Walk of Hope - The First Week

Monday, April 07, 2008
5:20 PM


Day One

Arrived in Shkoder last night and had a great visit with Pastor Tani and his family. Tani "under blood", meaning that his family is in a blood feud with another family. Tani's uncle killed a man and now Tani and his 5 year old son are in danger of being killed as revenge. It is an old custom here in Albania, especially in the north. Tani has been living in hiding pretty much for over 2 years now. Whenever he is out he is constantly looking over his shoulder lest a member of the "enemy" family should find him. He has been leading his church from his home for the last two years and misses being able to preach.
We spent the night at the Nxënesit e Jezusit church building in Shkoder. We rolled out sleeping mats and sleeping bags and slept on the floor. No hot water and very little water pressure in the building, but we will manage. As I type this a couple of the guys are cleaning up out in the back courtyard at an open air sink. I'll take my turn next. We had planned to walk from Hani i Hotit to a little village called Grilë today - about 20 -25 kilometers. Things were moving nicely so we kept going and actually logged about 19 miles! My feet are sore from my hiking boots and my right heel has a nice blister the size of a quarter on it. I will be doctoring that up in a bit too. As I type the bells of the Catholic cathedral are chiming 5:30. God gave us wonderful weather for the walk today - not too hot, not too cold; a mix of sun and clouds. We got some strange looks as we walked in our neon yellow reflective vests, I can tell you that. Four foreigners, walking around, speaking english - we made quite a sight!

All in all a pretty good day - we'll see what tomorrow holds. Hopefully the blister will not be a problem, as I intend to switch shoes. The legs are a bit stiff, but should be ok after a night's rest! Now… where did I pack the Tylenol?

Tuesday, April 08, 2008
8:37 PM
Day Two

We started off this morning with a good cappuccino, some bananas and bread then started off on the walk again. The sun was not very bright and we had thin scattered clods for most of the morning. Our starting point was not far outside of Shkoder so within a short amount of time we found ourselves walking down one of the main streets of the city - one filled with shops. It was so funny to watch people almost getting whiplash as they turned to watch. Several people spoke "at" us more than anything. I tried to say hello to many of them and it was also fun to see their reactions. We walked through town and then out the other side, under the shadow of the Rozafa Castle. AS we continued on our southward trek, Peter and Melodye Bowers and the boys stopped to say hello to us. They were driving by on their way to Shkoder and noticed us on the side of the road. It was nice break and an encouragement to hear them say hello. On and on we went until about 1 pm when we stopped for a rather Albanian lunch - bread, white cheese, raw tomatoes, raw cucumbers, raw onion and pickled red peppers. We washed it down with a can of Fanta Exotic then set off again. We were making good time so we went past our expected stopping point and gained another 4 or 5 kilometers before stopping for the day at 3 pm. We were all tired and sunburned, a bit foot weary but had logged 17.5 miles for the day, so it was a good day's walk. One of our walkers, Steve, has some pretty nasty blisters on his heels so we will be sending him ahead by vehicle and he will likely sit out tomorrow to give his feet some time to heal up. My own blisters did pretty well today - had a new one on the left heel after the change of foot gear, but on the whole I am doing ok.

At 4:30 we had a time of prayer with some of the members of the Nxenesit e Jezusit church (where we are staying) and afterwards Paulini asked if anyone wanted to go back to his house with him for a hot shower. Two of us volunteered and after walking for another 20 minutes or so we were rewarded with a nice hot shower, and the hospitality of Pauline's wife. Jeremy, one of the English members of our party not only got a hot shower but also a "nice 'ot moog oov English tay" - he was thrilled. I am not sure which he enjoyed more, the shower or the tea!

Tomorrow we head back out and I think we have about 20km to Lezhe where we will be stopping for the night. I am not sure if we will try to keep our streak of extra mileage going and walk beyond Lezhe, then come back into town for the meeting and a night's rest, but I think I would be in favor of that (Lord willing and the blisters don't rise!). More tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008
10:19 PM
Day Three

What a day! The day started out pretty rough actually - about 4:30 am I woke to the sound of driving rain outside the church where we were sleeping. It continued on and off until well past the time we got up. We packed up, cleaned up the church and headed out to our starting point in a light rain. When we stopped for a morning coffee it was dumping! We scrambled into the restaurant, ordered our drinks and then while we were sitting there it stopped raining! Yahoo! So off we went to start walking. The road claimed its first casualty - Steve's blisters were so bad that we sent him on to Lezhe to get checked out by a couple of the ladies there who are nurses. Later on it was decided that the best thing for him to do was to go home and rest his feet so that maybe he could rejoin us when we get to Fier. He was disappointed, but took it well.

