What can Albania teach us about trust?

At a time when refugees are being turned away at borders all over the world, it seems that there is a lot to learn from Albania's penchant for hospitality.

"There were refugee camps set up for the Kosovars all over the country. Albanian families would go to a camp, find a family and then take them home.

These weren't relatives or friends, they were strangers, but the Albanians would take them in, feed them, clothe them, treat them as if they were part of the family."

Nursing a macchiato in a small cafe in Berat, Albania's famed city of 1,001 windows, I listened as Nevila Muka remembered the effects the Kosovo War had on her home country.

In order to escape the death and devastation brought by Serbian military forces in the 1990s, more than 500,000 refugees, mostly ethnic Albanians, fled from Kosovo to seek sanctuary in Albania over the course of just two years.

I quickly learned that Muka hadn't just observed the mass exodus from a distance.

"My grandmother actually took in a family. I was young, so I remember playing with their kids a lot. I remember they were really good bakers, they made the best bread I've ever tasted."

"Didn't that ever get difficult?" I asked.

"Not really for us, we were okay. But for many families it was a struggle, a lot of them didn't have the money to support the Kosovars. Many people went into debt doing it, but they would never turn anyone away."

When I asked her why, she shrugged.

"It's the Albanian way. It's besa."

I had heard the word besa before, and knew that it meant something akin to belief, trust or faith, but I hadn't heard it in this context before. Muka explained that it's like a code for Albanians, one that dictates their generous hospitality.

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