This morning Zonja comes to tell me that her cousin-in-law is here to 'speak English with me'. We find him in the kitchen, amusing the children with a new laptop brought back from Germany, where he has been working. There's no internet connection but there are games and so, after it's been admired, it helps us occupy the children while Zonja goes down to the restaurant.
I ask him if he's planning to go back to Germany again - he's not sure but will have to go away somewhere before too long... it's still difficult to find employment in Albania, even though things have settled down somewhat after the financial collapse of 1997 (peacekeeping forces were deployed here in Durres and other Albanian cities until the constitution was restored in 1998). Foreign companies have built new factories - tomorrow we'll pass the Coca Cola factory on the road out to Tirana- but they employ expatriates almost exclusively, there being no law requiring them to employ Albanian workers. The government takes money from the companies which is never seen again... the country is ruled now by a few families, and, whichever lot one might vote for, contracts for roads, buildings etc are given to their friends and family members and public money disappears again, roads left full of holes and half-finished buildings falling into ruin...
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