Art of Albania

Most Albanian souvenirs are much like trinkets sold in other countries--cheap, and something you end up hiding away once you get back home. So we decided to avoid the tourist items, and try to find some lovely pieces of art that are of landscapes, or otherwise representative of the country, and that will remind us of our three years in Albania. We've been fortunate to find some beautiful items that we will bring home with us next year.

"Figurë Vajze" or "Figure of a Girl" by Gëzim Borova. We were told this is a picture of a traditional costume from the north. The unique thing about this piece is it is a straw mosaic--very tiny pieces of dyed straw pieced together to form a mosaic. A piece like this can take up to six months to finish. Below is a closeup of the girl's sleeve. Most straw pieces are about 1/8". The mosaic itself is 14 x 23".

These two oil on canvas paintings are by Omeri, an artist we found painting in the Studio e Rira in Tirana. Above is the lake at Pogradec (pronounced Pogradets), a spot we have yet to visit, and below is the "Blue Eye", a very deep, clear, and fast-moving spring between Gjirokaster and Saranda. The Blue Eye was a favorite fishing/camping spot of the communist elite, and ordinary folks were not allowed to hunt or fish here. Now it's open to the public and is a beautiful place to visit.

Mars 27 Relief Society Conference

The Albania Tirana District held a Relief Society Conference Saturday, and had a nice turnout of women from all over Albania. We tried to take a picture afterward, but only half the women ended up in the picture (try organizing 100 women for a picture), and the photographer didn't try to get their attention (if that were possible) before snapping the photo. The members always want me to be in the front, so I try to bend my knees to modify my height, but even so, you can see how I tower over most Albanian women--especially tiny Sister Shehu, who is standing next to me.

Snow and Other Random Happenings

Here are some pictures from the last month or so. We had snow on February 26! Big, beautiful flakes came down for about an hour and actually accumulated on the ground, but melted as soon as the snowing stopped. It's been a very rainy winter, but with rather mild temperatures, so this cold front that came in was unusual. The holiday Dita e Verës, (Summer's Day), was on March 14, and the Albanians say that the weather turns nice then. I was sure it would still be raining, but was surprised when the holiday was sunny and beautiful (see next picture which was taken on March 14), and the weather since has been nice, with only two days of rain. Spring has come to Albania!

Elder Ford, an Area Seventy, and his wife visited us from England for our District Conference on March 11 & 12. It was a wonderful and uplifting visit. Elder Ford spoke to the missionaries from the Tirana area and challenged them to have 20 , 15-30 minute lessons a week. In order to achieve it, the missionaries will need to not only do shorter lessons with investigators, but make them more frequent--up to three times a week. We're committed to do it, despite the cultural tradition of muhëbet, or chatting a while before getting down to business. Unfortunately, this is the only picture we took with the Ford's, and we're all squinting because of the bright sun. The Ford's were lots of fun to be with, and were very adventurous and tried authentic Albanian food with us--including dhalë (pronounced "thall") which is a very sour, fermented buttermilk. I declined the dhalë. It was a very busy weekend with back-to-back meetings, and just look at the blue sky!
Another flat tire. We've lost track. I think it's our fifth flat. Here is Elder Dittmer, one of our office elders, helping Marty change it.
Our wonderful Outreach/Institute couple, R.Q. and Susan Shupe, left to return home to Oceanside, CA, on March 22. They worked wonders with the young adults and members here in Albania. We will miss them!

This concrete and bench area is a xhaxhi (pronounced "jajee") park--or a park for old men. Xhaxhi means "uncle". The men sit around the trees and play chess, bingo, dice, and backgammon. The Kolonat in the background has been open only a few months. It is a McDonald's knockoff, right down to the "Kid's Meal," and you see Kolonat restaurants all over Tirana. The fries aren't bad, but watch out for the "hamburger" and other sandwiches. The Kolonat, despite the awful food, is actually quite popular. There is a kid's playground inside this one. This area is within a few blocks of the mission home.

Media Matters

Lately, the Church in Albania has been blessed with excellent coverage by the media. In December, Sister Shupe gave a half-hour television interview about the symbols of Christmas, and even though she was not supposed to talk directly about the church, the television camera zoomed in on her missionary tag as she spoke. There were newspaper articles and television coverage about the church donations to flood victims in Shkoder in January. When the Snow's, our humanitarian aid couple, met with Dr. Berisha at a convent and home for older women in March to deliver wheelchairs, the television cameras and newspaper reporters were there.

