My Neighbor Next Door is from...Albania

A monthly blog feature from AAA Translation’s Susanne Evens, My Neighbor Next Door is from… aims to expand multicultural knowledge and break down divides by letting readers get to know immigrants from various countries…one neighbor, friend and/or business colleague at a time.

This month’s featured country is Albania.

Located on Southeastern Europe’s Balkan Peninsula, Albania is a small country located north of Greece, with coastlines on the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Its diverse landscape includes the Albanian Riviera along its southern coast and the Albanian Alps that cross the country’s interior. With history stretching back to antiquity, Albania is also rich in castles and archaeological sites.

We recently interviewed Elidon Lleshi, who moved to the U.S. not long ago with his wife, Alida. When he was a teenager, Elidon spent two summers in the United States as an international exchange student with a program called Kids Who Care Musical Theatre in Fort Worth. He dreamed of being able to live in the U.S. someday. Elidon's dream came true when, just as he was finishing his Master’s degree program in civil engineering in Albania, he won a U.S. Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery, allowing them to move to the United States. He now works in his profession for a construction company in Fort Worth, Texas.

Q. What are the cultural differences between Albania and the USA?

When people ask me this question, I tell them that Albania and the USA are two different worlds. In Albania, people are economically poor but emotionally rich. They do not smile or salute to strangers but they keep a conversation going for hours. People show much sincerity and less hypocrisy, except in politics. The main social cell is family, where different generations take care of each other and often live in the same house. Guests are sacred. We use a phrase from the Albanian Code expressing hospitality: “An Albanian home is God’s home and Guests’ home.”

Q. What brought you to the U.S.?

After the 2008 world economic crises, the economic and political situation in Albania has been very depressive, and it is getting worse everyday. Corruption and organized crime are growing – this stems from the politicians down. I am so happy to have moved to the U.S. As we say in Albania, luck knocked on my door, and I won the Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery, just when I was finishing my Master studies in civil engineering.

Q. What is something most people don't know about Albania?

There are two important things that people do not know about Albania.

Most people don’t know about the old Albanian Code (Kanuni i Leke Dukagjinit), which is translated and studied in many countries. This code determined how Albanians treated each other and outsiders, blood feuds, and almost everything to institutionalize a society without many institutions. In 1945, when the communism dictatorship came into power, they banished this code. In 1990, after communism fell, some Albanians returned to this code and deformed it for personal interests.

Religion through our history and the religious harmony are very interesting too. We have a history of thousands of years that has been deformed or erased many times: from the Illyrian tribes to the modern Albanians. Like in all ancient civilizations, before Christianity there was paganism. The Illyrian tribes were touched by Christianity through the apostle Paul’s journey, three centuries before it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. After the Byzantine Empire divided from Rome, Orthodoxy and Catholicism were both present. Then, from the 15th to the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire brought Islam. Even though it was a country with a Muslim majority, occupied by Nazi Germans during World War II, it was one of the few countries where Jews were safe; they were protected by Albanians. In 1967, the communist dictator Enver Hoxha declared Albania the only and the first officially atheist state in the world. If you showed belief in God during that time, you could go to jail or be killed. After 1990, religion and believing became legal again. Today, Albanians believe in harmony through four monotheist religions (Muslim 57%, Catholic 10%, Orthodox 7%, Bektashi Muslim 1%, undeclared 25%), marry between these religions and respect all of them.

The most interesting part is that Paganism has survived in north Albania and Kosovo through all this tough religious history. In these regions, elders would ask you not to kill snakes and not to walk under the trees during the night because you might walk over a Fairy or an Ora (a destiny genie in ancient Albanian mythology).

Q. What do you miss the most?

The people and the nature. You can travel from the coastline through the plains to the beautiful mountains in less than 2 hours. If you know a trusted guide or if you have an Albanian friend you can never forget vacations in Albania.

Q. What is the biggest misconception you encounter when people learn you are originally from Albania?

When people learn I am from Albania, they ask me if I work in an Italian restaurant or work for the mafia.
The mafia prejudice is what I do not like because I think most Albanians are honest.