Without Measure

Today is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, a golden day of worth and value without measure. In Spanish, the word for "fifty" is "cincuenta," which can be a pun for "sin cuenta," without measure. Infinite. Uncountable. 

Two years ago I had the honor of sorting through decades' worth of letters that my grandmother Beth Phelps had saved, letters from my dad in college and later from Viet Nam, then piles of letters from Peru. Beginning in 1971, there were letters from my mother as well, and eventually letters from me and Anita. 

This treasure of family history took my breath away.

There was one word that emerged as a theme from these carefully folded missives: 

Thankfulness.

Over and over again, these words emerged: Thank you. 

And these are the words that I have for today: Thank you. 

Thank you for giving me and Anita an upbringing of immeasurable worth, experiences across continents and countries, a life among the Quechuas - these beautiful and marginalized and beloved people - our own heritage. 

Thank you for your steadfastness, with each other, in your faith, towards us.

Thank you for your generosity and selflessness towards others.

I love you, sin cuenta.

Do you see what I see?

 Here is the story of our viewings of the great conjunction of 2020. 

On Dec. 21, we hauled ourselves and two of Val's friends down to the artificial lake of Tirana, figuring the dam would be the best viewing point for that part of the sky. Terry has been taking evening walks around the lake for exercise and has been tracking Jupiter and Saturn in their twilight arcs.

Alas, a screen of clouds obscured our view of the celestial marvel that night. We hung out there by the dam for a good hour, but didn't get a break. We saw one twinkling light near the horizon that we thought *could* have been the conjunction, or not, but it was too dim to tell where the hilltops were across the lake there. 

Tuesday was a pretty evening, but also still cloudy. Made for a nice sunset, though!

Last night we finally had our chance! As the sun was doing down, I saw how clear the sky was and called the kids to get their shoes on - we didn't have time to get all the way to the lake, but we could walk down to the central plaza (Sheshi Skenderbeg), the most open area nearby, to see what we could see. 

And there it was! We could spot it without difficulty and unbelievably it even shows up in my phone's camera, just over the big Orthodox church near the center. 

Welp, that was it. So we went into the big bookstore there to pick up a World War II history book that Val was interested in, and then headed to home. 

But, as we were leaving the plaza, I saw two men hauling in a big old telescope! I was sure they were going to set it up to see the conjunction, so we turned around and followed them. Quicker than you could say "Bethlehem," they had it set up and pointed at the planetary marvel. We were the first in line to see it (and toss a few coins into their collection box). We could see both planets and a few of the moons, not very clearly, but distinctly enough. I think there was some cloud haze at that point. Then they turned it around to look at the moon, which was incredibly clear and beautiful. 

So we got to see the great conjunction of 2020.

Here's hoping for some 2020 vision going into the new year. 

Ancient Apollonia

Last Saturday we had the pleasure of visiting the site of an  ancient Greek settlement some way down the coast, near the city of Fier. Apollonia was established over 2,000 years ago and within a few generations had developed its own distinct identity as a small city-state, neither Greek nor Illyrian. At its height, the population was around 40,000 people. 

The archaeological ruins have only been 6% excavated and explored. What is visible is this partially restored temple, an amphitheater, and the foundations of several homes where families (counting enslaved people) averaging around 30 members lived. 

The major river that was this city's main access highway and irrigation source for the lush farmlands all around was diverted by a major earthquake (I forget when), after which the city declined. 

In the 13th century, an Orthodox monastery was built on the ruins of the city, and it still stands today. We briefly saw a priest in his black robe standing under a tree as we came up the hill. 

It was very dark inside, but we were able to see ancient frescos, stone carvings, and a beautiful floor mosaic that has been partially uncovered.

The layers of history run deep here. 

One of the most fun parts of the excursion was the company of two other families, whose sons are classmates and good friends of Gabriel. The boys were so happy to spend time together on a Saturday! 

After the visit to the archaeological site, we all went out for an amazing fish and frog leg dinner at a nearby restaurant. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but so worth it - a place I'd been wanting to see for a long time! 

 

Tree is up

These are not the clearest photos in the world, but we had fun setting up the tree yesterday and hanging ornaments. This one detail really makes it feel like we've vaulted into the Christmas season. 

The kids have been buying and wrapping gifts for an "angel tree" activity at school where donations go to a local organization, Tek Ura, that does really great work here with marginalized communites. 

I set up a bunch of candles in our fireplace, makes a nice little grotto. The light colored stones in the middle are a fossil of some kind of mollusc that I found on one of our hikes.

And we made ginger cookies with sprinkles! Terry and Val ground up whole cloves for the spice mix. Yum! 

 

The Road Goes Ever On and On

We went on a great hike on Sunday, up on Dajti Mountain and around to the back. 

