Hi all,
Here is my
first email to most of you. I wrote it
on the 6th, but haven't
been able
to send it until now. There will be
another one following
shortly. I welcome comments and greetings from all of
you, but may not have
time to
answer all. Hope you are all doing
well!
June 6,
1999
Albanian
Chronicles 1: The Adjustment
Well, here
I am, in Albania for 5 days now and it feels like a month!
Each day
is packed with new experiences, which take so much
energy to
process and absorb. It has been non‑stop
since arrival,
which is
why it has taken me so long to get a decent letter out to
you all.
I still
don't have internet access from my apartment, but I wanted
to get
something written before it all starts to blend together.
Well, to
start from the beginning... it was a shorter flight than I
thought it
might be. The stopovers in Amsterdam
and Budapest
were
uneventful, since I only had a few hours in each. The best
part of
the transatlantic portion was a beautiful sunset/rise that
never
quit... it literally lasted the whole flight... the midnight sun
thing.
The NATO
helicopters parked along the runway and soldiers with
automatic
weapons were a sobering sight as I stepped off the
plane onto
the tarmack, and I felt oddly protected.
The worst
part of the flight was the arrival in Tirana, where I had to
wait for
one and a half hours to get my passport stamped in a
crowded,
hot, smoke‑filled room, with lots of angry foreigners. If
you knew
someone, you could move to the front of the line. If
not, you
had to wait impatiently.
Dale, my
boss for the second time, had to wait outside the airport
for me to
come out into the bright hot sun. And
then when he
asked me
where my suitcases were, I realized that I was so happy
to get out
of there that I totally forgot to pick them up! Finally,
after
arguing with the guard at the entrance, who didn't want to
let me
back in, I went back and fetched them.
That's all
for now... look for Chronicle 2 coming to an email address near
you soon!
From Albania
with love,
David