Automobile Problems in Albania

Well, after 6 months of escaping any kind of auto troubles and accidents (really, pretty remarkable, given all the daily opportunities for disaster), the last 10 days have been a time of catching up! In this short amount of time, in 3 separate incidents, I've (Marty) mangled a wheel rim (driver's side front), destroyed a tire, mangled another wheel rim (passenger side front), and destroyed a tire, had an accident involving our only other automobile in the mission(he hit me, though), and had another flat tire (passenger side rear)!! Right now, the VW Sharan van that Liz and I normally drive around in is not really in condition to go very far (no spare tire, rim on order, one tire with an ugly bulge in the side wall, and no 195/60 R16 tires in the whole country of Albania!!). Tomorrow, we'll see if we can get some 205/55 R16's.

The rest of the story: on the biggest shopping day before New Year's (a Sunday), we offered to drive the Saraci sisters to the furgon (private bus) station in order to get to Durres for the funerals of two cousins of a close friend. But everyone was on the roads of Tirana buying last minute food, fireworks, and fun...we were totally stuck in traffic, and decided to try some back roads known to the sisters. With their guidance, I started off to short circuit the whole mess, only to end up "stucker" than ever. Patience wearing thin, I set off to do a trick play that involved going over some 8 inch high concrete barriers in the road, only to discover that I'm not driving my trusty Dodge Dakota, but a wimpy VW, and the drivers' side front wheel went crunch, the wheel cover flew off, and the tire popped. I maneuvered to a spot off the road, and tried to change the tire, only to discover that the wheel lugs had been over-torqued, and I couldn't get enough leverage to get them off. A young boy selling Albanian pens came by to help (and to sell us a couple of pens), but no luck! Finally, I gave up and called for help from the assistants and Elder Newhouse, who showed up with a longer wrench, and we finally got the tire changed!

Not too many days later, we were invited to attend FHE at the home of Sister Xheka in Durres. We met another family going to the FHE at the train station and began following them to her home. It was very dark and raining, the streets were filled with water, and we were going slowly but unfortunately I couldn't follow them precisely. Suddenly the van was jarred violently, and the entire passenger side took a deep dive downward! Since we were in 15 inches of water, I didn't know what it was, but I guessed that it was an open manhole, and I've now mangled my second wheel rim, and destroyed my second tire! We drove on to Sister Xheka's home for a very interesting 3 hour FHE (I wasn't the only one asked to give a lesson, but the other lessons were all people reading complete conference talks from the Liahona, followed by a complete formal dinner! Amazing!!). We had parked on the muddy edge of a dirt road that was very close to a 20 foot chasm, and I spent the whole meeting worried that 1) the van would roll down the calvert and 2) both tires would be flat and we wouldn't be able to get home. I call it the FHE miracle, because the van didn't roll, and we were able to get home (although the steering wheel shook violently at about 40 mph!). The next morning, both the front and rear passenger side tires were flat!!

Then yesterday, driving two newly arrived missionaries home from the airport, we were hit on the side in the mission van (the only auto working in the mission at the time) by a Mercedes that was entering traffic, and got too close. The driver claimed that I had hit him, and went running for a policeman to sort things out. The policeman came and clearly saw that he was in my lane, and hit me in the rear, and that it couldn't have been my fault. He asked me if I wanted to press charges against the driver, but the damage was minimal and I said no (to the great relief of the driver of the Mercedes, whose whole demeanor changed incredibly when he saw that the policeman was on my side). Then the policeman asked me if I was satisfied with the service, and when I said "yes", he saluted and we shook hands and parted. I hope we've gotten this all out of the system now, and can go the next couple of years with no problems!!

New Year's Eve in Tirana

You just cannot imagine, nor can words describe, what New Year's is like in Tirana!! There are fireworks going off all day long, but at about 11:45 PM, things begin to intensify, and people are shooting off amazing fireworks from their windows, from the ground outside their apartments, and from the rooftops. Around midnight, the fury and intensity of the fireworks is deafening, and it appears as though the entire city has erupted in war and conflagration....this lasts for about 20 minutes, then gradually dies down. We climbed up a ladder thru the ceiling to get access to the roof of our bulding (Liz viewed the whole thing from the safety of the apartments, which was still amazing). It was an amazing panoramic view!

Morning in the "treg" (think farmer's market!)

We spent this morning looking for American style bacon in the treg right next to the Stephen's Center cafe, where we had a wonderful breakfast---waffles, eggs, bacon, toast,hot chocolate. After eating their bacon, we asked where they purchased it, and they pointed us to the next square over in the treg at a proschute and salame place called Hako. These are some of the colorful sites along the way.

