Above: Jamos and I on the coast of Vlore.
Greetings from Vlore, Albania! We left on October 12 at 2:45am from La Paz, Bolivia and finally arrived here in Vlore on the 15th! The last week has been a blur, so I will try to recap as best as I can.
On Saturday, the 8th, my team (minus Jamos- because he is a team leader and team leaders left on the 6th) left our lovely community of Monte Blanco and traveled to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. We left Comarapa on a bus at 7pm and arrived in Cochabamba at 3:15am. Apparently, the road we took was quite dangerous with curves and crazy cliffs that fall to the depths of the earth. It obviously was the middle of the night, so we were trying to sleep with one eye open on our bus, but around 3:15am, the bus pulls over in a city, on the side of the road. I wait, thinking that people will start getting their things and get off the bus. No one does. They just look around and go back to sleep! When Nick went to ask what was happening, the bus driver was also asleep on the other side of the door. So, basically, we were stuck on this bus. We have a saying “cuando en roma” so, we decided if everyone else was sleeping, we shall sleep too! Around 6am, when it is light out, people start getting off the bus- and that is what we did. We caught a taxi to the actual bus station to catch another 8+ hour ride to La Paz. Once we arrived in La Paz, we were tired, but, the rest of our squad (52 people) were showing up for a meeting… TO GET NEW TEAMS. Yes, you heard me. New TEAMS. I have to say, I was feeling the hit of change. Leaving Monte Blanco, being in really high altitude in a new crazy city, knowing my team may get split up, heading to a new continent on 5 airplane rides- you know, just a little bit of change was happening in my world and I was freaking out. Here is the thing…I also got some sort of parasite thing so I had some horrible stomach pains and THEN the runs (all the way to Albania!).
Jamos and are now on a team of 7 people! Meet our new team: Lion Heart. We picked this name because we want to be bold. We want to show love. We are claiming victory in Jesus’ name to the nations we will encounter for these next 8 months.
Above: Team Lion Heart: Jamos, Emily, Amanda Howard, Lindsey Cook, Olivia Gill, Alison P, and Jeff Bray.
We left La Paz at 6:25am to fly south to Santa Cruz, were we de-boarded for an hour, and then, got back on the plane to fly to Miami. I have to admit, I cried as soon as the plane landed on American soil. I really feel that in order to appreciate what we have in America, you have to leave the country for a little bit of time to see how the rest of the world works. We ARE blessed in America. Our country has struggles, but we are not a total corrupt government like we have faced in so many countries thus far.
2 hours later we were en-route to NYC, where we landed at 9pm, grabbed a taxi to Brooklyn, where my former teammate, Nicole, had a friend that allowed us to have some things mailed to us from home. We grabbed some NY pizza in Brooklyn and got to bed around 12:30am (almost up for 24 hours!!).
Got up bright and early to head to TARGET to get some necessary items. Some examples include: Pepto Bismo, Tums, Advil, new underwear, gum, and of course, candy corn, peanuts and M&M’s. J We arrived back at the airport at 1pm to start our adventure on Turkish Airlines (very nice by the way). We landed in Istanbul about 10 hours later and then, to Albania! Yes, we were VERY tired.
Sorry if all of that was confusing….I am confused myself.
Now that we are in Albania, I can tell you that we are working with Campus Crusade for Christ at the University of Vlore. We are staying in the women’s dorms and eating in a dining commons-ish place. It was a 2-hour drive from the capital city, Tirana (where the airport is located) and here is where an interesting praise comes in. We had given our bags to one of the contacts in Tirana because there was only 1 little bus and another team just got on it to head to Vlore. He told us to walk up the road (2 lights) and he would meet us there. Well, let me tell you. 1) it was raining. 2) there was SO MUCH TRAFFIC and 3) the traffic lights were really far away! It had been over an hour and we had not seen our contact yet. We weren’t sure if we were lost- or he was lost- or what happened. We decided we should just pray that we find him, because a group of 7 American’s on the street corner draws a little bit of attention! We gathered to pray and as my teammate Alison prayed, she said, “Lord, please let our contact come out of nowhere…amen” and as soon as we opened our eyes, THERE was our contact! It was amazing. God totally let him find us on the corner in the rain after an hour of nothing!! We waited another hour for one of those small busses to take us to our ministry site, but no more were operating for the night, so we had to take 2 taxis. That was another story in itself…but the perk is, we are HERE! And, healthy and excited to start our ministry in the morning!
Thank you for your faithful prayers for us. We need them more than you know! And now for some PHOTOS!
Above: The women's dorm at The University of Vlore. It is our home for the next month.
Above: Our current living situation! (promo: Spring Arbor University has the BEST dorms compaired around the world…)
Our "TURKISH" bathroom. Also known as a squatty potty…Gives "hole in one" a whole new meaning…
For the MAP readers in my life (MOM): a map of Vlore.
Above and below: Vlore along the coast. We look forward to exploring more- hopefully when the sun is out!
