Don't worry, I don't feel bad. I've been doing other things.
However, I just made a list of eleven blog entries that I'd like to write before Christmas, assuming nothing interesting happens from now until Christmas break, which comes in less than two weks, so I thought I had better get started! Plus, I'm supposed to be working on an assignment, and if you know me, you know that that's when I get lots of (other) work done!
What have I been doing that has made me too busy to write, you may ask. I've had a few pretty full weeks, but I've also been busy doing not too much - taking care of myself: mind, body, and soul. It's been a long time since I did that. And as much as I love you all back home, my focus has been on investing myself in people here.
So, let's rewind to the first week of November. During that week, none of the students spent the evenings and nights at the school. The local students stayed at home, and the non-locals were placed with various host families. As far as I know, not a single non-local student was excited about this "cultural experience". And as far as I know, every single one of us had a fantastic week! We were all stretched and challenged in different ways, but each of us built new relationships, learned new things, and felt good about investing time and love in other people.
I became pretty excited when I found out that I would be staying with Valter and Manjola - a husband and wife who are also students! They live in a village that's about a five minute drive from town. Manjola and I are the same age, and we had already started building a relationship. Manjola knows a little bit of English, and Valter makes up for his lack of knowledge with his enthusiasm! They live with Valter's parents who know no English at all! While most of the other students were relieved that their hosts spoke English, I was excited about the challenge of trying to use more Albanian to communicate.
It was such a special, memorable week. We spent many minutes watching Christian channels on the TV (in whatever language they happened to be in), waiting for a Bible verse to appear on the screen. Whenever one did, we would excitedly look it up and read it to each other - me in English and Valter in Albanian. Sometimes we switched roles, just for fun! When the power went out, we just took turns calling out verses instead. I tried çaj mali - mountain tea - for the first time. It's an herbal tea made from a flower that's just found in this area, up on the mountain. Manjola slaughtered me in Chess, and Valter lost many rounds of Spoons in such an animated fashion that it left us catching our breaths from laughter.
It was such a blessing to share their home for the week, and I pray that I was a blessing to them also.
Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Manjola and Valter. You'll have to settle for a group one - you really haven't any choice!
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| Udhekryq Class of 2012/2013 :) |
Perhaps you'd like to meet everyone:
Starting from me and heading to the right: Visi, Fiona, Lydia, Manjola, Natasha, Mitat.
Front row, left to right: Andrea (my very good friend and our RA), Zak, Rozela, Valter, Elisa, Zhuli, Caleb, and Mario. (Only Sonila is missing.)
And one more, just for fun:
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| Zak, me, and Fiona being generally ourselves at our Thanksgiving feast |
Well, that's all for today, since I am, after all, supposed to be writing an assignment.
A couple random facts:
There's been snow on the mountain top a few times now, but today, sleety rain turned into snow during coffee break. For some reason, it was exciting... I'm pretty sure the excitement will be completely gone tomorrow morning and will remain gone for the rest of the winter.
You rarely see cash registers in here, particularly here in Erseke. Most stores just have a notebook and a pen, and they just jot down the prices of your items and add them up. It would be a tedious process at Superstore or Costco, but not here. The stores don't generally have much, so no one comes to the 'till' with a full cart. Not that there are any carts. The other day, I went to the grocery store hoping for yogurt, but they didn't have any.
The money is in a shoe box or a drawer. It's a pain if you need to buy something but you only have large bills from a bank machine. Stores often can't give change for a 1000 or 2000 Lek bill ($10 or $20).