The traditional New Year's meal in Albania is turkey, and there were turkey's everywhere this morning. Last year one of our missionaries was invited to New Year's dinner, and was given the honor of killing the turkey, which was done by slitting it's throat in the bathtub. Speaking of grisly things, much of the slaughter takes place right on the streets, usually on Sunday's. When the meat stores advertise "fresh meat", they really mean it! (Posted by Marty)

Singing in the Qender Christmas Eve

Motra Neil organized a wonderful Christmas eve activity with all the Tirana missionaries, young adults, and other branch members. There must have been 50 of us all together. We drove into the center of the city, beneath the giant statue of Skanderbeu, and after meeting up with everyone else who walked, we set up with several tables (nicely draped with red tableclothes), tracts and Books of Mormon, and a large picture of the Savior. We also brought a guitar and a small battery operated keyboard. After handing out Liz's homemade collection of all the translated Albanian Christmas carols (eight of them), we started singing, as loud as we could, because in the open air, and without amplification, the sound doesn't carry very far. As we sang hymns, missionaries did street contacting and wished passers-by a Merry Christmas.


I don't know that we sounded very great, but it was wonderful fun! We did have to take a few minute break, when the mosque right behind us began broadcasting the call to prayer (adhan)---they had major amplification!

The center has a very large, decorated Christmas tree, not too far from where we were singing...in fact, Christmas decorations are eveywhere! But, to our surprise, we learned that it's all about New Year's here. (It's not a Christmas tree....it's a New Year's tree!) They give gifts on New Year's as well. And, they do fireworks! So much so, that we instruct the missionaries to be in their apartments by 5 PM New Year's eve, and not to come back out until the next day----it's dangerous to be on the streets. (By Pres. Neil)

Gate Keepers

If the Assistants happen to be outside when we're loading up the car to exit the mission home grounds, they run to the open the gate for us. There they stand at attention with stone faces like they're Secret Service. They look up and point at the windows and roof, speak into their "watch radios" and salute us as we drive past. This morning as we exited to visit the Tirana 3rd Branch, we noticed a large group of men standing at the lokalë (cafe/bar) across the street (just out of view to the right) watching our little exit ceremony. We laughed and wondered who they think we are to deserve such respect!

Whew, What a Week!

Monday: Loads of preparations for Zone Conferences. I assembled 60 of these refrigerator magnets as a Christmas handout. The words are by Marvin K. Gardner from the song "Room in the Inn" by Vanja Watkins. My daughter Erin stamped and embossed the small manger cards for me before we left the states, and I cut and assembled the cards based on her design.

Tues., Dec. 9: We were invited to attend a concert with the Grimci's (District Presidency) of "The Tenors," an Albanian version of the famous "Three Tenors" concerts. It was not exactly high culture, but entertaining none-the-less, and the featured tenor from Italy was excellent, as was the orchestra. Also featured was an aging, bleached-blonde soprano from Italy who waltzed out in a slinky red dress with a fox-fur cape. She was all shtick and schmaltz, and had a knee-length vibrato. Cultural events here are very inexpensive to attend. Our tickets cost us $10 each and they were front-row seats!

Wed., Dec 10: An LDS family gave us second row tickets to the National Opera where the husband and wife play violin. It was a trio of "short" Puccini operas. "Short" is relative when it comes to opera, and we left after two and a half hours, missing the third opera. The Opera House is a concrete building, built in 1963. It is unheated, and there was cold air blowing on us throughout the performance. Fortunately, I brought a scarf with me which I wrapped around my neck and head, with only my eyes peeking out. My feet froze, though. If we hadn't been so cold, we could have enjoyed the excellent singing more!

Thurs., Dec. 11: Mulek Zone Conference. A real spiritual highlight of the last six weeks. My preparation included a Power Point presentation on cleaning apartments. I modified a presentation my friend Sandra Ludwig gave when her husband was president of the Greece Athens Mission. O.k., so that wasn't spiritual--but it was necessary! New Year's Day is a huge holiday here and follows a night of merry making and crazy fireworks, so the missionaries are staying inside for most of the day to "make a fresh start by deep cleaning their apartments." I also put together a missionary musical number; cinnamon rolls for the break; and a beef stew lunch for 34 with Christmas-decorated tables and large Christmas-tree cutout cookies for dessert. Marty gave two presentations, including one he developed with the Assistants on our vision of how we can have a stake here by mid-2011. They call the project "Korab," which is the highest mountain peak in Albania, and compares climbing a high mountain to the work and faith we need to accomplish our goal of a stake. Then the Assistants showed a beautiful slide show they developed of Christ's life in art, from birth to resurrection, with an accompaniment of a choir singing Mack Wilburg's "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.

