Albania Reflected

It is nearly a week since our return home. Our time in Albania came to an abrupt end. The final week of camp in Erseke was great. It was highlighted of course by the campers but in addition there was a team of high schoolers from England who served. They actually sponsored 20 orphans to attend camp. These kids were so great. They had so much fun. Despite their circumstance it was great to see them smile throughout the week.

Like other weeks I joined a group of kids to follow. I met a 13-year old girl named Melinda. She was from the orphanage where she had been since 1999. Both of her parents have died and she is separated from her siblings. Melinda is also scared by a severe burn on her face which was suffered in a fire. Throughout the week I go to know Melinda. She had so many questions for me ranging from America to my family and interests. At weeks end she was in tears as we said our goodbyes. I knew her living conditions probably weren’t ideal, although I heard the conditions at her orphanage are good. But still she lacks a real family. My heart felt for her. I found comfort though in knowing she had a wonderful week at camp where she made great friends and learned more about God. One thing that amazed me about the group from the orphanage was their support from one another. They care for each other just like a family.

Reflecting on Albania I can’t stop thinking about the relationships made there. So many faces come to mind. I just developed 152 pictures; at least half are face shots of children I met. If you know me, you know that I’m a relational person. I enjoy being with and meeting people. God really convicted me in recognizing this quality. I learned that not only is this a quality to form relationship, but it is also a great spiritual gift. From this experience I know that in whatever avenue I pursue relational aspects/ministry will be apart of that.

A crazy throught…?

Now I’m back in Chico. I’m looking for a place to live and a career. I have two maybe three ideas in mind at the moment. The options include either pursuing a job in news media or aviation (with an airline or airport). The third option which has recently come to mind is to possibly return to Albania to serve in college ministry at a local university. This option was shared before leaving. I never really thought about it until now. Currently I’m praying for great guidance. I do see this as a great opportunity as I’m in limbo, maybe God is calling me to serve there. For now though, I still need time to process this latest wonderful adventure God sent me on.

Tirana Again and thoughts about my time in Albania

Well, we're all back in Tirana safe and sound. It was hard to leave Erseke and all the friends we had made, but we made it out only a little worse for the wear. I think we're all a bit sad to leave those people that we had spent everyday for the last 6 weeks with, though I know that I'm excited to get home to my friends and family.

I've had an interesting time in Tirana so far. There have been two big events that have happened to me so far. First, I saw a really bad accident happen on the road. A car hit a man while going about 20 miles per hour. I saw him bounce off the hood and his head hit the windshield and broke it. He was out cold. I was surprised at my reaction to it; I just felt like crying, really. I don't know at all what happened to the man. The second incident was that I lost my wallet, which only had about 6 dollars worth of money, but it had my drivers license which would have been a pain. I don't think I would need it on top of my passport for flying, but I still didn't want to have lost it. What really struck me in both situations, and others on this trip, though, was my reaction to it. Both times my first reaction was to pray. I prayed for the man that was hit that he'd be okay, and when I realized that I couldn't find my wallet and there was nothing I could do about it, I prayed that I'd have peace and that it would work itself out. And while I can't speak for the man in the accident, I just got my wallet back; The neighbor of my host family found it and brought it to them. Furthermore all my other prayers have been answered.

I've really learned to trust God a lot more on this trip. I've learned to pray expecting that God will hear me and that he wants to answer my prayer. I started this trip with a similar hope, that I would learn to lean on God more, but I didn't expect it in this way. Overall, with one day left in Albania, I really feel like this trip was worth it all.

Our time in the wilderness...

Our team just got back this evening from our excursion up into the mountains. The camp here owns some land up in the mountains about an hour away from the main site, and up some awesomely bumpy logging roads, and so we spent most of this week there. When we got there, it was just a slanted sort of meadow, as well as just being Megan, Lisa and myself (Kurt and Kyla were sick--They're better now!), and our first act of business was to clear a 12 feet by 20 feet area to place an American army tent (it still belongs to them). It's really cool to think back to what the place was when we got there, and how it is when we left it. We brought some Albanians with us who worked on plumbing the whole time; They diverted a spring running out of the mountain through hoses to bring running water to the camp. When we left, there was a sink with three basins all hooked up, two bathrooms with flushing toilets, and a shower, which was soon to have heated water. The team ourselves leveled and cleared a lot of ground, set up a few big tents, and a lot of littler tents, as well as a volleyball court.

Now we're all back though, sporting some new blisters, some pretty big bug bites, and lots of scratches. It was pretty nice having dinner made for us tonight and set in front of us to eat, instead of making our own, but we had a really good time. At night we'd hike up the mountain a bit above our meadow and sit on a ledge to watch the sunset, and each day we had a shepherd come through our meadow. The sound of the bells on their necks is really the most soothing sound ever. We also made friends with one of his dogs over our stay as well, but this morning she betrayed us and brought the rest to ransack our food. We ended up eating apple sauce, crackers and watermelon for lunch. One of the days we hiked down the mountain out to a nearby lake, which was a lot of fun. It was about a 30 minute hike both ways, and some rocky, hilly terain, but that made the water feel all the much better!

Anyways, that's our week. We enjoyed it a lot, but I think that everyone is happy to be back. It's crazy to think that we only have one more camp left here in Erseke, and then we'll be back in Tirana for a few days before we head home. This next week will be more Jr. Highers, which is good because they're a fun age to work with. Hope everything is going well at home, and I suppose we'll see you all fairly soon!

