Mom-I looked up the boys game in the reporter herald online ::shaking head:: i hate games like that, especially when they are the last ones. but i'm glad that they took it with class. tell them i love them both dearly.
our Internet was down all weekend. Friday's presentations went pretty well. Corbin left in the morning so we were without professors for the day. The discussions and presentations were really interesting and controversial but i'm going to have to blog about that when I have a little more time than I do now.
Saturday morning was our crashing morning. The three boys (Elijah, Burk and Wyatt) slept late and most of the girls took naps after breakfast (holy naps, right DavidL?) The plan was to spend the day having coffee with the UNYT students and working on our joint presentations. Elijah and I met with a student named Aleta for about a hour until the UNYT library closed for the afternoon. She had to get back to whatever she had been doing before meeting with us, so we spent a the rest of our lazy afternoon making our way back to where we are staying (UNYT and The Christian Center we are at are on opposite sides of Tirana. Its about a 30 minute walk, but its a nice walk so we don't mind it). We had incredible seafood spaghetti at Tirana's "hotspot" and just relaxed enjoying the sunny weather. We went to church that night at IJR (Tiran's the campus crusade center). It just so happened that we sat in front of two ladies, one American and one European, who had come to Albania in the 1990's as missionaries and had been instrumental in the establishment of the church. as the night wore on we realized that the European lady (who, to the utter delight of our team, spoke with a Scottish accent) was one of the ladies who was caught smuggling bible tracts into Albania during communism!! She had been with a different lady and every night their prison guards would tell them "tomorrow you will die".(http://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-You-Die-International-Adventures/dp/0927545926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242768129&sr=1-1 there is the link to the amazon page selling their book) it was amazing. We went to the House of Beer and some of the Americans in the church came with us. We went to The House of Beer. Anna Elijah and I had gone there for a quick dinner a couple days prior. I am not a fan of the taste, smell or look of beer, so i am biased. But everyone else loved the spicy sausages, salty salads and light Tirana beer.
Sunday we took a day trip out of Tirana to one of Skanderbag's Castles(he was the ancient hero of Albania). Eri graduated from Kings a couple weeks ago and her sister Geirti graduated in 2007(sorry I can't spell the beautiful albanian names!!). They are both native Albanians and their parents live here in Tirana. Every year Kings comes here, the family hosts our team for an ethnic albanian dinner. So Saturday night we all went over to their house near UNYT for an entirely home made meal. Skinder, the father, share his homemade wine with us (incredible..and i'm not a big wine fan!) we had two different types of cheese, grilled lamb, special sausages, greek salad, homemade cake, tirana beer, etc etc etc. it was all soo good. about every 15 or 20 minutes, Ina, the youngest daughter who served as our brilliant translator, would turn up the traditional albanian music and we all got up from the table and danced around the living room. there is no way to explain the dancing in word. but we all had such a good time with a lot of laughs. We had said goodbye to Aleta before we went to dinner, but when we got back, she was still here. Apparently, Aleta had planned her trip and gone to the airport thinking her flight was Sunday night. It wasn't. It was on Monday. So we got a whole extra day with her! Dr. Bleatler came in Sunday afternoon as well.
Monday was our final presentation day. I will have to blog about this later because all of the notes I took on the presentations are upstairs. and i am downstairs in the computer lab and its late and i'm tired.
Today, Tuesday May 19th, was our first day of taking a politics, philosophy and economics survey of the students at the major public university in tirana (note: UNYT, the university of new york-tirana is a private and expensive college. public education, from prek to university is all free in albania. thus the level of education between public and private can be vastly different because of the incentives. but that is a different discussion for a different day). I was partner with Burk and Ina Kumi (an Albanian business prof at Kings who happened to be home visiting this month and came with us to translate). Many of the other groups were able to find english speaking albanians so that the surveys could be what we intended them to be--points of contact with the students to begin further discussion and build relationships. Burk and I had no such luck. We couldn't find any students that spoke english! so we were lucky Mrs. Kumi was with us. We got into a good discussion with a couple of girls (via Mrs. Kumi) about economic policy in Albania and how economic growth and unemployment ought to be handled. The girl wanted to lower taxes and have the government provide substitutes to small growing business. We asked where the money would come from if taxes were lowered and she said that they were already stifling with the 51% income tax (she was an economics student so we got into a little deeper econ but i won't bore you with that :)
Burk Mrs Kumi and I broke for lunch at a cafe across from the university. Mrs. Kumi pointed out that three prominent members of Albania's socialist party were sitting at the table next to us (note: there are 2 major parties in albania. the democratic party which is in power now and the Socialist party who is hoping to gain power in the election happening a few months from now). Burk and I tried to have them take our survey but they brushed us off and said they were too busy discussing "election matters" which is albanian for corruption. Mrs Kumi had to leave after lunch so burk and i wandered around. we did a couple more surveys and two of the guys asked us to coffee. so we went (who ever does the asking has to pay for coffee..it was nice!) as we sat down with them, the boys admitted that they didn't like talking about politics. my kingsian heart skipped a beat and we spent the next couple hours small talking (ew!) about rap music and American culture and dancing around the big (and interesting!) ideas. Burk and i walked back to the christian center to freshen up.
