This is Iliar. Iliar is the same age as me – 27. He was born in a remote village in the Permet region of Southern Albania. He was one of twins, but complications at birth meant that Iliar's twin brother only lived for a few days. As for Iliar - he spent the first three months of his life in an incubator. Conditions were grim in the ill-equipped hospital and an operation to straighten his twisted feet (a straight forward operation in any western country) was not possible. This has left him with a strong upper body, but he has no other option but to get about by shuffling around on his knees. As you can see – Iliar’s house is very small, and they are a very poor family, with only one bread-winner in the family.


Richard (a missionary here for 11 years) found a very good looking buggy that was in an aid warehouse in Albania's capital, Tirana. After transporting it for 7 hours in the back of his vehicle directly to Iliar's home, he was extremely disappointed to discover that there was a fault. Despite being told at the warehouse that it had been tested and was in good working order, we cannot repair it. A new part is needed and parts are not available in Albania. As you can see from the photo – the buggy would be amazing with Iliar’s road being such a rough terrain.

I am making enquiries from this end for a replacement part, but any assistance from the UK (or anywhere else for that matter) would be much appreciated. I can send details to anyone who would like to help.

After taking a bit of a break from learning verbs – my head couldn’t any more!! I am back in the books, studying more words than you can shake a stick at. Tomorrow I will tackle the 3rd group of verbs – the most difficult of them all, as they do not follow any pattern.
As a taster – here’s the verb ‘to hurry’

English HURRY
Unë Shpejtoj
Ti Shpejton
Aj / Ajo Shpejton
Ne Spejtojmë
Ju Shpejtoni
Ata / Ato Shpejtojnë
Past Unë kam Shpejtuar
Fut –Unë do të Shpejtoj
Order Shpejto

Now try learning 40 of them! :o)

I’ll leave you with more pics from the beach – there was some waves yesterday (which was a rarity, as normally the sea is like a sheet of glass). Enjoy.

Happy Albanian Independence day!!!!

Today I was meant to get up at 4:30am to go to a town called Vlora. The festivities there apparently are very good, and therefore I was very prepared to get up and go at stupid o’clock on the bus on a 4 hour journey through mountain territory. But unfortunately, I had a very restless night, probably due to the fact that I was due to get up at such an unearthly hour, and therefore in turn, couldn’t sleep. I instead caught up on my sleep and slept till 9, and had a very chilled morning. Nice. :o)

You may think I’m writing this in a dingy internet café, somewhere in southern Albania. Well – I’m actually writing this in warm sunshine on the roof of the house where I’m staying. I’m overlooking the mountains, the bay where Sarande is set, and therefore an all-round beautiful view. The only downside is that I can’t see my laptop screen as well, due to the amount of sunshine!! I think I can live with that though!!

Sorry once again for the lack of writing – let me recap of the events of the weekend…There wasn’t much to tell I’m afraid. But I’ll try and make it as interesting as possible.

Saturday, we didn’t go to the gypsy camp, as we usually would, as Richard (the missionary who normally takes us) was in Tirana (the capital) on a conference. I therefore spent the day catching up with Diti, watching Liverpool and Man City play in a bar in town. It was good to catch up, and since Liverpool is his favourite team – he was pleased too.

Sunday was spent with an early morning for church. And unfortunately I have no idea what sermon was about!! Its not that it was difficult to understand – it was just in Albanian, and I’m still not getting the hang of it. My verbs aren’t coming along all that well, and every day that passes, I realise that I just don’t know that many words :o( I have to remind myself that I’ve only been here two weeks though, and I have learnt so much already that I just have to be patient.

Evening church (at 4) was er… empty. It seemed different to last week. There were 6 of us, but 4 of us were in the band, so that was kind of strange. We had a very good time of prayer though, and I think we were all encouraged, despite the low turnout!

In contrast, the second half of the Manchester United vs Chelsea match was dire. Chelsea were all over United, and probably deserved more than a point. Skender and I went to see the match in a bar round the corner, and it was nice to spend some time with him. I will make sure that I try and do this more often.

