The American Dream. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s still alive today, even in Albania. That’s right, Albania.
The first few times I entered dorm rooms at the University in Korce, I simply observed the staff and asked questions when prompted. When I got the gist of a “normal” dorm visit, I started to ask the girls questions to get to know them better. Popular topics with first year students include: boys, boyfriends and dates.
Surprising? Not really. Interwoven into this culture is the expectation that a young woman will date, marry and care for a family some day. But these girls were a bit different, not quite the norm. They were going to college, many of them the first generation in their family. Having a college degree, they were given opportunities their parents only dreamed of. So this became my favorite question to ask-
What’s your dream for your life?
The answers ranged from “being a good teacher” to “making a difference in the world” to “going to America.” The latter surprised me a bit at first. Why would these students want to come to the States?
The more I listened to their reasoning, I realized the romanticized view they held of this place called America. A place where all your dreams would come true. Where you would get married and have 2.5 children and a white picket fence. Most of their ideas came from media, especially movies. If you ask me, their view of America resembles the post World War II era of the 1950’s.
But it wasn’t always like this. I recently heard Ylli Doci, the national director of Campus Crusade for Christ Albania, speak of his childhood under Communism. He talked about “hating America and the capitalist system”; at least, that’s what he was taught to believe. It was said, “America is aiming their guns at us.” When Doci traveled to the States for seminary 20 years ago, he quickly realized most Americans didn’t know Albania was a country, much less where it was located.
How can they be ‘pointing their guns’ at us if they don’t know where we are on a map? thought Doci.
Good point.
Since the end of Communism, Doci has seen major changes in the youth of Albania, especially in matters of faith. In 1991 Albania first opened after over 40 years of strict atheistic communism. At this time there were only 16 known Christian believers in the entire country. Through organizations like Crusade and other mission groups, there are more than 25,000 committed believers throughout the country today.
As the walls of communism fell, Albanians felt a new freedom- freedom of choice. Religious freedom is just one example of the ever-changing culture of Albania. Only 20 years after Doci realized America is not the enemy, students now dream about going to America. Maybe because our country represents all that a young person desires-
Life. Liberty. Pursuit of happiness.
Students enter to "win the lottery."
They desire this so much that they enter a lottery to win a free visa. Yep, that’s right. One of the students we worked with came to our meeting and informed us he had just entered to win the 2013 lottery to go to America.
The American Dream: the enemy has now become the desire.
