A sweet family in Albania was generous in letting us live in their humble unfurnished home for the few weeks we were there. They were so gracious in letting us move into their bottom floor, and share the space with them. The floor had two rooms, and one bathroom..toilet, sink and a giant plastic tub to collect water in for bucket showers ; and a "kitchen' area with a sink, campfire gas burner we could cook on, and shelves. The water was only turned on for a couple hours a day, and not till almost a week in did we discover the hot water heater for showers haha. Most of Albania is to poor for heat and we came right at the beginning of their cold season and the temperatures were so low. The drafts going through the house meant sleeping with 4 heavy wool blankets on top of me :) :)
I was so thankful to be living with an Albanian family, you always experience more of the culture when you are staying with host families. In the home lived Alma, her daughter (maggie) and son (desarde), her two nieces jessie and kayla, and her mother in law. It's common in Albania for the daughter in laws to move in with their mother in laws and become almost a maid or care taker of the home, it is also common for husbands and wives to go away to Greece for extended periods of time to work and bring money home for their families. That was the case with jessie and kayla and so their aunt Alma is raising them. We treated the kids like our own siblings and it was so fun coming home and being greeted by their adorable little faces and swinging them around. We had some bonding time painting the little girls nails and taking funny pictures on the computer. It's amazing how much you can communicate across languages. We cant verbally speak to each other but the actions of love and care speak so loud. In true Albanian fashion, they have invited us up a few times for a snack. They of course will just sit and watch you eat and if you stop eating they make a strong motion for you to continue eating. haha we sit in silence and smile at each other :) It is an honor in their culture to be able to host foreigners. One of my favorite memories was when Alma and her 5yr old son Desarde came downstairs and sat with us as we were cleaning up our dinner, we made a giant batch of hot chocolate and shared it with them, Desarde was so cute curled up in his mothers arms and they sat their smiling as we chatted around them, again we couldn't understand each other but just being together and sharing drinks was so valuable and precious to me.
..Desard wasn't always cute though haha.. that silly little kid became somewhat of a trouble maker during our stay. The one day he managed to get ahold of a match and lit our bath towels on fire! Burning them to a crisp! haha and squeezing our toothpaste and shoving our toothbrushes down the drain lol. A bit of a bathroom terrorist, that one.
The day before we left we did a family photoshoot with them and created a beautiful album full of all these shots we had captured of them together and laughing and being family, I know it meant a lot to them and it was so fun to watch them look through pictures of themselves. Below are some of those photos. It was hard to say goodbye, we had lived with them, shared memories, loved on the kids, got frustrated with the kids, watched movies with the kids, shared food, met their extended family, and woke up to a loving Alma being a sweet mom and always say Mire Mengjes! (good morning) to us. It broke me heart to see them cry as well when we left. I pray that God really blesses this family and that their hearts come to know him. They are muslim by heritage but the kids are currently going to a christian preschool. I pray for safety and love on the dear sisters who are separated from their parents, and patience and courage for Alma who raises all the children.
