I've been away from Albania for more than a month. I'll return on Saturday.
Each day since I've been gone, I've tried to read the latest news covering the fighting in Serbia and Macedonia near our border. This usually involves violence between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and border police.
The fighting has become intense in Macedonia, and in the last three days more than 1,300 displaced Albanians have crossed into our country to live with friends and relatives.
In the past we have had people from Kosovo, who we had not previously known, stay in our home after they fled the fighting in their country.
Keeping track of the situation from the United States can be difficult. I see how confusing, and possibly uninteresting, it must seem to Americans compared to other world news.
How important is news from my country compared to something like the bombing in Kuwait or an earthquake? It's a sad story and a familiar story. It's also a complicated story.
History of conflict
Serbia is one of two republics that constitute the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Macedonia, with 2 million people, is now independent. It was part of Yugoslavia until 1991. About 600,000 people in Macedonia are ethnic Albanians, who have lived there many generations.
Kosovo formerly was part of Serbia. More than half its population is ethnic Albanian.
The guerrillas involved in the current killings call themselves the National Liberation Army. Their declared goal is to establish their own self-governed country apart from Serbia.
I read on a Web site Friday that U.S. troops in Kosovo found machine guns and rocket launchers in a Volkswagen Golf near the Macedonian border.
An Albanian woman speaks to her Catholic priest in an outdoor confessional in rural Albania in 1991. From 1945 until 1991, worship, church meetings and other religious activities were banned by the Communist governments that ruled Albania. More than 2,000 places of worship were destroyed during that period.
The people of Albania are concerned that this conflict near our borders will spread throughout the region. Our government supports the Macedonians in their efforts to stop the hostilities.
My job on my newspaper's Web site, www.balkanweb.com, is to report the daily news along the borders of our neighboring countries. There has been at least one incident of violence every day during my last six months of reporting.
Currently there is no direct threat of danger in Tirana; there are only more refugees. But the fighting is always the topic of conversation over coffee and usually is the lead story on the national page of our newspaper, The Gazeta Shqiptare.
Past hardships
During my time in Lawrence I have been asked many times what life is like in Albania. It's a difficult question to answer because life is constantly changing. Most important is the new freedom we have in our lives.
The beginning of our freedom came in 1985 with the death of Albania's dictator, Enver Hoxha, who had ruled since 1945. During Hoxha's reign our borders were closed to outsiders and Albanians were not allowed to leave.
When the Scottish soccer team played Albania's team, Scottish sportswriters were stopped at Albania's border.
Food was rationed. My father stood in long lines to buy milk or bread. Many days, stores would run out of basic foods such as flour. All businesses and properties were owned by the communist government. Only government officials had cars.
More than 20,000 citizens of Shkoder, Albania, gather in the town square to honor three deadd demonstrators killed by Communist police in 1991. The country's borders were closed from 1945 to 1991.
In 1966, Hoxha declared that all wage-earners would be paid the same whether they were in charge of a manufacturing plant or only worked there.
In 1967, more than 2,000 churches and mosques were knocked to the ground. It was a crime to believe in God. People were sent to prisons for declaring belief in a higher power.
When Hoxha died I was in the fourth grade. Our teacher announced his death and we all cried. Though our lives were very poor, we were sad that our leader was gone. Like him or not, he was a part of our history that cannot be changed.
After the wall came down in Berlin in 1989, students in Albania began to demonstrate against the dictatorship. Foreign embassies in Tirana were mobbed by Albanians seeking visas. As a result, the government loosened restrictions on religion and travel.
Many men went to Germany, Greece, France and Italy for jobs to support their families in Albania. Today more people of Albanian heritage live outside of our country than within our borders.
In 1991, we held our first elections since the 1940s. There were many anti-government demonstrations. Police shot and killed several protesters in the city of Shkoder. The communist headquarters there was burned in protest.
In 1992, Sali Berisha was elected president on the Democratic ticket. He previously had been a physician for Hoxha's staff.
In 1997, the economy was slowly growing but there was a violent uprising of the people after investment companies collapsed and nearly 20 percent of Albanians lost their life savings. Guns were everywhere and hundreds were killed.
Newfound freedoms
Today salaries have increased, but so has the cost of living. We are still considered the poorest country in Europe. Most Albanians have never traveled on an airplane. Trains and buses are the main form of transportation. There are no flights between Albanian cities.
Now, it is no longer a crime to celebrate Easter. Sixty percent of Albanians are Muslims, 25 percent are Orthodox, and 15 percent are Roman Catholic.
We are proud that Mother Teresa is Albanian. She was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje in 1910. Well-known Albanian author Ismail Kadare, now living in Paris, is from Gjirokaster.
We have several universities, all run by the government. There is no tuition, but you must pass a test to enter.
Albanians are proud of one of their famous citizens, the late Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Albania, in 1910. She holds a child after speaking to a U.S. Senate caucus in Washington.
The exchange rate for our currency, the Lek, is about 1,440 for one U.S. dollar. During the dictatorship, a loaf of bread cost 50 lek. My father is a physician and was paid 3,500 lek per month. Today he makes 360,000 lek a month ($250) and a loaf of bread costs 600 lek.
Free enterprise is new to us.
My newspaper is only seven years old. Before, there was only one paper in Albania and it was run by the government. Today there are three independent papers all printed on the same press. Each political party also has a newspaper.
Albania is a beautiful country. We have mountains and our West Coast beaches face the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. There are old fortresses and buildings that are more than 1,500 years old.
We have ruins built by the Greeks, Romans and Ottoman Turks. We think of our country as a living museum.
Albanians have a deserved reputation for being friendly and hospitable.
Now that our borders are open, we hope people will come see for themselves the beauty of our country.
In the meantime, I will continue reporting on the sounds of the Balkans, the voices of politicians, the terror of gunfire and the people praying for peace.
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