Friday, June 1, 2012

Friday, June 1, 2012. 5:10 pm.

We had an easy morning, starting at 9am. Somehow I still managed to oversleep, took a quick shower and ran downstairs at 9:15. I greeted Fr. Luke who was eating breakfast, and apologized for being late, thinking I had missed prayers. He teased me and said since they knew I was trying to skip prayers they were punishing me by eating first. I was relieved. We did prayers and quiet time right after breakfast. After quiet time we all gathered in our prayer room and talked about Albania, our impressions, our thoughts, etc. We left around 11:00 and got to downtown Tirana around 11:30.

Today is Alphabet Day in Albania and all the schools have celebrations. We got to the Archdiocese-run Protagonistët School (pronounced Protagonist) around 11:30, just after their celebration had finished. We were all disappointed that we didn’t get to see the kids’ performance. The Protagonistët School is a private school, but in Albania no schools are allowed to teach religion as part of the curriculum. They have kids of all backgrounds that attend the school. Once a week they have an after-school program that is dedicated to learning about the Faith. They make it fun, and they get parents’ permission to have the kids go to that. Even some Muslim kids come to that because they see that their classmates are having fun. There they teach about Christ.

The school started in 2002, I believe, and has grown by one grade level each year. Last year they were not able to get a license to open a high school so the graduating 9^th graders had nowhere to go. This year they got a license and are opening two more years in order to have a high school (10th-12th grade) in the same building as the elementary school (4^th-9^th grade. Grades 1-3 are at another location). All the people were so amazing, so warm and had such big smiles. It was a wonderful day for them and for us, and they were all very happy to see us.

10:17 pm

After seeing the Protagonistët School we were shown the women’s ministry which is on the same property as the school and the Cathedral. Raymonda (sp?) who leads the ministry had us in her office and gave us pear juice and delicious Albanian apple strudel.She showed us a powerpoint with pictures of all the ministries that they do: work at a nursing home; visits to a home of Mother Teresa’s sisters where a lot of Orthodox are who want a priest to visit; prison ministry; and some other things. We also met Violeta who works in the office.

While we were at the women’s ministry the professors were somewhere else (?). When they came back we got in the van and drove over to the Engale radio station which is on the tenth floor of a building. The professors again went somewhere else, while Nathan Hoppe joined us and was our tour guide around the next few places. Konstantinos and I sprinted up the stairs while everyone else took the elevator. They got there first :P At the radio station the staff wanted us to sing something. We decided to do O Pure Virgin. I didn’t sing because I still have a cold and it would have sounded bad. They recorded us and will probably play us in the future.

In Albania there is no such thing as a religious radio station. The license for Engale radio is just as a regular radio station. They do a limited number of Orthodox programs. They mainly play classical music and also play some Byzantine music. From what Nathan said that he has been told, quite a few people listen to the radio station for the classical music because they are the only station that plays it.

After the visit to the radio station we visited the Logos University. The director – a missionary from Greece, a sweet old lady in black – spoke to us in Greek while Konstantinos translated, and then one of the professors spoke to us in Albanian while Nathan translated. The director offered us soda and apologized for not offering a snack but said it was a fast day. I liked her :) 

 We saw their Three Hierarchs chapel on a lower floor...

 

...and a couple offices and one classroom briefly on the way down the stairs. We found out that their tuition is about 1000 euro per year. They have 350 students from all backgrounds. Students take six classes per semester, each worth five credits, and they complete University in three years (one team member said he is a product of this – the Balogna Method, which tries to compress 4 years into 3 without losing anything – and it doesn’t work: it’s baloney). Higher level classes are taught in English. They have partnerships with some Greek universities.

After the university Nathan took us to the Nazareth workshop where we saw the candle-making workshop...

 

...and the printing press.

A new church is outside the main building. It is almost finished and will have its first service on All Saints’ Sunday.

We took the service elevator up to the wood-carving workshop because it was locked so we went the back way :) 

We saw a magnificent hand-carved iconostasis that is going to be put in the small chapel outside the new cathedral. It took four people six or seven months to do it! 

We didn’t get to see the icon workshop because it was locked :(

After the Nazareth workshop Nathan went with us to the center of Tirana where he got off the bus and went home. We met up with the professors again and came back to the Tabor Center to eat a delicious lunch – at 4:00! They eat late here. Yesterday Ana and Gabriela told me that most Albanians don’t typically eat breakfast. They may have coffee or a snack in the late morning, but their first meal is a lunch around 2:00. Dinner is late – 8:00, 9:00, 10:00-ish. Fr. Luke told us the first day that they often nap after lunch (typical of many cultures) and wake up to enjoy the evening before eating dinner.

Around 5:40 we left for Tirana again where we went to the youth center which is on the same property as the Cathedral, the Protagonistët School and the women’s ministry, and down the street from the Archdiocese headquarters. We got there a few minutes after 6:00 (it was a pleasant surprise to see Bishop Asti when we got there – he was outside talking to some people. I only got to get his blessing – didn’t get to talk with him. He left soon after we got there but it was a pleasant surprise to at least see him and get his blessing). Friday evenings at 6:00 is when they hold their weekly Paraklesis in the youth center (not in the cathedral) with the university students. We joined them today. Fr. Luke served and all the university students chanted. We followed along in Albanian prayer books – mine had Byzantine music so it was actually easier to follow. I learned but subsequently forgot how to say “Most-holy Theotokos save us” and “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

After Paraklesis one of the professors gave a talk while Ana B. translated. Afterwards they gave us some kind of cake and peach soda. Then we went down the street to the Archdiocese and visited the office of Fr. Justinos who is a priest-monk from Greece (Parakletos Monastery in Attica, outside of Athens) who is serving as a missionary. It is his nameday today (St. Justin Martyr) so we all went to wish him Xronia polla – all of us: university students, Americans, staff, etc., in his small office. He also offered us sweets, and two paper icons – Christ Pantocrator from Mt. Sinai and St. Neilos the Myrrh-gusher about whom I know nothing but look forward to learning. Outside Fr. Justinos’s office we met Bishop Nathaniel, another of the auxiliary bishops of Albania, who is from Greece. I saw Niko whom I had talked with the other night at the Tabor Center. I think he’s a receptionist or something there at the Archdiocese.

The plan was to spend the next few hours walking around Tirana with Albanian university students. Our group headed back to the Cathedral/youth center with Ana and her sister and some girls from the universities.We waited there for the rest of our group and finally we got impatient so everyone went on ahead to go to the lake and get coffee. It was mostly Americans who went with Ana. I figured I’d stay behind and wait for the others, since I had talked to Ana for a long time yesterday, and the others were Americans. I didn’t know the other girls who stayed behind, and figured I should get to know them a bit.

Finally the others came and we were off! Up and down both narrow and wide streets, around corners, finally into the park and over the hill (we stopped by the church of St. Prokopi to peer inside), and to the outdoor restaurant. I was really lost – had no idea where we were. It didn’t matter, though, because we were there and the Albanians knew where they were going. By the time we arrived we couldn’t find the others and Marina tried calling but to no avail. We finally found them – none of us had ordered coffee but it was time to go. It was ok – we had had fun just walking around. We walked back over the hill, to the entrance of the park where our van/ bus was waiting for us. We got back to the Tabor Center around 9:45, ate dinner and talked a bit about the next few days. Then I came upstairs and started blogging, interrupted by various conversations about jurisdictions, the election of bishops, the reality of vacant sees (OCA Dioceses of the South and Alaska), etc. Typical seminarian conversations! :)