City Life

It never ceases to amaze me how sharp the contrast is from rural Green Valley to life here in the big city of Tirana. Even though Tirana doesn't claim to be Singapore, New York City, or even Rome, nonetheless, living in an apartment building with people watching every move we make going here and there and just walking to buy milk and bread is a novelty for the old country girl. Today Vera and I made plans to go to the newest place of business in our neighborhood. I will have to say it was way over the top for Tirana, let alone for something like this to be in our quiet neighborhood. We now have a carry-out "restaurant" just at the end of our parking area that has prepared food entrees for customers to come and pick out for carry-out. I would compare it to a "Boston Market" type of food service. It is fantastic! The owners have been living in Italy for 15 years and have learned this kind of food service and are now bringing it to Albania. We have come a long way. We still are waiting for the first American fast food chain to come and when that happens we probably will say it is time to leave. Albania is no fun anymore.

The other photo is of one of our grocers in the neighborhood. We generally buy our milk, water, eggs and small things here.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would comment on a bit of my conversation with Genti and Shpresa. Just a quick highlight with the girls in the village... One of the girls just left for Italy this week rather suddenly. Bruna, had been engaged for 5 years and her fiance was in Italy for all of this time and never seemed to follow through with his desire to get the papers for her to join him. But this week he showed up and she was gone! Shpresa was so surprised. This is very common with many of these girls. They get engaged and then sit and wait at home for years. The classes are going well and the girls are asking for another session of English each week. It is not a problem for the teacher. Just to increase another class it takes over 50% of the monthly budget just for the English teacher. We will need to do some more figuring to see what our decision will be. Tonight was going to be another class for cooking and then when they are sampling the treat for the class, Shpresa focuses their discussion on matters of the heart. These discussions have been very nice for the girls to open up and to share their concerns and life issues. Praise God for these opportunities that are paving the way for open doors.