It is now officially cold. I have usually been wearing a jacket to teach. It can get warm in the classrooms, but the rest of the building is cold and my apartment only functions as a wind-breaker. I do not heat the apartment because there is no insulation and plenty of ventilation so it is inefficient and expensive. I do have a gas heater that I use in the morning when I get changed to pump some direct heat so that I do not start the day frozen. I spend the majority of my time after school in the teacher’s lounge where I work, eat, and use the computer. For survival I execute the human wrap strategy with my blankets at night by tucking all the edges underneath of me and sealing any air holes. It usually works well but I often wake up toward morning because I have moved during the night creating an opening the cold to come in. Since it is likely to get colder still, I am thinking I will leave off my refrigerator because my apartment does the job on its own. It has also has begun to rain more which makes me glad that I do not have to go outside to get to school.
I have really enjoyed teaching and interacting with the students the past few weeks. During history class I am still experimenting with how to use Power Point effectively for English as a second language students. At the beginning I noticed that when I put up a slide, they stop listening to me and write word for word what is on the slide. As I mentioned before, they have major issues summarizing and processing information so I quickly noticed that writing words they did not understand was getting us nowhere. Much of the information was not essential and it was taking too long to get through the material. I soon demanded they not write anything unless I specifically told them to. We began to work on summarizing the information together in order to model strategies for taking notes. In the past months we have covered the Byzantines, Arabs, the Islamic World, and Africa.
As an integral part of this subject matter I also taught a day on each Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the context of their historical development. These days were great because I taught a few things and then allowed much of the time for questions and discussions following student interest. The students were competing to ask their questions because a lot of this material was new to them. They have a lot of misconceptions about religion, culture, and belief so I tried to keep the material very basic to allow them to grasp the development of these faiths. For primary sources I used scripture: Genesis 17 (Covenant with Abraham), Exodus 20 (10 commandments), 2 Chronicles 36 (destruction and exile), Isaiah 9 (prophesy of the Messiah) to summarize the development of pure monotheism in Judaism and the position of the Jews; I used Matthew 5 (Sermon on the Mount) to emphasize the radical teachings of Jesus and how He came to complete the Old Testament covenant along with short excerpts from John 1 and Acts 2 to help explain the development of the Trinity; I used Surah 23 (“the Believers”) from the Qur’an to discuss how Islam is a continuation out of these prior two traditions, while being clear that Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus and that Muhammad is the last of the Prophets who was given the final revelation from God in the form of the Qur’an. It was interesting for me to teach religion at a basic level to see how each of these faiths is historically interconnected, while noticing the differences that make them unique lead to different understandings of God and His relationship with humanity.
One special event that the teachers attended with the Shahini’s was the Vogelushi contest. This is basically a beauty pageant for young children with other routines by adults mixed in making for a long and interesting program. There was some comedic dialogues which were obviously rendered useless as a result of the language barrier, a number of popular sing-a-longs by our student Ardit who helped to host the event, and a costume walk along with a random vocal, rapping, or belly dancing performance by each of the contestants. After about four hours, several awards were handed out including “Mr. and Mrs. International” which were presented by us on behalf of LAC. We got up on stage and read the winners of the award and congratulated them, which was a good promotional for the school. It was very cool to see that the winner of Mr. Vogelushi 2011 was the little brother of one of our students.
The week prior to the week of Christmas Ken and Aaron Kauffman from VMM along with Sam Skaggs came to visit and meet with missionaries. They brought some Christmas presents with them including routers for improving our wireless connection, ink cartridges to take advantage of our other printers, and some new novels for English class. There are many changes that are being worked out as Rafael is returning to Brazil for 3 months and the Shahini’s will be going to the States for a week. It has also been decided that Elaine Moyer will be coming over in January to support the development of the school as we continue to encounter issues and viewpoints that are not meeting at the same place. These struggles are common in the mission field, particularly when the devil realizes the threat to his dominion that this opportunity could provide. This school is a very unique thing in Albania and it is experiencing some growing pains and resistance just like any new idea aimed at change. If we are able to separate ourselves from this undertaking and give it completely to God, the impact will be awesome. We believe that God has called each person involved in this project into his or her role for a purpose that only He can see. Pray for us as we continue to work toward the point where God wants us.
