I honestly have no idea
I'm most passionate about the Church.  I guess I don't really know too many other charitable causes.
Yeah, that would have been the one I'd have gone with upon thinking about it Ah, Heifer, that's the one I was trying to think of
That was definitely a surprising question though.   Either the Church or Red Cross or Blood Organizations.  What is Heifer?
They're a charitable group that takes things like livestock and whatnot to 3rd world countries and trains the natives how to use them/etc. A pretty sustainable kind of solution
Oh cool!  I wonder if that's what the Church used in Albania.  I served my mission there and they had a similar program where they gave the natives goats. They also provided training on how to take care of the, them*
That it is cool! (I haven't gone on a mission yet) What was albania like?
It was great!  The country used to be Communist, until the early 1990s.  There is still a lot of Communist-type things there. The buildings are almost exclusively made out of concrete, and the people aren't very religious.  But most believe in God.
Wait, I'm not sure if I know where albania is.. I'm going to check that out real quick Okay that's what I would have thought Eastern-sih Europe *ish When did it stop being communist?
Yeah.  I had no idea where it was either.  My mission covered Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia.  Now it includes Greece. It stopped being Communist in 1992 or 1994.
Oh cool! So it was a multi-country sort of mission then? Outlived the Soviets by the sound of it
Yeah!  I served in Albania and Kosovo, but Macedonians speak their own language, so missionaries were specifically called there.  But I would suppose so. They were completely cut-off from the outside world, so I suppose they didn't know any differently. Plus, Albania is a small country, so it makes sense that no one was worried
Oh, so Albania and Kosovo speak the same language then? (or is it regional?) Interesting. I do suppose a lot of people like to say that Communism only works on a small-scale
It's almost the same.  There are strong dialect differences, but missionaries can adjust with time. Perhaps.  I I'm not a big fan of communism.  Since we believe in agency, Communism is completely against that.
Interesting. Is it greater than or less than the sort of difference between Spanish and Portugal? Or were they part of the same country not-too long ago? Well, from what I understand "true communism" is anarchist so people are pretty free but State Socialism is pretty authoritarian Which is what most countries we call communist actually are
If I remember right, they consider themselves to be one nation.  But, I don't know if the difference is as extreme between Spanish and Portugal.  Maybe. I know Kosovars can understand Albanians.  But, Albanians can't understand Kosovars.
That's interesting, it would be interesting to see a country-merger if that is even feasible. And I wonder why that is
Hmmm. Maybe it was just pretty extreme socialism.  I know the Socialist party still runs Albania, but its no longer a dictatorship. I think a country merger would be cool, too!  But Kosovo used to be part of Serbia.  It might make them angry to merge.  They still have active military bases in Kosovo. I visited a US base and a NATO base there.
Huh. Socialism is a pretty big umbrella I guess so it makes sense. George Orwell (who wrote Animal Farm making fun of the Russian Revolution) was a socialist even though most people tend to think of him as anti-socialist based upon his books (oh and 1984) Wow, that's some geopolitical history I had no idea about. Huh. I need to learn more about Eastern Europe
Oh cool.  I guess I haven't delved too in depth about communism, socialism, etc.  But, I can see the relationship between Animal Farm and Albania - as it was explained to me. It is a cool place to learn about though!  Most people haven't heard of it, but they have castles, fought against the Ottomans, etc.
Yeah, empowering "liberators" tends to create new oppressors Oh cool
But, sadly, Albania is one of the countries that has only ever been conquered.
that would fit in with what little I know about WWI I guess Wait, what do you mean by that? As in, it's perpetualy in a state of being conquered?
Kind of.  Now, it's pretty stable.  But, in the past, they've been conquered by the Ottomans, Italy, invaded by the Germans, etc. They've never gone out to control anyone else.
Huh. Must be fun being in the neighborhood of Greece whenever war strikes haha
Why is that?
Well from what I understand the Ottomans were always trying to invade Greece (as they were just across the mediterranian) and Italy tried to Invade Greece in WWII And they probably got help from germany when it utterly failed So I imagine Albania was sort of a stragetic invasion to get to Greece both wars I'm not by any means sure, this is just me guessing
That would make sense.  That's really cool to hear!  I don't know if I would have pieced that all together! It was actually really cool, though.  They had communist bunkers that you could tour.  We went on a preparation day.  They're like museums now.
Haha I suppose it's just the "pros" of knowing completely random war facts. Nothing compared to what friends I've had have known haha. Some people get really into War History That's cool! What were the bunkers used for? I know that German in WWII had some absurd Bunker setups
That's pretty cool though!  Way to be! The bunkers were actually never used, for the most part.  But, it was a "just in case" kind of thing. I think it was just in case they were ever attacked.  I think most were built to withstand and survive nuclear attacks. Albanians would tell me that they were taught that America was the enemy. So, perhaps they were afraid of America attacking.
Haha, thanks :). And interesting, I suppose that would make sense. Communist Albania was probably like a soviet-bloc state so nuclear weapons were definitely a fear I imagine Sounds kind of like North Korea Their history cirriculum is/was essentially all about how evil America was haha
Pretty much.  But yes, I would say very similar to North Korea.  Although, maybe not quite as extreme.
I'm not sure what it's like now, but the culture of NK seemed to be build on hatred for the US and SK
I can see that.  I would think Albania was the same in a dislike for America.  But, some other characteristics of North Korea might be more extreme. Who knows if it is true or not.
Yeah, idk haha. I imagine that mostly they were influenced by the USSR for what they believed. NK though, they're something else. Only China can even try to reason with them
Haha, oh well!  I'm hoping someday we will see North Korea like Russia.  I think of how people were scared of Russia during the Cold War, but now we have missionaries there~ But, you're right.  Albania was heavily influenced by Soviet Russia.  They even taught Russian in the school system.  Only the rich were allowed to learn English.
Yeah, although relations with Russia right now are a little shakey from what I understand That's interesting, was the native language affected at all? I think that in some countries the USSR had the native language be written in Cyrillic for anything government-re lated
Yeah, I feel like that's the impression I get about Russia nowadays.  I don't think the native language was changed, though. As far as I know, they've always used the Roman Alphabet for Albanian. But, I think the language wasn't even standardized until just before or during communism.
That's curious. I wonder if they ever used the Greek alphabet. Wait, how closely related is their language to Greek? Upon thinking about it I'm imagining that Serbia/Albania p robably come from some other language
It would make sense they may have used it sometime.  But, as far as I know they haven't.  What I've heard of Albanian is that it isn't related to anything. They do borrow a lot of words from other countries, though.  But the language is separate. Thanks for chatting!