Or rather, I don't have the time to write about everything I could write about. So I pick and choose based on what I know I will want to remember years from now.
The other day I was sitting having a 'coffee' with Shiloh. I'm not sure what I would be doing with her if we lived in America. But here, you have coffee.
I don't know how much I have talked about "coffee" here in Albania but it is a pillar of Albanian culture.
It is basically the ONLY form of communal interaction.
Yes, people visit each other at their houses. But "going for a coffee" is where its at.
All day every day.
They sip on tiny espressos that cost around 40 cents a piece.
And it has become ingrained in our family life as well.
Cory goes for a coffee with boys or Erion or Chad every day.
I go for coffee with girls.
And now Shiloh and I go for a coffee.
And the other day, as we were sitting there I was thinking about how "different" her life has become and will continue to be.
We were outside at a local coffee shop called "Bar Liqeni," surrounded by men smoking and sipping their espressos.
We stand out, obviously. I'm not exactly sure where all the moms and kids are during that time of the day, but they are not out.
I order her a juice. She gets so excited and says "Juice, lummy" a hundred times.
Right before the waiter brings it, we hear the call to prayer coming from the Mosque a hundred yards away.
She tries to say "Faleminderit" or "Thank you" to the waiter but that is WAY to long of a word.
We sit there and drink our drinks and she climbs up and down from the chair over and over again.
Every time I look around at least 5 people are looking at us.
I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe one day I will figure it out.
Watching Shiloh grow up in the midst of two cultures is crazy to watch.
The other day she was counting and said "1,2,3" in English and then "4,5,6" in Albanian.
She is starting to understand bits of Albanian and use certain words.
She stares at Cory and I when we speak in Albanian as if she doesn't know who we are.
When Cory sings in Albanian she says "Erion" because she always hangs out with him church during the worship.
She has started to say "Pafshim (goodbye)" "Te dua (I love you)."
Soon, she will speak Albanian better than we do. She will be correcting us. It is weird to think that our daughter will be so much better at something she will spend so little time on.
She will understand the culture better than we will.
She will be in many ways, Albanian.
But she will also be American.
She will, in essence, have her own culture made up of her own fusion of the two.
I pray that we will know how to parent her as we raise her in the midst of two cultures. And Taliah as well.
But for now, this is her only reality.
She doesn't remember the malls and plastic playgrounds and pumpkin patches in America.
She knows that we go on a walk every day, that she drinks a juice, and that she can climb on the "Big Man" as we call him, by the lake.
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