One of the statements Craig Mathison made to me during our first Skype conversation after I had left the States was “Since beginning your time in Albania, you are probably getting a new appreciation for the term ‘manual labor.'”
“It’s pretty manual,” I responded. That brought a laugh from the other end of the line. Craig and his wife Dana were area directors for AG Missions in Eastern Europe a few years ago. Half-a-dozen pallets of red bricks greeted me as I passed through the gate at the church jobsite this morning. Vissy and I spent the better part of the day moving the roughly 1,000 25x25x10cm beauties to the back of the property using wheel barrows. The building of things is a satisfying way to pass the time; the best I’ve found. Most work does not result in any physical change to the environment one inhabits.
Earlier in the day I had stopped in to visit Osman and Shpetim’s shops. Osman was out, but his assistant Alben showed me a toy that he is making out of steel. The toy will seat five people of roughly the 20-30 kilogram variety. It spins in a circle and is really quite a nice piece of artwork.
A person might live their whole life and never make a single thing. Typically it is left to only a few people to produce the lion’s share of all of the things that we as humans hold dear, all of the things we celebrate. Perhaps it is selfish, a way of having control over something, a way of steering just one thing, bending one thing to your will. Perhaps the creators are striving for a way to stop and hold the world in their own hands for one instant in time; to look at something they have made and know that it is good.
albaniacalling 