First Tourist Trip--After 9 Months!

Krujë, Albania. The town sits high on the mountainside. George W. Bush visited Fushe-Krujë, the town at the bottom of the mountain in June, 2007. The cafe he stopped in is named after him. He may not have been much liked in the U.S., but the Albanians love him!

Cobblestone street and reconstructed bazaar. All tourist shops, some with interesting goods. The rough woolen rugs are made in several of the shops and remind us very much of American Indian rugs. Throughout the country we see women hand-spinning wool into yarn as they walk along herding their sheep.

New castle within the old (reconstructed) castle that houses Skanderbeg museum.

We took a real outing on our P-Day, which is supposed to be every Saturday! It was a beautiful Spring day and we went to Krujë, a picturesque mountainside town famous for being the hometown of Gjergj Kastrioti (Skanderbeg), the national hero. The castle, now partly restored, was where Skanderbeg defended against the invading ottomans during four different sieges in the 15th Century. It fell to the Ottomans after his death. There is a castle-like museum built within the walls of the old castle. Among other things, it houses replicas of the helmet and swords that are reputed to have been his and are now in a museum in Vienna. The goat head helmet is very interesting and you see it on many signs throughout the country.

Home Teaching Albanian Style

I just returned from visiting my two newly assigned home teaching families, in a section of Tirana called Babru. It's located on a hill to the north of the city, and is accessed by driving over a very high dilapidated bridge that made me immediately think of an Indiana Jones movie. The bridge is badly worn, so much so that the re bar is exposed in many places, with sharp barbs sticking up in the air, ready to puncture a tire. But, I'll admit that as we started driving over it, I was more concerned about having a wheel drop through a gaping pothole, or the whole thing just collapsing. The roads in Babru are no better than the bridge, and are mostly rock strewn dirt (think Lehi Park X 10), very narrow, and steep! (Note to self: next time, wait longer after a big rain!!) But in spite of the difficulty in getting to these two families, the visits were wonderful!

In the Hamolle family, we sat in the dark (no electricity), surrounding a flashlight, as we talked and got to know each other (I was accompanied by the Branch President, the Elders Quorum President, and two missionaries, because no one of this group knew how to get to both families). The family had gone inactive sometime in 2007, following the death of the grandfather, a very strong Muslim who was converted by the power of the Book of Mormon, and led the rest of the family into the church. The 16 year old son helps his father in construction (seasonal work without a steady income), and takes a correspondence course for school. President Veliu explained that our vision for the church in Albania is to become a Stake, and that we need all priesthood holders to make it happen, and then challenged him to come back to church.

Agim Deda met the missionaries on the road late last year, and was given the Joseph Smith pamphlet. He loved what he read, especially James 1:5. He called the missionaries, and asked to be taught. He was given a Book of Mormon, which he began reading, and as he read, he said that he began cutting back on his liquor drinking. His wife was very much against this interest he had developed in religion, but as he cut back on the drinking, and stopped going to the lokale after work with friends and came home to spend time with the family, she started to be interested. When he finished the Book of Mormon, he took his last drink, and hasn't touched it since. He was baptized in September of 2008, and then baptized his wife just two months ago. He's now serving as the teacher in Elders' Quorum. Agim and Clirime have two beautiful children.. Ajvi (age 9), and Anca (age 6).

Both families are very poor, but so incredibly generous to guests....we were served candies, orange drinks, and cake (and they watched as we ate, but for us to refuse would be very rude!). They can't afford these things, but it's one of the great things about the Albanian culture that the guest is the most honored of all people. We were escorted all the way out to the auto, since the code of Kanun makes the host responsible for whatever happens to the guest until the guest is safely gone.

Elder Vondra

Did you know there is no "W" in the Albanian alphabet? So when we sent out a notice to some Albanian members that Elder Wondra wanted to meet them, we used a "V" which is how his name is pronounced anyway. He's from Vienna and is the Area Seventy assigned to work with Albania. We had very busy weekend of meetings but managed to squeeze in a couple of big lunches at nice restaurants and some American breakfasts that he said he and his wife like very much.

When visitors come, we always serve them an American-style fruit/yogurt smoothie with breakfast. When Elder Kopischke was visiting last October, he called the smoothies "brilliant--to quote the British!" Elder Wondra sent us a thank you email this morning and said, "according these two juices, I will follow the 13th Article of Faith." There is obviously a need for Jamba Juice in European countries!

