Setting Stones

This morning I rode into Fushekruje with Pastors Kurt and Stephanie.  We picked up pastor Alban on the way.  Driving through Tirana we passed a section of road where crowds had gathered on either side and in the median to gawk and give opinions over a woman who may have been fatally hit by a van.  Eyes closed, her head bobbed as two people tried to lift her by her arms to clear her from the road.  Immobilization of the spinal column was not a consideration.  We are encouraged to avoid these kinds of crowds.

Later, heading into Fushkruje, the exit ramp off the freeway into the city was blocked by police.  An oil tanker had overturned on the off-ramp.  After finding a back road into town, we arrived on the job site without incident.  It was good for me to have my handlers on site to see our work first hand.  They are pleased, so I am pleased.  Any carpenter will tell you that having happy clients is the equivalent to an additional two or three hours of sleep every night.

Today we set the first five cement poussetes over the plastic ones.  This is all just part of the sewage handling system.  We should be finished with sewer and on to the rain handling system early next week.

There is more to the ground work on a project like this than anyone might guess.  In a few months no one will be able to tell we had done anything at all to the grounds here; that is the hope anyway.  On one of my runs for materials, I paid a visit to the tile man across the street.  His name is Shpatim Llula, and he would like to learn more English.  He asked me what I was going out to get, and I told him “Tubat.”  “Tubat is Albanian, what is the word in English?” he insisted.  “Pipe,” I told him.  “Pipe,” he said putting his hand to his mouth like he was smoking tobacco.  I then spent the next few minutes giving examples of uses of the word pipe.

Shpatim picked up a piece of paper and started to sketch my face as we conversed.  He told me that he is a painter and that some time in the future he would like to do an impressionist portrait of me in color.  I don’t have to say how flattering these types of gestures are, do I?  By the time I got back with the pipe I had headed off to purchase and retrieve, it was nearly quitting time.  The fifth poussette top was soon placed in concrete, and we all headed home.

After a post-work coffee with Ervis and Fatjon, I headed back to Tirana.  The sun has been a strong presence in the sky for every second of the days since last Thursday.  I am getting used to being soaked through with sweat as I ride the bus from the center of Tirana to Sauk.  Each afternoon I look forward to walking the field near my home.  It is no wonder the Ottoman Empire would stop at nothing to conquer this place.

Good night.