Because everyone was in Lezha during the time of this visit, at the end of the week we had a small Christmas celebration. We squeezed into the main room of the girls apartment and had a buffet meal. The delicious prize goes to Allen Umble and his superb hearty meat dish in a creamy broth accompanied by delicious fresh rolls. We fellowshipped during the meal and I got to know Sam and Aaron a little better through conversation. We also sang Christmas carols including some 4 part harmony, which was a first for my time in Albania. Later I read the Christmas story and we had a time of prayer for each of us as we returned to our duties throughout the world. The few month old son of Rafael and Solange, Paulo, was a living example of the Christmas gift with all the weaknesses and quirks of humanity. He would cry, talk while others were sharing, or distract people by making cute faces. It was amazing to look at this boy and think that Christ came into this world in such a limited and humble fashion in order that the love of God could be revealed to us in a physical form that we could understand and connect with.
That Sunday I went to the other main Catholic church in town. Xhorxhina, one of the most spiritually inquisitive students, had invited me to go to her church along with Milt and Ann. The church was much smaller than the other, but this gave the building an older and more intimate atmosphere. The building soon filled with attendees, but what surprised me this time was the amount of children. At first one large group of children came in and sat at the front around the altar, but then another group, and another until the space was crowded with a multitude of children clearly not in proportion to the amount of older members. My explanations for this juvenile presence included: they came because they attended a local Catholic school, the church offered them programs, or maybe they were more inclined toward religion because they had not lived through communism. No matter what the reason, they were there and gave the service more of an informal feeling than I had experienced in past Catholic services. Even though I did not understand most of what was going on, I could feel the movement in the service of leaving this world behind to join in the Eucharist. Apart from my observations I mostly used the time during the service for prayer and reflection. After the service Xhorxhina invited us to her house where we talked for some time in the living room. When we were ready to leave, she insisted that we stay and hinted at waiting for lunch. It turned out to be quite the lunch with more variety of food at one time than I have seen for quite some table. We were thankful for their generosity and hospitality, but we could hardly put a dent in the feast that was laid before us.
I have been very busy over the past few weeks, too busy to blog evidently. Teaching two evening classes means that I am in school mode from 7:45-6:00pm except for Friday when I have no evening class. However, I am still enjoying the change in pace of evening class and this last week before Christmas we watched some excerpts from Seinfeld and I took my one class to coffee practicing conversation and discussing American culture as a break from our exhaustive make-up schedule preparing for Christmas break. Having three blocks off in the morning is a lot of time, but I am not usually very productive towards my teaching and lesson planning. First block is spent greeting students, supporting classes in the computer lab, setting up things in that school for the day, finalizing the lesson details, setting up my classroom, and pausing for prayer before the students come. I have made it a point to pray over the doorway and the room for protection, blessing, and that the Spirit could be felt working. After class is activity period where I watch over and interact with the students. Third and fourth block usually involve me taking care of some details for the school, making and eating lunch, discussing student issues or lesson plans with other teachers, with some time mixed in for lesson planning and preparing for my back-to-back evening classes. The past few weeks we have had Christmas program practice with the students for an hour, I have tried to find some time to learn a little bit about the sites of Turkey before I depart, and there has been a surprising amount of random errands to be run.
I have also been kept busy by my newfound responsibilities as school techy working on the computer lab, establishing a network, and creating a new school website. Kledia and Mark have been very helpful in working with me and supplying some of the advanced cognition needed to set up the network, but this technology stuff can really eat up time. One Friday night I spent almost 6 hours in the computer lab setting up the network, registering student profiles, and Skyping with my American techy cohorts. After school I sit for a little and eat and it is like the day is nearly gone. I use the rest of the time to work on lesson planning and grading. In addition to this, I wanted to use all available time to stay ahead on my lesson planning because I would have time taken out of my schedule by Christmas events, spending time with Ken, Aaron, and Sam, and of course by my looming 10 day trip individual excursion to Turkey which was full of unknowns. Because of this and without Tori who is studying in Shkodra to pull me from my school duties, I have mostly been shut in the school the past few weeks with no time for coffee or soccer. It is nice to have Dini and Klementina living downstairs to provide breaks in the evening when they are needed.
And then there is Christmas program practice with the students. This hour was usually a constant struggle against a lack of cooperation and attention spans among the students. Part of this struggle can be explained by the fact that this type of performance was something new to the students and they did not know what to expect or how to conduct themselves. We did our best to give them the basics and keep the program as simple as we could while maintaining the message we wanted to portray. We first practiced the carols, Jess talked about character development and expression, and then we ran through the skit without ever really achieving satisfaction. There were always some details needing to be tweaked and some of the students would not always show up to practice. Things slowly began to come together, but quickly enough for us as teachers who were unsure if the program would collapse during the performance in front of the parents. Thankfully, Everything came together in the end. I cut some simple rifles and a fire from cardboard, found some barbed wire to string across two posts at the back of the stage, and used a textbook as a drum for “Do You Hear What I Hear.” The students put enough effort forward in costumes to achieve a noticeable difference between the colors of the costumes (jackets) for either side. We created the trenches with a line of chairs and added some newspapers, cigarettes, and candles to achieve a degree of reality in our production.