I was with two women who worked for Campus Crusade tonight on the University of Tirana campus (the public one) and we met three freshmen girls who said they were muslim by tradition. They didn't speak English so the two women I was with began to engage the girls and lead the conversation to Christ. They shared a campus crusade tract with the girls. They freshmen girls seemed very responsive and we sat with them for over an hour just talking and discussing Christ. They asked good questions and genuinly seemed interested. They did't speek english so i found myself mostly observing and praying for the girls and the conversation. As I sat there listening to the women I didn't really know share in a language i could barely understand, the story of a man I'm intimately pursuing a relationship with (aka Jesus) was incredible. It was also utterly humbling because (alongside the combination of monday's intellectual presentations not leading anyone to a commitment to Chris )I was really able to realize that as a blue eyes American, I have no hope of every assimilating into this culture and being able to persuade any of them that Jesus is who he says he is and that they need them and that they ought to become his disciples. I'm only here for three weeks!!! At first I was discouraged, but I started praying for the girls and for the women speaking to the girls and it hit me (or more like the Holy Spirit gently whispered it into my heart) that none of us really can do anything to turn other people's hearts towards Christ. All I can do is pray. But not "all I can do" because prayer is incredibly powerful!! and that is where all of you come in.
After we left the girls dorm room, I met up with the team and we went to Geirta's (the oldest albanin sister who graduated from Kings) apartment. Geirta is married to Tim and they have a 6month old boy named Isaiah. She seated us in the living room and told us that she wanted to share with us what she had learned after graduation from Kings and returning to Albania. She brought out a tub of water and (quite literally) Tim and Geirta washed all of our feet. For most of the team it was the first time someone had washed feet like this. It is such an incredibly humbling experience to have a beautiful Albanian Kingsian woman washing the Balkan dirt off your feet. Over her husband Tim's homemade curry, she shared her life coming back to Albania and about how she had been prepared to lead at kings, but how she had found that the only way to do that was by serving. She shared how her country needed to be shown how the truths of the bible interacted in the public square. There wasn't any application of Christ's word in many Albanian lives. Tim and Geirta shared how Islam is starting to take a hold of Albania again and how they can see how the old "ottoman empire" could be preparing to take over Europe. The conversation we had with them was incredible and was one of those eye-opening, life changing conversations. i want to digest is more and think about it more before I spew forth conclusions from the evening. Basically though, this night was a night of encouragement of why we are in Albanian and how this country does need Christ and how discussing the ideas we are here discussing will help.
We heard it before we came here, we've been told it while we are here, and we have seen it in our own interactions with the Albanians: the spiritual soil here is hard, dry and rocky. "planting seeds and watching the fruit grow" will take a lot more time than the few weeks we are here. some of us in the team feel called to spend more time here in the future, some dont. But tonight we realized (thanks Elijah for the great metaphor) that our team is that pointy garden tool (yes those were the words we used) that breaks up the soil so it can be moistened and softened and eventually tilled. The ideas we are discussing are true ideas and have heavy consequences. The Albanians won't easily be able to forgot them. God is using us in small ways, and it was wonderful for the whole team to be humbled and encouraged tonight at Geirta and Tim's.
We are surveying more tomorrow. Please continue to pray for strength and health and weariness (David Leedy got in today and is exhausted from jet lag). We've been blessed with incredible team unity, pray that it holds. Pray that our conversations and relationships with the Albanian students continue to be genuine and that we continue to put forth the effort to engage the students.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Catch up
So last night I slept for 11 hours and could have kept on sleeping if it hadn't been for the 8am breakfast call (hard boiled eggs, weird tasting fast milk, flavorless corn flakes, bananas, and toast). All the girls are awake right now but the boys sleep on (no flavorless corn flakes for them!)
