Edward had told me about a store called Jumbo. It's a relatively large, very organized store, somewhat comparable to an American store. Last Monday morning, I set out with one of the older boys to go check it out and see what they offer.
It is fairly dangerous to bike on the roads here, so the kids haven't been allowed to ride outside of our neighborhood. This was Toddy's first time riding on the main roads. Edward instructed me to go the way less traveled, so we did. It was a way that I had never been before.
Not far outside of our neighborhood, we rode by a couple of horses and a cow in a field. Toddy, who has an appreciation for animals, asked me if I had noticed the foal lying in the grass. Still riding, I glanced over and looked. I could barely see its dark body through the tall grass. It was right next to the two horses, a white one and a black one. I asked him if he thought that it had just been born. He was familiar with the two horses. He said that as of a couple days earlier he had never seen the foal. I couldn't believe that it may have just been born moments before we passed by. I was tempted to turn around and go back and stand on the road to watch it get up for the first time. However, we were on a mission, so I let the impulse pass and we kept going.
I called Edward once we got closer to Jumbo. There was a rotary and I wasn't sure which way to go. He told me to head to the left and that he was just past a second rotary, waiting for us at a cafe.
He told us to walk our bikes because of the heavy traffic and busy rotaries.
On our way, I had to pass by a group of people on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure of the proper way to say, "Excuse me," in Albanian, so I finally just said, "Me fal (muh fal)," hoping that I got it right. It was a family of five from Sweden. They asked me in English, with an accent, how to get to the center.
After several minutes of helping them, Toddy and I departed and finally met Edward outside the coffee shop. I told him how surprised I was that I was actually helping someone else find their way around the city. I had only spent a month or so here.
Edward got Toddy and I soft serve ice cream cones for 50 leke (leck) each. A leke is comparable to one cent. Afterwards, he showed us an outdoor market that he had told us about. It's there that he had been buying big bags of peanuts for our peanut butter for a good price. He introduced us to the shop owner, bought a couple of things, and we parted ways.
Toddy and I spent quite a while looking at all the different things that Jumbo had to offer. I purposely didn't bring more than a few hundred leke (equivalent to a few dollars), knowing that it would be too easy to spend a lot.
On our ride back home, we saw the horses. The foal was up and standing next to the black one by the edge of the road. We were on the opposite side of the road this time. Down the road a little bit was quite a sight. I really wanted to take a picture, but my phone battery had died. There stood the beautiful and graceful white horse standing with trash all around her legs and eating out of a dumpster by the side of the road. Never had I seen such a thing! She wasn't phased a bit!
We ate lunch when we got back home. I told them about the horses and our time out. We did our daily time of singing spiritual songs and going over some scriptures. We have been using an Albanian Bible to learn the Albanian version of scriptures that we are already familiar with.
I tossed around the idea of taking the younger kids for a walk to see the horses. I had my phone charging. I figured that I could take some pictures. I didn't have anything pressing that had to get done, and since we had moved into the house, the younger kids weren't going out and about as much. I figured that they would like it.
I announced my idea to the kids. Toddy and some others adamantly warned me that the mother was not going to be happy with me and that she would try to kick me. I had no intention of getting close or bothering her. She didn't seem to think anything of us passing by earlier.
Off we went with each older child responsible for a younger one. The older ones took their bikes and gave the younger ones rides. The younger children had never been to the other end of our long road or to where the horses were. They enjoyed the adventure and riding on the big bikes.
As we got closer to where we had seen the horses, we heard a makina (mah-keenah)/car honking its horn. Toddy commented something like, "Yup! There they are!" I looked up. A little ways ahead, in the middle of the road, the three horses were standing, in no hurry to get out of the way. Out came my phone. This was not something that I was used to seeing coming from suburban America.
I took a video at that point, so I didn't get any photos of them in the middle of the road. Above is a screenshot from the video.
I made sure that the kids were all okay and looking out for each other and I crossed the road as the horses just had. How exciting! We got to see this new baby horse on its first day!
Ten months before leaving America for Albania, we started to accumulate animals. We got two female goats, then a male one. When we sold them to a friend before moving here, we knew that they were most likely pregnant and close to giving birth. I was so disappointed to have to miss out on the birth and the joy of having baby goats around. In my post, "Down by the River," I shared a picture of the baby goat from one of our goats that gave birth since we left. Here are pictures of the two male kids born to our second goat, Precious since that post.
So cute!
Anyway, back to the horses. They had crossed over to this car wash (lavazh, pronounced lah-vahge). It was a relatively hot day. The white one got hosed down by the owner of the car wash. We think that he may also own the animals. I don't have a picture of it, and you'll understand why in a minute.
I crossed the road and was on the sidewalk to the left of the horses, with the tall grass blocking me from getting a full view. A man sitting at the carwash was yelling something to me. The kids started yelling at me that I better get out of there, that she was mad at me. She sure was!!! I didn't see this, but apparently she bucked. What I did see was that she left her mozying and was coming after me! She was looking at and heading straight for me! I couldn't get out of there fast enough!
I don't remember if I had to wait for a car so that I could cross the road, or if the road was clear at the moment. I thanked God many times that day that the horse abandoned her stalk once I reached my children. Maybe she didn't want to deal with a whole crew of people. Maybe she was satisfied that I had left her and her young. Whatever it was, I learned a lesson that day. My kids were absolutely right about what she would do.
The three horses crossed back to the side where I had first seen them earlier in the morning. The foal nursed from his mama briefly at the edge of the road, then galloped into the field where he had been born, then briefly fed from his mama again.
We headed back home, thankful to have escaped unscathed, and thankful to have been able to witness part of a special day in those horses' lives.
Later that day I read a scripture that I just love. I don't remember if I stumbled across it or purposely opened to it.
Job 39:1-4
1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give
birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
2 Do you count the months till they bear?
Do you know the time they give birth?
3 They crouch down and bring forth their young;
their labor pains are ended.
4 Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds;
they leave and do not return."
God knows those horses and knew all that was going on with them that day, as well as with us. It's so comforting to know.
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