More from Albania

Lisa mentioned it, but Tuesday night was one of the best nights for the team, so far. We had our American Cultural night, which was good, but for me the highlight was what came afterwards. The DJ at the place we were at turned on some Albanian traditional music, so we all started dancing in traditional Albanian dance, as well as some Russian dances, and some times of simply dancing. After that we all went outside and played Soccer. It's been so long since I last played soccer, so I was very, very rusty. It was funny; When I would tell them it's been a long time since I last played, they would say that it was the same for them, however, when I meant that it had been years since I had last played, they meant that they hadn't played since last week. There were also some Nigerian professional soccer players there as well, so it was interesting. I mostly played goal keeper, so I would sweat bullets every time one of the Nigerians was approaching the goal. Still I blocked a few shots, though not as many as I missed. They were all very nice though and were full of compliments, though.

Yesterday we drove out to Vlore and then spent the rest of the day on the beach. It's a rocky beach, not a sandy beach, but the water is amazingly beautiful. It's a beautiful light blue and it's the perfect temperature. It's so salty that Megan and I were commenting that we could never drown, with all the buoyancy. I was thinking that I like this kind of mission trip, where we can sit on a beautiful beach and then go eat some good food.

Last night we went to a midweek bible study meeting that Zef led in Vlore. It was actually on the same beach that we played on, and the sunset was beautiful. He taught on Romans 12 and about using the gifts that God gave us. I noticed that I've started to understand some Albanian when I've sat down and just listened to it. After we had dinner, the group there began dancing, similarly to the group after the night on Tuesday. I've learned a few traditional Albanian dances now, and a girl I've met in Tirana said she would give me a CD of the songs that we danced to.

Today we're back, and so I'm back to the internet cafe to update the blog and check on emails. We should be going out to a dance club tomorrow night, resting for most of sunday, then leaving on a bus for Urseke at 8:30 on monday morning. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go online in Urseke!