let me back track to where I left off. After my last post (not counting my brief one last night) we all went out to dinner with Egli (pronounced Egg-Lee) at a nicer restaruant. After a meal of Albanian Beer, Lamb, Tortellini, stuffed pork, and lots of great greek salads (there were 8 of us and we ate full meals for under $10 a person!!) At dinner the conversation was great. As typical Kings students we talked about everything from race relations in the US, the current and future state of the economy, the exciting meal, God's working in the country and shared more stories from our childhoods. I went to the restroom and had to wait while a 5 y/o Albanian girl went ahead of me. All of a sudden her mother came running in and pulled the little girl out of the bathroom before the little girl had pulled her pants all the way up. I was hoping it wasn't because I was an American and when i walked in to the restroom I'd realized what had happened. At this nice ethnic Albanian resturaunt, the little girl had peed on the flood in the middle of the restroom !!
anyways. After dinner we had Akulore (that amazing creamy gelato) and headed home to finish final preparations on our presentations.
The next morning we had our morning devotions at Breakfast and then sat in the Christian Center's garden (where we are staying) and each gave 2 minute summaries of our presentations so that when we presented them to the Albanian students we could tie them all together. Amid a flurry of ironing button down shirts, we all got showered and ready and printed off the days presentations (Corbin's, Wyatt's, Becky's, Jill's). Let me take a brief moment to explain the shower situation here.
The shower head sticks out from the wall directly above the toilet and across from the sink and mirrors. After we are finish avoiding falling in the toilet and watching ourselves in the mirror while we shower, we have to squeegy the water down a drain in the middle of the roon. it is bizarre but functionable.
We took three taksi's (the albanian spelling) to the UNYT (University of New York Tirana-the private university we work with that is connected with New York's City College). Wyatt's presentation went really well. The girls that presented opposite him were Avva and and Ortensia. Two beautiful and sweet Albanian girls. The all pretty much agreed that human life ought to be protected however, the girls didn't quite agree that abortion ought to be outlawed because of the exceptions to the rule (cases of rape and incestial rape). Albanians have very high views of the family. Then Becky gave her brilliant presentation on human trafficking and the Albanians presented as well. There was a lot of agreement here about the issue but disagreement about if demand for it was decreasing or not. The discussion ended up into the legalization of prostitution which turned into very interesting discussion among us kings people after (i'll come back to that later). The Albanians didn't havea problem with prostitution, simply forced prositution. And all of the Kings People argued that all prostitution was wrong. Then Jill got up and gave her presentation on what type of education creates a good citizen. She focused a lot on the structure of education and gave a very practical (and applicable) answer to the question. Her albaian counterparts answered it by first defineing a good citizen and then just kind of saying that education is important. So we all agreed (again) on the big issues and it looked like there wouldn't be much interesting discussion on these presentations because both sides had done such a thurough job of presenting their information and ideas. Then Corbin raised his hand and asked a question.
"Does the Albanian Government want to educate you students to be easily manipulated by them?" some of the albanian students balked. the presenters said a little about how all education is a form of manipulation and the best type is the kind that is open about it self. "Don't you want your children to be manipulated into knowing right from wrong?" jill asked. Then Arsona (a very sharp albanian student who spend 3 or 4 years as a hs student in the us).
"What are you saying?" she angrily asked Dr. Corbin. he went on to explain that while public education, particularly in the universities, in the United States is seen as the best in the world, many of the students in the best universities aren't American. The American public school's don't competantly educate the american students. Jill chimed in and shared the US's math and science test scores compared to Chinese and European. The Albanian students didn't quite understand. We tried to explain to them that the American Government doesn't do a very good job anymore of education its people because its easier to politically manipulate them (we weren't saying that it was an intentional act of the gov't to keep us stupid...but we had all chosen Kings because we sought a complete and thourough education that the US public education system wasn't providing. Burk and I shared what we had learned after reading "Oraters and Philosophers; the history of liberal education" in Dr. Jackson's Research Writing class. That education had shifted from the ancient educational goal of teaching students a full liberal arts education (trivium and quadrivium liberal arts) to teaching them only how to be mediocre at a job. The goal of education shifted from understand life and beauty and highminded ideals in practical ways to understanding how to get a job. The albanians didn't really know how to respond to this and we ran out of time. After that we walked to the Campus Crusade Center (called IJR for some Albanian reason) for a college campus crusade meeting. After a mix of english and albanian worship songs, Dr Corbin briefly shared about how christian students need to be involved in politics and in their community. then the staff of our team (aleta, jill anna and dr corbin) went to dinner with the crusade staff and the rest of us met up with the albanian students that had presented that afternoon (avva, andre, orensia, ect). we ate at Manhattan Pizza because it was hte only place open. Good discussion there as well.