Last week a reporter from Top Channel, the most watched television channel in Albania, showed up unexpectedly in the mission office, and inquired about doing a report on our church to include in a series on small churches in Albania.

The reporter wanted to begin almost immediately, so our assistants scrambled to find a family that could demonstrate a Family Home Evening that night, and arranged the next day for some elders and the Grimci's, long-time members who help with public relations for the church here, to be interviewed. This is the result of that filming and interviews.

While the film editor cut all testifying by the Veliu family, and also the personal interviews, we are happy that the final result was positive toward the church. The missionaries pictured are Elder Monson and Elder Dittmer.

Luke Sager Schaumann

Meet Luke Sager Schaumann, born to Emily and Peter Schaumann, March 11, 2010 at 2:37 p.m. in San Diego, CA. At birth he weighed 9 lb. 7 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. Luke is our ninth grandchild. We learned via Skype and our computer that Emily and Peter were getting ready to go to the hospital and she sent an email via her iPhone after Luke was born. Gotta love modern technology. It's a real blessing for us to be able to communicate rapidly with our children even though we're so far away from them. Reports are that Emily and Luke are doing great.

Wheelchairs for Albania

Our Humanitarian Service couple, Elder and Sister Snow from Colorado Springs, have worked for some time on a project to bring over 500 wheel chairs into the country. For a time, it seemed that we might never get them into Albania, since they were held up for months in Greek customs. But they finally arrived a few weeks ago, and we split them with our partners for distribution to the people who really need the chairs---about 100 went to the Albanian Red Cross, and the remainder went to Dr. Berisha's Children's Foundation (Dr. Berisha is the wife of Sali Berisha, Prime Minister of Albania).

Today, we had a small ceremony at the Mother Teresa Convent in Tirana, attended by Dr. Berisha and covered by national news media. Following Dr. Berisha presentation, Elder Snow made a short presentation about the church.

The Mother Teresa Convent is run by nine sisters, and houses and cares for about 40 elderly women. One of the nuns, Sister Lazarasti, is from India, and worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta before starting up the convent and elderly women's home here in Tirana about 19 years ago. She has the most cheerful countenance, and the warmest smile! Here are some of the wheel chairs lined up in the courtyard of the Convent.





























This sweetheart, below the Mother Teresa painting, secretly picked away and ate the frosting along one whole side of this sheet cake--in addition to the wheelchair gift, they were celebrating Albanian Mother's Day (actually, Women's day) on March 8th (a holiday left over from the days of Communism, and not celebrated by many because of it's communist roots). The cake was part of the Women's Day celebration.

--Marty

Shopping in Tirana

Shopping for a big meal is not a quick trip to the store or to Costco, like it is back home, so I start planning and shopping two or more weeks ahead. Often my menu is based on what I can find in the markets. Here's what happened last week:

We plan a half-day shopping trip and head out of town toward the QTU shopping center. Down the rruga Durrësit we stop at the German Store where parking can be difficult to find, but we luck into a really good space around the block. The German Store is a popular place for expats. We hope to find cheddar cheese, which is unavailable elsewhere, and the very excellent Mövenpick raspberry jam, of which Marty insists we keep an ample supply. They have the cheese (yeay!) and buy three half-kilo blocks (17.6 ounces) for $12 each. I'll grate and freeze it for zone conference. To stretch it, I'll mix it with shredded gouda. The German Store also carries flour tortillas, six to a package, and I pick up five packages. Sometimes they have Marshmallows for $4.50 a bag, but that's a bit too pricey for me.

I decide to have chicken wraps for Mission Council lunch, and Taco Salad for Zone Conferences.

We drive out to the large EuroMax at the QTU mall outside of Tirana, where I can get large bags of German-made tortilla chips, and purchase several bags for the Taco Salad. I can also get canned kidney beans there. I also buy large vacuum packed packages of roasted peanuts and dried, diced pineapple to make trail mix as part of a mid-morning snack for Mission Council. However, the large bags of M & M's I like for the trail mix are only available only at the Conad stores. I notice that Schmand (sour cream) is stocked again at the EuroMax after being gone from the shelves for a month or two. We've learned that if you see something you like on the shelves, you'd better purchase more than you need, because it may not be there the next time you're shopping. Sometimes the EuroMax has evaporated milk, and other times it does not.

