Culture 101: Weddings

We have been building some really tight relationships with some of our students here, so we are creating a really awesome group of friends. Being able to casually hang out like normal teenagers has made a huge difference in our time being spent here. Our friends our inviting us out places and we even got invited to one of their cousin's wedding!

It was a huge culture shock, we had no idea what to expect and what we witnessed was nothing like any kind of wedding we were used to. So very briefly, the wedding is a two day event: the first night is only the groom and his family celebrating. (Celebrating is eating a huge dinner and then dancing traditional dances along with live traditional music from 8 p.m. to anywhere until 4 a.m.) The next day, the groom and his family will take several decorated cars to the bride's village and bring her back to the groom's home which is her new home. (Here, when you get married you live with the groom's family.) There they have a few ceremonies that no one could really explain what they meant, except one where the bride and her mother in law had to "bless" the front door before she entered her new home. Then the new couple meets both sides of the family at a restaurant/hotel to eat and dance even more. I really appreciated the experience and getting to see a side of the culture I hadn't been able to witness before. But I really loved spending some quality time with some beautiful girls who have been such a blessing to get closer to.

P.S. We have started taking Albanian lessons from some of our students, and it might be the hardest language ever. There are 36 letters, 4 of which are impossible for me to pronounce, and apparently there are 6 million grammatical rules. So wish us luck, we really do want to learn more so that we can adapt further into the lifestyle here!

Pray for us to have joyful and uplifted spirits. The realities of the real "grown up" world are beginning to bog us down considerably.

Here are some pictures from the wedding!

My roommates and I with our precious friends

This is a traditional dance--you also see several people wearing traditional outfits

Here is the bride (they wear soooo much makeup!) and the groom behind her

And these are some men playing traditional instruments as live music to celebrate the bride's entrance

A Sense of Normalcy

I have been here for a month and a half now, and it finally feels normal walking around Suhareke and waking up in my top bunk. Our class schedule (two classes a day, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) has really helped us feel the comfort that a routine provides. It's weird to think about how normal everything feels. It's like all of a sudden I noticed that I don't feel like a visitor anymore. This is my home. There are definitely things and people I miss back in America, but I'm already realizing just how difficult it will be to leave our home and friends here. Some of the cultural oddities have become part of our daily lives and we don't even recognize them as "oddities" anymore!

We have started hanging out with a few of our students on a regular basis. The girl I talked about in my last post has started meeting with us every Wednesday after class...to do a bible study. (Don't worry, you read that right.) She came to us about how to live her life completely devoted to the Lord. We did listening prayer with her and will now be reading a chapter from Proverbs with her every week! We are really excited, especially because she entered the Kingdom purely by the power and timing of the Lord. She has also decided to start bringing her cousin (they will both be going into the 12th grade) to meet with us too! So we are very happy that we will have a small group with some amazing girls here. We hope that it will continue to grow!

Today we got to go into a different village called Bukosh to visit a brother and sister who are both in our class (and their three cousins who are also in our class who live right next door). The father and his four brothers own all the land, it was passed down to them by their father. They each have their own home and garden, and one owns a restaurant at the very edge of the property. The mother woke up at 6 a.m. to prepare a traditional food called flia for us! We had it with a salad made of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions all grown in their garden, honey from their own beehives, and jam made from the plums they grow. Their house was beautiful, they had a huge garden with a gazebo looking at a perfect view of some incredible mountains. I am not exaggerating when I say looking at all the flowers and the mountains in the background took my breath away. They have an orchard with over 300 trees, including plum trees, apple trees, and peach trees! They also have a "small" corn field. We had so much fun visiting this family. The father and mother told us stories (translated by their son and nephew, two of our best students) like how they met, what their wedding was like, and when they lived in Switzerland. It was really fun, they were honestly the most comfortable people to be around. Their relationship is so different from many of the other marriages we have seen here, they were really in love and it was obvious. It was refreshing to witness! Emily taught everyone how to play a card game called "Spoons" and it was seriously entertaining. We felt so welcomed and enjoyed our time with them. We're taking all the kids to ice cream after class tomorrow to say thank you, and the parents are coming into Suhareke on Saturday to go to lunch with us and Berat! It was such a blessing to be with such a sweet family, the culture differences didn't create any awkwardness like it sometimes can, and there was never a quiet moment. The questions they asked us weren't just about us being Americans but about who we really were. Something new that I know I really enjoyed was how much they told us about themselves! That never happens, and I loved hearing all the "embarrassing moment" stories and "worst injury" stories from all the kids. I cannot wait until we can go visit them in Bukosh again.

I am very thankful for the weirdness of how normal my life here is becoming. Even in the struggles I am facing, I feel comfortable, at ease, and peaceful (which I know none of those things would exist in my heart without the Lord).

Emily, Sam, and I have really meshed into an awesome bond. I love them. We are each so different and the Lord teaches us in such different ways. Their wisdom and perspectives are enlightening and I enjoy every moment with them. I couldn't imagine being here with two better people!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and thoughts. We need them.