Shtepi

People keep asking if I'm "homesick" yet, but I'm not. Yes, I miss my friends and family, I miss my church and hearing a familiar language, and of course I miss Mexican food. My physical home here isn't luxurious or normal for American standards, but I love it. Emily and I were talking about why we love Kosova, and why despite the trials we feel welcomed here. We were reading a word study on the word "abide" that my dad sent me, and part of it was discussing the use of abide in John 15:5-10. In those verses Jesus is telling His disciples "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he that bears fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown way like a branch and withers; and those branches are gathered and thrown on a fire. If you abide in me, and words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be acted upon. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear fruit and so prove to be my disciple. As the Father loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in that love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have listened to my Father and abide in His love." The word abide means: to share the life of, dwell in, remain in, walk with, live in, and make a home in. Our homes are meant to be with Christ. So wherever He is will be my home. The physical building I live in or the place it is doesn't matter, I can take refuge with the Spirit. If we keep His words at home with us, He will be with us, so we'll never go without a place to call home. Emily and I really felt like that was such a blessing for us to know at this point in our lives. So no-I'm not homesick because I never left my home. I do miss everyone and certain things, but I love my home He's making for me here.

P.S. "Shtepi" means "home" in Albanian!

He is greater.

We have had a discouraging past couple of days. Constantly being unable to communicate with the majority of people around us has become really frustrating and honestly pretty disheartening. Making this our home seems to be a little more difficult than just being visitors. There are power blackouts, insane drivers, grocery stores filled with foods with labels I can't read, and no Mexican food. We stand out and I often feel invasive since I'm the one who cannot speak their language.  Feeling so alone and discouraged really put me in a spot where I doubted what I could with my time here. We spent a lot of time praying and talking about where our hearts were and what we needed to be learning in this moment. The main lesson we learned from these hard days was that even though we are out living like independent grown ups, we still need to be dependent on God. Without staying focused on Him, what is even the point of being here? I am so thankful for the trials to come  because I know they will be really important lessons to learn. However, the refreshing days hold lessons just as wonderful. Today, Emily read to me 2 Corinthians 6, and that encouragement from the Lord was amazing. I would type it all out here, but instead you should all go look it up (:

Our first day of "work" was yesterday! We held a registration for any students wanting to take the English class from us. We had to divide them up into intermediate and advanced levels based on their English speaking skills when we met them. There were 30 people to sign up, and we plan on having a class from 10-12 a.m. and another one 4-6 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Our next few days will be very busy as we start making lesson plans and getting ourselves organized. It's a very intimidating task to try to teach students all around the same age as you. Hopefully they can learn a lot from us in our time here, and we hope to build some amazing friendships!

I hope everyone is doing well stateside! (I feel pretty cool that I get to say that.)

Why is everyone staring at us...?

Emily and I have decided that we have to figure out why everyone just knows we are Americans. At home if you see someone who looks foreign, you just think "Hmm I wonder where they're from" and move on. Not here. Here they stare at you until they physically cannot see you anymore, say "Hey USA" or "Alo Amerika". How do you know we're American? Why not German, Irish, Swiss, Italian....anything? I feel like we cannot  look that different from them, because they stare at us like we have neon signs over our heads. And if we don't speak, how would they know that we're speaking English? It's very weird and a little uncomfortable sometimes. Hopefully after a few weeks everyone will just get used to seeing the American girls walking around and it won't be such a surprise to anyone anymore. 

Other than catching everyone's attention, Emily and I are loving being here! We love our anytime of the day makiato e madhe (big machiatto) and of course the Milka chocolate bars. There are croissants filled with nutella that taste like doughnuts, byrek with meat or cheese, amazing ice cream, and a lot of fresh fruits. However, we are determined to find spinach and avocados...they have to be here somewhere, right? 

The Ole' Apt!

This is our bathroom/laundry room.

This is our intense front door with a triple dead bolt lock! We also have a huge storage closet in the entryway, and we are using those shelves as our bathroom storage. It has been very convenient so far. 

Here is our HUGE living room. We have a lot of seating room, and a very nice entertainment center with a great tv. Behind the ugly hotel curtains is our front porch.

