Wednesday morning - June 12

I have but a few moments... I've been up (while you guys slumber, I might add) for an hour or so taking care of incidentals.  I am moving to a new room today, so had to gather all my miscellaneous things and get ready for the day ahead.  As we enter the final stretch of our time here, the days get a little more full with all those things that couldn't be scheduled before.  So, leisure will probably be a thing not realized again until I curl up into the space allowed on the next Turkish Air flight in one week.  Can you believe it?  Only a week left!  And today is filled with appointments.

In terms of my purpose and work here, I have continued with all the various projects so lovingly supplied by all of you who know who you are.  My satchels are lightening, and many of my goals are being realized - hopefully, those are exactly what our Abba had planned for me.  I am becoming a little Albanian, I think, as people proclaim that I am their sister, their mother, or just family.  Yes, we are family - and I thank God for that.  The people I know here are so dear to me, and as I said before, many of them are such an example for me to follow as I strive to please our Abba.

OK, Tirana.  My eyes will never grow tired of feasting on the panorama that is Tirana and environs.  There are so many sights, so much merchandise displayed on every available fence, sidewalk, or walking bridge.  There is such a hustle and bustle.  While the people of Tirana lament the loss of hospitality in this big city, there seems no lack to me - the anonymity of a big city seems a universal  consequence of such a large population.  What is it like to walk around here?
 
First, at this time of year it is becoming warm.  I know from experience that it will be even warmer next month, but already the air has been "heavy" in anticipation of a downpour - one which has not been realized for some days.  The air is dusty, and people are anxious for some rain.  For me, with my California acclimatisation, I feel the humidity.  While others are seemingly quite comfortable, I am literally melting.  I remember when I studied in Philadelphia that my family looked like I feel here when they made a summer visit while I was quite comfortable.  So, I'm confident that if I were to live here, I wouldn't respond to the humidity as I am now.   Even walking on the shady side of the street is not that helpful to me... in the old days, they would say that I am "glowing" and "glowing" and "glowing" some more (in the "old days," women didn't "sweat").

Second, for those of you who have been here, you already know that one of the popular mayors of Tirana was Eddie Rama (who, by chance, is running to be prime minister) is, by trade, an artist.  As mayor,  he encouraged the people to paint their buildings in unique and colorful ways.  I don't have too many pictures of the result, but suffice it to say that they remain colorful and fun.

Because of the intersection of so many cultures, religions and generations, the dress here is so diverse.  There are covered women (a prayer each time I see one), village people, those in mourning (not just widows) dressed in black, farmers, workers, young office workers.  Women in heels riding their bike to work.  Men waiting for work next to their tools.  The broad variety of dress and circumstance surpasses any other city I remember, and hopefully I'll find a variety of photos to give you some feeling of the breadth.

And, this city (and probably all of Albania) is a center of reuse and repurpose!  Traffic is an odd variety of left or right driving cars (some were obtained in the UK), the pristine tail end of a Mercedes attached to a motorbike with "mom and dad" riding comfortably on the back seat, the back wheel and "business" part of a bicycle attached to a double wheeled cart, huge bales of collected plastic water bottles balancing precariously on the back of a bicycle being ridden by any a suited elderly gentleman.  It is visually delicious!

OK, I've got to get ready for my overly committed day.  No time to find some of the photos I really wanted to share with you - another time.  Grace to you and peace from the Author of peace.

Mirupashem.