Are we there yet? April 11, 2008

Nope… we are at home. We are out for the count. The damage to the car was more than we thought. That is what we get for buying a car for $500. But even if we have to put $1000 into it we come out ahead! We know so many people who have spent much more on a car only to pay $1000 in repairs in the first year. Albania is just hard on cars!

Can I tell you what great friends we have though? Two friends met us Monday at the car, helped us get it all fixed. Von transported the family home and Scott spent the rest of the day with Robert getting the car repairs started. Special thanks to their WIVES and FAMILIES for allowing those great guys to come out and help us (Von on his day off and Scott missing his work day). And what a God thing, that Klodi, a mechanic from our church just happened to drive by. He fixed the car enough that Robert could drive it to the repair shop, saving us the danger of towing on these Albanian roads!

Other friends called on Tuesday and offered us their car for at least a day or overnight trip. Isn’t that amazing? We took a trip to the “mall” and then to the Kolonat (our version of McD’s minus the good hamburgers…) so the kids could play in the ball pit. And Jennifer has been with us here at the house so it has sort of felt like a mini vacation… Praises that we were not far out of Tirana when the car died… could have been much worse! Today we are headed out to the park to walk some paths, not great weather or much else to do but it will be good to be out of the house!

I am still trying to hang on to what God wanted wants to teach us by keeping us home. It was a disappointment not to be able to go. Robert has not been out of country since October and that can just wear you down. Please pray that we will feel rested after this week and rest in the One who knows it all!

Our trip to Dubrovnik, April ‘08 April 7, 2008

We were headed back to Dubrovnik today with the whole fam… (I was there a few weeks ago). Here’s a quick recap:

6:45am Jen’s up, shower, dressed, finish packing

7:30 Getting the rest of the fam ( and Jennifer) up, showers for some, packing breakfast: general chaos

8:30 Final departure, drop keys off to Egli so he can watch the dog, buy break fluid

9:15 Stop at automobile office (I have no idea which one) to get the final piece of paperwork so we can travel out of country with the car.

9:20 Discover that the car is registered in Fier (another city 2 hours away) and we have to get the paper from there.

9:25 Decide WHY NOT?! and hit the road for Fier (opposite direction from Dubrovnik). Worst case scenario: it takes all day and we drive back home, leave tomorrow. (WRONG)

9:35 Jenny says, “Do you smell that? What’s burning?” Robert says, “There was a fire on the hillside.” Jen, “Okay… I thought it might be the car.”

9:38 Robert says “Oh look, the car is overheating.”

9:39 We pull off to a gas station, the car is indeed overheating, oil has spurted everywhere in the engine.

The rest can be told in pictures:

“What is wrong with my $500 car?”  Step 1:  Call for help!

The owner/proprietor of the gas station (the one in the suit) offers advice… along with his four friends.

Jadyn takes a look to see if she can help her dad.

Everyone starts to get hungry so Jen passes out snacks after about an hour.

We decide to make the boys pull it home.  Once we were finally all loaded up and ready to go another man from our church who is a mechanic pulled up.

The second group of 5 men trying to diagnosis the car.  This is the beginning of hour #3.  I was very glad I packed lunch for my very hungry family!

This was really a God appointment.. Klodi, from our church, just happened by and saw us and stopped to help.  He was able to get the car running so Robert could drive it to a repair place

5 hours later: Exhausted family returns home, without car and without dad. Maybe tomorrow, stay tuned!

Women of the Harvest March 28, 2008

A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to attend the Women of the Harvest Conference (womenoftheharvest.com) in Dbrovnik, Croatia. If you are like me and every time a country is mentioned outside the US you need a geography lesson, know that you are not alone. Keep in mind when you look at this map that Albania is the size of Maryland.

WOTH is an organization that provides support for North American women who are serving cross-culturally. The WOTH retreats are held in two international locations each year and take only 75 attendees. I attended with 16 other women who serve alongside me here in Albania.

I made several new friends - there were 6 gals that I did not know at all that went in our bus load. One woman, Virginia, is 78 years old, a retired school teacher. She is here living for just one year, home schooling a Korean boy in a smaller town outside of Tirana. She is really something! She was married and divorced earlier in life, no children and this is the 12th year she has lived overseas helping missionaries school their children. I did not get nearly enough time to hear all of her stories and adventures. She is not sure if she will be back again. She has some heart problems and doesn’t want to be a burden to anyone. She is an inspiration. Amazing….

