HONORABLE CITIZEN AND SCHOOL OF MUSIC.

29 APRIL 2012 HONORABLE CITIZEN AND SCHOOL OF MUSIC. Tuesday evening was memorable. Many people came to honour our two "Honorable Citizens"!. Just before the ceremony began, my phone rang and, as I left the Theatre to take the call, I met the second recipient. He was Sherif Merdani and he introduced me to his wife and son. Sherif had been a singer, was arrested and accused, by the "System", of singing foreign songs. For this, a sentence of 30 years in Burrell prison was handed down. Burrell was the most notorious prison here. Sherif served 16 years before the "System" collapsed. While in prison, he taught Italian, English and Greek His son now sings in Tirana and, on Tuesday evening, they sang together. I asked that he sing one of the songs that led to his imprisonment. He agreed, and said he would sing one in English! I found his part of the ceremony quite moving. One of his support speakers was Secretary of the Persecuted in Korce. Charlie's part of t he evening was a great demonstration of the value of his contribution to Korce. A spokesperson from the Education Department, said Preca College came second in all of Albania. Three young people spoke,a few teachers and a lady from our Church. Altogether, it was a great honour for all involved and we were happy to be part of the event. Spring has really come to Korce in the past week! One of my "pupils" - a teacher at the School of Music, invited me to a Concert last evening at the Cathedral. I really enjoyed it very much. Especially, I loved hearing "Panis Angelicus" beautifully sung. To me it seemed a very nice lead-in to Good Shepherd Sunday. So, greetings to each one for tomorrow and have a great week. I will finish with a detail from last week and our Conference in Pogradec. I only caught up with it on Sunday last! David, Superior at the Maltese Community had just arrived back from Malta.He had gone there following an appendix operation and also he had a problem with his arm, for which he was receiving physiotherapy. He was hastily awakened by Rainer on that Saturday morning -"Get up quickly - you are on your own to push the minibus"!!!!! This was in fact true, even though it does not seem very good medical practice!!! All's well that ends well!