Mom goes Home; A summery of her visit

Many of you know that my mom came to Albania for a month long visit.  I think that she got a pretty good taste of the life of a volunteer.  She was so good about email updates of the things that we did during her time her that I have been a little lazy!  So, time to get back to it.  Here is a summary of the things that we did during her visit.

We made a trip to Bogove, a town only about an hour and a half bus trip from Berat. The town is the water source for the whole Berat region.  There is water flows crystal clear out of the mountain.  My mom and I are pictured at the waterfall, where the fresh water first pools before cascading down to the river and out to the town.  We hiked in to this serene little picnic spot and then met some of my Albanian friends for some lamb back in the town.  They also offered to give us a ride home in their private car, which is a much better alternative to the bus!
You may have heard me mention the garden that our youth group is creating at the local mental facility.  During the time that my mom was here, we funded our project and began some of the initial gardening and and preparation.  Since mom was here, she offered her assistance.  This is a group shot after our firsts days work, in the soon to be, Garden of Hope.
Several cities in Albania are home to ancient castles.  I think that my mom saw a hearty helping of them during her visit.  We saw the really well maintained castle in Gjirokastra, the ruins of the oldest inhabited castle in all of Europe, which is in Berat, and then the castle in Shkoder, which mostly offers a nice birds eye view of the city below.  This is us inside the castle of Shkoder.
Our weather was really perfect during the whole trip.  Days were in the 70's, sometimes even 80's, and the nights were pleasantly fresh.  Nothing sleeping with a hot water bottle couldn't cure.  This is us at the beach, and if we had our swimsuits, we would have been hard pressed to stay out of the water!

All in all it was a great trip.  It was really fun having my mom around in a otherwise sort of lonely place.  I am glad to say that she made it back safe and sound after her 22 hour trip to the USA.  I have been back to life as "usual" here in Berat.  Keeping busy working on a tourism project and still entertaining guest that come in to see our wonderful city!  Looking forward to my trip home in only a few weeks!