Native Costumes?

As we were walking home from the market we couldn't help but notice a group of people gathered around the library building on the college campus next to our apartment.  There were these young children dressed in very colorful outfits appearing to be going in to the building for a performance of some kind.  Obviously we couldn't ask them what was going on or what the occasion was but they were vey willing to allow us to take a couple of pictures.

 

Next Saturday we have a beach cleaning activity planned.  This Saturday the Missionaries and several investigators got together for soccer on the beach.  The pictures below give you an idea of the size of the task to clean up this one part of the beach.  The bay and the mountains beyond are really beautiful but all the public areas are full of trash. 

 

 

 

Wrong Turn Again

We were out today visiting one of our YSA's and took a wrong turn down this road and ended up in this marvelous cemetery.  I thought you would enjoy a few pictures.  Looked to me like the bodies are buried above ground,  What do you think? 

Also one more shot of that majestic mountain

YSA Valentine Dance

We attended the YSA Valentine's get together yesterday.  We left Vlore about 2:00pm in a small bus with about 12 kids and 2 other adults.  We drove for a couple of hours to Durus where the party was being held (they have a 1st phase chapel there, nice but small).  Other YSA came from Tirana and by the time everyone arrived we had the room pretty well packed.  After the dance we jumped on the bus and got home about 10:30p.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.  I don't think the video will work but in case it does I'll leave it in.  I just shows people dancing.

Looking for Lost Sheep

We heard about this Albanian YSA who had served a mission in England not too long ago.  Since we had not seen her at church we thought that we would see if we could go and visit her.  We understood that she lived in a fairly small village outside of the city.  One of the other YSA's had given us her phone number so we called and asked if she would be available for a visit this afternoon.  She said she would love to visit with us.  But we had no idea how to get where she lived.  She said that the Sister Missionaries did but when we asked them they were a bit unsure how to get there and had a full day planned today.  So being the brave souls that we are we googled a couple of maps that showed the village and thought that we could just call her when we got to the town.  I'm getting a little better at asking for directions and the Lord places people in our path that can help when we need it.  (It's amazing how that happens).
We drove up out of Vlore into some beautiful country side.  Made a wrong turn ended up asking for help - a woman who spoke a little English  told us that we missed the road to this village and where to find the right road.  You need to understand that these are not "roads" they are barely driveways.
So we are on the right road and dodging puddles and Potholes.  Then when we get to the little village we call Klara again and tell her we are in town.  When we tell her where we are she thinks we have gone too far and so we go back to another small settlement and call again.  Just when we think that we will not find her this young man comes walking down the road so we stopped and asked him if he knew Klara (he spoke very good English and told me to quit trying to speak to him in Shqip).  He said he does and asks his friend who just drove up to show us the way to her house.  We follow him back down the road to where we were and he points to a house that was about 50 yards from where we turned around.  We had a wonderful visit with Klara and her parents.  Below are a couple of pictures we took on the way and a couple of beautiful gates which I find way cool.

Sunday Drive

It's fast Sunday and we thought we might take a little drive around Vlore to become a bit more familiar with the town.  After checking out our map we headed to the East side of town.  The map and the streets on the ground don't seem to coincide exactly.  After driving a mile or so up a fairly steep road we came to this beautiful vista.  I think you'll agree it is pretty breath taking. 
We are finding in this country you can find the beauty or the trash both are here.  We like to look at the beauty.