We have been in Albania for about two full days now, and the fun has already begun!
We arrived a little past 9 PM on Tuesday, and our host graciously showed us the best fast food restaurant in Tirana where my team of 5 ate all for under $6! The language barrier has been real; for instance, trying to buy SIM cards for our team phones included us saying “two” multiple times, a lot of awkward staring, and a random couple behind us clarifying what exactly we were to be doing.
The rest of the day our host showed us around the area we were staying. We went to the market and the store, then we headed over to where we would be doing some of our ministry: cleaning up and painting a new kindergarten for the church we are staying at!
This month, we have two teams from X Squad joined together to serve the Church of Nazarene in Tirana; a few girls from both teams graciously cooked an incredible dinner for all 11 of us!!
After dinner we all headed back to where we are staying and a couple of kids started hanging out with us.
We all did our introductions and tried to imitate how they said their names, while they said ours with the most beautiful accents.
We chatted a little and started playing a couple of games, then one of the girls told us her favorite song!
We played it on a Bluetooth speaker, and the dance party began. More girls from the neighborhood joined us, and we all tried to copy their very advanced dance moves.
It was like real life Just Dance. It was so great!!
The night ended, and it was on to the next full day of Albania!
We headed to ministry around 8:40 in the morning and got straight to work!! Some of our combined team started cleaning, while a few others took on the daunting task of painting. It wasn’t perfect, but they asked us to paint, so that’s exactly what we did!!
While cleaning out, our host kindly asked us to move a kitchen sink (attached to a counter) to another area of the building. Let’s just say my time at the gym lifting approximately 5-8 lbs didn’t really help, but by the grace of God and determination to serve, another girl and I moved the kitchen sink!
We were probably a little too excited when we let it down, said “WE JUST MOVED A KITCHEN SINK!”, and high-fived, BUT that’s okay.
We have lots to do this months with painting murals and cleaning up the new kindergarten building!
I have fallen in love with these people, and I think they enjoy looking at our confused faces when we are attempting to figure out what’s happening!
So many great relationships already, I don’t know if my heart will be able to handle leaving at the end of the month!
**don’t worry, I already found the local gelato store ,and with it only 50 Lek (about 50 cents), I’m making it okay 🙂
