News story brought back memory of embassy visit

I have only just caught up with a news story which obviously didn’t hit the headlines in the British media, but it still brought back many memories for me.

A few months ago a farewell reception was held to pay tribute to His Excellency Mr Zef Mazi, Ambassador of Albania to the UK, who has moved back to Vienna where he served for 15 years as ambassador of Albania to Austria, because he has been appointed to an important role at the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Ambassador Mazi was surprisingly a great supporter of God’s Secret Listener.

The idea of presenting him with a copy of my book and asking him to give another copy to the country’s president was one of those impulsive moves I thought was worth trying, but never thought it would come off.

I carefully worded my letter to the embassy to talk about the exemplary military record of Berti Dosti, whom the book is about, and how he was helping the youth of Albania by running Victory School in Lushnje teaching English to 700 pupils.

One Wednesday in October last year, I posted the letter and was shocked to receive a call on my mobile two days later on the Friday asking when I would like to come.

So on Thursday, November 18 Berti Dosti and I caught a taxi at Victoria Station and asked to be taken to be the Albanian Embassy at 33 St George’s Drive.

“I have never been asked for that destination before,” said a surprised taxi driver as we clambered inside.

There was another surprise waiting as we entered the smart large terraced house that had been the embassy’s home for only four years, my contact there was Flutur Shkurti and she recognised Berti as they were distant cousins. Very Albanian, I thought.

We were taken to the office of His Excellency Zef Mazi and were impressed how simply and neatly the embassy was furnished, nowhere near as lavish as I expected it to be.

I hadn’t let on in the letter how Berti, a former captain in the army of the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, had become a Christian and was now the pastor of a lively church as well as a school principal.

However, the Ambassador had done his homework on Berti and they chatted away in Albanian about the church in their country.

Berti (pictured left) and I thought we would be there for only five minutes, but we had more than an hour with the Ambassador (pictured centre) and we presented him a special signed copy of the book and he also agreed to pass another copy to the President of Albania, His Excellency Mr Bamir Topi.

At the end of the meeting, the Ambassador asked if there had been a book launch and I explained that we had had one in Shrewsbury.

“Why didn’t you invite me?” asked the Ambassador who said he loved the chance to leave London and see the rest of Britain.

I promised I would invite him to a suitable event and made a mental note for 2011 thinking that would be a challenge.

However, it is now a thousand times more difficult thinking of a link with the book and the International Atomic Energy Agency.