Just Another Day in Albania

The film crew is here and the prime minister arrives and the Americans have the party tomorrow. Apologies for not posting again yesterday, but we had no Internet. Albania is still finding it's identity, and from the fall of communism to now, it's been a bumpy road, with people dying, unrest rising and falling and the economy yo-yoing. Currently it's in a moderate state. We received a modern history lesson from Professor Hernandez today (he's quite knowledgeable on Albania, having lived in the capital for a year in 2007) and he said that nearly a fourth of the population (about 1,000,000) left Albania in 1997 during a time of political unrest and now the economy is just starting to recover. As a result, the country loses power at random times, for unexplained reasons and indeterminate length. The power outage yesterday killed the Internet at Tani's, so I was unable to post.

Nature is really coming alive here as we enter the summer. The hawk's chicks have hatched to mix success: of the six eggs, one never hatched, one died the day of its birth and one fell out of the nest today, much to the sadness of our group. To make up for it, as we walked through the trenches of past years, we stumbled across one of the local domestic dogs at the edge of the Roman forum. She walked past us and we followed her to a space where she has two adorable puppies tucked away. I will try to get photos. We're not supposed to pet dogs, but I couldn't help it with the puppies. I gave them some love, and then immediately went to wash my hands. If I die of fleas or disease, it was worth it to welcome the puppy to the human world on an upnote.

A week from tomorrow I leave this country, so I'm going to try to document as much as possible between now and then. I leave you tonight with a favorite saying from a now deceased family friend, that applies to me in Butrint, you in America and wherever else you may be: 'life is hard, people are strange and God is good.'