We started walking - just Richard, Jeremy and myself - single file this time since it was misty and there was a lot of water on the road. Jeremy took the lead and set a pretty brisk 4 MPH pace. I have to admit that I was not doing too well due to my own blistered feet and the fact that the day was just nasty! We were walking a long straight stretch - over 2 miles long with no turns and little to see. It had started raining again, a light, steady drizzle, and every vehicle that passed us sprayed us too! The wind was whipping the rain into my face. This was just not fun any more! I figured this was one of those days where we just had to gut it out and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I guess the one good thing about the fast pace was that we were making great time! By the time we reached Lezhe at about 11:45 I was soaked with rain on the outside of my jacket and sweat on the inside. I was chilly and footsore - since it was so wet I had worn my boots again and they were rubbing the same spots that had caused the blister to form in the first place. We called the Zimmermans in Lezhe and they said they had a hot lunch ready for us! There is a God in heaven that answers prayers!!! Naomi spread out a wonderful lunch with two kinds of soup, greek salad, bread, jam, and then strawberry shortcake for dessert. We rested for two hours, I got to see Caleb for a few minutes (when he was not busy playing with the Zimmerman kids) and I was able to change out the bandages on my blister. While we were there I got a message that several of the OM team were having a retreat in Shengjin an that they wanted to walk with us for a while after lunch, so we arranged to meet about 2:30 for them to walk with us for a while.

With a fresh infusion of enthusiasm and some new faces we were able to log about 6 more miles for a total of about 16 miles for the day. The batteries on my GPS went dead in the middle of one stretch so I lost some of our distance. It appears that we have covered 80 KM since departing from Hani i Hotit - that means that we are over half way to Tirana. With healthy feet and some extra effort, we might even be able to get in earlier than anticipated - we'll have to see.

At 5 pm we had a meeting at the Lajmi i Mire Baptist church in Lezhe. Sedika Fushekati and a colleague came and did a presentation about trafficking and how the church should and can help victims. The meeting was well received by all in attendance. After that Robert, one of the local missionaries, took us out to eat - courtesy of the Lezhe churches (there are 4 of them) and that was topped off by homemade donuts at Glenda Mast's apartment. She graciously made them for us this afternoon and then let 7 men come up to her house after 9 pm to enjoy them! What a trooper! 6 AM comes early, so I will end here and go on to bed.




Day Four

Our longest mileage day yet! I was kind of like the horse that has his nose pointed towards the home stable today!

We got the day off to a rousing start. The Zimmerman family invited us to their house for a good Mennonite breakfast, and I went a little early for a nice hot shower! After the shower and shave we sat down to a huge breakfast and great fellowship. Naomi and Glenda had prepared muffins, an egg dish with deviled eggs and a creamy sauce, fresh fruit, coffee, juice and then coffee cake! I thought I would not be able to move at all! I was also able to get onto the internet briefly to send my previous updates and some photos to Cindy.

Once we got out to our starting point, I walked with Hervin Fushekati and Richard and Jeremy took the lead. We were making quite good time, and my blisters were not bothering me at all. The stretch we walked today was quite straight, but thankfully broken up very frequently by businesses and villages. We got the usual strange looks form most of the people we saw, and when we told a policeman who was working a speed trap (yes, they even have them here too!) that we were walking from the north to the Greek border he said "Holiday?" We had another typical farmer's lunch by the roadside - tomatoes, cukes, bread and cheese, washed down with a Lemon Soda. Our goal today was to reach Fushe Kruja and we were able to do that quite easily thanks to the extra we have been walking each day. We continued on past Fushe Kruja and Richard said he'd really like to log 20 miles today if possible. Well, it was possible! We did exactly 20 miles (32 km) to make this our longest day yet. Great for us, but kind of rough on Hervin who just joined us yesterday afternoon! We are now only about 13 km outside of Tirana (8-9 miles) So we are thinking we will make it into Tirana some time around noon. Yippee! Instead of rising early on Saturday morning and walking into the city to avoid traffic, we will be there by mid day and have an extra half day of rest! I am very much looking forward to that!

One slightly troubling thing from today is that my left knee started to give me quite a lot of pain. Though the blisters stopped bothering me, the knee was a real nuisance. Once we arrived in F. Kruje, we went to the home of Dag, a Norwegian missionary. As we were sitting there, sharing about the walk and enjoying a bit of a cold drink, he kept noticing me rubbing my knee. He asked me if there was a problem, so I mentioned that it was hurting a good bit. He asked me if I had read James 5. I said that I had and then asked if he and another pastor friend of his would pray for me. He then went back into the house somewhere and came back with some oil and they anointed me and prayed over me and my knee. As I am sitting here now a few hours later, the pain has been reduced significantly! We'll see how it feels in the morning.

We had dinner in the home of one of the young couples of the church, Ledi and Dhurata. It was great to spend some time with them and their little boy, Abi. Abi and I became great friends while there. Now were are in the home of Dhurata's mother getting ready to sleep. Tomorrow - Tirana!