Well, 16 hours of planes and airports, 28 hours of bus ride, and 5 countries later, we're in Albania!!! Holy cow, what a gorgeous country.
I'm genuinely enjoying all this because, up till now, while I've done my fair share of traveling, it's never been outside of North or South America so all of this, while strangely familiar, is totally different than anything I've ever experienced. I don't think that fact really hit home until I walked into the market in Macedonia and tried communicating in spanish to the man behind the counter and all I got was a blank stare.
This month, we're all together as a squad and working at a summer youth camp run by a wonderful englishman by the name of George. He's old, awkward, and hopefully reading this since half this description is for him;) In all seriousness though, I've only been around him for a few days and I already feel such an attraction to gleaning off of him that I always keep one eye out for him in the crowd just so I might manage to get a handshake and maybe some perfectly placed english one liner that gets me thinking for the rest of the day. The camp is run by World Vision, which is wonderful because I've grown up in a family who loves sponsoring children so it's cool seeing them out on the field.
As far as a layout of day to day ministry goes, each of our teams on the squad is paired up with a team of kids and we go throughout the day doing activities with them such as swimming, archery, and……arm wrestling….. All that albanian boys seem to like to do with their lives is….arm wrestle…. and cheat at it! hahaha. I'll think I'm arm wrestling one child and next thing you know I've got ten kids grabbing my arm and pulling it down. This kind of scenario describes any kind of competition with them and yet it's hilarious and I love it. I've had three gramas offer arranged marriages between me and their relatives so far so it's good to know I always have a backup plan. Last night I was taught how to do a couple native Albanian dances. The girls were shocked how quickly I picked it up but hey…. they just don't know my mad salsa and swing skills;) Every Friday there's a big dance/party/celebration at the camp so we've spent all day setting up for that. I can't wait!
I'll try to post something a little more profound tomorrow when I have a free day, for now I just really wanted to give you all an update on everything that's been happening and let you know I made it here safely. I'm so in love with what I'm doing, my soul's never felt so alive! Just peeked my next financial deadline so thank you all so much who have helped make that happen! I still need a little less than $4,000 to be fully funded so if you'd like to partner with me, the links on the left hand side and I thank you sooooo so much in advance! You guys are what make dreams like this possible!
