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.