I have honestly done a lot more than watch football. HONEST!! I went to the beach again the other day. Once again - I was appauled at the state of the beach - someone has left a MASSIVE amount of needles on the beach (probably thieves, apparently), and so I had to be careful to keep the kids away. Here's some pics... As you can see - the weather was beautiful. The youngster in the photo is Arifi - he lives accross the road with his mum and his two sisters.


In honour of the fact that I watched the film 'High Fidelity' last night on my ipod, I thought it would be fitting to do some top 5’s. (If you haven’t seen the film, you’re missing out).

Top 5 things I miss about home
1. Anna-Faith Gainsford (she has to be top, or she’d kill me!!) – but no – really I miss her like crazy.
2. My car – although I wouldn’t drive it here – it would be scrap metal by now!
3. HP – ha ha ha – only kidding. Although I do miss my colleagues. Russ – I miss your stories!! Lynne… The CCM support team…. Hope you boys are doing ok without me!
4. Electrical things like my big TV (and English programs on said TV) and a permanent internet connection.
5. Not having to worry so much about money - I have to count every penny here!

Top 5 things I love about Albania
1. The sunshine and the views
2. The family I’m living with – they’re fantastic
3. Tirana beer
4. The fact you can find any football match (apart from Cardiff city matches) at the bars here
5. Kinder chocolate. One of the few western things here at the moment, but my goodness – its good :o)

Top 5 songs played on my ipod while im here
1. The happy song – Delirious (from the Access D album)
2. When we were young - The Killers (Sam’s Town)
3. Maneater – Nelly Furtado (Loose)
4. You’re all I have – Snow Patrol (Eyes open)
5. All we need – Charlie Hall (Flying into daybreak)

Top 5 things most needed over here
1 Blank acetates for songs at church (and some permanent marker pens)
2 A new laptop for Magdalena – a ZX spectrum would Windows XP quicker than the one she has at the moment
3 Plectrums – lots of them – mainly cos Diti has lost all of his!
4 A pirate’s compass – to stop Joni mentioning it so much, and save my sanity!! :o)
5 Money… There are so many good causes here to support… the gypsy education program, building new amenities for the gypsy people, supporting the work of the churches here, support for the missionaries who are out here…. Tons of things!!

I will close today by showing some of the pics I took the other evening of Sarande by night.

Well – I haven’t written for a while. My apologies for that. I’ve been busy, and hiding from the rain!!

To those of you who are thinking that I’ve probably got a tan by now, and that the weather is always wonderful here (and i wouldn’t blame you for thinking that – i have been praising the weather a lot) I can definitely refute that rumour. For the past two evenings, we have had horrendous storms!! We’ve had wind, rain and thunder!! Its been atrocious weather. Definitely doesn’t help your sleeping patterns either.

Life in Sarande has been plodding along really. I went to church on Sunday twice, and both times had English sermons… The first was preached by Jeff, who spoke about the consequences of sin, and the urgency to commit your life to God. The second was by Richard, who spoke about his recent trip to Tirana, when he attended a day conference on ‘trafficking’. He told of horrific examples of women and children who have been taken from their homes all over eastern Europe for sexual exploitation in western Europe, including the UK. He challenged us by asking what would we do if someone who had been trafficked came to us for help. Would you be a Good Samaritan?

I have been very busy learning Albanian over the last few days, but the last two lessons have totally blown my mind…. Did you know that Albanian has 9 past tenses? Two of which doesn’t even exist in English!! It’s driving me crazy!! And they’re only verbs. The nouns all change their ending, depending on who’s article they are, and whether they are plural or not. And don’t get me started on the male female… Depending on whether the article is male or female, the endings change again!! Its nuts!!

I went to have dinner with Richard (a missionary here) and his wife on Tuesday. Food was delicious, especially the bread and butter pudding we had for desert. I couldn’t help having seconds! Richard and I then went to a very nice bar showing the champions league footy. Once again, I can’t believe that Manchester United lost!! Rubbish. We kind of watched two games….. There was a huge thunder storm happening at the time, so each time the tv signal got a bit dodgy, they changed the channel. I found this quite annoying, but no-one else seemed to care. Part of the life here, I guess.