I'll have to finish this later because I'm off to the UNYT with Elijah to work on our next presentations for Monday. We are joinging with 2 of the albanian studets to give a joint presentation on "What is the good life". should be interesting!!
sister-i love you deeply and cannot wait to hear your news! miss you but i'll see you soon!!!
let me back track to where I left off. After my last post (not counting my brief one last night) we all went out to dinner with Egli (pronounced Egg-Lee) at a nicer restaruant. After a meal of Albanian Beer, Lamb, Tortellini, stuffed pork, and lots of great greek salads (there were 8 of us and we ate full meals for under $10 a person!!) At dinner the conversation was great. As typical Kings students we talked about everything from race relations in the US, the current and future state of the economy, the exciting meal, God's working in the country and shared more stories from our childhoods. I went to the restroom and had to wait while a 5 y/o Albanian girl went ahead of me. All of a sudden her mother came running in and pulled the little girl out of the bathroom before the little girl had pulled her pants all the way up. I was hoping it wasn't because I was an American and when i walked in to the restroom I'd realized what had happened. At this nice ethnic Albanian resturaunt, the little girl had peed on the flood in the middle of the restroom !!
anyways. After dinner we had Akulore (that amazing creamy gelato) and headed home to finish final preparations on our presentations.
The next morning we had our morning devotions at Breakfast and then sat in the Christian Center's garden (where we are staying) and each gave 2 minute summaries of our presentations so that when we presented them to the Albanian students we could tie them all together. Amid a flurry of ironing button down shirts, we all got showered and ready and printed off the days presentations (Corbin's, Wyatt's, Becky's, Jill's). Let me take a brief moment to explain the shower situation here.
The shower head sticks out from the wall directly above the toilet and across from the sink and mirrors. After we are finish avoiding falling in the toilet and watching ourselves in the mirror while we shower, we have to squeegy the water down a drain in the middle of the roon. it is bizarre but functionable.
We took three taksi's (the albanian spelling) to the UNYT (University of New York Tirana-the private university we work with that is connected with New York's City College). Wyatt's presentation went really well. The girls that presented opposite him were Avva and and Ortensia. Two beautiful and sweet Albanian girls. The all pretty much agreed that human life ought to be protected however, the girls didn't quite agree that abortion ought to be outlawed because of the exceptions to the rule (cases of rape and incestial rape). Albanians have very high views of the family. Then Becky gave her brilliant presentation on human trafficking and the Albanians presented as well. There was a lot of agreement here about the issue but disagreement about if demand for it was decreasing or not. The discussion ended up into the legalization of prostitution which turned into very interesting discussion among us kings people after (i'll come back to that later). The Albanians didn't havea problem with prostitution, simply forced prositution. And all of the Kings People argued that all prostitution was wrong. Then Jill got up and gave her presentation on what type of education creates a good citizen. She focused a lot on the structure of education and gave a very practical (and applicable) answer to the question. Her albaian counterparts answered it by first defineing a good citizen and then just kind of saying that education is important. So we all agreed (again) on the big issues and it looked like there wouldn't be much interesting discussion on these presentations because both sides had done such a thurough job of presenting their information and ideas. Then Corbin raised his hand and asked a question.
"Does the Albanian Government want to educate you students to be easily manipulated by them?" some of the albanian students balked. the presenters said a little about how all education is a form of manipulation and the best type is the kind that is open about it self. "Don't you want your children to be manipulated into knowing right from wrong?" jill asked. Then Arsona (a very sharp albanian student who spend 3 or 4 years as a hs student in the us).
"What are you saying?" she angrily asked Dr. Corbin. he went on to explain that while public education, particularly in the universities, in the United States is seen as the best in the world, many of the students in the best universities aren't American. The American public school's don't competantly educate the american students. Jill chimed in and shared the US's math and science test scores compared to Chinese and European. The Albanian students didn't quite understand. We tried to explain to them that the American Government doesn't do a very good job anymore of education its people because its easier to politically manipulate them (we weren't saying that it was an intentional act of the gov't to keep us stupid...but we had all chosen Kings because we sought a complete and thourough education that the US public education system wasn't providing. Burk and I shared what we had learned after reading "Oraters and Philosophers; the history of liberal education" in Dr. Jackson's Research Writing class. That education had shifted from the ancient educational goal of teaching students a full liberal arts education (trivium and quadrivium liberal arts) to teaching them only how to be mediocre at a job. The goal of education shifted from understand life and beauty and highminded ideals in practical ways to understanding how to get a job. The albanians didn't really know how to respond to this and we ran out of time. After that we walked to the Campus Crusade Center (called IJR for some Albanian reason) for a college campus crusade meeting. After a mix of english and albanian worship songs, Dr Corbin briefly shared about how christian students need to be involved in politics and in their community. then the staff of our team (aleta, jill anna and dr corbin) went to dinner with the crusade staff and the rest of us met up with the albanian students that had presented that afternoon (avva, andre, orensia, ect). we ate at Manhattan Pizza because it was hte only place open. Good discussion there as well.
