Travel with me to Albania

Where is Albania you ask? Officially known as The Republic of Albania, the nation is located in South Eastern Europe. The country sits across the Adriatic Sea from the heel of Italy with Greece as its south and southeastern neighbor. Albania is about the size of the state of Maryland with a population of 3.1 million people. Its per capita income is approximately $2,580 and more than a quarter of the population lives below the poverty level, making Albania one of the poorest countries in Europe. Often family members will work in neighboring Greece and send money home to provide for their families.

In 1967 the communist government created the world's first officially atheistic country when it outlawed all religions. It was ruled by the most repressive and isolated regime in Europe until 1991, when it became the last country to emerge from the communist regime. Since then the nation has struggled through years of political instability and ecomonic collapse. An outbreak of civil disorder erupted in 1997, followed by an influx of 460,000 Kosovar refugees in 1998. This increased the burden on the already deteriorating political, ecomonic, and social infrastructures. Today Albanians enjoy full religous freedom. and while the government is an "emerging democracy" maintaining infrastructure is extremely difficult, especially in rural areas.

Alongside Ministries International hosts the Crossroads Christian Camp in Erseke in southern Albania. The children and youth are introduced to Jesus Christ and loved on by Christians in a one-week camp enviroment that includes crafts, games, bible lessons, and a ropes course (don't we all love camp!). I feel very priviledged to be part of bringing Christ into the lives of these young people.

Excerpts borrowed from World Vision http://www.worldvision.org/

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

40 Days of Mourning Over

Yesterday, July 5, marked 40 days of mourning for the family whose daughter was killed tragically during a church youth group hike. As I mentioned earlier the family does not leave their home for 40 days except to visit their daughter's grave site each morning. During this time they are not left alone as family and friends are constantly with them. Extended family members bring meals. Monday night the extended family along with Mark & Ruthie gathered at the mourning home and yesterday broke the 40 days of mourning. About 100 friends and family members gathered at the mourning home and then all walked to the grave site together. As told to me by Ruthie an formal ceremony doesn't take place at the grave site but as per the Albanian custom the mother wails, the parents talk and wail to the girl "why did you leave us" sort of stuff, lots of crying, and there is fainting from emotion. The gathering is not a celebration of life, but a true painful part of mourning. Afterwards everyone gathered for lunch and Ruth said the whole ritual is a very sad and difficult. The mother will wear black the rest of her life and there will be intervals where this mourning ritual will be repeated. I certainly respect the pain these people are feeling but I am very grateful that my faith gives me hope, peace, and comfort as I believe our earthly life is just a bridge to eternal life with God.

On the home front I worked on the playground this morning which is in Mark & Ruthie's front yard (the yard is enclosed with a stone wall). It's a 10-year old wooden playground that has rotting wood that needs replacing, and lot of scraping and sanding to prepare it for staining. Ruthie just explained to me that this playground is used as an outreach to the community. During the summer, five nights a week, the playground is open to the town's children for an hour and during the winter it's available on the weekends. She said the playground gets lots of use and they've been worried about it getting older and not being as safe as it should be. I feel privileged that we are fixing it up and in that way are also being a part of the church's outreach to the community. As I mentioned earlier I am now very involved in meal preparation so while Mark & Ruthie were at the mourning ritual I prepared lunch, and then went to the market to buy food for dinner. After coming home I prepped the meal, cleaned up, and then helped Ruthie hang the laundry. Albanians have washing machines but they hang their laundry out to dry - even in the winter when temperatures are below freezing. I haven't hung laundry on a clothes line since I was a little girl - it was kinda cool.

Yesterday our team had two mishaps. One of the roofers - a 21-year old young man - slipped on the very steep roof and twisted his ankle very badly. He was taken to the hospital where the doctor and nurse from our team met him. They x-rayed his ankle - only $5 with socialized medicine - but the good news was that it wasn't broken. Also, today one of our roofers got heat stroke but once again it was great to have medical help as part of our team.

Today we are heading to a village called Bilisht, about an 1.5 hours north east of here, real close to the Greek border. In a church there we will hold a carnival for the village's children. It will be a long day as we'll leave right after breakfast, and once there we'll walk through the village and pass out flyers about the carnival. The carnival will be held in the early evening so by the time we have dinner afterwards we'll get back to Ersekse late. More about the carnival tomorrow.
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownJuly 13, 2010 at 9:15 PM

    Cathy, Your trip has been amazing and I'm so pleased you are experiencing this adventure. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication - you are to be admired! Want to hear more when you come home!
    Love, Aunt B.

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