Cleaning in an Albanian Village

     In a previous blog I shared about having the amazing opportunity to visit a local village outside of Vlora. The day we first visited the village our Airbnb host Lucas picked us up and accompanying him was an American man from Oklahoma, Nathan and his dog Bambi. We drove an hour outside of the city on mostly dirt roads to reach the village. 

(View from a road in the village)

     When we arrived at the village, Lucas took us on a short tour of the village and a tour of the olive oil factory that his family owns. The factory was not up and running as it was not olive harvesting season yet. We saw some of the most beautiful views and the cutest creatures. But, most of the day we helped clean out Lucas’ family house that hadn’t been lived in for at least 10 years. Nathan was going to be one of the olive harvesters for that year and needed a place to stay in the village. 

(The view from the roof of the house we were cleaning)

(We found free roaming turkeys that belonged to a local in the village)

     Earlier in the day we were invited into a home of one of the locals and were served coffee, cookies, and given plums picked straight off a tree! We had an amazing opportunity to fellowship with this family and pray over them. Even though no one in this village spoke English well, we were still able to communicate and when we were praying they understood the meaning behind it. It was an amazing time to hear from the local people and I will not soon forget this time. 

Photo taken by: Renee DePhillips

(The view of part of the village from a local family’s porch)

     The home we were helping clean was a cute three bedroom home that Lucas’ father had grown up in with his 4 siblings. We converted one room to a storage room and helped make the other two rooms and kitchen able to be lived in and used again. During this entire day other local people would drop by and see what was happening at a home that had been uninhabited for many years. They would bring over snacks and treats and we got to speak with some local children and teens. My team leader Kat also got to teach some of these children some English while we were there as well! While cleaning we found some treasures for Lucas. We found some old photos of his father and his family, as well as his father’s journal from his younger years. Lucas was blown away and loved that these family keepsakes were found. 

(Snacks and goodies that a local family gave us)

Photos taken by: Renee DePhillips

(My team, Lucas, and Nathan eating on the roof of the house)

     We got to know the kids and teens of this area. I learned that they love to play games and watch television (like most teenagers do) and that they wanted to be done with school. There are not very many children in this village and we knew we wanted to invest in any children we came across. 

Photo taken by: Our Airbnb host Lucas

(We had just arrived in the village and we are waiting for the factory to be opened)

     Once we were finished cleaning and organizing it was near the end of the day and we needed to head back to the city. We had to say our goodbyes to the locals and we promised we would return at some point before moving onto our next country. We hopped back in the car and made our way back to the city but, this story is not over yet! In my next blog post you will get to hear about a conversation that was not expected nor planned and it was definitely a conversation that blew all of our minds.