I'll have to finish this later because I'm off to the UNYT with Elijah to work on our next presentations for Monday. We are joinging with 2 of the albanian studets to give a joint presentation on "What is the good life". should be interesting!!
sister-i love you deeply and cannot wait to hear your news! miss you but i'll see you soon!!!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Day 4
C'kemi(hi)!!
all of or prepared presentations and debates are over! We all presented well and generated such great discussion. It is utterly exhausting to talk and discuss ideas and quations that have such huge unfluence and dangerous consequences. I will blog more in the morning, but as a taste of our discussions...
at dinner the other night we tried to argue against someone who was arguing that Martin Luther King Jr generated the entitlement attitude in Americans. Yesterday we heard the Albanians argue legalization of prostitution. Today we heard them argue that Justice from the Hobbesian and Kant definition. Such fun things to talk about but such weighty discussions!! The Albanians that presented on the nature of happiness opposite me argues complete relativism and that they can't know if they are happy because they haven't discovered the point of life. I asked how their search was going and they couldn't answer!!
soo much to share. but we have a low key morning and i will write more tomorrow!
naten e mire (goodnight!
Caitie
all of or prepared presentations and debates are over! We all presented well and generated such great discussion. It is utterly exhausting to talk and discuss ideas and quations that have such huge unfluence and dangerous consequences. I will blog more in the morning, but as a taste of our discussions...
at dinner the other night we tried to argue against someone who was arguing that Martin Luther King Jr generated the entitlement attitude in Americans. Yesterday we heard the Albanians argue legalization of prostitution. Today we heard them argue that Justice from the Hobbesian and Kant definition. Such fun things to talk about but such weighty discussions!! The Albanians that presented on the nature of happiness opposite me argues complete relativism and that they can't know if they are happy because they haven't discovered the point of life. I asked how their search was going and they couldn't answer!!
soo much to share. but we have a low key morning and i will write more tomorrow!
naten e mire (goodnight!
Caitie
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
We made it!!
Day 1 (Monday the 11th and Tuesday the 12)
Our flight to Munich took off at 5:30p est and landed in Munich at 7a the next morning. There was little sleep on the plane. We had about a 3 hour layover in that pristine German terminal and then flew to Tirana, Albania and landed around noon(again with very little sleeping mid flight) We made it to the Christian center where we are staying around 1pm. Here as on the airplanes, there was no sleeping-simply changing out of our travel stained clothes. Then off Anna and Elijah led us on a walking tour of Tirana. It was rather hot, very very dusty, and kind of breezy, which made a perfect afternoon to sleep walk through the city. We saw the stadium where the albanian national futbol team (whom we say drive by in a bus) faced the national italian team. There were fireworks after the game so i'm assuming good news for the albanians or a blow out so bad the city needed a distraction for its valiant fans. anyways, we had coffee (lots of it) at a little shop near the public university. We took turns falling asleep in our chairs waiting for the Waiter to bring out our drinks, so there we a couple rounds of espresso. Then we went to the top of the tallest building in Tirana (not much compared to what we midtown new yorkers are used to, but breath taking none the less). We meandered back to the christian center where we are staying and just sat in the court yard, under some trees relaxing and telling stories about childhood pets. Wyatt's two personable turkey's took the cake and we laughed as the last bit of caffeine drained from our bloodstreams. Anna led us to dinner at a place down the street. We ate a feast of Greek salads, risotto and pasta on the second story balcony. As we were finishing up our meals, a couple that Anna knows from previous years came by. They are the same couple that has invited us to their wedding next Saturday. It should be fun. After dinner, Elijah led us to our first taste of Aculora (i'm sorrry i've butchered that spelling). Close to Gelato, it was pretty much amazing. Then we went home and went to bed. the end of day 1.