Dita e Veres

March 14, Dita e Veres or Day of Summer. We understand that THE place to spend this day is in Elbasan which is famous for it's celebration. It was sunny, and thousands of people were out in Tirana enjoying the sunshine, playing in the park, sliding down the pyramid (click on the picture to see it better), and eating Ballokume, a traditional, large corn flour cookie made just for this celebration. We celebrated by going to Rudi's, simply the best ice cream place in Tirana! Rudi knows Marty's order well: two chocolate, two hazlenut (these are also the world's smallest scoops!). 80 leke--about 80 cents.

Safe House on the Lana

This east/west boulevard and river cutting through the center of Tirana is referred to as the Lana. In the summertime it can be an odorous place due to garbage and dumping of raw sewage into the river, but the mayor, Edi Rama, is trying to clean up the area. Five or six years ago, the area was a jungle of illegal, hastily built apartments and buildings. The mayor ordered the illegal buildings demolished and a green area to be developed along the river. One building that was left intact is shown here (to the left with the billboard). It is a safe house for some families involved in a blood feud. Unfortunately, there still are left in Albania several hundred feuds taken on mostly by people in the north of Albania who followed the code of the Kanun. The boys and men of these families never leave their homes because they can be killed outside of their safe house. The women and girls leave to work and get food for those inside. The young boys are unable to go to school. There are government agencies working with these families attempting to eliminate the code, but as evidenced by this unfortunate landmark, they have not been very successful. The feud ends when all male members of both families have died.

We recommend the book "Broken April" by Albanian author Ismail Kadare for an interesting read about blood feuds, or this short article in the Washington Post in 2007.

Two Humanitarian Aid Projects

Monday, March 2, we visited a preschool for Roma (gypsy) children. This is a picture of RuthLynne Snow, who is almost overwhelmed by children as they rush in to see their pictures on her digital camera. The Snow's, our Humanitarian Aid missionaries, arranged to have tables, chairs, teacher tables and cupboards, blackboards, balls, toys, and a stove and refrigerator donated to the school from our church. The chairs and tables were built by Roma people who donated their time. The teachers waited until Marty came so he could plug in the stove and refrigerator. Ilir, one of the directors at the school is a Roma who grew up on the streets of Tirana begging. A Christian organization taught him Albanian and English, gave him discipline and an education, and helped him lift himself into a better life. Now he gives back by helping with this little school. He told us that we do not help his ethnic group when we give money to them when they beg on the streets. (We've told our missionaries that they should not give, as they'll get followed home and pestered for more. Wearing a missionary tag makes you pretty identifiable.) When the little children, dirty, ragged, hungry, and wearing shoes five times their size come up to your car window with their big, beautiful brown eyes, it breaks your heart and it's difficult not to give. This preschool takes 50 children off the streets, cleans them up, teaches them the Albanian language so they can get into public schools (the Roma have their own language), and feeds them two good meals a day. The Roma are discriminated against so the odds against them getting into school and staying are very low.

Last month Marty went with the Snow's to Vlora, our southern-most city where we have missionaries. He was there for the installation of blood analyzer machines in the major hospital there. This hospital serves an area of 200,000 people and did not even have a blood analyzer, so this was a most welcome donation.

By the way, if you click on a word in a blog post that is underlined, you will be directed to a new link with more information about that subject--if you're interested. This article on the Roma is fascinating. We have thousands living in the southern United States.

"YMCA?" Not!

This is not a picture of me trying to sing and dance "YMCA"! Unfortunately, I have developed frozen shoulder syndrome, and this is as far as I can lift my left arm as compared to my right arm. I've had a lot of pain and lack of range of motion the last month, and after seeing the "best orthopedic man" in Albania, and consulting with our mission doctor in Germany and an orthopedist in Salt Lake City, they've decided this is what I've got. This is one of the diagnostic pictures I sent Dr. Larson in Salt Lake. I hope to work through this with stretching exercises three times a day, heat packs preceding, and ice packs afterward. Should take three or more months to work it out. I hope to be able to do this on my own without having to go home for surgery. Cortisone shots in Albania are not an option, and there is no such thing as arthroscopic surgery here. Medical care in Albania is many years behind the U.S.--one of the legacies of a mad communist dictator who closed off his country from the rest of the world so his people wouldn't know how bad their lives were.