When we walked through this tunnel, I told the kids "We're in Narnia!" 

It's such a relief to have the US election called. It feels like we've all dodged a bullet collectively, and I hope we have. 

I guess it's what you would call and mountaintop experience! 

 I don't think I take enough pictures of Terry :-) I'm thankful for everything he does for and with us. 

Pause

I was walking home after a staff meeting on Tuesday, along a busy grimy street and turned my head to see this amazing sunset. Since daylight savings time ended, the sun sets so early. It was good to be reminded that there is beauty everywhere, but sometimes you have to pay attention to see it. 

Two weekends ago we went hiking with a big group of people, 7 families from our school went in 6 vehicles to an area not far from Tirana where there are some old castle ruins near a little village. To get to the village, you had to hike up a very precarious path, however, so half the group took the wide road around - but went off track and ended up invading someone's private farm. 

Nothing bad happened, we just had to turn around and retrace our steps back.

I was thinking about these steep slopes - how we have to pause to catch our breath, and in doing so we see the big picture. 

Weekends are such important pauses for me right now in this high-stress school year. This weekend the same folks who organized this hike are ambitiously organizing another. We're thinking Terry will go while the kids and I stay home, and pause. 

Elbow Grease

This morning I got up to a new, happy feeling - a real sense of relief from pain I've had in my right elbow early August. There have been days when I would wake up and my elbow hurt less, or hurt more, but today it was a qualitatively different feeling than just a mathematical decrease in pain. I think it's finally getting better 

We got bikes over the summer, calculating a savings cost and health benefits for getting to and from school in the coming months. Meanwhile, to get the kids (and myself) in biking shape we used them to get to and from playdates. One day coming back from picking Gabe up, I lifted the bike quickly over a curb at an awkward angle and felt a sharp, intense pain in my right elbow. 

That was the first injury. I iced it, took Ibuprofen, and tried not to use that arm too much, but it hurt even to try to open a pickle jar, or to scrub a pot while washing dishes. 

Then, about 10 days later, I was foolishly trying out Gabe's hoverboard and fell hard backwards, hitting my head on the low wall of the balcony and also landing on that same right elbow. 

I was truly frightened about possible head injury, because school was just starting, but I was fine as far as that went. 

The elbow, though, was bruised and swollen. Over the next few days it got better, but I was stuck with chronic pain that was exacerbated by knitting, using the mouse, and using the handbrake on my bike. Anything that involved grasping with the thumb and first two fingers on my right hand. 

Physiotherapy was the next step. Turns out that the radius was very slightly dislocated, but the therapist shoved it back in place and gave me a series of exercises to do. That helped, but the pain continued. Less, but still there. 

I went back again and got instructions to prop up my forearm while using the mouse or typing, and I think this has done the trick. It's the ergonomics of it - plus continued careful stretching. 

We're coming to the end of the first quarter of the school year and I finally am feeling some relief - both in reduced stress overall, and relief from this chronic pain. I am so thankful.  

Shpella Pëllumbasit - hike to a cave

We had this week off from school, a nice long Fall Break, so it seemed like a good opportunity to head out of the city and explore more of Albania. The weather had other plans, however, so we spent Monday and Tuesday hunkered down with books and Minecraft while it rained, and rained, and rained. 

Thankfully, Wednesday dawned clear and beautiful and we were able to borrow a vehicle for a lovely day trip to Petrela Castle: 

We had gone a few years ago when my parents came to visit, but this time the weather was nicer and we're all in better shape so made the short climb to the top to see the amazing view from the top. It was pretty amazing to envision the people who built it, strategically located to look along the valley to Durres.

After that we made our way to Pëllumbas, a small village where we got a bit of lunch to eat before following a well-maintained trail along the mountains to an amazing cave called Shpella Pëllumbasit (the cave of Pëllumbas). 

The silence of the mountains was only disturbed by the rushing sound of the river below, and the occasional braying of a donkey from the village. The trail was not too muddy, and there were handrails and steps installed in the trickiest spots, as well as a few benches at lookout spots like the one above. We saw a lot of mushrooms, beetles, and grasshoppers. 

I was about to give up when we finally got to the cave - it was pretty impressive, having been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic! (well, not continuously - I don't think anyone lives there now)

There were steps carved into the cave wall here near the entrance.

Apparently you can rent lanterns and helmets to do a proper spelunking, and hire a guide, but we just moseyed around the entrance and imagined being ancient humans living there. The cave floor was quite dry, so it seemed like a perfect ready-made place to hunker down in bad weather between hunting and foraging trips. 

 We don't know much about mushrooms, but there were a number of different kinds visible and I imagine some are edible. 

It was a beautiful, amazing day trip and I'm so glad we did it.