Today was a good Sunday. I woke up around 9am and helped out around the house with some chores. We had a big lunch because my host-mom’s sister came from Pajove with her two children for the day. I bonded with my sisters and their cousins as I made them hemp necklaces and bracelets with plastic beads. They appreciated them so much and it was so refreshing for the little things to be appreciated compared to in the States just being over looked. I haven’t seen my youngest sister that excited since I’ve been here.
Things like that validate the reason why I came here… the small things in life are appreciated and valued and not taken for granted. Since I’ve been here, every meal I’ve eaten I’ve known where the food has come from, whether it was grown in the greenhouses or has been milk from a cow down the street. Everyone values what they have, no matter how little or how much and I’m really enjoying that about the Albanian culture.
I went and studied in Pajove for a bit to get out of the house for a while and enjoy the beautiful weather. When I got home I cracked open my work out DVD and got some good cardio in before what I thought was going to be another huge meal. To my surprise it was a sandwich and a huge delicious cucumber! We get the most delicious vegetables at my home because of my host-parents amazing farm.
Side note about the amazing farm... I finally translated “will you take me to go see your farm” and I get out there to look into the green houses and not two minutes later I slip on a slick spot of grass and tumble down a hill into a mud puddle. Now that you have that visual imagine a mortified 16 year old and two snickering children. I tried to tell her it wasn’t a big deal and laugh it off because I thought it was pretty funny myself and once we got back to the house I showed them a picture of me on the floor playing basketball and tried to explain that it’s not unusual for me to end up on the ground.