As long as we're out past the city, we continue to drive out the highway to the new City Park Mall. There is a Mercator Hypermarket (comparable to a small WalMart Supermart) at the mall which I like to check for new items. This day we find freshly packaged, shredded carrots which will be good for the chicken wraps. It is the only place we can find "soft" toothbrushes, also. The Mercator has packaged powdered sugar, but it's still not as finely powdered as in the states.

At the City Park is a Rossman & Lala (German) sundries store which carries small boxes of Oreo Cookies, a treat for us. We rarely buy Oreo's back home, but when we see an item common to the States that is generally unavailable here, it seems much more tempting. They also have Palmolive dish detergent. There is an ice-skating rink at CityPark and it's fun to sit, have a hot chocolate (cacao), and watch the skaters.

We head on back into town and are fortunate to find a parking spot in the pay lot next to the Conad store on the Lana (river). This is where I can get the best meat, so I purchase several pounds of ground beef. Food prices have skyrocketed in the past few months--the ground beef is almost $2.00 more per kilo. I also pick up four packages of sliced chicken breasts for the wraps for Mission Council lunch, and sliced Gouda cheese. I also find nice Iceberg head lettuce and bell peppers, which we rarely see. I forget that I need to bag the cellophane-wrapped lettuce, weigh and tag it, so the checker has to call someone to run back and weigh it for me.

Conad is the only store that carries small jars of Skippy Peanut Butter, Rice Krispies (for that rare time I had marshmallows and could make Rice Krispie treats for the missionaries), whole grain bread, hamburger buns, Ritz Crackers, Kikkoman Soy Sauce, frozen diced onions, and our favorite Müller yoghurt.

In December, the Conad had dried black-eyed peas and the German store had bottled pickled beets, so Marty was able to have his traditional New Year's Day dinner. I used "instant" polenta to make corn bread.

The freshest produce is not in the supermarkets, but at the many stands around town. Sometimes produce is simply sold on overturned crates along the streets. The produce stands (treg) at the end of our street cater to the poorer population that lives in our area of town and the fruits and vegetables are often old, or not as high quality as I can find elsewhere. If I want really nice produce, I go to the "Italian" produce stand on the Myslym Shyri road, so if Marty is heading down to the chapel near there for a meeting, I'll go along so I can shop there or at other stands along the street. Parking is really difficult in that area of town.

Bananas, a favorite fruit since it was unavailable during the communist era, are sold all over town, sometimes on overturned cardboard boxes along the street.

If I need powdered milk, I need to go to a bulk store. It's a very small shop that has staples like flour, oatmeal, and nuts of many varieties in large bags and boxes and you can purchase however much you like. There are three that I shop, as one may have something that another doesn't. Last week, I found bagged dark brown sugar at the bulk store on the Rruga Elbasanit, and sometimes they have small pecans. The bulk store on the Unazë (Ring Road) has the dried milk I need for bread and rolls, and cheap paper tableclothes. Another bulk store has corn tortilla chips and taco sauce. Now, if only someone started selling fresh corn tortillas!

The Mission Council lunch was today, and the chicken/vegetable wraps were a big hit.

Two box-style stores have opened in Albania. The German company Praktiker has opened a large store in Kamez, a suburb of Tirana, and out of town on the main highway, at the turnoff to the airport, there is a new MegaTek. Both are do-it-yourself Home Depot-style stores, but they also carry furniture and decorative items. It is so nice to be able to purchase things for our apt. in one place, where previously we would have had to shop several different stores.

A curiosity here is that similar kinds of shops will be close together along one road--all selling the same items, and for the same prices. At the produce treg at the corner, there are several vendors under one big awning, but it is not considered polite to try to undercut your neighbor. You can only sell for a different price if your fruits are larger. Prescriptions and even many over-the-counter drugs like aspirin have to be purchased in a small pharmacy where a prescription is not required for antibiotics or other strong drugs. The Rossman & Lala store offers many of the personal hygiene items that our Long's Drug Store in California sells, but cannot sell any form of medical ointment, pain reliever, or other drugs.

There are thousands of small clothing shops in Tirana, and they have a tough time making it. We walk down the street, and notice that overnight a store has disappeared or changed.

Everywhere we see efforts at modernization, but are reminded by the farmer driving his donkey cart down the freeway, that Albania has a lot of catching up to do.