"Promotion," Swimming & Home Improvement

"Promotion" - On Wednesday Dr. Mark Bryant, professor at a local private college and Qiriazi Center's director for the past year, returned home to the US. The end of his year here came fast, but there's no questioning the big strides forward that his students and the Qiriazi Center took during that time. Our board of directors planned for this day at a meeting in July; as Mark transitions to being a board member, I (Landon) am replacing him as the center's acting director. It is an exciting opportunity to oversee the Center's operations and continue growing its effectiveness in developing servant leaders!

The Uni. servant leadership camp staff, with Mark at bottom left.

Swimming - On Tuesday, Mark's last day, we spent the afternoon with some of our high school students at Peja's newest pool. For a €1.5 entry fee we got gorgeous views in every direction and a huge pool full of clean cold water, perfect for the August heat! The students almost spent the whole four hours we were there trying to dunk or push one another into the pool... but we did also manage to have some deep good conversation about faith/religion (and a bit of politics).

Home Improvement - We've also passed some milestones this week in home decor, and, in my opinion, crossed the threshold of homeyness, even though it's still in progress. We replaced two bare light bulbs in the hall with fixtures to match the golden color paint Lacey put up earlier in the month.

Today we fixed choc. chip cookies and had our landlord's family over for their first visit and so that they could take away their stuff that was filling our second bedroom. In Lacey's words "I just made some chocolate chip cookies using a bag of Nestle chocolate chips that another American left behind :) The butter here is a bit...farm-y and there is no brown sugar--but I think they are going to turn out well. Our landlord and his family are coming over, a bit to visit and a bit to move some of their things our of our second room...finally :), so we'll host them 'Albanian-style' with tons of snacks, sweets, coffee, and juice."

A rainbow at sunrise!

Yesterday (8/7) morning we got a sprinkle of rain at sunrise (around 6:45 - while Lacey was on her jog) and a rainbow! These pictures show the view from our balcony. The white minaret is the closest of several mosques that serenade us 5 times each day with their call to prayer.