Diti, Kiko and I have just finished playing some of our newest songs (and some old classics) at the orphanage. What a hoot that was. I'll upload some pictures tomorrow, but there was dancing, singing, clapping and just an all around feeling of jollyness.

I've also never played such a hotly contested game of Volleyball in my life. The final score was 2 games to 2, but because the Albanians are all such fiery charachters, lets just say that there were the odd argument here and there!!! And a spot of cheating going on too, and most suprisingly of all - not by me!! :o)

Hope you're all doing well - am missing the UK a lot (apart from the good weather we're now finally having!!)

I have today completed my course, teaching my Albanian pupils the basic techniques of MS Excel, PowerPoint and Paint Shop Pro. I gave them all a test today, and they all passed with flying colours.


Am currently furious, as I am missing out on the best film of 2007 which is currently showing in the UK cinemas. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is now out at home, and I am missing it. Its not fair. You can tell that I'm gutted, can't you??!


Having missed an hour, just like you guys at home, this morning was impossible to get up. When I did eventually get my backside out of bed, I ventured over to Lidia, where the pastor of the evangelical church, Sotiri, was there visiting. I went over to his house for coffee, and to fix his PC. Now, I knew it was possible to have Windows XP in a whole different language, but in greek?!?! When all the characters are totally messed up?!?! That was a bit of a test!!!


Finally - I want to leave you with a very bad picture of me, concentrating very hard at a computer at my local cafe. Its even Windows Vista, to you geeks out there. Valentino's cafe is the best cafe EVER. He always shows the football on the projector screen, always serves beer nice and cold, and now the barman - Nardi - even knows my usual order :o) All I have to do is raise a finger!!! Bliss!!!

What is with this weather?!?!?

Sunshine one minute, hailstorm the next?!?! I guess that's the mediterranean for you. Glad I'm wrapped up warm with about 5 layers on today. There's a cold wind!!

So - once again - my apologies for the lack of regular updates. I tried to upload some photos the other day, but the link is so unreliable here, I decided to give up.

Not really any brand new news here at the moment. The weather is changing every 5 minutes, the work here which I'm doing is not. My course is still going ahead, teaching about photography at the moment, and how to change and improve digital photos with a graphics package. Finding the time and energy to write the documentation for it is hard though. I was never one for documentation (as all at HP know!!)

One good thing is that I've joined a video rental shop - and they have pretty up to date movies, and at 50pence a night.... My evenings are much more enjoyable!! Watched Ghost Rider last night.... Give that one a miss guys - terrible!!

Will write more soon - I promise.

My apologies for the lack of updates recently. I've been working pretty hard since my return from the UK.

Trent, Bruce, Mark and I produced a CD of Albanian songs when I was at home in February, and we have just heard that we have gone platinum. Well.... not quite. But I played some of the songs at kids church on Saturday, and the little blighters were merrily singing along to the ones I've taught them!!

Yesterday I was official match photographer at the local derby.... Saranda FC vs Butrinti FC. The final score was 3-0 to Saranda. The first goal was untidy defending by Butrint, and the Saranda attack capitalised on their mistake. You can see the ball in the back of the net below, but a lack of decent zoom stopped me from catching the scoring moment. Unfortunately I had to leave at half time.

I went to see Jorgo and his wife, who we have bought a wheelchair for yesterday. Jorgo suffers from MS, and was very difficult to understand. Richard (who came with me) was able to converse with him, and told him the good news that the wheelchair has arrived in Reading and will be on its way at the beginning of May. I am going to visit again, now that I know where they live, and I will probably take Anna with me too, when she arrives in April.

Finally I preached yesterday, as well as sang a very old Welsh hymn - Here is love vast as the ocean - at church. The preaching went well, and i think it was well received. The song, which I sang one verse in Welsh (so that they would realise that its a totally different language to English) and the two translated verses of Albanian also went very well, and I received many words of encouragement afterwards.

Hope all is well in the UK (or wherever you're reading this).... Greetings to Lionel and Lorace who are regular readers in Australia.

I hear that the weather in the UK at the moment is stunning, but I would like this opportunity to make everyone very jelous.... It is T-Shirt weather here!!! Its sooooo warm, it's fantastic!!!

Anyway.... Back to updating you guys with my news...

In the Uk, I recorded 13 songs in Albanian (with the help of Trent, Mark and Bruce). This has proved to be a very important resource. I have given out several copies of these songs, and the people here seem to enjoy them very much. They will I hope prove to be very useful for them to learn the new songs which we have translated.

Not much else has happened as yet. We didn't go to Cuke on Saturday due to a lot of illness which is going around at the moment. Church on Sunday was pretty good, although the Forskuaer church is once again lacking in numbers. Please continue to pray for them.

An update with Iliar, since I've been away, is that he has gone to the God Loves Albania center in Tirana, and is settling in. I will keep you updated on how he's doing, but he seems to be happy there apparently.

Finally - I want to thank one person in particular who contributed money to buy a wheelchair for one of the residents here in Sarande. The wheelchair will be used by a guy called Jorgo. I will hopefully get some pictures soon. The wheelchair is due to arrive in Albania in May. That is great news, especially to Jorgo and his wife.

Will write again soon, and will hopefully get some great pics of the sunshine, just to prove I'm not kidding!! :o)