"The Sisters ended up at one table. You can see we dress to be warm here! One sister at this table told me she had on four pair of tights! The weather has been fairly mild, but the cold is a damp cold which chills to the bone, and it sometimes seems colder in our concrete and tile buildings than it is outside.

Fri., Dec. 12: Lehi Zone Conference. Same presentations, cinnamon rolls for break, and cutout sugar cookies, but for the "outside" zone we hire two women (both former caterers) to cook the lunch.

We left before the lunch because we had to get back to Tirana to take a dozen missionaries from the inside zone to the U.S. Ambassador's residence to sing carols at his annual Christmas reception for the embassy staff. They sang beautifully, but Marty said it was like missionary work: "Only a few people listen." The ambassador, John Withers, II, was most appreciative and the finger food was very American and very delicious. Marty had six or seven deviled eggs.

Sat. Dec. 13: Our 40th Wedding Anniversary. Marty gave me a beautiful Swarovski crystal angel. He had meetings until 2:15 and then we had lunch at an American cafe. It's not far from the mission home and it's the only place in town you can get a real hamburger and mexican food. Then we drove to the big QTU shopping center which is outside the city and hit the EuroMax supermarket to stock up on groceries.

While at the grocery store, I was waiting for the clerk to weigh my bananas (you bag your own produce, but it has to be weighed and tagged before the main checkout), when a man stepped in front of me with his produce. This has happened to me several times in lines and at elevators, and as Marty has told me, "You can't show weakness!" Actually, he was talking about driving when he said it but I decided I'd had enough and blurted out, "Excuse me!" in Albanian. He motioned for me to go ahead, but I'll bet he doesn't get challenged often, as this is a "men first" culture.

It was pouring rain and we didn't feel like doing much that evening, so we stayed in and watched a movie on our new Sharp Aquos, 32" screen, High-def, LCD, 1080p TV. Actually, this was an anniversary and Christmas present to ourselves and it replaced a small 20" screen TV that was here when we moved in. Well, we did need something bigger on which to show the missionaries General Conference, didn't we?! It will be our gift to the mission home.

Sunday, Dec. 14: Church in the little unit in Kamez, a suburb of Tirana. 19 people in attendance: two elders, Marty and me, the Vogli family of five who were the visiting speakers, one member and nine investigators. Pictured is the wonderful Vogli family. Brother Vogli is the man who sculpted our marble bust of Christ as a surprise gift. He also carves the marble name plates on our branch buildings. I'm going to teach Ester, who is eight years old, piano lessons. This was a very sweet Sacrament Meeting. Elder Monson and Humphreys are doing a wonderful work in Kamez.
After church we took a drive part of the way up Mt. Dajti (pronounced "Dyetee") which is directly to the East of Tirana. There is an aerial tram that you can take most of the way up the mountain, but I don't think I'll be getting on it unless they drug me first. Marty and Elder Shupe say they'll take it while Sister Shupe and I sit in the cafe below and drink hot cocoa. Marty is standing on one of the many concrete bunkers on the mountainside.


It's going to be what the missionaries call a "White Christmas" in Albania, due to all the baptisms scheduled for Christmas day. We're expecting as many as 25 convert baptisms in December, many of them coming from a little branch in Shkodër, which has had missionaries for only a year or so. Things have exploded following the baptisms of Adriana and Toma as they are wonderful member missionaries! (See Adriana's story below in Marty's post "Two Convert Stories.")

Christmas Calendar

My sister Virginia sent me this beautiful gift-filled calendar for the days of December, perfect for this spot in our living room. She found eight sheer curtain panels with pockets at a garage sale, and creative person that she is, immediately thought of how it would be a great advent calendar. Each pocket has a beautifully wrapped gift, sized specially for that pocket, a scripture card to help you guess what is inside, and a Christmas gift card that can be placed in the pocket so it continues to look festive as the gifts are taken out and opened. Also included in each package is a small ornament which goes on the little twig tree pictured here. We've been sharing the American candy and fun little gifts with the missionaries and they think my sister is something special! I gave one to my piano student Jona, (pronounced Yona) and she was thrilled, and carefully opened the metallic paper so she could save it.