ELBASON MEETING AND VISIT TO SISTERS

5TH. FEBRUARY 2011 ELBASON MEETING AND VISIT TO SISTERS.
A beautiful sunny day in Korce and I am glad to see the snow disappearing from the rooftops!

We enjoyed our day in Elbason on Wednesday, in spite of our early start! We were happy to travel with our Maltese friends. The roads were fine even though there was plenty of snow on all sides. The upgrading of the road, which has been in progress since we came, has now been successfully completed. About 50 religious came together and our bishop was absent,due to 'flu. All nationalities were included in the prayer. I detected an American accent as one of the psalms was read in English. Later, I sought out the reader and met a fine American, Sister Adrienne, member of a German congregation. Sister said she had also identified an Irish accent as I read! The Bishop had already given Adrienne my name and phone number, in case she ever wanted to talk English! We had lunch together with Mirjam and Adrienne's community leader whom Mirjam already knew. We plan to keep in touch. Their convent is more than five hours away. They would like us to visit in the summer, please God.

We were invited to Mother Teresa's Sisters in the afternoon. The Sister that invited us had lived in Korce for a few years. They have a nursery for children, aged 0-6 and they are caring for 26 very small children. Their house is newly built but with few facilities,- they do not accept State Aid. They picked two bags of lovely oranges from the garden for us as we left.

The recent problems in Tirana have had only a few ripples here. A march planned by the Opposition here yesterday passed off peacefully, thank God.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!