July 31

Sunday evening Quinton gave the lesson. He spoke on 1 Peter chapter 1. Most of the services are in Albanian with some English translation. Alfred usually asks some other gentlemen to read scripture, help with communion, and lead prayers. (One of these young men is Edwart from Durres. Edwart attends the Sunset Preaching School in Tirana. He is in his early twenties and quite a nice young man. He will be a blessing to the church in Albania.) Toward the end of the service I led two English songs. After services many stayed and visited for quite awhile. It was a good time of fellowship.
Monday was Quin's fourth birthday. We were back on our normal schedule following the VBS week. We met at 9:00 for our meeting and devotional. Around 10:00 Jill and our children arrived at the building. Alfred and Adriana presented Quin with a full-size Coca-Cola red and black soccer ball. Quin loves to play with any type of sports ball. We stayed at the building awhile while most of the OC students and Helen and Quinton began their lessons. For lunch we took one of our new Albanian friends, Paula (age 10), with us to our favorite restaurant, the Besa. We shared two pizzas. (The waiters at this restaurant are amazing. In the evening in particular when the restaurant is busy, these guys run/race walk through the restaurant carrying plates, making change, and placing orders. They are there all day long. Most of them smoke cigarettes when they do get a spare minute. (Smoking is alive and well in Europe.) I guess the exercise they get counteracts the effect of the cigarettes on their lungs. One waiter prides himself on how many cans of pop he can carry at time. I've seen him carry 6-7 cans in tower formation while maintaining a 9-minute mile walking pace. The waiters are very friendly. I think we are their new best friends. I imagine they'll shed a few tears after we leave.)
At 2:00 we had Quin's Diego-themed birthday party at the church building. (We brought over some party supplies from the USA.) Just prior to the party Eldi, Paula's 15 year old brother, and I went to the ice cream shop and grocery store to get a few more goodies for the party. We actually began the party about 2:15 as we waited for Jonida, Heather, Elira, Lori, and Jonida's uncle to arrive from Tirana. (It was very nice to have them attend the party!) We kicked off the party by playing animal charades. Young and old all took a turn pretending to be animals. Quin was an energetic horse. After charades we played "Diego Says". Quin actually was brave enough to sit in the middle of the circle and give instructions to the whole group. After the games we lit birthday cake candles (and a small sparkler that burned Jill's thumb), sang happy birthday, and Quin blew out the candles. The cake was specially ordered from the Pelican pastry shop. Quin chose a race car cake to accompany his Diego party -- oh well, it was yummy. After the cake Quin started opening presents. We had told the Albanian guests not to bring gifts but all of them did. Quin received some nice Albanian souvenirs (flute and hat from Jonida's family), a musical animated car from Edwart, other cars, a package of toy farm animals, a bracelet with "QUIN" letters, a Spider Man towel from Mimi and Papa, a Diego Rescue Pack and watch (from his sisters), and other gifts that I can't recall at this time. He made out alright. After the gift opening Elira did some folk dancing and Mimi and Quin played the flute. Many stayed around for awhile to play UNO and visit. Jonida and her family headed back to Tirana at 6:00 after Elira had a nap.
Myfit couldn't make it to his 5:00 lesson on Monday. Apparently he had quite a weekend. He was involved in some capacity in another wedding. In Albania, weddings are celebrated for an entire week. He had not had much sleep. Lord willing Myfit will be present for his lesson today. Igli and I studied at 6:00. He invited me out for coffee after our lesson. I told him I had to wait around to lock up the building (Alfred and Adriana went back to Tirana via bus at 5:00.) so we made plans for later this week.
This being our last week in Durres, many students and friends are inviting members of our group to their homes. Just today one of our OCers is going to be a guest at one of her student's homes. Friday, Helen, Quinton, and the same OCer are going to a family's home. Thursday evening our family and Helen and Quinton are going to Jonida's Uncle's home for supper. I imagine more such outings will materialize at the week progresses. We have made some special friendships these past four weeks. Lord willing, all of us will make an effort to stay in contact with our new friends over the next year.
We met again this morning for our devotional. During these times we Americans have tried to learn some Albanian songs. Alfred and Adriana have helped us in this endeavor. We have a long way to go; but one or two songs are sinking in. After the devotional Quinton helped one of Helen's students learn to operate her laptop computer. This was the 2nd or 3rd such lesson. At 10:15 I went back to our apartment to check on my family. Jill and the kids thought it would be a good day to do some swimming while we had the chance. So, we applied our sunscreen, put on swimsuits, and walked down to the Adriatik Hotel pool. Quin plays non-stop at the pool. He makes friends very easily with the other children in the kiddie pool. We had a good time and left around 1:30.
At the pool a couple of young girls took quite an interest in our family. The girls are around our girls' ages, maybe a bit older. They live in Tirana and speak a tiny bit of English. The girls were very interested in how Jill and I have two "black" children and one white. There was absolutely no way we could explain the concept of adoption to the girls so we just smiled and shrugged. They were also very intrigued with Amelia's curly hair. One of the girls boinged one of Amelia's curls.
We are scheduled to have our regularly scheduled studies this evening.