American clown robs Albanian convenience store, Megan almost gets hit by a car, Lisa gets attacked by a Rhinocerous Beetle...More to come

Hello from the two Blog slackers- megan and Lisa (needless to say)
Well, Albania has been full of surprises, and many fascinating characters. Take Xhaxhe (Jodgey) Sufi for example. This is a toothless, beady-eyed old man with a barrell of spunk. He's like the town landscaper/fixer-upper. He cares for the entire land as if its his own. From morning to late night, hes always doing odd-jobs for the camp and the neighborhoods. Jogdey is always up to his tricks and constantly harrassing us with his Albanian rambling. Just the other day, hes walking with us to camp, and with a twinkle in his eye, leaps for our hair and sticks enormous spikey balls in our pony tails, which are beastly to get out! He then proceeds to the camp, searching for the hairiest victims he can find to reek havok on them. We almost died laughing! What a cool guy.
Last saturday, the team and some Albanian buds, headed on over to this Leech-infested gorge for an afternoon adventure. The water was murky and so the depth was unknown. Talk about taking leaps of faith! We jumped off of a couple of waterfalls, which added more excitement to our trip. The rock walls closed in on us, and it looked so much like Southern Utah, as the walls were smooth shades of pink and peach. Reflections of the water were projected on the rock just above the creek. We had a blast, and a couple of bruises by the end.
As for the ministry, campers hearts are changed every week, and its clear to see the hand of God working in the lives of the people here every day. We particularly love the children, and are understanding the mission of giving and recieving love.
Kurt is getting hostile and wants online now. Much love from Albania.
Mirupafshim (goodbye)
**Megan and Lisa**

Just an Update

Camp is going well; It's becoming sort of routine. Lately it's been hard to get online because there have been country-wid power outages. The power here is almost all hydroelectric, and there hasn't been a lot of rain lately, or at least that's how it's been explained to me. It tends to be that there's no power from lunch time on to dinner time, which is our main period of free time. Mostly, I've been working on a puzzle during the free time, which we actually finished yesterday.

We had a bit of controversy as a team trying to decide what we'll be doing in 2 weeks, because we we're invited to Vlore to be with Zef's church again. As a team, we didn't want to make a decision that would exclude anyone, because we want to keep the team strong together. Anyways, we had been praying about it and we decided to stay in Erseke for the rest of the camps, meaning we have this one of Jr. Highers, which is almost over, followed by Highschoolers, and then most likely the last week we'll be up in the mountains doing what I think they call the "Wilderness camp."
I know that next week we will be spending some of the week in the mountains so that we can set up for the camp up there, as well. From what I hear we're leveling the ground again, then setting up all the tents, and then we might be helping with the cooking our last week. Gjergji is here this week, and he's a bit dissapointed we won't be comng to Vlore, but I told him we'd be back in Tirane for about 3 full days before we leave.

Anyways, that's how life is right now, pretty routine now, but we're doing a good job and we're encouraged in that.

Naçi

Last night, Kurt and I went out with a friend of ours from camp, Naçi, and got to nkow more about him. Naçi is an example of how the legal system here doesn't believe that you're innocent until proven guilty, but the opposite; You are guilty until proven innocent. if you are accused of a crime here, they will throw you straight into prison and then start investigating; Basically they shame you and ruin your life whether you committed the crime or not. Naçi spent a year in prison for a crime he didn't commit. What struck me is what the prisons are like here. They're run by the mafia, and in Naçi's case, the prison was literally owned by the mafia. They don't feed you and they don't really give you anything. The idea is that they will break you down enough to pay them to either get out or enough to live better. He was talking about how his family would bring him food and then the inventions they had in order to cook it. He said they would take somehting like a pipe cleaner and a piece of wood and stick one end in an outlet and the other in a pot of water to heat it up for soup, and then some other invention to make coffee with. He was talking about the good things about it though; how he realized who his real friends were by who supported him, and that no one cares for you like your parents. He also talked about reading Paul's letters and how he could relate to being in prison without committing a crime and how that helped him get through his time there. He's a pretty cool guy with lots of stories, but that one struck me the most, so I thought I would share it.

Camp Two

Well, the campers are arriving for the second camp as I speak. It seems like this camp is going to be a lot different. Last camp we had one-hundred and fifty-five nine to eleven-year-olds, whereas here we're having sixty Jr. Highers. Also, 4 of us will be following a group, with one of us dedicating a whole day each day of the week at the canoe site. Finally, I'm playing drums for the music this week, but I still can't find one part of the set. I'm actually waiting right now for Doni, who is this week's camp director and also a drummer, to see what we can possibly rig to get a working drumset.

The weather has gotten very cool lately, and I'm actually a big fan of it. It's been pretty cloudy, which was helpful yesterday, because we went on a hike probably half the way to Greece. We had heard there was a big waterfall somewhere out in the mountains, so the team minus Kurt (who was feeling sick--he's better now) went out with Kate and her dog Elliot to find it. We didn't find the waterfall we were looking for, but we had a good time getting outside and hiking. It felt good to really use my legs here. We got a little rain on the way back, and we're getting a little now, but it's not bad at all. Mostly, I'm just happy that it's gotten very cool at night time; It makes sleeping a whole lot easier for me. We had some irregularly hot weather the first week we were here and I was afraid that's how it would be all summer long.

There's a plan to play soccer tonight, though I don't know if I'll be at the camp for music, but either way I think I'll have fun.