A group of us came together yesterday to translate some church songs into Albanian. An easy task, you would think. Hmmm…. Try fitting the words buzëqeshur or pandryshueshëm into a song… Its not easy!!

I was going to go to Tirana for the weekend, but I won’t be going any longer – there’s no room in the makina(car, but car is a rude word here!!). So, it’s a huge shame that I will be missing out on another 7 hour journey!! Ha ha…. Not!!

I will leave you with my trip to the seaside the other day with the kids. Top left are Elda and Joni showing me what they won in a packet of crisps (with Sarah in the background). Top right are Elda and Alma, having a right laugh, although I'm not quite sure what they were laughing at!! :o)Bottom left is a banana plan we came across on the beach. Finally, I've included a photo of the storm clouds which were over Corfu island at the time, but eventually arrived early that evening.

This morning, I have finally received my first case of a dodgy tummy. Sorry readers for telling you this, but I thought it was a historic event worth noting. To be honest, I don’t think it will be the last time I will have dodgy tummy while I’m here, but I promise from now on I will spare you any details :o)

Today I was awoken early (again)… There’s only so much pokemon in italian you can take before I got *very* fed-up and decided that it was time to get up.

I sorted out my washing this morning. This was because I’d left my clothes to dry on the roof for about 3 days. Yes – my pants were out for all to see for 3 whole days. Oops!!

Kids church was at 10. This involved me generally making a total idiot of myself, not knowing all the words to the songs, and doing all the gestures in a… well…. idiotic fashion. It’s a great laugh, but more importantly – the church was much fuller than last week, and I felt that the kids enjoyed it far far more (probably cos they didn’t have to put up with me on guitar!!!) During the talk bit, one of the leaders took the younger kids to a little side room to give them an easier lesson. Having tried to listen for about 10 minutes to the big kids talk, I was fed up of totally not understanding a word, that I went to play with hand puppets and try and understand the little kids talk. Now these kids are 4 or 5, but I didn’t really understand their talk either, so I was completely at a loss. I felt as though I was making headway yesterday (by learning a whole heap of new verbs), but today felt a step backwards.

We visited Cukë (the gypsy camp) at 3pm. Well – we picked up some food parcels for them, which consisted of bread, flour, oil, a frozen chicken and some biscuits. I believe this is a contribution from the church for every family there. This must be a costly operation. I would hazard a guess that each pack would cost around 1000 lek (about 5 pounds) and there was about 20 in the back of the jeep, which for each family I would estimate a monthly cost of around 100 pounds. I’m sure the church here would love some contributions, and if you’d like the details – please email me.

Before leaving the shop, we all took timeout for a quick drink of Fanta. Hmmm – this was probably a bad move. A whole can of fizzy fanta, my dodgy belly, a back seat in the jeep and the state of the roads on the way to cuka don’t make for a happy Sion!!! Man – I felt ill when we arrived!!! :o)
The Cukë people were on good form when we arrived. They thought for a second we weren’t coming, and some were on their way back to the second camp, so we turned them around. I can honestly say that i have never had so much fun when I’ve visited these guys in church. There was a bigger congregation than last week, but the heart of some of the ladies truly is astonishing. One of the women gave a testimony of how she prays every day, and really encouraged the others to do the same. Another told of how her knee was healed after she had prayed for it. It was fantastic, and that coupled with more crazy singing….

The only problem with visiting Cukë is that you never know what else you come home with. I’ve had the warmest shower in the world, but I’m still not feeling clean. Ah well – S’ka problem.




Busy day tomorrow, so I probably won’t post, but please do keep your comments and thoughts coming in – its good to hear from you.

The other day, I arranged a meeting with the mums of the area which I live in. This was an opportunity for me to just show them that I had arrived, and get to know them a bit better. They all came over this morning to have some nibbles and get the pictures of our previous visit, which I had printed out for them. They liked the photos a lot, and I had put on a great spread of biscuits, walnuts and mandarins. Some of the youngsters also came, and I think a good time was had by all. I tried my best to pluck up some courage to speak in albanian, but to be honest – I woosed out, and ended up using Liri as a translator. I did understand a lot though, so that was a start.

