Last summer we were camping in Albania for 2 weeks. I was 20 weeks pregnant. It was a blast. I was tired by the second week but it was a blast.
From what we have seen and been told, Albania is a male dominated culture. Generally speaking, this means that the men are “lords of their homes.” Their word is law. The women work harder and longer. During the day, the coffee shops are filled with men conversing. You never see a woman outside sitting around in Albania during the day. They are at home working, where they belong.
However, pregnant women in Albania are almost worshipped. Not literally, just in the way they are treated.
The Albanian word for a pregnant woman is “thesar.” This literally translates “sack of gold.” As a pregnant woman, you are carrying gold.
Sort of biblical?
I was not allowed to lift a finger.
I was scolded for picking up a tiny melon.
Everyone smiled at my belly like it was the most wonderful sight they had ever seen.
I was covered in blankets at night when it was cold during our sessions.
I was given extra food.
Extra food.
This meant that at every meal, kids would come and scrape their extra food onto my plate….
It was fine when it was like a piece of watermelon. But when they dumped red chunky soup into my bowl…
“Thank you!” I would just smile. And then pray, “Lord please don’t let them be sick.” Eat.
I was a queen. Sometimes not in the way I would like to be.
When I came home and went to my doctors appointment I stepped on the scale.
“Wow Albania hit ya hard huh?” Thats what the midwife said. I cried.
Well yes it would hit you hard too if you were eating the leftovers of 25 teenage boys!
Everyone asked me constantly how I was feeling, how the baby was, and if I was tired. If I needed anything.
Truly I could not have felt more loved or cared for. In a way, it was the first time I actually “felt pregnant.” Everyone acknowledging it made it “feel real.”
In Albania, pregnant woman are treated specially. You are a sack of gold.
But as our friend Klodi pointed out to us, when a woman delivers the baby…
she is just an empty sack :)
Tiny Shiloh Belle with some sweet Albanian Friends
What an insight into the culture... it struck me while reading your post how culturally important it is here in Albania that the cycle of life goes on. There is such a standard series of blessings here: "may you have a wedding" for the singles; "may you have an inheritance" for the engaged couples; and what I hear just about every day I'm in the village "may you have a son". And as someone married just four months and immediately living in a foreign culture, my first thought is "ahhhgh! not yet!" But I suppose I shouldn't really say that in response. ;-)
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