Village of Brus with Ylli and Family
His son came out from Pristina to interpret for him. His son speaks excellent Anglish (English). His son and daughters were so so respectful and so so kind to him. He kept making sure his son was interpeting right for us..He didn't want us to miss a word !!!
Ylli's son...his granddaughters, his two daughters (one is married and lives in another village) and his daughter-in -law. They all live together in Preshtina and came out to the 'homestead' just for our visit. the youngest daughter, in blue, will be married in 2 wks. and will go to live in an other village with her husband's family. The girls all have an education/or are in school and all work. The little girls go to kindergarten (which I think is kind of a day care)..the older ones sang a little song to me in Anglish...they start learning young.
The daughter in the red, would walk 1 hour to the road and then catch a bus on the highway to go into Pristina...1 hour, before she moved into Prishtina to live with her brother and family. She is 34 years old and would like to be married.
Ylli's son has a good education and a good job in Prishtina ! He loved where he grew up, but, said it was a hard life with no equipment or machinery.
The family farm was divided between Ylli and his brothers. He inherited 40 hectars (about 100 acres).
He got less than his brothers because he had an education and had a good job in Pristina.
He was a lawyer ( which he didn't enjoy because he thought it was not honest).He was mostl;y a teacher at the University. He is currently the mayor of his little village.
He receives about $80.00 a month retirement from his working.
Ylli's beehives on the mountainside
Fresh honey comb...we took it home and filled 4 small jars of honey !!
Ylli is only one year older than Sam. He is 68, Sam 67!
They treated us like celebrities and all thanked us over and over again for what we, Americans, had done for them !! AND their country !!
Barn !!
The winters were often cold with lots of snow....sometimes being snowed in.
Ylli's home where he raised 4 daughters and 1 son.
He served us food and drink on the porch/balcony. Always the people serve you food.( found out later it was all brought out along with the dishes from Pristina.). We watched the neighbor walk by herding his cows and goats. Later, another neighbor lady came by and had their famous "Turkish coffee " with them. No one can understand why we don't like their coffee and tea.
He brought out his book of Mormon, Conference Ensign, all the pamphlets the missionaries have ( all in Albanian) which he has studied and read several times. He is so thrilled with the Gospel, the idea of continuing revleation, the Joseph Smith story and EVERYTHING. He is wondering why we havn't put an ad on the TV or done more to get the word out about the Gospel of Jesus Christ..he is just so thrilled !!
We will probably visit them all at the son's home in Pristina, he is out- of-town for a couple weeks !!
A drive over the hillside to get a view of his property!! He was so proud of it all and so very happy to show us his place and his son was so attentive to whatever his father wanted His children treated him so good !!!......NEVER have we seen such a shining countenance...so excited and full of energy...so thrilled to have us at his home !! And so excited about the church....He did mention, however that he had joined the Prespitarian(SP?) church in his little village and thought he had better be loyal to it!!!!