Day 2 Wednesday the 13th
Today we were all supposed to be awake for breakfast at 8a (keep in mind that is 2am EST). However, the large squacky bird outside our windows woke several of us up a couple hours earlier than we needed to be awake. At 8, we met for breakfast of sugarless (and i'm assuming flavorless because i didn't have any) cornflakes, coffee, bananas, toast and boiled eggs. the milk was called "fast milk". we don't know why. Then we had team devotions, took our showers, and walked across Tirana to the Campus Crusade building where we met the city CC director and the regional director. They talked to us about what the Albanian students thought about christ and how to best talk to them. It was really interesting and really helpful. Then Anna, Dr. Corbin and Elijah went to a meeting to finalize the details of our presentations while the rest of us went out for lunch. We are getting better at ordering in Albanian, but the waiters who don't speak english seem so intimidated by us because we are Americans. It doesn't make for much conversation besides ordering and asking for the recipe (which is Fature). My sperrys still aren't broken in...so after that we had to stop and pick up bandaids for my sore and blistered feet. It was hot today and we walked alot, we after some team devotions and a time of praying for each other, we took naps and relaxed in the christian center we are staying in.
we are going to dinner in about an hour and in the mean time putting final touches on our presentations tonight. We start them tomorrow morning!!
Thursday Presentations
Dr Corbin-shows how all of our answers and presentations tie together and why they matter
Wyatt Baker-"What are the social effects of abortion?"
Becky King-"How do we stop human trafficking?"
Alumni Jill Donnelly-"Does classical education have a part in today's world?"
Friday Presentations
Alumni Aleta Smith-"How much should the government intervene when economies fail?"
Burk Ohbayashi-"Who is responsible for the poor and marginalized?"
Abby Bean-"What does a properly functioning judicial system look like?"
Elijah McCready-"Joining the EU: A Blessing or a Curse for Albania?"
Caitie Hlushak-"What is the nature of happiness?"
on Monday, Dr. Bleattler is talking about if Religion is beneficial to society with some other Albanian Professors. Apparently they agree with him that it is!
prayer requests:
1. Pray that we stay healthy. Everyone is exhausted but in good spirits, but getting sick will be awful here.
2. Many people are nervous for their presentations. Seeing the need for Christ here and our opportunity to share Him through our discussions only adds to our individual perfectionism and motivation for great presentations.
3. Tomorrow we begin investing in the students and many of us our nervous about that too. Pray that language is not a barrier (even though many Albanians speak English, they don't speak Christianese so many of the phrases and idioms we grew up on will only confuse them)
The weather is beautiful here. There is just enough heat to keep us in t-shirts and shorts and just enough humidity to make my curls into an Afro but not enough to make us uncomfortable.
hope everything is going well with all of you!
tomorrow the fun starts...!!!
Our flight to Munich took off at 5:30p est and landed in Munich at 7a the next morning. There was little sleep on the plane. We had about a 3 hour layover in that pristine German terminal and then flew to Tirana, Albania and landed around noon(again with very little sleeping mid flight) We made it to the Christian center where we are staying around 1pm. Here as on the airplanes, there was no sleeping-simply changing out of our travel stained clothes. Then off Anna and Elijah led us on a walking tour of Tirana. It was rather hot, very very dusty, and kind of breezy, which made a perfect afternoon to sleep walk through the city. We saw the stadium where the albanian national futbol team (whom we say drive by in a bus) faced the national italian team. There were fireworks after the game so i'm assuming good news for the albanians or a blow out so bad the city needed a distraction for its valiant fans. anyways, we had coffee (lots of it) at a little shop near the public university. We took turns falling asleep in our chairs waiting for the Waiter to bring out our drinks, so there we a couple rounds of espresso. Then we went to the top of the tallest building in Tirana (not much compared to what we midtown new yorkers are used to, but breath taking none the less). We meandered back to the christian center where we are staying and just sat in the court yard, under some trees relaxing and telling stories about childhood pets. Wyatt's two personable turkey's took the cake and we laughed as the last bit of caffeine drained from our bloodstreams. Anna led us to dinner at a place down the street. We ate a feast of Greek salads, risotto and pasta on the second story balcony. As we were finishing up our meals, a couple that Anna knows from previous years came by. They are the same couple that has invited us to their wedding next Saturday. It should be fun. After dinner, Elijah led us to our first taste of Aculora (i'm sorrry i've butchered that spelling). Close to Gelato, it was pretty much amazing. Then we went home and went to bed. the end of day 1.
