Escape

Yesterday afternoon I took a jog/walk around Lake Tirana with our team leader’s wife. We set out from my home for a little exercise outside. It is always nice to spend time and talk with her to get perspective on my short-lived life in Tirana. She and her family have been here since 1993. I’ve never lived in a big city. I’ve always been a country/suburban girl. And I have to say that the city has a way of sweeping you along into its grey-brown life until one day in early spring you smell cut grass, and you realize that you haven’t seen a decent sized patch of green grass or densely populated trees or any bright colors for who knows how long… As we sometimes-jogged-sometimes-walked around the lake it seemed like the grassy forest floor and the canopy of leaves above us were florescent green in color. Tirana gets so much rain in winter and early spring, but as long as you’re in the middle of the city the only result you see is mud and diesel-infused mist. But if you can escape the city, like I did yesterday, the result is spectacular. It was like God flung green paint everywhere, and the mist of the afternoon only increased the heady aroma of green things growing in the forest all around. Except for the occasional 4x4 that rumbled past us on the muddy, pot-holed path, all was quiet and peaceful. We walked past two pack-ponies roped to a tree and through a small herd of skinny, mud-caked cows. We heard a few ducks quacking down below us in the lake, but as we approached the sound we saw no ducks. They were frogs! Frogs that sounded just like ducks. On the far side of the lake we used a narrow, winding cow path to cut across a large field with sheep and cows. We hopped over a muddy creek and wondered out loud if the smooth fist-sized stones were about the same size as the one that David used to topple Goliath. One afternoon surrounded by nature inspired more awe in me than several episodes of BBC Prime’s The Life of Mammals (it’s one of three English tv stations we get here, and i'm mezmerized by any kind of nature show). I really must escape the city more often!!

Lake Tirana picture I took with my phone a few weeks ago on an early misty morning:


(disclaimer: the first picture above I found on the internet, but it really captures the feeling of forest surrounding the lake. You can't expect me to carry a camera while i'm jogging!)