Fun times with the street kids (photo blog)

Each Sunday night the church puts on a fun festival in the city center. I've stopped by a couple of these and have seen a number of the street kids from the day center out having a fun time in the bouncy house and with games and music and face paint.

The two kids on the left are siblings I've gotten to know more at the center. The one on the right is a child who still needs his parents' permission to come to the center. I've seen him a number of times begging. He and his sister joined us for ice cream one day last week when a visiting team wanted to treat the kids to something special.

 On Thursday we took the kids from the center swimming. They had a blast!

And I learned a valuable lesson about sunscreen and boundaries with pouring yourself out: Should I play in the water for hours with kids who can't swim? Sure. But I should definitely stop every so often to put more sunscreen on!

Prayer request

Here in Korçë, the Kenedi Foundation runs a number of programs as the social outreach arm of the church, addressing the needs of the elderly, the disabled, street kids, those in need of medical care, and social orphans -- at least the girls. Currently there is not a home for the boys who need a home. By "social orphan" I mean children whose parents in essence don't care for them. Their parents may be absent or they may be abusive, either through direct violence or by exploitation. These are the kids that the state would remove from the home, if there were only somewhere to place them. From what I have been told, Albania's foster care system is largely undeveloped (and has no process to screen foster families) and so it is ineffective in actually protecting the children who need protection the most.

The need for a boys' safe house has been on my heart for a few months now, since hearing about the girls who most recently came to live at the girls' safe house. They have a brother. Because there is no safe place for him at this point, he is now living with extended family - who are abusive - along with his abusive father.

The need has been on the hearts of people at the foundation for much longer than that. One of the women I'm working with told me about some of the boys she would like to see at a safe house. "We have a girls' house," she told me, "but here it is the boys are who are more abused."

Everyday at the street kids day center, I'm reminded both of how much we are doing -- and how little. Some of these kids need so much more than a day center can provide.

I'm writing this to ask you to pray. Please pray for the boys -- and please pray that God would provide what is needed to start a boys' safe house. Those needs are financial, staff (a married couple willing to become parents to some very hurting boys), permission from the government (which is probably fairly simple to get based on the foundation's track record), and a house. The biggest need is financial. Please pray that God would provide.

In Him,
Lydia

Another week goes by

It's been another week of ups and downs... of learning more Albanian and learning more about the kids at the street kids day center. Most of the kids have been gone, at a camp in the mountains, but some of those who were too young or didn't have permission have still been coming this week.

It's been a week of "clean all the things!" - I think all the cleaning has been both because there have been fewer kids and also because we have been battling "mice" (really big ones... Albanian has the same word for mice and rats) and it's just good to clean after you find a dead... mouse.

This week I've been teaching one of the older girls how to crochet. Her first project was a very long chain, which we wrapped around a tree and somehow hooked into the brick wall of the apartment building that forms one wall of the courtyard... and then we used it as a volleyball net. Today she mastered a stitch and was excited to be able to take her crocheting home with her so she can practice over the weekend. It's been interesting teaching crocheting with only words like: yes, no, like this, here, almost, again. And it's been exciting for me to see her start getting it and enjoying it.

It's been interesting running into the street kids when I'm out walking. My Albanian language skills are very limited, so I can barely say more than "Hi. How are you?' but it's fun to be able to say that much - to recognize them outside of the center and smile and maybe give them a hug. I saw a couple of siblings today, as I was on my way to the center. They were with a bunch of other street kids I didn't know... and it was interesting to meet all of them. The others kept asking me detailed questions and the one I do know kept telling them, "she doesn't understand Albanian... seriously, guys, she doesn't have a clue what you just said." That's a rough translation, but it covers the gist of what I did understand.

I am so looking forward to when I do understand more, though I know from experience that understanding more does not necessarily make things easier...  it also makes things more complicated. Sometimes it's easier to watch from the outside and not really jump in with both feet. But that's not really what I want - and I'm excited to learn more.

