Hi everyone, my name is Marcello and I’m Italian. In 1996 my father, then in his first year of university, came to Albania as a volunteer nurse as part of a “cultural exchange” with Albanian nurses and to help numerous burn patients. He told me some anecdotes about the hospitality of the Albanian people and how he and his colleagues were treated very well, furthermore he also told me that he had made a collection with his friends and that he had returned the favor by paying a family’s mortgage . I would like to understand what area it is and maybe meet those people but unfortunately I don’t have much information. I attach the photos of the magazine that talks about this cultural exchange and where in the first photo you can see the main office in Elbasan and in the other two you can see my father taking care of the children. The last photo was taken in the village in the Albanian hinterland and in the mountains where they met the family to whom they paid the mortgage, unfortunately he doesn’t remember the name. I hope someone can help me and recognize someone in the photo, I would also like it if you could advise me where else I can place the advert. Thanks in advance.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1by9wv5
Posted by Illustrious-Lead8096
7 Comments
It’s impossible to tell based on the picture. Does your dad remember how long he had to travel from Elbasan to get there?
Have you tried to contact the school if they have the information in their records? We can’t really tell from the pictures sorry 🙁
What you’re asking is extremely hard.
[This](https://www.unizkm.al/posts/slug/universita-cattolica-nostra-signora-del-buon-consiglio-sede-di-elbasan) is the school though, it’s managed by an Italian university, you could try sending an email and if you’re lucky you find them in the mood to do some digging.
I think the other commenter is wrong, it’s certainly not Shkoder or Lezhe, it’s most likely some mountainous village around Elbasan but the problem is that it could be everywhere. Honestly I don’t think there is a way to find it with this much information.
Maybe try Google Earth Street View? I know a lot of Albania might not be on it and so much has changed in 30 years, but perhaps if he started looking at it he might recognize landmarks. These might include mountains, lakes, rivers, bridges, buildings, etc. That might be able to help narrow it down.
Unfortunately the photo doesn’t give much information and your hints pretty much describe any village in albania at the time. But going by the distance travelled and taking into consideration that the infrastructure wasn’t as good as it is now I can certainly say its somewhere around south-east of Elbasan. There is a big mountain there close to Librazhd and on the map it looks like Sopot is the furthest village on that mountain.
Who knows maybe it was on the other side of Librazhd, east on Shebenik you have to open google maps and see if any village name rings a bell.
You can try placing an ad on facebook. You can attach the photos and select the area around Elbasan, you’ll never know some relative might recognize someone.
Is there any chance that the “the shitty mountain road” was nothing other than the trip from Tirana to Elbasan and the school Elena Gjika is none other than UZKM Elbasan , cuz the road checks out, the building is similar and the purpose of that building makes me belive this is what you are looking for
Holy shit the nun in the pic was a caretaker in a kindergarten i went as a child. Such a lovely person that I wouldn’t even dream of seeing in reddit lol