Bijram

Well, it's day two of Bijram. Yesterday, Rachel and I were woke up by a half hour (or more) "sermon" being loudly projected from the mosque at six o'clock in the morning. We were told that's normal for the first day of Bijram. A lot of people went to the 6 AM service and then went back to have a big meal with their families.

Rachel and I also had the opportunity yesterday to visit the Roma and our friend Besa. We were told that families are constantly visiting other friends and family or having people over at their own house.They come and go all day. So, we were advised to only stay 20-30 minutes at homes we were invited to visit. That rule was really hard to follow because we knew that basically they would serve us food and then we would have to leave. But when we got to the Roma's house, we realized how busy and tired they were. About 15 minutes after we go there, we hear that hey had more family that were coming over. It was kind of an interesting situation because we didn't want to be rude and leave only after being there for 20 minutes but we also didn't want to be in their way when their relative came. Their living room isn't that big. So, in the end we decided to leave after being there about 20 minutes or so.  We felt like we were being really rude but apparently not staying very long is normal.

Then we went to visit Besa and her family. She lives in a three story home with fifteen other relatives. It's a pretty big family! They served us baklava, banana cake, and pita. It was all really good! We ended up staying at their home longer because Rachel is pretty close to their family and knew they weren't having others over for a while. Both families were all dressed up for Bijram. It reminded me a little of Easter -- seeing everyone dressed nice, going to the early service, and then having a big meal with their family.