Life here is very different. It’s a bit weird, as all the men are generally earning a living, and so being at home, and getting Joni from school, for example seems very strange to me, as I’m pretty much the only man doing it. It’s all good though, as once again, we are having a scorcher of a day. Being out in the sunshine is totally fantastic.

The rest of the day was pretty hectic really - lunch, meeting Jeff again before he goes back to the US and finally helping Skenda to pile up about a 1000 logs which they will use over the coming winter as firewood. I'm cream crackered now, so im off for an early night.

Whoever thought kids would be so tiring…??

Today, I mainly looked after some of the neighbourhood kids. For those who have been here before – they were Elda, Alma, Sara, Arifi and Joni. They are full of beans, but thankfully – they also served a great purpose today. This morning I had a lesson in verbs with Liri, and this afternoon, I got a chance to try them out. I told the kids what I had learned, and they helped me put those verbs into practice.

We went down to the beach, and I let them play for a while, collecting shells and throwing stones into the sea. I, meanwhile, had a chance to get some photos. Now, this was no ordinary day. Today was a scorcher!! It was so warm, I couldn’t even wear my jacket. I hope the weather back in the UK is just as nice!! Ha ha ha ha!!! :o)


This evening, I met with one of the local missionaries – Jeff. Jeff has been working in the orphanage for a long time, but is due to fly home at the end of the week to care of his mother, who is in hospital, and is not very well. His wife is currently in the US, caring for both her parents, who are both very ill also. Prayers for Jeff and his family would be greatly appreciated. He will hopefully return to Sarande in February.

Sorry – not a very eventful day, so I will leave you with some of the pictures I took today. The children on the beach are as mentioned above, and the view of Sarande is from a road, which should be named ‘Sarande’s balcony’. A beautiful view I hope you agree.


Until next time…

After my meeting with Richard, who has been a missionary here from Birmingham for over 10 years, he took me to see his good friend Romi. Romi is a barber, and I found out (through my very basic Albanian) that he has been a barber for over 30 years. When I explained how I wanted my hair cut, I prayed a lot that he would understand. In my terrible Albanian, I continued to tell him that I wanted the top short, but the sides and back even shorter. I think he understood, but when he got the number 3 razor out first, and cut my head into the shape of a mushroom, I was beginning to get a bit scared. Thankfully – he did it very well…. Who needs a Tony and Guy hair cut for fifty quid, when you can have a cut from Romi for the equivalent of one pound fifty?? Bargain!!

This afternoon, I continued in my Albanian lesson, failing miserably to remember I am, You are, He is…. Etc etc. Its something so simple, and yet so complicated. I am really finding it tough – especially then putting things into practice.

I must admit I slept in this morning – something I have been doing quite a lot. This is only because I have been waking up to the sound of screeching brakes quite a lot lately. There is (and this a good thing) a very large and thick piece of rope lying across the street now, since our last visit as a team, to slow the traffic outside. It is quite a hefty piece of rope – enough to make drivers slow right down (a little like the bumps on Beech Lane, for those of you living in Reading). The problem is – there’s no signposts, so the drivers are seeing it at the last minute and skid to a halt. I’m sure I’ll get used to it though!! I haven’t heard the cockerel for a while, but I’m assured its because I’m used to the sound now, because I would have been eating it if it were dead :o)


My morning meeting with Richard was very productive. We have been discussing both politics (unfortunately of the church variety), and ways of raising money for the Cuke gypsy people. Richard suggests that we contribute money towards their education, providing funds to purchase both books as well as contribute towards funding the employment of a full time teacher. This is one sure-fire way of helping them help themselves. I think it may be too late for the older generation, but the younger generation should be molded to help shape the future of their settlement.

Contact me further if you would like to contribute regular donations to this work.
Thanks.

Do you remember french lessons back at school?

Je, Tu, Ill, Elle, Nous, Vous….etc etc…

I used to hate these, especially since we had to learn them all from memory. Well – unfortunately, they also have these in Albanian, and they are equally as important, and equally as difficult. To make matters worse, they even put an emphasis on how far away a person is, and whether the objects in question are masculine or feminine. It is SUCH a difficult language!!

