My room at the school is located on the third floor of the building.  The school is located about a third of the way down a hill which, when it terminates, begins to climb immediately in the opposite direction at roughly the same angle.  I am about eye level with the basement floor of the buildings across the valley from me.  This valley fills with light on any morning without clouds, the sun coming up out of view to the left of my bedroom as I look out.  Looking across, I cannot make out a person’s hair color or sex from this distance, but I can see if people are walking on the sidewalk and cars as they travel along.  At 7AM I was surprised to see just how many people were already driving from here to there.  The whole world was taking its things to the places they need to be on a chill, damp morning in Sauk; the southernmost neighborhood in Tirana.

Yesterday I walked with two men from this building to Tirana’s center.  We were going to meet the associate pastor for the church in Fushe-Kruje.  We had missed a shuttle van from our neighborhood which would have connected us to the bus line in the middle of Albania’s capital city.  As we walked, sometimes on the sidewalks, sometimes in the road, we talked about our lives and where we are from.  Every minute or so we would line up in our walking to clear an avenue for an oncoming car.  The man leading the three of us would insist with every few meters that we were getting closer, and of course he was right.  And we are getting closer, each of us, with every step forward.  With every smile and nod to a passing stranger, with every mind flexing attempt to understand, with every tightening of hamstring and glute to bring us one step further along the path, we are getting closer.  Someone must have gotten there once, and told everyone how great it is, but that person most certainly missed out on the joy of the journey itself.  The human creature is a wandering animal, addicted to movement and change, or is that just who I am?

I am going to leave you now to find a morning meal and a doppio espresso.  Drinking this early in the morning always leads to more drinking, and I will probably be around six shots in before I begin my first real task of the morning, God willing.  I hope you are having your coffee now as you read this.  Take it slow, enjoy the sky.