Cards anyone? February 26, 2008

Yesterday was Egli’s birthday. Since his family lives in Pogradec, we invited a few friends over for dinner and games to celebrate. We were a combination of English and Albanian speakers, with many different levels of proficieny in the two languages. For example, Jennifer just arrived a week ago from our home church in Norman to serve here at the orphanage for 6 months. The extent of her Albanian is po (yes), mire(good), and falemederit (thank you). On the other end of the spectrum, not everyone could understand Robert or I giving directions in English so a little translation was needed for the details.

We played a game that my grandparents, aunts and uncles have taught me called “Oh Heck!” (there are other versions…). Robert and I taught Egli and Gretchen a month or two ago and they have since taught others so when it came back around again, Dovi was giving directions in Albanian. You have never seen anything so funny in your whole life! I wish I had video of all of us trying to get a word in edgewise to explain the game to the newcomers, each in our native language. Imagine 7 people all trying to say something in their own language and be heard and understood by others who don’t have all the nuances of that language while also asking their friend next to them “What did he say?” trying to get a quick translation. It was comical. I think I asked the names of the suits of the card (hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds) at least a dozen times. “Kup” for heart is the only one I remember today!

But after the evening was over, we were so thankful for this handful of people (Toni, Egli, Dovi, Visi and Jennifer) that are committed to youth ministry and our church so faithfully! We are here to serve and help them find all that God has for them in their ministry. But in the process they minister to us and our family in ways that are so precious. It is so hard to put into words how our hearts are full when we have a night like this that is fun and life giving and it looks so much like our ministry in the US with a few added cultural quirks. God is good!

Egli and Dovi are laughing at me because this was the only candle I had in the house: left over from Jadyn’s first birthday!

Cultural Encounters of another kind February 22, 2008

Some days I think we have just too much culture. Here are our two encounters from Wednesday of this week.

On Wednesdays, Robert usually lets me sleep in. It is the one day of the week we don’t send lunches to school with the kids (YEAH for Food to Go day!) so he can handle breakfast and the getting ready routine! So I blissfully slept until about 9:30! As soon as I was up, he headed out to talk to Zeman our landlord. Last night we overloaded the circuit upstairs. We have been running the heaters upstairs a lot at night the last few days and the circuitry is probably old and could not handle the wattage. The power went out twice while I was IN the shower and once when I was drying my hair. We kept turning more things off as we went until we discovered that the circuit was burning at the breaker. Eek! End of power for upstairs for the night. I read my book by flashlight for a few minutes and then called it a night! While he was gone (having his own cultural encounter at the coffee shop in attempt to communicate the household repairs needs), our neighbor Bona and her son Armando came over for a few minutes (the other children were in school).

They were returning my plate from Valentine’s day. The neighbor kids had come over after school and we baked Valentine’s day cookies. Culturally she can not return my plate empty (we have done this several time….it is great!) so she baked some sweet cookie like biscuits for us! I was horrified to have her here on the morning I have slept in and done NOTHING …. toys, food, dishes everywhere… what are you going to do?! Today she was telling us that her daughter Uendi (Wendi) has been asking for her to buy another baby for their family like Jadyn. Uendi complains all the time that she wants a baby! Like Jadyn… why mommy? We need a baby like Jadyn! Uendi got a new baby doll last week for her birthday that she has named Jadyn. Yesterday she threw the doll down on the couch and said “Go to sleep Jadyn!” It is very culturally odd to them that Jadyn sleeps so much in the afternoon and that all the kids go to bed so early. Anyway… we had a good visit, looking at these pictures I had taken of our last visit and with promises to give them prints of the pictures!In the meantime…. Robert has been to the coffee shop and told Samir about the problems we are having with electricity upstairs and the water tank. About 30 minutes later, Zeman comes and very animatedly describes the problem as we already know it. He repeats himself several times, trying to say the same thing several different ways

• you have used too much current,
• you can not run both heaters and the water heater,
• you only need one heater in the children’s room,
• when it is cold out you should have the children sleep in the kitchen and the baby in your bed
• it is burnt!
• Look it is black from too much current
• Look it is defective!
• I will have to buy a new one!

Remember that each of the phrases are spoken with a lot of force, animation and loudly so he knows that we have heard him. Even after we both have said “we understand!” he says, “they don’t understand” and we go through the whole ritual again. All of that to say…..it is fixed. He had to buy a new breaker and installed it today and told me all these things again when he came back.Can you say, “too much culture”?

Side note: I have gained a whole new respect for those who move to the US and attempt to learn the language. I will have a much greater level of patience with those who are struggling to acquire the language!

House helper and language learning May 11, 2007

This week we hired a “house helper”. Linda (pronounced “LEEN-DA”) has been the house helper for our friends Melodye and Peter Bowers for ( we think- based on our limited language) for six years. The Bowers have just left for some time in the States and we were able to hire Linda to come to our house during the time they are away as a trial run for having someone in our home to help with some of the cleaning. She also keeps Jadyn during these times while we are going to language lessons.

But Linda speaks only Albanian.

So we are having some interesting conversations to say the least. Sometimes we are able to complete the thought and sometimes we just have to give up. I was able to explain what I was looking for with Melodye translating for our first meeting. Since then we have been on our own! The night before she came for the first time, I was dreaming about all the things I needed to say to her in Shqip (Albanian). After we had a short conversation the first morning, it took me a half hour to realize that she was trying to tell me the dog was crying. We had put him in a back room while she is here- most Albanians are afraid of dogs.

We have language lessons on the days that Linda is here. When we arrive home, she gives us a full report and shows us everything she has done as well as tell us how Jadyn has done and what she ate, etc… Some we understand and some we do not. She is incredibly patient as we struggle to understand all that she says. We have reached a stage where we understand a lot of what is said to us, especially with a little help negotiating meaning. But we still speak a the level of a toddler.

Linda mops floors (this is a major task since the whole first floor is all tile), washes dishes, and cleans bathrooms. These are the main things I have asked her to focus on while Jadyn is down for her nap. When Jadyn awakes, Linda feeds her lunch and plays with her while trying as she is able to clean. She did all the downstairs windows on Monday while watching Jadyn. They have not been that clean since we moved in.

It is amazing how having a house helper makes you more aware of your own mess. I really want to clean up for her so she can clean the things that are really dirty and not just my clutter. It is also making me put a few systems in place for the boys so they have a place for all their things (backpacks, folders, homework, lunch boxes, water bottles). It is also making a HUGE difference for me since the dirt level here is about 5x higher than in the States. Please THANK GOD today for Linda and pray that we will have future opportunities to minister to her as well!