… and more news from Sue in Albania

In last month’s report, Sue Davidson wrote about a severely disabled family in the remote Albanian village of Kuç, and left us all wondering what happened next. Here’s the follow-up, which she calls Return to Kuç.

As anyone who read my last letter may remember, we wanted to give a wheelchair to Genti, who is 31 but so disabled that he can only move around by crawling or shuffling on his bottom like a baby. His younger sister, Arta, is not quite so severely disabled, and the physiotherapist, Liljana, agreed with me that the girl would be able to walk if helped by a walking frame with arm supports.

Liljana had been to Italy for training unavailable in Albania, and had seen these ‘pulpit’ walking frames there, but they are not available in Albania. This seemed an insurmountable hurdle – but things have a strange way of working out. A local pastor had received five wheelchairs from us, and when his congregation heard about us and our work, they took an offering to give us, even though I insisted the wheelchairs were a gift. I was amazed to find he’d given us 12,000 Albanian lek (about £70.) This is a large sum of money to village people in this country, so I was very touched by this gesture – and of course knew exactly what to do with the money. It would help to buy Arta’s walking frame. But how and where would we find one?

Liljana and I, together with a translator, headed into Tirana in search of the walking frame. I was very optimistic, but Liljana was not so sure. We trailed around every pharmacy she knew that sold walking sticks and crutches (which is quite a recent development) but had the same response from all of them. We wouldn’t find a walking frame in Albania. After three hours of fruitless searching, Liljana decided to phone a friend who works at one of the big hospitals – and got a surprising response. Just the previous week when walking home from work, she’d spotted a pulpit walking frame in a pharmacy. Because it was so unusual, she remembered the pharmacist’s shop exactly. Unfortunately, it was at the other end of the city, so we needed to take a bus.

Rush hour in Tirana has to be seen to be believed, so our journey was slow, but eventually, we arrived at the shop – and, yes, there in the window was a lovely pulpit walking frame! The only problem was, it was now after six in the evening and the shop was closed. I desperately needed the walking frame as we were going to Kuç the next day. Liljana rang the phone number on the shop door and explained. When the owner appeared, he said the price tag for the frame was 25,000 lek, not 20,000 as he’d said on the phone. Liljana plunged into telling him about our work, and I tried to catch what the shop-keeper was saying, but understood no more than the puzzled look on his face. Then, totally out of character for Albanians, he agreed that we could have the frame for 20,000 lek, the price originally quoted. This was great; we’d purchased a frame for only 8000 lek of our own money, thanks to the generosity of the pastor.

When we left the shop with the precious frame, Liljana and the translator were still shaking their heads over something that had amazed them. They told me the shop owner had acquired the frame by accident, as his assistant had made a mistake in the order for goods from Italy. He’d been angry with her, because he thought he’d never sell the unusual frame – yet here we were just ten days later, so a happy outcome for all concerned!

Early the next morning, eight of us set out on the two and a half hour walk across the hills to Kuç, with the wheelchair and the walking frame. We had to take turns in carrying them, as at times the track is pretty rough, but at least it was only 26 degrees, not too hot. The path twists and winds through the beautiful hill landscape, and we were getting weary, but as we neared the village, the sister-in-law of Genti and Arta, who had helped us with the donkey, came running out to meet us. To say she was delighted would not even begin to describe her reaction. I thought she’d never stop kissing me. She ushered us into the house to show everyone the valuable gifts we’d brought.

When I saw the look on the face of those two young people, Arta and Genti, all the effort was worthwhile. I’d do it all again in an instant. This is why we’re in Albania. There are many more people in need. We just have to find them and do what we can for them.

We are immensely grateful to John McElroy of Starwash in Brodick, who on November 17th offered a ‘benefit’ day, with all car-wash takings donated to the Valdete Fund. Such generosity can bring a whole new life to somebody who has never been able to move around before.