Dhoksat, Albania: A Day in the Life

One of the things I like about traveling with OAT is what they call “A Day in the Life.” They give us an opportunity to interact with a local family in a way that gives us a chance to understand what life is like in their community.

Yesterday we spent the morning with Roland on his farm, and later with his family — his wife Panorea and their daughter Sofia — at their home in Dhoksat.

Dhoksat is a village of just 30 families, though it used to be quite a bit bigger. Roland and his family have a very nice home there, built a little over twenty years ago, about the time 21-year-old Sofia was born, she told us. There we had lunch and learned a little about the history of Roland’s family. It was an interesting and very enjoyable day. As is always the case with “A Day in the Life,” our group came away feeling like we had special new friends.

Sheep

The day started with an introduction to Roland and his flock of sheep.

Roland (who speaks no English, so either Petros or our local guide, Ilir, translated) told us about the nature of his sheep farming work. They have about 250 sheep. Each year, they have 30 lambs and sell the 30 oldest sheep, which, by 5 or 6 years of age are weak and no longer able to produce much milk. The sheep are milked twice a day, about 6am and 6pm. They sell the milk to cheese producers, mostly larger factories and not local cheese makers. The wool, though of good quality, has no real market value.

Vineyards

Next we headed to the vineyards.

Roland’s family and another family each own half of the vineyard. He explained how the grapes are grown and harvested and how the vines are pruned. He even let some of us play with his magical battery-operated pruning shears, even though this is the wrong time of year to be doing the pruning. It seems there are a few vines near where we were standing that are designated as OAT demonstration vines. (They looked pretty much hacked to death compared to the others.)

They grow Merlot grapes, and these, like the sheep milk, are sold to vintners who produce and bottle the wine. Roland seems unconcerned with what happens to his milk or his grapes once he sells them. They do keep some for making wine themselves (which I believe we had with lunch later.)

Bees

Are next stop was to visit the beehives.

Unlike the sheep and the grapes, the bees don’t turn a profit. The cost of producing honey is about the same as what it sells for. And honey production has diminished significantly due to climate change. We asked whether he is able to rent out his hives to other farmers for pollination of their crops, but I am not sure I heard or understood the answer. I think Roland said occasionally, but again, this does not make the hives profitable. They mostly sell to locals or use the honey themselves.

The Village

We finally headed to the village of Dhoksat. After a short stop at Roland’s house, we took a walk around the village to get a feel for life there.

My impressions:

• There’s definitely some charming character to Dhoksat.
• This village has seen better days.

Roland verified that when he was younger, there was a strong community spirit. On holidays people would gather in the town square and sing and dance. I may have detected a touch of nostalgia for the Communist era. Although Roland told us that everyone knew how repressive the regime was, it was dangerous to say what they were thinking. Still, he said, they produced what they needed, and the village thrived.

Today there are abandoned homes. The Communists destroyed all the churches, but they recently converted a former warehouse back into a church, so they do have a place to worship, though I don’t think there’s any local clergy. Adjacent to the town square, the Communist government built an ugly building that served as a sort of town center.

Trees all over the village were laden with ripe fruit: pomegranates, oranges, and persimmons. Roland picked us some, and we got sticky hands from the juicy, luscious fruit. I wonder if anyone but visitors from OAT tours eats all that fruit!

Lunch

On most of the OAT tours I’ve taken, we had some work to do alongside our hosts, preparing lunch together. But other than setting the table, they mostly had everything ready to serve. We set up two big tables in the yard that were quickly heavy with salads and vegetables and byrek (a kind of pie) and cheese and bread and wine. We enjoyed a delicious vegetarian lunch together.

After lunch, Roland told us all about his family, with pictures and documents. His grandfather left Albania and when to the US as a young man. He came back for short visits to see his wife (Roland’s grandmother), but then after the Communists came to power after World War II, he could no longer return, and he died in the US.

Roland and Panorea have two children. Sofia and her younger brother both study at university in Athens. She is a junior majoring in economics. Her brother is a freshman majoring in finance. She is back visiting the family because this is a long holiday weekend in Greece. 

Someone asked her whether she prefers life in Athens or in her hometown. She said at first she preferred Athens, but now she has such a love for Dhoksat and misses it when she’s away at school. 

Day of No

I probably should have written about this when I was in Greece, but since today, as I write this, is October 28, I’ll interrupt the stories of Dhoksat to tell about the Day of No.

Every October 28, Greeks celebrate the Day of No. This holiday commemorates an event in 1940. At 3:00 am on that day, the Italian ambassador delivered an ultimatum to the Greek Prime Minister, Ioannis Metaxas: either allow the Axis powers to enter Greece, or face war. Metaxas, who was really more of a dictator, said “όχι” (“no”). (Actually, what he said was “Well then, it’s war.”)

At 5:30 am the Italian army attacked, and the Greek people took to the streets shouting “όχι.” Ever since, October 28 has been a day of celebration for Greeks all over the world.

Back to Dhoksat

I’m pretty much done, actually.

At the end of our visit, Panorea and Sofia brought out some traditional outfits, all handmade. One was worn by Sofia’s grandmother at her wedding. And one is an outfit Sofia wears for festivals.

Too soon, we were back in our van heading back to Gjirokaster. But we have happy memories of our day with Roland and his family that we will cherish forever.

Here are all my photos (and a few from some others in our group) from our Day in the Life of Dhoksat.