The sea, the sea

Here I am with Rodina and the couples from Bulgaria, and one of the English pastors

A very Socialist-looking statue, commemorating those who fought during WWII. We had a very interesting conversation over lunch, about Albania's religious history. Before the Turks, it was a Christian nation. Then it became Muslim during the Ottoman Empire. In the 1960's, however, Albania became the first officially atheistic nation in the world. They murdered hundreds of religious men, Christian, Orthodox, Muslim, it didn't matter their persuasion. They would push them off cliffs into the sea, or put them in giant nail-studded balls and roll them through the streets. The government was communist at the time, and the leaders claimed that religion influenced the people against the government... also, any tithe people paid to their church was money lost to the government.

Yesterday was the first time since 10 April that the apartment was free of mission teams. So what did we do? Invited people for a dinner party! The girls in pink and red are sisters, Bruna and Albana. Rodina is in black. I made an American breakfast meal, pancakes with bananas and chocolate chunks, baked apples with cinnamon, and then threw in a plate of Albanian cheese for a savory. Today we're shopping for ingredients to make meatloaf, baked potatoes, and maybe an apple pie. Shopping here is so different from America. One store is good for fresh eggs, another for meat, another for fruit. You buy a little here and a little there, and carry it all home. Most people shop for one meal at a time.