Our first impressions of Albania were delayed a few days because of the shut down of airports in Europe. The delay was caused by all the ash from the volcano eruption in Iceland. We were originally scheduled to leave Salt Lake on Friday April 16^th but were turned back at the airport. It was so nice to have a place to stay with Allison and family while we waited. Travel rebooked us for Tuesday April 20^th. Airlines were getting back to normal but we learned not completely because when we arrived in Munich our flight from Munich to Tirana was cancelled. We had to get a hotel room over night at our expense. In some ways it was nice to have a break in our travel, have a shower and adjust to the time zone change. We were able to fly stand-by on a flight the next morning avoiding a 9 hour layover wait at the Munich airport. Oh, the joys of travel!

Now we can finally say we are “in country”. President and Sister Neil met us at the airport took us to the mission home. We went to a good Italian restaurant for lunch. There was a nice green park where a couple of sets of missionaries had set up a table and were doing street contacting. The first two floors of the mission home are where one of the Tirana branches meets. The next floor is the mission office and the fourth floor is the mission president’s residence. On the fifth floor are two apartments. One is for the office elders and the other is going to be our apartment. It is a lovely large one bedroom apartment and will be very comfortable. The biggest drawback is the fact that there is no elevator in the building so we will have the opportunity to keep fit by climbing all the stairs. It is safe to walk at night so we did a little exploring of the neighborhood.

We were told before we came that the driving and traffic in Albania was very bad. It doesn’t seem as bad as Nigeria but it is chaotic. It seems like the vehicle that has the right of way is whoever gets their nose in first. People are cutting each other off at every chance they get. The funny thing about it is you would think you would see road rage at every corner but they all seem to take it in stride. Here in Vlore there aren’t even any traffic lights or stop signs. It is every man for himself at the roundabouts and corners.

We drove the three hour trip to Vlore with Elder & Sister Snow (the couple we are replacing). The road as far as the city of Fire is good but from there to Vlore the road is very rough and winding. There are great contrasts in sights such as a peasant farmer driving a horse and cart on the highway. The country is green with fields of grapes and other vegetables and hills covered with olive trees. Too bad we don’t like olives. As we came around a hilly winding road there is a great view of the city of Vlore and the sea below. The streets of Vlore are rough and we have already experienced a flat tire. But we have been impressed by the number of modern shops. We can find plenty of familiar food to eat. One can certainly see the Italian influence in the menus at restaurants and there are more pizza places than Tim Hortons in Canada. There are many sidewalk cafes with mostly men drinking strong coffee and visiting. Older men like to gather in the local parks to play dominos and chess. In the evenings people's favorite past time is to stroll up and down the the streets or the beach. So far the weather has been warm and sunny just the kind of weather we like.

Elder & Sister Snow left for home and Elder & Sister Colton came from Frankfurt came to give us humanitarian training. They spent five days here in Vlore. Part of the time was spent exploring the city with us since we are so new and trying to familiarize ourselves with all the places. Friday we visited two previous projects here in Vlore and one project in Fier. Just outside of Fier we took a side trip to see the ruins of Apollonia. A very interesting site with some of it dating back to the third century BC or earlier. The Colton’s have returned to Germany and we are now on our own to settle in and begin to work. We are going to be living in Vlore just for the month of May until a new CES couple arrive. Then we are moving to live above the mission home in Tirana. It will be more central for humanitarian work. For meetings in the capital it would be a long trip back and forth from Vlore.

The branch is small and meets in a rented building. I believe there are about 50 to 60 people attending regularly. Last Sunday a young sister was baptized. She speaks English so is a big help translating for us. The two sets of North American elders and one set of sisters are also a big help to us. Not knowing the language is our biggest hurdle to overcome. We do know a few words of greeting, thank you and “we don’t understand”. At other times we do a lot of pointing and shrugging of our shoulders! Last Sunday there was a farewell for the Snows. Elders and Sister Snow put on a puppet show for the branch and served cookies. The branch really loved playing the fruit basket game. There are a lot of young people in the branch and two young men from the branch are serving missions. Today at testimony meeting one primary boy who stood to bear his testimony and say how touched he was by the story the previous sister told. So even though we didn’t always understand we were touched by their spirit.