Albania, Part I

One takeaway from our recent trip is that Albania is a beautiful country filled with amazingly kind and wonderful people. We loved it, highly recommend visiting, but Albania wasn’t always that way. 

Albania was part of the Soviet empire and their dictator, Enver Hoxha, was referred to as  “mini-Stalin.” And not in a good way. In 1967 Albania became the world’s first atheist state when Hoxha outlawed all religion. And during his reign of terror, there was a national paranoia that anyone could accuse anyone of anything and that accusation would land them in an interrogation cell. 

Duo Lipa, born in London of Albanian parents, makes her the most famous living Albanian, but not the most important. 

There was something of a revolution around the time of the Berlin Wall collapsing and the Soviet Union breaking apart and the mini-Stalin was deposed. It was chaotic and violent and the typical citizens, who had been subject to horrible treatment, wanted some measure of revenge. And here is where the most famous Albanian enters and altered the course of their country with a simple gesture and words. 

As the reader (singular) can guess by the picture, the person is Mother Teresa. She returned from India and laid a wreath at the mini-Stalin, Hoxha’s grave. When asked how she could forgive a brutal dictator who persecuted religion, closed the country, prevented Teresa from visiting her dying mother, and ruled over a period of tyranny Mother Teresa said something to the effect that we aren’t like that, we’re about forgiveness, and now we can heal. 

This powerful act of mercy gives me hope that when this dark period ends, we can forgive, heal and do better