Hello All.
A while since the last post im afraid. We are restricted to whenever we can get into Fier and use an internet cafe.
Things have bee going well. The house is taking shape - got carpet down in the lounge and M & F's room yesterday. And the work in the churches and English schools is also going well. We have done the fundamentals (grace, hope, peace and love) study with 2 groups now, which have gone really well. Emily and I led one with 5 of the older students in Patos which i really enjoyed. The people are great. ShaRon and Tony led the group in Lushnje which by all accounts also went well.

This week one of the english school teachers is away at ABI for the week, so we have been taking her classes. They run from 1 - 6 so we have pretty much split them up amongst ourselves. I am taking an 'advanced' class from 5-6, which i think is going alright. I'm finding it quite difficult to explain to them why what they write is wrong though. I've mainly learnt english just by hearing and speaking it, so i know what's right and wrong, but i dont know the rules to explain to them why. Its working out though. We have some interesting discussions around the dinner table after our lessons at night.

We have also borrowed the TV from the English school after much cajoling from Fey. Her and Tony spent a while yesterday hooking up the arial so now we can satisfy her cravings and watch rediculous Albanian TV programmes. We also borrowed several movies from Will (i've managed to miss both of the movies shown so far - the first looked poor and i wanted to read my book, and i have a cold at the moment so last night i went to bed earlier)
What else?
ShaRon has become our morning breakfast angel - with her smiley friendly self moving around the kitchen/lounge like a blur cooking toast in the oven, making drinks (its amazing how much some people need their coffee in the morning!), taking away plates mere seconds after they have been cleared etc etc etc.
Emily also really likes mornings :P But to get back to the truth... is incredibly helpful with her knowledge of Albanian, and has we think broken new ground in leading the Patos church prayer meeting the other day (all in Albanian of course) and did a great job.
Tony has been dosing up on Neurofen for his back, and is currently sporting an injury (surprise surprise..) after rumbling with Muzza yesterday :) He is also copping an inordinate amount of teasing about a certain you know who - but seems to be coping well. Oh yeah - he is reading a book!!! And enjoying it!!! He has read one particular passage out to us at least 3 times. It is worth it though.

We went to Apollonia on monday for our 'day off' with Will, Doreta and their kids Esther and Lydia. This is the site of ancient Roman ruins - where in fact Paul may well have visited - and was pretty cool. The history here is just so much richer? than NZ. The views werent bad either. Funny though, since the Cotters were here previously they have started charging to visit. 150 lek - unless you are a foreigner when it becomes 500 lek!! We had 1 Albanian, so she and the other Albanian speakers managed to talk the guy down to 250. Guess they figure foreigners can afford more - which is probably true.

The internet place we are in now is not actually a cafe like the one we normally visit, and is filled with kids (all guys) playing internet computer games. There were not enough computers, so Emily and ShaRon have headed off to the other one. From what im seeing they arent very good at the games :)

Well i hope thats enough information to satisfy people. Feel free to ask any questions and someone may try to answer them :)
Hope all is well in NZ (or wherever else you may be)
Mirupafshim