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Prayer requests --

*My health. I'm pretty susceptible to all the new germs around me. Please pray for my immune system and energy levels. :-)
*The transition into Albanian culture continues... please pray for me to understand things better and start being a part of things. 
*I'll be helping out in the village with the girls tomorrow morning. Please pray for God's leading in what we do and for me to make good connections with the girls.

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Thank you all for praying! 

Albanian moments

Memorable moments over the last two weeks in Albania....

- Sitting at my gate in Munich, as the seats filled up with people speaking Albanian or talking in English about their family there and Albanian culture, realizing that I'm not in Oregon anymore!

- Playing music on my first night here, with Luke and my host-sister Illektra. I'm glad I brought the guitar. :-)

- Standing outside the office door at the day center with one of the older kids, Aleko, as we prepared to go in and try to catch the "mouse" (rat) with a bucket. We eventually gave up the idea, but I was ready to try it. :-)

-Trying to talk with Aleko... or rather, Aleko trying to talk with me; sorry, kiddo, louder Albanian is not any easier for me to understand.

- The boys at the center playing chess, three on three... one chess board.

- Getting my fingernails painted by little Suella at the day center. She looked at my bare nails, pulled some polish out of her pocket, took me by the hand, sat me down and started painting. By the last few nails several other kids had come to watch and they got into an argument about who got to paint the last one. Xhilda (Jill-da) won.

- Trying to teach Maria at the day center how to do a chain stitch in crochet, only to have all the boys swarm us and want to learn too. They got bored... but Maria eventually got it!

- Crossing the street for the first time. Whoo boy..... I'm not in Oregon anymore! (I've gotten two pieces of advice for crossing the street: 1) keep walking at a steady pace and the drivers will adjust accordingly and 2) cross the street in sections, maybe having to stop three or four times to wait when crossing a wide street.)

- Meeting a few of the girls in the village. One of them came and hugged me two or three times. I wished we could spend more time there, but am looking forward to more visits and the special "creative" week when I'll get to do Bible studies and different art projects with them.

- People have been really friendly and welcoming and it's been a joy to meet people I've heard so much about from Luke. 

- Seeing a guy casually carrying an axe down the street. Scared the daylights out of me the first time I saw that, but thankfully, the same day I also saw guys in the streets chopping wood.

- Seeing how excited the kids at the center were when a team came. The littlest child (who I blogged about before) was shy but beaming to see all the people who were there to see him.

- Understanding a brief conversation in Albanian! Every day I'm learning more. :-)


A little about the food...
- Food is prepared with more salt here... and the cheese is very strong and salty.

- Summertime is for fruit! People eat a lot of fruit here and they eat some of it sour, like crunchy plums and nectarines. There are lots of veggies here in summer too.

- Albania has amazing cherries.

- Food tends to be fairly simple - beans, potatoes with chicken, soups, tomato & cucumber salad, bread, rice pilaf... and they make really good meatballs.

On love and street kids

It's taken me a most of the time I've been here to settle in to life in Korçë, but I think that is finally happening. :-)

I've had 7 days at the day center for street kids and they are starting to know me better, even if it's knowing me as being mostly mute, since I can hardly say more than "yes" "no" "I don't know" and "stop it" -- yes, I am working with children and street children at that.

One of the things that has stuck out to me is how this center is different than some… the focus is love. I'm reminded of that every day as I pass by this graffiti around the corner from the center.

There are about 15 kids that come to the center, ranging in age from about 4-12.  They are all from troubled families, all spend much of their time begging on the streets or in the bazaar. Their stories are heartbreaking and I don't say that casually. But as Luke reminded me earlier this week (when I was crying over what little we can do for them) I am there because there is still hope. We spend the morning cooking and cleaning in the center and the afternoon playing games with the children, telling them Bible stories (the Albanian staff do that; there is no translator for me to be able to do that) and letting the kids each take a shower on their scheduled day.