After my lesson this morning, I helped Liri with the shopping, and picked little Joni (her grandson) up from school. I was amazed at the kids playing in the yard there – they were playing totally separately from each other – boys with boys and girls with girls, despite playing exactly the same game.

Joni then took me on a tour of the neighbourhood to find 'treasure'.... He's obsessed by Pirates of the Carribean,.... Funnily enough - I know another little boy back in Reading who is also obsessed by that film.... He however, doesn't draw maps and uses his grandfathers pickaxe to try and dig for the treasure.... At least I hope he doesn't :o)

Missing you all.

Today was an early morning, with church at the Baptist church starting at 9 o clock!! Not quite what I’m used to, but after dragging myself out of bed, wolfing down a sausage sandwich, not quite as precisely prepared as my good friend Russell prepares them (He is the master at sausage sandwich making), I arrived at church with plenty of time to spare.

Thankfully – I was offered a translation to the service, and I gladly accepted. I am still finding the language difficult at times. The sermon was on unity within the church – fairly apt as I am aware that two of the church members had a falling out. This is reflected by the passage which was chosen in Phillipians 4.

Bimi and his son Joni took me for a drive to the farthest ends of sarande after church. We went to see a fish farm, which is only accesible by climbing over some seriously high rocks. We also saw the marina where after the communist times, 7 of the best boats of the Albanian army were sank by saboteurs. On our way we also saw this cow in the middle of the road. Something you don’t normally find in Reading town center :o)

Lunch was served on our return. Now most of you may not know that there are 3 foods I cannot eat… Mushrooms, coriander and beans. Unfortunately for me, lunch today was a bean soup, garnished with what I thought was coriander. It was lucky for me that there were no mushrooms, or that would have just spoilt the meal :o) But – it was actually quite nice. I have been spoilt so far with regards to food. Don’t worry mum – I am eating well.

My final activity of the day was going to the church in the evening, and then meeting up with old friends here – Diti and Eri. Genci came too – he was catching the 10pm bus back to Tirana, which he was planning to sleep on. Lets hope he did, as he had a 9am lecture!! I told him that he could always sleep there instead!!

We went out for a drink, and after spotting some Kalhua behind the bar, I decided to order a Black Russian, which to the uninitiated is Kalhua, Vodka and Coke. Of course, they don’t call it that here (I still don’t know what its called) but the waiter looked at me funny when I asked for it, and looked at me even funnier when I described what it was!! It passed the test though, and when the bill came, it was a pleasant surprise to see it was quite reasonable too.

Cock-a-doodle-doo……. No prizes for guessing what chuffing time I woke this morning??? Yes – that’s right – 6am!! An unearthly hour…. This time, until recently - about 12hours ago in fact – I didn’t know existed.

Thankfully, I went back to sleep, and slept until I was, well… fashionably late for youth church. Nice. I was kind of thrown into the deep-end a little today. The leaders were having a meeting, so they just said to me ‘make sure the kids behave’, and then closed the door. Erm…. Ok…. I know the words for ‘don’t touch’ and ‘I don’t understand’….. Thank goodness Genci turned up.

Genci then asked to play some guitar!! Given that my chord vocabulary is as awful as my Albanian…. It wasn’t an easy task.

At lunch today, I was asked if I slept ok. I dropped into the conversation about my aforementioned encounter with the cockerel, and my host – Liri – replied ‘Don’t worry – we will cut its head off’. A slight unnecessary overreaction, but I would sleep much better!! This afternoon, I had the opportunity to visit the Cuka – the Gypsy community near to Sarande. On my arrival, I was greeted by one of the girls, Christina, who recognized me instantly, shouting ‘Sioni’!!! This is now my new Albanian name apparently. Superb.

The church here in Sarande supports the Gypsy community in many ways. One of those ways is by once in while providing them food (ham and cheese rolls, which looked fantastic. The thought of them is making me hungry!). These rolls are given to those attending schooling in the area, provided by a charity called ‘The Lydia Foundation’.

