Montenegro -- Part 3

So yes, we got in the car after we'd seen the best Budva had to offer. We drove back the way we had come into town, but we wanted to stop and see Sveti Stefan up close. Despite the fact that the day had gone from rain to sun and now back to rain, we got out the umbrellas and checked things out anyway. :)

The sea was so blue green around the little island! And even though it was raining, people were still swimming. If I was there on a beach vacation, I would be swimming too! :) There were no signs explaining what the island was for or when it was originally built and inhabited. From the style of the entrance and since at the very top of this island hill was a church, we figure it was a monastery. We could tell it must still be used for something because we could see lots of window air conditioning units in the buildings. See, old places can have modern touches. lol It was not open to the public, but we did walk across the little bridge/walkway and up to the front gates. We got wet from the rain, but I didn't care. I got pictures and just stood to enjoy the scene.

Once we got even more wet we decided maybe we should get in the car. So, we did. It got sunny again so we stopped at a few places on the side of the road for more photo opportunities. I just went crazy with the picture taking on this trip because I didn't want to miss anything or forget any of it. lol One place we stopped at was pretty cool. It was the ruins of a 10th century monastery on a mountain side outside of Bar. We could walk around a bit and tell where a few things were. But you could see where the prayer gardens had been because paths were worn and even lined with stones in some places. So we walked around and explored that for a while, and, of course, we took pictures. lol Then we got back in the car, drove into Bar and decided we should stop and eat since we were all hungry.

We stopped at this beach side food stand and got a table right out on the beach. Only one table was between ours and the beach. It was a picnic table with a canopy tent over it. Since no one was sitting at it, I took pictures of it because you see the edge of the beach, the waves, and the shining water behind it. It looks like the pictures on those Corona commercials at home. Pretty sweet! ;) We finished our food, used the bathroom, and left. I should explain the bathroom though. You walked through this door, and it was a long hallway. At the end of the hallway, there was a little sink and a toilet. I realized I needed to go lock the door at the end of the hallway, because that was the only door to the bathroom. And up in the corner of the wall to the right of the sink, just at the very end of the hallway, was a little window. It was open. Not an open window. It was just open. Like a hole. No curtains, no screen, not even a window. lol Kind of funny.

We got back in the car to head back across the border, though northern Albania, and back to Tirana. We made it through without hitting any barnyard animals, and they were out in plenty, that's for sure! We had no problems at the border crossing, so that was a quick stop. The drive from the border to Tirana seemed to take forever, but that's only because Emily and I were so tired. This sounds bad, but we were stuck between wanting to fall asleep and trying not to fall asleep so we could still talk and be social. lol

In the end, we made it back here safe and sound. We were exhausted so we got something to eat, watched Alias, and just crashed. Since the next morning started registration, we didn't get much time to recover. We've been tired all week. And this weekend we're helping the Ahlers with their garage sale. I'm curious to see how popular a garage sale is here. I don't think it's something they see very often, but I think the people here will like it. They're so used to open markets and things like that anyway that I'm sure they'll come check out the items.

Our Orientation for our classes was last night and it went ok. We had put on all of the posters that no late applications would be accepted. If you hadn't registered by the end of the time on Thursday, too late. This was because we needed Thursday night to go through all the placement tests, create levels and a schedule. So we did that and we had everything ready to explain at orientation. Well, it didn't quite work like that. We had another 8 people or more who registered and took the test. Vitori told them they could, so we didn't really know what to say or do then. But now we are for sure not accepting anyone else for this first session. But having all these extra people test changed our classes a bit. Plus, not all the kids have the same school schedule because private school schedules don't follow the public school schedules, so we totally needed to redo the schedule we had made for the beginner groups. Oh man. We got everything done, but it definitely was not as smooth as we'd planned or imagined it would be. But now we know the things to change when we go through this process again at the beginning of our second session after the new year. Today we have to finalize the schedule and call a few people to make sure the changes are ok.

I promised to explain the two other fun nights that are going along with our classes. They are open to everyone, not just students, in the hopes that we get more people coming into the church and meeting the staff and then, hopefully, becoming serious outreach prospects. So these events are open to anyone, students, church members, family, friends, the community, etc.

Every Tuesday night we will have American Culture Night so that they can learn about the ways of life in one English speaking country. It will also be good practice for speaking English. We will introduce American foods, talk about the presidential election (people here are very curious about that), celebrate American holidays, learn about American places, teach line dancing (there was a request for that), etc. We've gotten a few ideas and suggestions from people, so that's encouraging for us as we plan.

Every Thursday night we will have Friendship Night. This is just so people can come, hang out with friends, make new friends, talk to each other outside of class, and just get to know each other. We'll have game nights, food nights, movie nights, celebrate Albanian holidays, and maybe even do activities like bowling and whatnot. Again, we've gotten more ideas from people so I really am hoping this goes well.

When we introduced these activities to people last night, it seemed like there was some genuine interest. Olsa and Neda said that yes, people were definitely interested in it. We'll have to see what happens. We're not starting these nights until the first week in October because we want to have our classes settled first. I sure hope these go well!

That brings me to the end of the Montenegro story and the end of the registration report. Monday starts classes so I'm sure I'll have more to talk about after that. I still have not been feeling the best, so continue to pray for me, please. Other than that, I will keep you all in my prayers and you'll hear from me soon! :)