Baklava Day

Today is the last day of the Muslim holiday, Ramazan (or Ramadan). Traditionally, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, the month in which Muhammad received his revelation of the Qur'an, is dedicated to fasting from sunrise to sunset for the purpose of prayer, good deeds and self purification (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan). As explained to us by some friends in Turkey, Muslims will wake in the early hours of the morning to eat before sunrise. During these early morning hours, a person will roam the neighborhoods banging a drum to wake everybody up as a reminder to eat. He usually collects a small payment in return for his services.

Now that we are living in a "Muslim" village, I completely expected early morning wake up calls and hungry neighbors during the month of September. However, as I have found out, for the Muslims in my neighborhood, their "faith" is actually rooted in family heritage. I'm discovering that Islam here is not much unlike Christianity in the States, miles wide, but only inches thick. Yes, we do have a drummer boy. But he doesn't come until well until the late hours of morning. He doesn't wake anybody up, but just tries to collect their money. Although they all claim Islam, nobody I've asked has fasted, and most of my neighbors have never even been in a mosque. The children have today off from school, but the only other sign of celebration I've seen is the making of Baklava. Lots and lots of Baklava.

Birdie on a....Suicide Mission?

A couple of nights ago, all of the neighbors started screaming my name, “OOOH KRISTAL! OOOH KRISTAL!!” This is a fairly frequent occurrence, as the neighbors usually shout for me over silly little things, “OOOOH KRISTAL!! TURN ON YOUR PORCH LIGHT!” or (7am) “OOOH KRISTAL, THE GARBAGE MAN’S COMING!” or 8am today, "OOOH KRISTAL, CAN WE HANG OUR BLANKETS ON YOUR BALCONY!?" This time, however, there was an unusual urgency in their voices.

I looked out the window and saw that everybody was pointing up and shouting. Not having my Albanian brain on, I didn’t listen to what they were yelling and assumed they were calling me to come out to see a rainbow, as it had just finished raining. Much to my surprise, when I went outside, I saw what all the commotion was about! Silly me, Albanians don’t shout about rainbows! They were shouting about the suicidal pigeon hanging by it’s neck from our roof! Somehow, the pigeon got its neck wrapped in a plastic bag, which was caught on our roof, which left for a large lifeless bird gracing our house! Why they alerted me to this travesty, and not Steve, is beyond me.

I called for Steve, who quickly ran up the stairs with a pair of scissors to free the poor bird. Much to all of our surprise, as Steve reached up to save our little friend, the pigeon managed to escape, only to land into the hands of the neighborhood kids, eager to terrorize the poor stunned bird. Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes. Please don’t litter, recycle when possible and remember to cut you plastic coke rings! As Animal Planet would say, “it’s their planet too!”

The Oddities

Being visitors in a foreign land, we are somewhat of an oddity. Full of curiosity and with little shame, the Albanians ask us questions all the time. I’ve decided to share with you some of my favorites!

1) Where are you from?
2) What are you doing in Albania? Okay…I know these top two aren’t interesting, but keep reading, they’ll get better, I promise!
3) How is your family? This is always followed by more family questions…Family is SOOO important in this culture! I LOVE this and really enjoy telling about each member of my family!
4) Which place is better, Albania or America? This is a TOUGH one to answer, because the truth is America is my home and first in my heart. But the Albanians seems to love hearing great things about their little land, so usually I answer by saying that I love the hospitality and kindness of the Albanian people, as well saying how beautiful the country is.
5) Why don’t you have a car? Answer: we can’t afford one. They usually don’t believe us, (because aren’t ALL Americans rich) and proceed to ask…
6) Why don’t you ask your parents to buy you a car?
7) Can you find me an American husband? I was even offered a dog in exchange for a man!
8) Next time you go to the States, can you bring me _________? Fill in the blank with any of the following…peanut butter, medicine, digital cameras, diaper rash cream, underwear and my favorite...a Hummer! In this case, it was a salesman whom we met when we were furniture shopping. He was really pushy and made both of us feel incredibly uncomfortable. Every time we passed his shop, he asked us to go for coffee. It got to the point that we’d even start walking different roads to avoid him! Well, on a whim, one day we accepted his invite for coffee, and found out why he’d been so insistent…he wanted us to arrange buying and shipping a Hummer from the States!
9) How much money do you make? I hate this question! Usually I avoid it by saying something generic like, “it’s different every month.” But I’ve just recently started responding, “It’s personal.”
10) Did you fall in love or was your marriage arranged? Answer: LOVE!!

Does This Country Make Me Look Fat?!

Probably like most of the American population, I could afford to drop a few pounds (I call them my “Donna’s mocha pounds),” but I wouldn’t consider myself fat. Well, these skinny Albanians make me feel like I am a big fat cow. Today I came into church, wearing a pair of pants I love and thought were slimming, and immediately one of the youth said loudly, “Wow! You’re fat.” Again, later today, another Albanian said, “your not fat here (pointing to my waist), but you’re really fat here (pointing to my hips).” Unfortunately, this is an everyday occurrence for me! People frequently ask me why I’m “fat”, and sometimes I just shrug me shoulders, but if I’m in a good mood I just tell them I love chocolate too much!!