Thursday, December 31, 2009

Pazar te Mbare!

Today is New Year's Eve, and as this holiday was one of the only legal holidays to celebrate during the many years of communism, it still remains the biggest and favorite day of the year to the Albanians. To share some of the Albanian New Year's cheer, I thought I could take you through the pazar to do a little NewYear's shopping!!

































Gezuar Vitin i Ri! Happy New Years!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Raclette

There's nothing like some good food and great company to ease the pain of being away from home on Christmas! We have some terrific Dutch friends, who were kind enough to have us over for a very traditional Dutch Christmas dinner. This Christmas was one of the best we've had in years, and in addition to the fun fellowship, I have to give much of the credit to this contraption below!

This a Dutch "Gourmet" or "Raclette." It's basically a big electric frying grill that goes in the middle of the table.

The table is spread with a lovely array of food...steak, chicken, minced meat, peppers, onions, potatoes, batter, etc. I even fried some yummy peaches. Each person chooses their own feast and cooks for themselves!

The upper level gets covered with salt and oil to fry the meat and veggies, while the lower deck has eight trays for baking Dutch pancakes.

(House Rules: No silverware allowed...only the special scrapers on the teflon!!)


Doesn't that look WONDERFUL!? When the food is cooked through and smells simply divine, scoop the goodies into your pancake and enjoy! Ju befte mire!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Lamb of God

Just two days before Christmas, I went out to visit the old neighborhood. By good fortune, I was able to greet the shepherdess...who was carrying these two beautiful newly born ewes!



After capturing these pics and patting their heads, I couldn't help but think that at the same time next year, these sheep would probably be someone's New Year's feast...maybe mine!

But don't you think that it's a strange time of year for a lamb to be born. It's cold and it's almost the end of December...aren't baby animals born in the spring?!

But then it came to mind...it's Christmas! Wasn't it around this time 2000 years ago that another lamb was born? The Lamb of God?! King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

He was born in a lowly humble state, with a birth not that much different from these little guys. "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:7

And not only did he enter the world like in humility, but he died in same way, "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." Isa 53:7

These sheep will be killed so that people can feast, but the Lamb of God was killed so that our sins could wiped away, clean forevermore . "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool". Isa 1:18



This Christmas, I hope you can join with me in proclaiming these words of the angels and voices of heaven:

... "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing" Revelation 5:12

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Twelve Days of Krishtlindjen

Here's a little ditty we naughty missionaries composed...

Sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas"


On the first day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

a cup of cai mali.
(a lovely tea made from local plant)

On the second day of Kristlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Two shots of raki.
(Albanian hard liquor, a cure-all for EVERYTHING)

On the third day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Three red lokumme
(comparable to Turkish delight)

On the fourth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Four Birra Korca
(local beer)

On the fifth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Five Nigerian DVD's
(aka: pirated but legal...sort of)

On the sixth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Six Leje Qendrimis
(literally "permission to stay" or visa)

On the seventh day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to ...

Seven Pickeled Peppers
(yummy)

On the eighth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Eight Policemen Sleeping
(typical)

On the ninth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Nine Women Sweeping
(it's a wonder the country's not any cleaner!)

On the tenth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Ten Leaky Bombels
(a gas tank)

On the eleventh day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Eleven Dodgy Passports
(can you tell we wrote this with some Brits?!)

On the twelfth day of Krishtlindjen an Albanian gave to me...

Twelve Baklava
(we need more days for all the baklava Albanians love to give!!)

Gezuar Krishtlindjen!!

Christmas Carol Quiz

Here's a little Christmas game we enjoyed at our Christmas party last night.

The following are clues to the names of well-known Christmas carols. Can you guess the names of the Christmas songs from the cryptic clues provided below?


1. APPROACH EVERYONE WHO IS STEADFAST.
2. ECSTASY TOWARD THE ORB.
3. LISTEN, THE FORETELLING SPIRITS HARMONIZE.
4. HEY, MINUSCULE URBAN AREA SOUTH OF JERUSALEM.
5. QUIESCENT NOCTURNAL PERIOD.
6. THE AUTOCRATIC TROIKA ORIGINATING NEAR THE ASCENT OF APOLLO.
7. THE PRIMARY CAROL.
8. EMBELLISH THE CORRIDORS.
9. I'M FANTASIZING CONCERNING A BLANCHED YULETIDE.
10. I OBSERVED MY MATERNAL PARENT OSCULATING WITH A CORPULENT UNSHAVEN MALE IN CRIMSON DISGUISE.
11. DURING THE TIME OVINE CARETAKERS SUPERVISED THEIR CHARGES.
12. VIRTUOUS ROYAL PHILANTHROPIST.
13. THE THING MANIFESTED ITSELF AT THE ONSET OF A TRANSPARENT DAY.
14. WHAT OFFSPRING ABIDES THUS?
15. REMOVED IN A BOVINE FEEDING TROUGH.
16. VALENTINO, THE ROSEATE PROBOSCIS WAPITI.
17. THE SLIGHT PERCUSSIONIST LAD.
18. FATHER CHRISTMAS APPROACHES THE METROPOLIS.
19. SERAPHIM WE AURALLY DETECTED IN THE STRATOSPHERE.
20. THE CREATOR REASSURES YOU, LIVELY FELLOWS