The conference speaker was Mimi Wilson, author of Holy Habits. She was wonderful and I learned so much. They had some great games - we did a white elephant gift exchange with gifts they brought us from the States. Things like pie filling, cake mixes, pecans, peanut butter, Lucky Charms… etc. It was quite a fight to see who got what! I came home with Lucky Charms and instant oatmeal which made all the family happy! We also had a funny story telling time which was hilarious to hear everyone’s crazy stories about things that have happened to them in the country where they serve. One lady told a story of her daughter falling in the sewer in India because the drain cover had been stolen. UGH! That could really happen to me here! I got a pedicure, a massage and a haircut! YEAH! And I slept like a baby. It was a truly blessed time.

My retreat was sponsored by someone I did not know who paid the $600 fee for me to attend. Isn’t that amazing? I can not tell you what a GIFT it was to have this time away to meet with other women who share my heart, my dreams and my struggles cross culturally and to just be pampered! If you want to learn more about how you could sponsor a missionary for this retreat, click here.

Road Trip to Saranda (Part 3): Oasis March 25, 2008

While in Saranda, we took one day to venture south to Butrinti, the site of ruins from the ancient city of Butrint. It is a 23 km park, one of the most beautiful and well preserved places we have seen in Albania. Some of the ruins date back to the 6th century. And spring was in full bloom. We wore short sleeves and enjoyed the sunshine and blooming flowers. I only wish we had taken a sack lunch to stay a little longer. We even enjoyed the smell of freshly cut grass! After choking on the smog in Tirana, we had forgotten what a heavenly smell that was!

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Road Trip to Saranda (Part 2) March 24, 2008

Back to our road trip to Saranda….

Our efficiency apartment in Saranda was owned by the uncle of our friend Toni.  The rooms both had balconies that faced the beach that we rented for $20 per night. 

Each had  a bathroom and three single beds along with a kitchen area for us to cook our meals.  I had asked Toni in advance to ask a few specific questions so I would know what I would need to bring from home to prepare.  There was a water pot and small skillet but I was glad I brought along my big skillet from home for making one pot meals.  We did also make spaghetti which was an interesting adventure to try to figure out how to make noodles and sauce with only one available burner. 

 

Since Saranda is not an enormous town we were glad to be able to make our own meals.  There are restaurants but many were either out of our price range or serving the same traditional Albanian foods we can get in Tirana.  We had fun walking on the boardwalk and collecting rocks and looking at the boats. 

The boys had a blast climbing rocks along the shore and Jadyn came home loaded with pebbles from the beach in her diaper.  This is the true measure of a fun day in my opinion.

We were also super blessed to have Jennifer come along.  Jennifer is from our home church in Norman.  She was here is last summer with the team and has come back to serve at the orphanage for 6 months. 

 

Road Trip (Part 1) March 21, 2008

Hello again, blog readers! After a short hiatus and time away from Internet, we are all back home again and ready to tell of our latest adventures. Between that, slowed internet  at home and a stomach virus, it has taken me a while to get back to the computer.  I have taken two road trips over the last month. One to southern Albania with the family (+ Jennifer) and one by myself and 16 other American women to Croatia for the Women of the Harvest retreat. So I will tell of adventures and things learned over a couple of posts!

We took a short road trip to Saranda in southern Albania at the end of February.   We just had the ghetto car (the one we bought for $500) fixed (about $160) and then drove 200 miles which took 7 hours over some of the worst roads we have ever traveled. There were a lot roads that looked like swiss cheese.

Many of the roads were curvy and mountainous so it was slow going. There were more than a few times that I gasped, held my breath, or grabbed on to the “oh crud” bar. I only really became nervous when we passed a headstone or monument along the road. That was about every 200 yards! It seemed they were everywhere! Obviously we were traveling roads where there have been many accidents.

Side note: Someone told us a couple weeks ago that these monuments along the road are not from accidents along the road but to mark the places where people died in the chaos that broke out in Albania 1997. After a series of pyramid schemes that nearly everyone put their life savings in, the economy in all of Albania collapsed. Citizens then raided bunkers that still remained from Communism which stored weapons that the government had failed to secure. There was shooting in the streets and fights among neighbors. Foreigners and missionaries were evacuated for about 6 months.  This monument is dated a little later than that period so it is unclear what might have happened to this man.