One story that comes to mind is that of the littlest boy there. He comes with his sister almost every day and will do whatever it takes to get attention. On the first day I was there, his sister and I were putting together a puzzle and he would come by and mess up whatever we had just done, stealing pieces while he was at it. On the second day, he stopped and put two pieces together before messing up what we had done. The next day I pulled out an easier puzzle and he and I did that together. When I told him "bravo" for getting pieces right, he smiled at me - for the first time in three days.

I will try to post more pictures and more about what is going on soon.

Getting Settled

Hello! I don't have any pictures to share today... just the ones in my head I'll try to describe.

I've spent the last two days getting settled in Korce - unpacking, getting a sense of the city, and meeting people. It is a typically Eastern European city, with little markets on nearly every corner, stone roads and sidewalks, little parks that fill up in the evening with old men playing chess or checkers. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here, so crossing the street requires both strategy and art. Cars drive wherever they fit, vaguely keeping to the right. In the center of town there is an Orthodox cathedral and, near that, a walking street. The church is just past the cathedral - about a 15 minute walk from where I am living.

This afternoon I started helping at the day center. I'd forgotten how it feels to be unable to communicate... to be limited to "yes" and "no" answers when you don't even understand the question. The director took me to the center and asked if I was ready for this... still feeling the effects of jet lag, I told him I didn't really think so, but I'd give it a shot anyway. I met the others working there and helped one of the ladies peel and chop cucumbers for a salad (which here is commonly made of just tomatoes and cucumbers, with olive oil, vinegar and salt). When that was done, I was sent into the room with the children. One of the boys invited me to play chess. "Nuk di," I said, which I hope means "I don't know how." So he played with another staff member and I watched, perhaps learning a little of chess... and observing how the game became a discussion as another boy came up and showed each of the people actually playing what he thought the best moves would be. One of the girls invited me to play a game with her - checkers. As it turns out, I don't actually remember how to play checkers - but that's ok, since my moves also became a discussion... if you would call Sami moving my pieces for me and me saying, "Jo, jo, jo," (no, no, no) a discussion. I ate lunch with the kids, parceling out bread as they asked for it, and then helped clean up the dining area. The kids who come to the center are not just poor kids, but are the kids who need love the most. They are generally neglected and abused at home. At the center they can have a hot meal, a place to take a bath (they have an extra set of clean clothes for each child at the center), and a place to play and just be loved by the staff. 

Tomorrow I'll be back at the center again. Hopefully I will pick up more words in Albanian and be able to help out in good ways. For now, I should probably sign off and head to bed. I actually just fell asleep with my hands on the keyboard and the computer in my lap...

In Him,
Lydia

Arrival in Albania

Today, after lots of time packing and repacking my bags and then many hours of traveling, I arrived in Albania! I'm jet lagged and about ready to get some sleep, but wanted to post some pictures before I do. 

Here's what I saw from the airplane as we were descending into Tirana (the capital) - Albania is rich with natural beauty and breathtaking landscapes.

Luke came with a taxi (and friends) to pick me up at the airport and so I got to see a just little bit of Tirana as we headed about four hours south to Korçë (pronounced Kor-chuh). 

Tirana felt like a mix of Bucharest and Cairo...  Eastern European, but with Middle Eastern flair (probably the result of being under Ottoman, or Turkish, rule for about 500 years). 

The double-headed eagle is the symbol of Albania.

We passed a random carnival in Tirana

And here's a statue of Albania's national hero, Skanderbeg, who stopped the advancing Turks in the 1400s. Albania was eventually brought under Ottoman rule, but they still celebrate him for what he was able to do.

One of the beautiful sights on the way to Korçë is Lake Ohrid. The hillside on the other side of the lake is Macedonia.

I'm settling into life with my host family here. They have been very gracious and hospitable - and I'm looking forward to spending these months with them. I'm also looking forward to learning more Albanian so that I can talk with them more! Thank God that Elektra, their daughter, speaks English and is home from college for a couple of months.

Prayer requests -
This is a transition week for me. I'll be getting settled and meeting people. Please pray for a good transition, for good health and rest, and that the week will be well spent. Thank you!

Lydia
aka Ledia (lady-uh) in Albanian