Out and About

Tirana International Hotel & Conference Center 

This past week has been one of both getting some work done at the school and seeing sites beyond LAC. First, a little about my work. Right now I am spending a lot of time organizing the student records. I have been making files, figuring GPAs, making report cards, entering new students, tedious stuff like that. More interesting is that several student have been volunteering in the mornings cleaning and preparing the classrooms. It has been fun to meet them and see their interest in learning. They are mostly 11th and 12th graders so their English is good. I have also seen the same group of kids at church which is really encouraging to see them involved there as well. On Wed. Dini and I went to Tirana to run errands. We both had a shopping list of things for our areas of work at the school. My main mission was to find a filling cabinet. Now that we will have student files and records we should be keeping them locked and secure. Thanks to the generous financial support of family and friends I have extra money in my budget to use for these types of needs. I found that Tirana is a modern city and has all the traffic and shops of any European city. However, after visiting the Mall, a shop like Wal-Mart, a shop resembling Lowe's and a small version of Office Max we couldn't find a filling cabinet or even someone who knew what we were talking about. I bought a projector screen and I had no problem tracking that down. I am still baffled! It was a fun day for me to get out and see the big city (400,000), also made me thankful that I live in a smaller city(27,000). 

A bit of Albania history. I drove by the "Piramida" pictured left. The pyramid was built in 1987 according to the design of Enver Hoxha's daughter and was originally a museum of her father. Hoxha was the evil dictator of the communist era. US president George W Bush gave a speech in front of this building. The building was the most expensive erected under communism. Today it's derelict building halfway occupied by a TV station. Much of the façade has been stripped or stolen and the glass is broken and boarded up. There is an ongoing discussion and disagreement among the people if it should be torn down or remain as a piece of their history. 

From this spot I was able to find LAC below.

I finally got to visit the Lehza Castle that I see every day from LAC. The church took a picnic up there Sat. morning and it was a fun walk and a beautiful morning. We had a time of singing and sharing and then played some games, ate food, and enjoyed the space. I hope to get there a lot since the walk was fun and the view incredible! I am appreciating getting to know the church group a little. We have very interesting demographics as there are now four countries represented, in addition to Americans and Albanians, we also have an Italian teacher at LAC, and several Brazilians including the Pastor. So we are all trying to communicate and often relying on others for translations. I have been so impressed by the welcome that I feel from the church community. 

In the distance you can see the sea.

Next weekend is Klementina's daughter's wedding reception will be at the castle. She has invited the LAC staff to attend so next time I am there I will be wearing very different clothes.