I was warned very sternly 4 years ago, when I first came to Albania, that the road from the north to the south was very long, with many twists and turns, and in terrible conditions. Four years on, I thought that it had to have improved. Surely an 8 hour bus journey was because the bus stopped in every town on the way, and that it had to go to different places. Surely they’d built a proper motorway by now??? Well – if that was the plan, it’s a little behind schedule.

Thankfully – Magdalena was driving, and I wasn’t on the bus!! We left Tirana in a hive of traffic. Lane discipline in Albanian terms means that you know how many lanes there are, and you have to be disciplined enough to find your way to the front in the shortest amount of time. And to everyone who hates people not indicating when changing lanes… You can forget coming here. You’ll be lucky if the indicator light works let alone if the driver is courteous enough to use them!!

After battling our way out of Tirana, we got on to the motorway. ‘This is good’, I thought to myself. Not too much traffic… Two lanes… Fast road… It was a shame it lasted about 20 kilometers.
Imagine a road which was about one and a half car widths across, had pot-holes the size of wheelbarrows and had so many lorries coming the other way that your pants were bound to be slightly more soiled than they were at the start of the journey! This was terrifying stuff. There were some bits of the road that had sheer drops to the sides… The twists and turns were bigger and scarier than Oblivion at Alton Towers.. and I wont mention the number of times I hit my head on the ceiling!! Bless Magdalena – she kept apologizing, but I knew it wasn’t her fault.

Road-works on the motorways back in Britain gets on my nerves… But hey.. at least they leave signposts, informing us of lane closures and they also light the way brightly. We nearly fell down a ravine, due to one set of workmen who seemed to forget to show us that the road was diverted away from the big hole they left. Ok… granted – they were trying to improve the road… But it just wasn’t being done quick enough for my liking :o)

Overall – it took 7 hours. We left at 3, and I didn’t arrive in Sarande until 10. Most of the drive was in torrential rain, and the worst thunderstorm I have seen for a long time. Typically, as soon as we arrived, the lights went off, and the electricity went dead. Power cut.

This journey was one big message to me – Welcome to Albania.

Today I begin my journey down south.... To those of you who haven't (and can't be bothered to look up a map of Albania on Google... I've done it for you...) Here's the rough estimation of the distance I will cover today. On a bus - this journey would take 8 hours, but thankfully - Magdalena (the missionary who met me here) happens to be doing the journey today, and has offered me a lift. I am VERY glad, as every bus I have seen so far has been more packed than a London tube train at rush hour!!

So - its roughly the distance from Liverpool to London, which would probably take us half the time... Can you tell I'm a little scared of what is to come? I dont think the roads are up to British standards
:o(

This morning, after having coffee with Aunt Vera and the customary breakfast of French Toast at the cafe (Benni makes the best french toast, and puts up with my shocking language skills!), I went for a wander with my camera. Albania is obviously rich in fresh produce.... The markets boast a fantastic array of fruit, veg and olives....

Tirana really is busy.... I am looking forward to moving south to Sarande where the pace of life is just a little slower... I also look forward to spending some more time chatting to people down there, hopefully in Albanian - its coming along..... Kjo eshte nje libre..... This is a book!!! Ha ha ha.... It's like being back at french lessons in school. Only I'm just reading it from a book.... Ahh well.

I dont think updates will be as frequent from now on.... The internet cafe in Sarande doesn't boast wireless technology :o( Take care guys.... Keep in touch.

You can climb every mountain..... I'm sure there's a song that goes something like that. Well - today, after a much needed lie-in... I went, along with Magdalena, Odeta and Genci up Mount Dajti. Ok... now i have a slight confession to make.... Some of you may be well impressed by my efforts, but some of you know me well enough to know that there isn't a chance in the world that i would climb one of the highest mountains in Albania!! And you're right. Thank goodness for the Swiss, who have built a fantastic cable car system all the way up the mountain!

As you can see from the pictures, there were some awesome views... It was just a shame that the thing closed at 4, and we arrived at 3:45. So it meant we had to go up, and straight back down again.

Thats about it from me. Thanks for your comments guys, and your emails. Keep them coming.