Teaching Albanian Teachers

Hello again!

On the same day as the accident occurred, I had the opportunity to teach Albanian teachers in the village of Laç (about an hour north of Tirana).

The director of GDQ and I taught a seminar on classroom management to eighteen Albanian teachers in the city, Laç.

This seminar was part of a collaboration with World Vision in an effort to provide an opportunity for Albanian teachers to learn new concepts and receive more training.

Much of the information that we presented is drastically different from the cultural norm, especially in relation to discipline. However, the teachers received the information well and actively participated throughout the seminar.

Not only was it a great opportunity to pass on information and ideas that I have, but it was also a wonderful opportunity to build relationships!

Explosions

On Saturday, April 15th, there was a horrific accident that occurred here in Albania. Let me fill you in on some of the details.

Albania has about 100,000 tons of ammunition stored in former army depots across the country, and on Saturday a team of specialists were dismantling about 40,000 tons in a village about 8 miles from Tirana.

No one knows yet exactly what happened, but people are speculating that human error was to blame. Safety procedures were said to be so lax that gunpowder was stored in unprotected containers. There was speculation that the first of six blasts could have been caused by an explosion of gunpowder that accidentally caught fire. Five blasts followed this initial explosion, and were so strong that they were felt 190 miles away in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. Houses more than a mile away were damaged while in Tirana, eight miles away, windows were shattered and the international airport was temporarily closed.

Nearly 300 people were injured, and at this point eleven people are known to be dead. The government said that more than 300 buildings in the area have been completely destroyed.
Please pray for all the of the people who are effected by this tragedy— injured, lost their homes, or were killed.