A night out.
Our landlords took out the whole OM team for a nice dinner (pizza).
This restaurant is considered expensive by Albanians.
It's about $4-6 a pizza which feeds 1-2 people.

Yes, that's a worm in between two walnuts.
While preparing a salad, I (Jamie) was sifting through
the nuts to separate pieces of shell and little twiggy
things from the nuts we would eat. Unfortunately,
I was doing this in my hand when I saw our little friend
here writhing around. The nuts went flying and I had
the willies for about 10 minutes. I am really glad I
caught that before we put any in our salad!
While I'm on the subject of food, I thought it would be
interesting to note some foods that are not here.
They just aren't anywhere. There a couple things
we can only get in the capital like taco dinner
packages and broccoli and canned beans. Here's some
specific things we miss that's not available concerning food:
Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,
DiGiorno pizza, corn on the cob, berries of any kind,
pancake syrup, half and half or any kind of cream
that's refrigerated, chili powder, cheddar and
colby jack cheese, grainy bread, brownie mixes,
chocolate chips, raisins in a box that aren't hard
little rocks, sour cream, ricotta cheese, canned pumpkin,
cupcake liners, cooking spray, pecans, sliced turkey,
prerefrigerated milk (not in a box on the shelf),
iced coffee from Starbucks, Quiznos, Chilis, Subway,
IHOP, and Super Target. BUT, on the other hand,
we are VERY grateful because while talking to an
Albanian friend a couple days ago, she told us what it
was like during the Communism and how it was when
it fell and so many new things started coming in.
She remembers seeing a banana for the first time,
and they didn't know what it was or even how to eat it!!
Things have improved much since then!
They actually have more than I assumed
they would in coming here.

Here's Jamie with another woman on our team who is from Australia.
Then on the right is our language teacher.
She's also a good friend and great ping pong player.
Not one guy has beat her yet - including Tim. : )

These women are making a traditional Albanian drink called Raki
(with the ki stressed when you say it) That first container on the far
left is holding grapes that have been fermented for like 10 days or so.
The big container is holding water with a pipe running through it.
The liquid from the grapes drips into the pipe and you see it
come out the other side and drip into that plastic jug on the ground.
I (Tim) tried some and man was it strong! It left a weird sensation
in my throat for a while and they said not to drink too much
or I'd get drunk. I think I'll pass next time.

Kya is improving her drawing skills right now.
We have been working with her to draw faces.
This wonderful masterpiece is of Mommy and Kadence.
She was pretty proud of it. Mommy has grown
a little more facial hair since we moved here. :)

This couple is our landlords. There are three flats here,
we live on the third floor and they live on the second.
Their names are Ladi and Nico. One day I was walking up
the stairs and Ladi told me to come with him to the bottom.
He went around the corner and pulled a live chicken out
and butchered him right there. Lots of blood, which
I don't do so well with. Anyways, after the head stopped
flopping around and the blood stopped, they plucked him
and cooked him up. They brought some up the next afternoon
for us so we had a free lunch that day.

This ride is at a park about a four minute walk from our flat.
Kya loves this ride and this was Kadence's first time on it.
They also have a train ride, trampolines, and a gated play
area with swings, cars and toys. The rides cost about 65
cents apiece. It's a nice treat once in a while for the girls,
but if was up to Kya, she would go on it everyday. At the
end of the video, Kya is a concerned older sister saying,
"Daddy, she's not holding on." : )

One morning as I (Jamie) was having my time with God,
I just looked out at the city. So many people - 40,000 here,
if you include the surrounding villages, it's 100,000. There are only
5 churches here. That may seem fine, but we go to the second biggest.
It's about 30-35 people. Just the realization of how many people here
that don't know God and their final destination is overwhelming.
I have no doubt we are right where God wants us to be. Please,
continue to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers
into the field.

This morning we heard loud music and went to see what was going on.
These are gypsies walking down the street playing music for money
right outside our flat. It is normal to see gypsy children beating on
boxes with sticks or a drum completely taped up for money. We so
look forward to when we can hang out with and minister to these
people - maybe join them and play some music together. We will
know the language soon enough to do that!

Our first game night. This is "spoons". It was so fun to have just the
OM team here come over and play and laugh together. The team here
consists of 8 or 9 other people from all walks of life and from all over
the world. They have blessed us very much welcoming us in and showing us
around. We have meetings twice a week for prayer and worship, etc.
We'll get a pic of that soon.

Ups and downs for the kids

This was about three thirty in the morning. Kya woke up
throwing up and not feeling well. Thankfully, we had saved
one of grandma Bartlett's books she gave us to give to Kya for
a special occasion. It definitely worked because she read it over
and over and still does even now. Thank you grandma!

This was Kya's first day of school. There is a preschool/kindergarden
underneath the O.M. center with just Albanian kids. She has gone
three days now and she loves it! There are a few women who work
there that are believers and it will be a great outlet for Kya to
make new friends and learn Albanian.

This is fruit and vegetable stand just around the corner from the
O.M. center. You see them all over the place and we just happened
to stop by on the way back from church and get a few things.
Those bananas that the kids are holding were free. It is not
uncommon for the women on the street working to give the kids or
any kids some fruit, candy, snacks,etc... We just have to work on
Kadence eating bananas as she bit through the peel a bunch of times
and broke through trying to get inside it.

Oh no!

Our stove and oven are run by propane gas,
but we didn't know the glass cover on the stove
was supposed to be lifted up before cooking.
While attempting to cook a stew, we heard a mini pop/explosion
and the glass shattered!
Oops!!

Kadence is finally starting to take some steps. It's about time!

One of the other missionaries here gave us
this chair for the girls to play with. Yay!

Here is our washer. Nobody has dryers, everyone hangs
their clothes outside. It may seem funny, but a simple thing like
washing the clothes can become complicated.
Not knowing the language yet means having to learn by making mistakes.
Many things have to be relearned for us. In order to get groceries,
we have to go to a few different places (one for bread,
one for cleaners, the market for produce, etc.) and things like that.

On top of all of the buildings are these water tanks.
It is a system because in Albania, water is only available
a few hours per day. This ensures water throughout the day
as long as you don't use too much. Power cuts are normal
and a part of every day life. So is the internet connection
cutting on and off regularly.

This was a day the team got to spend at the beach.
It was a two hour drive South to the Ionian Sea.
The water is beautiful and clear and not real cold.
The beach was made up of rocks and pebbles
but when you went out in the water it turned into sand.
As you can see, mountains surrounded us.
The girls had a lot of fun. We just couldn't keep track
of how many pebbles and rocks Kadence ate!
It was a great break from so much learning with
the missionary training school sessions.

This was the temperature inside our flat around 9pm.
It has gotten up to 95 degrees inside and 101 degrees outside.
The adjustment has been living without a.c.
but thankfully we were able to buy some fans.
The humidity is also lower than in Florida too.