Happy Caroling!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?! (or not!!)

While living in the village, I had a love/ hate relationship with my neighbors. It would take hours to describe the neighborhood we lived in and the culture of the people around us. They were far different from anybody we had ever met in Korce, and moving into their world felt like being on anther planet.



Immediately, our privacy was a luxury of the past, as our new neighbors were overwhelmingly intrigued by the strange foreigners living on their little private street. They were a small community of extremely conservative people that had come from a very remote village, not even reachable by car. About ten years ago, they all transplanted themselves to Libonik. Most of the women my age had little education and were just waiting for their parents to find them a spouse, so that they could move out to serve their husband’s family. Naturally, we were a novelty, and our lives were just as strange and foreign to them, as theirs was to us.

Their curiosity though, was stronger than their usual social graces. It often had them peaking through our windows to watch what we were doing, or inviting themselves to our house uninvited…even snooping through our trash to see what the funny foreigners had thrown away. All hours of the day, they would feel free to call out my name continuously to get my attention (had they forgotten about knocking?). Not a single guest could enter our house without us getting the great inquisition from them later on. Naturally, these were the parts I hated.

But they were wonderful to us too. We were constantly brought gifts from their gardens or animals (like eggs and freshly slaughtered meat!), invited over for coffees and incredible home grown and homemade meals. They even offered to help me with the cleaning and sometimes just started cleaning my house without being asked (which I was clearly not able to keep up with their standards of cleanliness).



So, upon moving out of the village, I was overcome with mixed emotions about our new separation from the neighbors. These were people who had warmly welcomed us into their community, invited us into their lives and had been a part of our everyday life for over a year.

However, eager to welcome back a life of privacy and normality, I was thrilled to be in apartment on the sixth story where it would be impossible for outsiders to look into our windows. So I was surprised to find myself thinking about and missing the neighbors terribly our first few weeks back in Korce.

I thought about them constantly, but most all when I was cleaning. Part of me was rejoicing to be able to clean however I wanted, at any time I wanted, without anybody telling me I was doing it wrong! I could clean at four in the afternoon, and nobody would know, nonetheless care! I could do it my way, and at my leisure!!

So I decided to tackle the rugs out on our balcony…a chore that the neighbors constantly offered to do for me and I always refused…simply because I’m stubborn and did not want their help. Now, this isn’t just a vacuum job. Cleaning the rugs means hosing them down, scrubbing them with a scrub brush forever and ever, and then rinsing them with a hose and letting it dry for days.

Now our rug is about twice the width of the balcony so I had to fold it over and do it in sections. Little did I know, a wet rug is heavier than I can move by myself. Also, we don’t have a hose on our balcony, so I had to make about a gazillion trips to the sink with the mop bucket to wet, wash, and rinse the beast. At first, I was singing praises, happy to be doing the difficult work alone, without anybody watching me, or telling me what to do...thinking to myself, “Ha ha neighbors!! Look at me now…I CAN clean all by myself!!”

But about an hour into it (and about 200 trips to the sink later) I really began to miss the neighbors. Why, oh why, hadn’t I accepted their offers to help? Why had I been so stubborn? It would have been so easy at their house…with the entire rug laid out, and their hose to rinse, and four girls, all eager to clean and scrub. But no, I had to do things MY WAY.



I’ve learned a lot from those neighbors…like how to make byrek and Turkish coffee and I have a deeper understanding of their culture, but mostly my relationship with them taught me multitudes about myself. Now that we have a healthy ten miles of distance between us, my relationship with those neighbors has changed. It is no longer love/hate relationship …it is just love.


p.s.
Once Steve got home, he helped me get the sopping wet rug hung over the balcony to dry. Later that night, a disgruntled and annoyed neighbor from downstairs came knocking on our door. Our rug was dripping onto her balcony. Sigh. So much for my “island living!!”

"...you shall love your neighbor as yourself..." Mark 12:31