Day 2 Wednesday the 13th
Today we were all supposed to be awake for breakfast at 8a (keep in mind that is 2am EST). However, the large squacky bird outside our windows woke several of us up a couple hours earlier than we needed to be awake. At 8, we met for breakfast of sugarless (and i'm assuming flavorless because i didn't have any) cornflakes, coffee, bananas, toast and boiled eggs. the milk was called "fast milk". we don't know why. Then we had team devotions, took our showers, and walked across Tirana to the Campus Crusade building where we met the city CC director and the regional director. They talked to us about what the Albanian students thought about christ and how to best talk to them. It was really interesting and really helpful. Then Anna, Dr. Corbin and Elijah went to a meeting to finalize the details of our presentations while the rest of us went out for lunch. We are getting better at ordering in Albanian, but the waiters who don't speak english seem so intimidated by us because we are Americans. It doesn't make for much conversation besides ordering and asking for the recipe (which is Fature). My sperrys still aren't broken in...so after that we had to stop and pick up bandaids for my sore and blistered feet. It was hot today and we walked alot, we after some team devotions and a time of praying for each other, we took naps and relaxed in the christian center we are staying in.
we are going to dinner in about an hour and in the mean time putting final touches on our presentations tonight. We start them tomorrow morning!!
Thursday Presentations
Dr Corbin-shows how all of our answers and presentations tie together and why they matter
Wyatt Baker-"What are the social effects of abortion?"
Becky King-"How do we stop human trafficking?"
Alumni Jill Donnelly-"Does classical education have a part in today's world?"
Friday Presentations
Alumni Aleta Smith-"How much should the government intervene when economies fail?"
Burk Ohbayashi-"Who is responsible for the poor and marginalized?"
Abby Bean-"What does a properly functioning judicial system look like?"
Elijah McCready-"Joining the EU: A Blessing or a Curse for Albania?"
Caitie Hlushak-"What is the nature of happiness?"
on Monday, Dr. Bleattler is talking about if Religion is beneficial to society with some other Albanian Professors. Apparently they agree with him that it is!
prayer requests:
1. Pray that we stay healthy. Everyone is exhausted but in good spirits, but getting sick will be awful here.
2. Many people are nervous for their presentations. Seeing the need for Christ here and our opportunity to share Him through our discussions only adds to our individual perfectionism and motivation for great presentations.
3. Tomorrow we begin investing in the students and many of us our nervous about that too. Pray that language is not a barrier (even though many Albanians speak English, they don't speak Christianese so many of the phrases and idioms we grew up on will only confuse them)
The weather is beautiful here. There is just enough heat to keep us in t-shirts and shorts and just enough humidity to make my curls into an Afro but not enough to make us uncomfortable.
hope everything is going well with all of you!
tomorrow the fun starts...!!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
LEAVING TOMORROW!!!
wooo. Finals are over. Moving is Over. Graduation is over and our plane takes off in 26 hours! AH. i still need to pack : )
This semester flew by, as it always does. As the classes progressed our team grew closer together, closer to God and more excitied with each passing week about our trip. Praise God that all of our money has been raised! Thanks for your support.
I'm posting the link to our team blog below. We are each going to take turns updating that each night as long as our internet is functioning well.
http://tkcalbania2009.blogspot.com/
all of our presentations are pretty much done. We are working on polishing them and will go over them again together in country several more times. As it is, we've all formed out presentations into 8page papers, and given 10 minutes presentations twice.
Well, I'm going to get back to cleaning, laundry packing! thanks for keeping me and my team in your prayers!!
Caitie
ps. please pray that...
1. We are stay in good health and good spirits.
2. Our traveling tomorrow is safe and hassel-free.
3. We grow closer to God
4. The Albanians we meet will have hearts receptive to the grace and influence of the Holy Spirit.
ps2. we just found out we are going to an Albanian Wedding the first (or is it the second?) weekend we are there!!!!!!!!! Our team leader, Anna Peters, knows the couple and they invited the whole team!
This semester flew by, as it always does. As the classes progressed our team grew closer together, closer to God and more excitied with each passing week about our trip. Praise God that all of our money has been raised! Thanks for your support.
I'm posting the link to our team blog below. We are each going to take turns updating that each night as long as our internet is functioning well.
http://tkcalbania2009.blogspot.com/
all of our presentations are pretty much done. We are working on polishing them and will go over them again together in country several more times. As it is, we've all formed out presentations into 8page papers, and given 10 minutes presentations twice.
Well, I'm going to get back to cleaning, laundry packing! thanks for keeping me and my team in your prayers!!
Caitie
ps. please pray that...
1. We are stay in good health and good spirits.
2. Our traveling tomorrow is safe and hassel-free.
3. We grow closer to God
4. The Albanians we meet will have hearts receptive to the grace and influence of the Holy Spirit.
ps2. we just found out we are going to an Albanian Wedding the first (or is it the second?) weekend we are there!!!!!!!!! Our team leader, Anna Peters, knows the couple and they invited the whole team!
