Weddings and Coffee Galore

I've been in Albania for 5 full days now and I have already gone to a wedding, been to a church service, enjoyed  ice cream, drank coffee in a cafe, worked in the AEP office, and changed my internal time clock... well I may still be working on that one!

Working at the AEP office has been nice, AEP stands for Albanian Encouragement Project and it is basically the central station for all the missions and missionaries in Albania. It works as a mailbox and command center for everyone working here. They do things like help get paper work through the system, in order to get licenses, visas, etc. A lot of the work is just networking and getting things done for all the ministries that happen in Albania, so I will get to meet a lot of missionaries and hear what they are doing all across the country. Which will in turn open up opportunities for me to go help and work in those places. In the office so far I've been helping with the organization of the library that they have available, they don't have a lot of extra time to do that sort of thing so I took care of it. Along with that we do daily Bible readings and prayer. I've also been contacting some people concerning a conference that is to be held in about a month. So I know it doesn't seem like much but I'm also adjusting to the time zone and new culture!

On Thursday I was lucky enough to go to a language lesson, so I've got some beginner Shqipe under my belt. Shqipe is the word for the Albanian language, its pronounced Sh-cheap, it kind of runs together but thats the gist of how its pronounced. I'm also getting more acquainted with the city and finding my way around, it'll definitely be a while before I can do that fully on my own! The streets aren't quite as intimidating to cross now, still intimidating but not as scary, Haha.

The wedding was fun, traditional Albanian weddings are usually 3 days of celebrating with lots of typical dancing. The actual wedding happens in a courthouse because of the heavy communist rule for many years there were no churches so the weddings happened in the courts and then were celebrated with each the bride's and groom's family. But this wedding was a little different because they are Albanian Christians so the wedding was very similar to an American wedding, but it had some Albanian culture in it as well. There was typical dancing and food.

 Here is some of the dancing. Its a pretty neat, I didn't quite have the guts to get out and try it, but it looked really fun!

  

 All in all, I am slowly adjusting to the new culture. I've realized Albania is a very event and relationship oriented culture, and I know that is something I will enjoy deeply. They really care about one another and spending time with each other.

I'm not sure what this week will look like, tomorrow night I'm going to have dinner with some ladies my age. Some are Albanian and some are American missionaries. So it should be fun!!
Thanks for listening! Cant wait to share more!!