Summer Time in Albania

Summer is in full swing and the temperatures reach into the mid 30’s everyday. The custom of Albanians is to close many of the small neighborhood shops for 3 or 4 hours in the heat of the afternoon. The streets are much quieter in the afternoon when people go home for a nap. The shops reopen around 6 or 7 pm when it is a bit cooler. At that time people like to stroll with their family in the neighborhood and go to a local park to visit, play dominos, enjoy a drink at a sidewalk café or get an ice cream cone. It is the time for lots of wonderful peaches, melons and other summer fruits and veggies. We often walk for exercise at this time of day. Here are a few pictures of our typical middle class neighborhood. After communism fell people painting their drab apartment buildings in bright colors. Some are very interesting designs and color combination. Every neighborhood has a vegetable and fruit market, a meat store, a small grocery store and a bakery. Since most families don’t have a car they don’t have to go far to shop.

As far as we know we will not be replaced by another humanitarian couple before time for us to return home. We are told there is a need for 7,000 senior missionary couples but only 4,000 applications. So for now we are working on our final three projects that we will have time to complete before we leave. The remainder of the budget will be there for another couple to come later. We are providing sports equipment, clothing and arts and crafts supplies for a youth detention center and another project is giving computers and printers to a women’s prison for a vocational program for the inmates. The third project will provide furniture for four rooms for a center for disabled adults in the city of Elbasan. We are also replacing their very old rusty washing machines. As usual these require trips to the local market for lots of shopping.

Thirteen young elders returned home this week and it was sad to see them leave since we had grown to love them. They pointed out to us that we will be the next ones to leave. That hit home at just how close our departure is coming. We are anxious to be home again but at the same time it will be sad to leave. President and Sister Ford our new mission president is settling in very quickly and will be great for moving the work along here.