This Land is My Land

We went for a visit to our friends the Cela's today.  They are wonderful people.  They live in a village called Peze-Cela.  They wanted us to come and see the small orchard and their animals.  As soon as we got there Andi, B.D. and Super Jack went fishing with Brother Cela. 

Sweets, Bumbles and I went inside with the women folk.  Immediately, Sister Cela wanted to put more clothes on my kids. 

This is the sweater she had for Sweets.
The stove in the background is how they heat their home.

After she had us dressed she offered us that beautiful gold candy you see in that pretty blue bowl.  I explained that I don't eat sugar.  I just told her I have a problem with blood sugar and she didn't give me a hard time.  Once we got out the toys and Sweets ate some candy . . . . she had to go pee.  The young lady of the house showed her where the bathroom was.  When the young lady came back she explained that there was no toilet paper.  I wasn't worried.  I knew Sweets was used to it.  However, Sweets came back quickly and told me she needed my help.  I, of course, had Bumbles, but we went together and did the best we could.  She still got pee on her pants, but it was just low down on the leg.  You would too if you had to pee on this.

This is a turkish toilet and it is lame!

We decided to go take some pictures of their orchard while we waited for the pee to dry.

The tractor

Lemon Trees

Sleeping Ducks

A beautiful view

Blue Trees

When we first arrived our friend that came with us asked why these trees were blue.  The answer was that they were painted with a pesticide.  Our friend asked if it was harmful to our health.  The answer was that this was something that "we" used in communist times and it isn't harmful to our health.  I don't know about you, but I'm not buyin' it.

You might have noticed that the village Peze-Cela has our friends name in it "Cela".  That is because he has 5 brothers and they all live very close to each other.  This is one of his brother's houses.

They live down stairs.  Many people live in these
half finished homes.

Sweets and I decided we'd go down to the river to see if we could see where the boys were fishing.

I'm not sure what that big concrete thing is, but I thought
you'd find it interesting.

Every where I looked all I could see was trash.

Sweets on the other hand saw all the pretty little things.

Just like her aunt Kari Ann.

We decided to go back to the house.  On our way up the bank we saw a neighbor heading down the river bank with huge bags in her hands.

I had to take a picture.

I was terrified she was just going to throw them in the river.  However, I ended up going back down to the river a little while later and I saw what she did with them.

She propped them up on a tree right
next to these.

My mom was so disturbed by all the trash in Albania.  I'm disturbed by it too.  However, this is not just littering.  They NEVER take their trash to the dump.  If only you could have seen this one area of the bank that was obviously where they dump their daily trash (I couldn't get close enough to take a picture).  Come to find out the woman who dumbed her milk bottles here OWNS this property.  Why would you treat your own land so badly?  So sad. 

I hope you enjoyed our visit.  We sure did.  By the way, I am going to tell you my secret tomorrow.