Sunday, September 06, 2009

The Gentleman, Albania

"In the morning of his days, he is in the afternoon of his life."
~Mary Oliver~
We often stop and pick up hitchhikers in the country, enjoying brief but lovely little episodes of friendship with real people. Our bits of Albanian get us through, but oh how we long to be able to communicate completely. This handsome gentleman waved us down between two tiny villages and asked for a lift to "the center". We tried to figure out the center of what, which turned out to be the center of the next little village,  actually hardly even a village- just a small group of buildings with a dimly lit bar. He told us that he really could have walked the short distance, but well- his knees now gave him trouble- they ached. He hopped out of the car and happily let us take his wonderful photo.

5 comments:

Lisa said...

His face is so beautiful and so soulful. Thanks for sharing the picture and the story. It proves what I believe. It's not the places you go, its the people you meet. :)

Pablo (yo) said...

Great blog!!
if you like, come back and visit mine: http://albumdeestampillas.blogspot.com

Thanks,
Pablo from Argentina

ITS said...

Excellent one Kim! Such good Karma for you to give this old guy a lift! God bless!

Miss Kim said...

Thanks Lisa and ITS... I love how you express it... it truly is the people you meet! And good Karma- well I can always use more of that :)

Ginnie Hart said...

Those are the "eternalized moments" no one forgets, Kim!