Our kitchen just got a brand new "American" sized fridge, which is very exciting, and a brand new toaster oven that even has a stove on top! (our original oven was broken) We have plenty of counter space and cabinet space to use for dishes and as a pantry.

This is our dining room and desk area! The bench seat is pretty typical old Albanian style. 

Our bedroom is "under construction", we had to buy bunkbeds so we are waiting for those to come in. All the wall colors are mix-matched and bright, and none of the furniture matches, but we think its very comfortable and our main concern was having enough room to hang out in the living room-which we definitely do! We also have plenty of storage room, and with three girls that is very important. It is a big deal to sit outside in the late afternoon and drink coffee, tea, etc. in Albanian culture, so having a porch is very "luxurious", and we have two! We cannot wait to give some students American coffee from our french press and serve it outside. I will post more pictures soon of Suhareke and the amazing views all around us. (Sunrises and sunsets + all the beautiful mountains = AMAZING)

Doin' life-

For the past couple of days Emily and I have spent a lot of time with the Grace team that is still here. It has been such a blessing to have them help us get settled in and help us make our apartment really feel like a home. Some of the moms on the trip spent their whole day today doing an "extreme makeover" while some of the team kept me and Emily busy around Suhareke. It was so nice for them to bless us that way, and we are so thankful. We can't wait for Sam to get here and for us to start inviting some students over to hang out with in our new home! Our friends on the Grace team have been wonderful and helpful, so glad we got to hang out with them and hear their stories! They wrote out names of students they met and spoke to so that Emily, Sam and I have a head start on who we need to meet and where our conversations need to begin. They are going back to Atlanta on Monday and we are definitely going to miss having more Americans around. 

However we are so anxious to start meeting with the students here and getting settled into being regular faces around Suhareke! We already have plans to see some of our friends from last year, and we found a new friend who lived in America for a few years and has agreed to be our Albanian tutor. He is so much fun and became a believer during the camp that the Grace team held, so we are very excited to spend more time with him! 

Registration for the English classes we will be teaching starts on June 25th, so pray that lots of kids sign up and are excited to learn whatever we can teach them. Our days will start being a little busier, but that just means I will have more stories to tell. I miss everyone back home very much!  

And the journey begins

Emily and I spent the day with the Grace team over here now and most of the campers today at the pool. Once we landed in Pristina Berat and our awesome friend from Grace Kyle Sklenar were there to pick us up and help us carry our heavy luggage. Berat took us to our apartment to drop off our bags and we went straight to the pool! It was really great getting to see our old friends from last year and meeting some new friends. All the Americans then went to this really cool hotel/pool/restaurant in Suhareke called Solid to celebrate two of our team members' birthday! It was fun, but to be honest Emily and I were just too exhausted from jetlag to really know what was going on around us. We spent a little tome tonight unpacking, but we plan on dedicating most of tomorrow to cleaning the apartment (we seriously need some Febreeze...) and getting ourselves organized in our new home! We've also made a great new friend, an Irish girl, who will be working with us! She has the greatest accent ever. We are really excited about getting settled in and will be sending the Grace team home on Monday, so we should be getting down some finalized plans about our time here after that! I miss everyone a lot, but I know that this will be such a great experience and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store.

P.S. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our other roomie Sam on July 2nd!!!!! 

All set for take off...

Just a brief disclaimer: since there are several cultural differences we need to be sensitive of, this blog needs to remain private in order for my roommates and I to be able to build relationships with the Kosovar people. I do not mind if anyone shares this website with friends, I would just appreciate no one putting the web address on a public forum!

I am done packing and now I am anxiously waiting my flight tomorrow morning. One of my roommates (Emily Everett) and I will be flying from Atlanta to Dulles, to Vienna, to Pristina, then taking a taxi into Suhareke where we will be living! (Our other roommate, Sam Crain, will be joining us on July 2nd.) I have three suitcases stuffed to the max, I didn't really realize how much stuff I needed for 5 months! There are several things in my room and bathroom I wish I could bring with me, so it is hard to leave all my daily comforts behind. There will be so many new and exciting adventures in the next few months, so its all worth it!

Thank you everyone for all the time and support yall have given me. I planning on updating my blog once a week! I will have access to Facebook, email and Skype, so there will be several ways to stay in a contact.

<3 Priscilla