had an idea that we might have an airlock in the hose that circulates the coolant (or something like that). The patiently flushed out all the hot water and refilled it with cold water and we were good to go. The rest of the trip home was downhill from there (literally)!
We later got the 17-year-old car checked out and the mechanic discovered something wrong with the circulation system and was able to repair it.
Hence, "Camp Waggoner" got off to an exciting start! We'll post more later!
With quarantine restrictions lifted and normal activities resuming, this month seemed to fly. I had to pull out my monthly planner to refresh my memory!
This month held its share of special highlights including:
We wrapped up another year of homeschooling!
Resumed visits to Ellie's orthodontist after several months away
Supervised many afternoon nerf gun battles with village boys
Helped host a reunion BBQ lunch for the students at VT Albania
Enjoyed some yummy fresh produce from our garden as well as the neighbors'
Slipped away for three days to introduce Tiffany to southern Albania
And finally, on June 30, celebrated the 10th!!! anniversary of meeting Reni in person, even though we wouldn't officially become a family for several more weeks.
These are fresh figs. After way too many years, Cydil has finally overcome textural aversion and learned how to eat these. :-) The jam is delicious.
Social distancing at outdoor kids club! Such a challenge after months away from the classroom... but we are so happy to see our young friends again.
One of Reni's besties had a birthday. Reni asked Nathan to walk him to the door of his friend's home, then excused Nathan to leave him there. He's growing up and more confident and independent!
What new recipes have you tried this recently? The kids expressed a desire to learn how to cook. This was a good beginner-level recipe, but they are a long ways from cooking on their own! (Tortilla/omelette wraps you can fill with toppings of your choosing!)
My friend Merita gifted me with these fresh apricots from her yard. Whoever said cooking produce intensifies flavors didn't exaggerate! These were so tasty fresh but came out of the oven with a strong side of sour! :-) We'll just say a little bit went a long way.
This friend in Metalle was SO earnest in his re-cap of the previous week's lesson. We all got a giggle when he stated that Zacheus' job was to collect taxes... for water and electricity.
While doing some business at our bank in Tirana, Nathan snapped a photo of this poorly-named virtual teller assistant for the Austrian-based bank. Yeah, I imagine folks will struggle to call "Rona" for help...
One Thursday morning Pastor Genti and I traveled to the studios of Radio 7, the only evangelical radio station in the Albanian language, to promote The Chosen. He was interviewed for more than 15 minutes.
While quarantine meant we couldn't visit our friends at the Hope Center, we were eventually allowed to come again this month to hang out with a few who were not able to return to their families for the summer. We brought a blow torch and taught them how to make s'mores. MUCH cleaner (and faster) than whittling sticks and building a campfire. :-)
While we are usually the ones bringing activities to the Hope Center, one day Ms. Pam graciously set up the slip-n-slide she had devised so Ellie and Reni could enjoy some fun in the water, too. As you can see, Nathan couldn't resist either!
For my friend, Linda... the grape arbor has grown over completely now and the grapes are coming in!
One Thursday in Tirana we had about an hour to kill between appointments. How fun was it to bump into a friend when we stopped for coffee and wifi! As you can see, we still have a lot of socializing to catch up on and fill our 'tanks' from what we missed during quarantine...
We have been holding church services outside.... While it has its challenges, so far, not too bad! We will see this week now that the heat has arrived.
The heat got to this wee one Saturday morning. She was sooo tired, she walked over to Luli, held out her arms, and fell asleep in his lap during the lesson.
The ban on minibuses/vans/public transportation meant that programs at the Valdete Trust has had to be suspended as many can only travel via the ministry's handicap accessible van. We held a lunch for the students who could make it and announced the news that Tiffany will be transitioning to the role of director in September! We arranged for the current director, Sue, to share the news via Skype from Scotland. We are grateful the news seems to have been positively received!
There's nothing like the loss of freedom to drive and leave one's home to inspire exploration when that freedom returns. Combined with a rapid increase in positive COVID numbers and a governmental threat to return to lockdown, we spontaneously planned a three-day trip to southern Albania, a place our colleague Tiffany had yet to see, while we could get out and enjoy some fresh air and nature.
At the top of my wishlist was a stop at Porto Palermo -- a castle I somehow never visited before (maybe because the road south used to be so bad and the journey so long, one just wanted to REACH the destination and not stop along the way!).
It was REALLY cool inside -- both in temperature and design. Wow. I can't believe we hadn't been before. Though by local standards, it's not really that old -- only 200 years, if I understood the guide correctly. We had the castle to ourselves to explore! It was a great way to break up the trip!
In addition to Tiffany, we brought our friend, Pam. It's more challenging to travel as a single sometimes, and we have more fun when sharing experiences with friends, so we were glad she joined us and this trip was extra fun! Below we stopped on our way in Vlora for a coffee mid-morning to break up the drive and enjoy some pretty views.
This city was where Ellie lived when we adopted her... Of course, that was in November/December 2006 when one didn't indulge in waterfront coffees without a jacket or coat! I always forget how pretty it is in Vlora, where the Adriatic meets the Ionian Sea.
Funny how this kid won't eat peanut butter or celery, but baby octopus? Bring 'em on! Good thing he likes seafood because that was about the only protein on the menu most places...
Typically this part of Albania would be crawling with Europeans attracted by Albania's natural beauty and incredible prices (which is part of the reason why we rarely visit the area -- I hate crowds), however with pandemic fears and travel obstacles, we had most places largely to ourselves. It was heartbreaking to see businesses struggling while we tried to enjoy the rare gift of quiet and space.
One of the places we insisted Tiffany see was Butrinti National Park -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern Albania featuring city ruins from a couple of hundred years BC to more recent times). While in the theater where people were martyred for their faith, Reni filmed his completion of the Lift Us Up stair-climbing challenge. You can view his video here:
The Lift Us Up challenge is a fundraiser for the elevator in the new center so our friends at the Valdete Trust (who will relocate their school to our center when it opens) can access all floors in a safe, dignifying and INDEPENDENT manner. The fundraiser ends July 10 (shortly before the price quote from the elevator company expires), so don't wait! :-)
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