Hello friends and family!
After a few solid days of traveling, which started off with a plane ride from Atlanta to Amsterdam, continued with a connecting flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul, and concluded with a nice 30+ hour bus ride from Istanbul to Albania, I can gladly say that I have arrived at the site for my first month’s ministry. For the next 3-4 weeks my entire squad is partnering with an Albanian children’s camp located a few miles outside of the town of Lezhe, situated on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
I am currently sitting upon my bunk bed, which is cozily nested, along with eight other beds, within a “recently” “renovated” “bathroom” that is serving as this month’s dormitory for all of the men in my squad. After being told a week ago that our Squad would be tenting this month in Albania, the comfort that a mattress and nearby shower offer has been more than welcome. Our dormitory is only one of the many buildings within the walls of the camp compound, which includes a separate series of dorms for the girls in my squad, a mess hall where we are served three meals a day, a swimming pool (which I have yet to see), two Jupiter Jumps, and, most surprising of all, a 25ft rock climbing wall! Unfortunately, I’ve been told that the wall is for the kids only. Eeeeeehhhh…
If, from this description, you find yourself thinking that this place actually sounds pretty nice, then I’ve done my job of portraying it accurately. Except for the lack of air conditioning, this place has all of the amenities and facilities that a slightly rustic camp of its size would be expected to have anywhere in the United States.
In addition, we are about a fifteen-minute walk from an Internet café/pizzeria, and a forty-minute walk from the town of Lezhe itself, which I am told is home to quite a few banks, restaurants, bars, and, critically, coffee shops. During the weekends we are free to walk to Lezhe, take a bus to the beach, or go sightseeing at some nearby castles/ruins.
My squad’s job at the camp is simple enough – to love on the 120ish Albanian kids, who will be cycling through every week, and to augment the full-time staff wherever and however we can. Functioning within our teams of 6-7, we follow a group of 15 children to various stations throughout the camp where they get to spend some time playing, crafting, snacking, climbing, jumping, swimming, and just enjoying being kids. As George, the head of the camp, told us a few days ago, many of these kids live and work full-time on family farms, and the chance to provide them with a week of love and fun is the chance to meet a very tangible need that every kid has.
I hope that somewhere within all of this I have managed to provide you with a picture of what this month is going to look like for me. Since I could not think of how to tie a few stories into this general description, here are a few details that I hope will color in the broad lines I have drawn for you:
- About an hour ago, when I first sat down to begin writing this blog post, I noticed that the children had congregated somewhere nearby, and were cheering each other on in some sort of competition. When a friend walked into the cabin a little bit later I asked him what the cheering had been about. Apparently the kids have some kind of awesome “battle of the sexes/king of the wall” game that they play, wherein two of them, always a boy and a girl, climb half-way up the rock wall with a pool noodle in hand, and then begin smacking each other with the noodle until the other falls off or loses his/her grip on their noodle. Needless to say, I want in.
- So you may be wondering to yourself, why is Jeff sitting inside of his cabin writing a blog post while camp is going on and there are kids to be played with…does he not have a heart? Now, don’t worry; I’m not going to pretend like I have a heart, but I still would like to explain. Every day of the week one of the World Race teams is on something called “security duty,” which is apparently necessary in order to prevent our stuff from getting pinched by these darling little children. While it initially sounded glamorous, security duty ended up meaning that I just have to sit inside of our cabin for like half of the day, and make sure that none of the kids comes inside and looks through our stuff. Unfortunately, it’s pretty hot in here, and I know in my heart that it’s even going to be even hotter once I get to go outside.
- Since writing most of this post, I actually have been to the pool. It’s scandalously nice…tons of beautiful landscaping, umbrellas, etc. Splish splash.
- So many little Albanian kids have made fun of me these last few days for some unknown reason. I have no idea what they are saying, because they are speaking in Albanian, but I regularly walk past them and they just start yelling things at me laughing. Good to know that people are tools everywhere, not just in the U.S.
Like I mentioned earlier, this place really is very nice, and I am glad, albeit slightly guilty, to have such an easy introduction into my World Race experience. I’m sure that I’ll post one or two more blogs during this month, but I wanted to use this one to update you all on what my life is going to look like for the next 3-4 weeks. The real work starts tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to getting to play with these kids, love on them, and enjoy the adventure that Albania has to offer.
Mmmkay bye!
-Meow
