Kenny the Albanian

Kenny's pretty much becoming Albanian. Ask him and he'll say yes and shake his head no like Albanians do. Here's some photos of him doing some normal Albanian things. 

Eating some byrek. Kenny describes it as, "a savory turnover." You can get it with cheese, spinach, beans, or tomato. It's gooooood. 

Buying vegetables. This was just along the road one time, not our normal place. But this is the basic idea of the kind of produce action we see.

Kenny asked the neighbor for help ordering some wood for our winter heat and he got the good stuff. This is ten cubic meters, which is like four cords. Some men dropped it off, Kenny rearranged this pile, then some men came with a table saw on the back of a little tractor and cut it each piece down into thirds and threw it in the yard. We let it sit out in the sun a few days to dry out some and for the past few days Kenny's been hauling it across the yard a little at a time to the wood stack that he's started in the wood shack he built. Thankful another neighbor is letting him borrow a wheel barrell. So here's the before... I'll have to get an after shot.

He may be becoming Albanian, but as a foreigner, people are pretty open to talking with him. Here he is doing his thing, which isn't such a normal Albanian thing, talking to a young guy he met in an Orthodox church here about beliefs. 

And this guy who said he was a Bektash (but had no idea what the foundations of the faith were) while we stopped to have the car washed. 

Really, it's incredible how adjusted Kenny is to this culture. It wasn't very difficult for him at all. He's probably only just experiencing his first culture shock/stress now that he's driving here. Anyway, I give God the praise for how He's made Kenny and helped him fit into the place that He's called him. His language is in a great spot. He's preached in Albanian and been an excellent impromptu translator English to Albanian and Albanian to English at church for visitors several times now. It's truly amazing to see first hand. Please pray for him, that he'll continue to learn and understand not only the language, but all that it means to be Albanian.