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.