Humanitarian Work in Albania

I guess I can say my delay in adding a new entry is that we have been getting busy. We have been traveling to visit potential projects in Shkoder a city further north and to the village of Baltez about two hours south near Fier. As we travel to different places we continue to admire the beauty of the country. Shkoder is located in a spot where a couple of rivers merge and on the hill over looking the city is a large ancient castle. Once again there is always something to see which is a contrast between the old and modern. Farmers are in the fields raking the hay by hand and loading it on horse drawn wagons. The mountains and the sea are never far away. The weather is hot and sunny this time of year and many people are heading to the beaches. Today it was over 40C. So why did I decide to bake rolls tonight?? This is the first time I have tried them since we have been here and I must say we they do smell good.

Anyway back to our humanitarian work. I Shkoder we visited a school for the Roma and Egyptian children who are on the bottom rung of society here. We will be furnishing a kindergarten with furniture, toys, books and supplies and help to the older grades with a TV, DVD player, sports equipment and school supplies. Now we have the experience of shopping for all the things, which can also be a challenge. We have been exploring the "tregg" or large city market in search of good prices for the things we need. That is an adventure in itself.
In Baltez we will have a similar kindergarten project. We also visited a health clinic which we will help with some basic equipment and supplies. The mayor of the area was pleased to escort us around and share with us his concerns for the people of his area.

Some of our other activities this month have been giving wheel chairs to disabled. There was a large wheelchair project of 500 wheelchairs earlier in the year. Most of them are being distributed by the Red Cross and a Children's Foundation but a few we set aside to be given to Church members. Rather than have them go mouldy in the basement we have been taking the extra ones to friends or family members of church members. One man we gave one to lives on the third floor of a building and goes down the stairs on his knees to reach the ground floor where he can use his wheel chair. Yesterday a man walked a long distance in the heat with his crutches to meet us so we could replace his broken wheelchair. Today we visited a family to assess the needs of their young disabled daughter named Esmerada. She was about the same age as my grand daughter Delaney and was such a sweet girl who was injured at birth and doesn't have the full use of her legs. She touched a soft spot in my heart and will definitely get another visit with a special treat! We have one child’s wheel chair left which we will take to her this week.