I was proud of the program that we teachers had developed and would like to perhaps see it used in the future. It started with an introduction to the celebration of Christmas, a reading of the Christmas story, followed by the Christmas Truce skit with carols sung by either side in the trenches. After the skit came the reading of prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, lighting of candles in the dark, and concluded with some songs.
The night of the Christmas program on the 22nd was crazy. I was scrambling for hours trying to transport the students to the venue, set up the stage, and clarify logistics with the students about their parts and with the staff in the room. When it was finally time to sit and enjoy the buffet, I was called upon to run back to the school for the student stocking presents. After returning, I shoved the food down and got the students organized for the program. I was nervous but the students must have been more so because they were cooperating and being fairly quiet. It was very fortunate that the DJ had two microphones available for the students to pass around and use for their parts because I knew that some of them were too quiet to be heard otherwise. Everyone was able to follow the order of the skit and no one forgot to read their lines…this was the first time it had gone so well. It was a great feeling to watch the students be successful in carrying out the program and to hear them singing Christmas songs. Although it was not a Broadway performance by any means, it was all that could be expected from these students under the conditions. Soon we were passing the flame to the families and singing Silent Night. No matter how many times I sing this carol by candlelight it is always special. I felt peace as the students smiling faces were glowing from their individual flames. They may be a handful sometimes, but each one of them is special and an appreciated part of our school community. As the students finished reading the prophecy about the kingdom that would be established by the Messiah, we sang “Joy to the World” and capped the program with the apparently universal “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
I am not sure whether the true message of the skit and the program was grasped by the many of the Albanians who were present, but the gospel was presented to them. Hopefully this experience will have an impact on them either for this season or in the future. It was certainly a relief to have the program finished without a flop. There was a time where students received their stockings from the school, swapped gifts with each other as part of an organized gift exchange, and then they surprised us teachers by giving us gifts. We each said a little something thanking the parents for their involvement and describing how special we thought the students were.
Then the dancing came again. Before the program, we decided as a staff that we were not going to advocate “party dancing” and would try to maintain a professional approach by abstaining. This was the result of talk about how some of the more conservative parents disapproved with some of the dancing that had happened at Thanksgiving. We did not regret or see as inappropriate anything that happened before because there was control and it helped us to form a more relaxed community with the students. However, we recognized the potential problems that could arise and tried to limit the dancing and not be involved. However, we were not going to keep the students from having a good time so we started with some Albanian traditional dance songs. Dini encouraged the families to join in and soon we had many parents and siblings dancing, which did not really happen at Thanksgiving. Eventually, the music evolved into more party style but many of the families continued to dance and have a good time. After refusing many student requests to dance and after they dedicated a song to us as teachers, we felt obligated to join in. Once I get on the dance floor, it is difficult for me to not have a good time and so I did. Once again many of the young siblings were flocking to me to dance including Mr. Vogelushi who could not separate himself from me after getting a dance rid on my shoulders. The dancing was shorter and more limited to keep an atmosphere of control, so it was a successful and fun evening.
Things have been absolutely flying by and I almost cannot comprehend that it is now 2012. I am writing this on my last night in Istanbul from the terrace of my hostel over looking the Bosporus and the Asian side of the city beyond. I will be writing about my vacation as soon as possible, but step-by-step is the game right now. With the pace of life I am realizing that it has been hard to pause and to take in the moment to create memories. I know that as I get a grasp on returning to school and have a sense of control, things will begin to sink in and photos serve as great reminders. Please pray for the school as we enter into a new year and confront the struggles and blessings that will come. Pray also that we will all find the time to be still with the Lord during this crazy time in life. I have it in my mind that I am leaning on him for guidance, protection, and strength but often struggle to be still and let His presence sink in. We will need his presence for the coming year. Thank you again for all your support, I am sure your prayers are working towards the glory of God through this school. Blessings to each of you for the year ahead.
Gezuar and Mutlu Yıllar – “Cheers and Happy New Year” (Turkish)
