Yoga Workshop in an Albanian Kulla

Just a little different from the last time I visited this quaint traditional Albanian home with a large group of my friends during the end of summer. Matter of fact, 1 meter of snow, VERY cold temperatures and a class of 10 students different. As background, I was invited to teach a 1 day yoga and meditation workshop to anyone interested in practicing in such a traditional and cultural space as a way to promote and create general awareness about the house. As a benefit they offered for Pranvera and I to stay in the house the night before with anyone else that preferred not to do the 2 hour drive out the morning of the event. As it turned out we had the entire Kulla to ourselves so we brought along her niece and nephew to have a family outing. And what an adventure it was.

To begin with, a blizzard hit Kosovo the night we were driving out. Fortunately we had the large 4x4 project vehicle but even with our four wheel drive we were sliding all over and were caught behind the painfully slow crawl of all the small Golf's that have been on the road for at least 10 years past their expiration date. With very love visibility we finally arrived at the very unpaved and rough snow covered village road that I wasn't even sure our vehicle would make it. But, in low gear it did and we finally arrived at the beautifully wood-stove heated Kulla. Amazing how hard it is to heat a stone home though. Once you left any room with a stove, it was freezing.

After the kids picked their room and found the Internet computer to begin chatting with their friends, Pranvera and I headed to the kitchen to prepare a nice pasta and salad dinner for everyone. Great fun!! Even though my Albanian is still challenged by the kids, they really did try to speak slowly and we were just able to communicate by playing and laughing the entire time. Played some cards, read books, enjoyed some warm tea and then migrated into our 8 inches of blankets to try and stay warm for the night. Fortunately we were all successful.

But best of all was waking early on the next day to go outside and play in the deep fresh snow. Bundled up with all our snow gear, we hit the front yard of the Kulla for some snowball fights, making a snow man and enjoying the warm sun and peaceful morning in such a small, quite sleepy village. We all took a walk down the main street with all the locals looking at us knowing clearly we were the city slickers in from Pristina checking out life on the farm. At least Pranvera could communicate with them when some had the courage to converse with us.

After a couple hours of getting soaked, it was time for me to make it back inside and set the space for the students who had registered for the workshop. Several were my close friends and regular students but others we new to the practice, which makes something like this quite a challenge to meet everyone's expectations when they are at very different places in their practice. But somehow it seems like I managed. What I didn't expect was how cold the room would be, how the wood stove would bletch smoke into the space that would burn our lungs during the deep inhales or the curious local audience of men that would stand in the back of the room wondering what the hell was going on (and making the ladies feel very uncomfortable).

None the less it was a good workout and we broke for a nice home-made lunch and tea before resting a bit only to return to complete another hour session of exercise and finish out the day with a nice deep half hour guided meditation and lecture on breathing practices. Throughout the day Pranvera's family joined in and often times just sat on the steps watching and wondering. A great experience and couple days out in the countryside working on cleansing the spirit.