Friday, March 6, 2009
66 days till Albania!!!!
Our Albanian class is moving along.
Last week we selected debate topics and emailed them to our Albanian counterparts. We are looking to debate topics like Albania's entrance into the EU; what is he best type of civic education (cf: liberal vs scientific; Matthew Arnold vs Thomas Henry Huxley; English/Oxford vs German Research); what is happiness; whose responsibility is it to care for the poor and marginalized and to what extent; ought business ethics be legislated; what is the best way to encourage international investments...I'm debating the topic of Happiness. i'm going to approach it from the classical Cicero/Augustine view point of eternity. One of the main texts I think I'll draw from is Sheldon Vanauken's autobiography A Severe Mercy ((which everyone ought to read...its a beautiful love story between Sheldon and his wife Davy and how they came to know Christ together with the help of personal correspondences with CS Lewis. Great Great Great Book. Did I mention that is a great book? There is a wonderfully philosophic passage towards the end on grieving, heaven, identity, beauty and time)).
This week we started to work on what we are calling our worldviews. It is how we are going to share the Gospels in terms and ideas that will make sense to Albanians (understanding how to speak without our Christianese and how to recognize that to the Albanians, religion is like an identity (like whereas I'm from Colorado, they maybe be Muslim) Also, To the Albanians Christians are the ones that came into Bosnia...so...its interesting and challenging. For class this week we are writing our worldview shifts (Before Christ, meeting Christ, how life is now via a specific example) and are going to present them to eachother. It'll be good practise on sharing the gospel and our own stories (cause really, who is going to be persuaded to "pick up their cross and follow Christ" by theological debates? It is the story of Jesus and the story of Jesus in our individual lives, and the confrontation with His perfect love...it is in the moments when heaven meets earth that lives and hearts are changed and healed).
Pray for our finances--as a group we are getting close, but it is not too late to send money and support.
Pray for your group dynamics. We are starting to break through the surface in our interactions as a group. We are taking a weekend at The King's Cabin to pray and fellowship together before we go to work more on this.
Pray for our debate presentations. We have found over the past few King's Albania trips that the debates often lead to a lot of questions about God and morality, etc. pray that we are able to really represent The King that we go on behalf of.
Under the Mercy,
Caitie
Last week we selected debate topics and emailed them to our Albanian counterparts. We are looking to debate topics like Albania's entrance into the EU; what is he best type of civic education (cf: liberal vs scientific; Matthew Arnold vs Thomas Henry Huxley; English/Oxford vs German Research); what is happiness; whose responsibility is it to care for the poor and marginalized and to what extent; ought business ethics be legislated; what is the best way to encourage international investments...I'm debating the topic of Happiness. i'm going to approach it from the classical Cicero/Augustine view point of eternity. One of the main texts I think I'll draw from is Sheldon Vanauken's autobiography A Severe Mercy ((which everyone ought to read...its a beautiful love story between Sheldon and his wife Davy and how they came to know Christ together with the help of personal correspondences with CS Lewis. Great Great Great Book. Did I mention that is a great book? There is a wonderfully philosophic passage towards the end on grieving, heaven, identity, beauty and time)).
This week we started to work on what we are calling our worldviews. It is how we are going to share the Gospels in terms and ideas that will make sense to Albanians (understanding how to speak without our Christianese and how to recognize that to the Albanians, religion is like an identity (like whereas I'm from Colorado, they maybe be Muslim) Also, To the Albanians Christians are the ones that came into Bosnia...so...its interesting and challenging. For class this week we are writing our worldview shifts (Before Christ, meeting Christ, how life is now via a specific example) and are going to present them to eachother. It'll be good practise on sharing the gospel and our own stories (cause really, who is going to be persuaded to "pick up their cross and follow Christ" by theological debates? It is the story of Jesus and the story of Jesus in our individual lives, and the confrontation with His perfect love...it is in the moments when heaven meets earth that lives and hearts are changed and healed).
Pray for our finances--as a group we are getting close, but it is not too late to send money and support.
Pray for your group dynamics. We are starting to break through the surface in our interactions as a group. We are taking a weekend at The King's Cabin to pray and fellowship together before we go to work more on this.
Pray for our debate presentations. We have found over the past few King's Albania trips that the debates often lead to a lot of questions about God and morality, etc. pray that we are able to really represent The King that we go on behalf of.
Under the Mercy,
Caitie
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