Outside the farmhouse I take a last look at the stars. I have never seen them as sharp or profuse. I am joined by Pashka and Sofia, the two daughters of our host. They have brought in the animals and spent the past hour preparing for classes in the morning. They are still carrying their English exercise books under their arms.
I point at the sky. "Albanian word?" "Qiell," says 15-year-old Sofia.
"Qiell," I repeat. I want to say how similar "qiell" sounds to the French. I want to say how different our "qiell" in Leeds will look when we get home after two extraordinary weeks in Thethi. Instead we all subside into laughter. The wonders and frustrations of the language barrier.
Pashka and Sofia have hardly attended the local school, which has been closed for much of the past few years. The class they will attend tomorrow is run by the 2008 pilot Thethi Summer Programme, and they, along with more than 60 other children from villages along the valley, are desperate to make the most of it.
We came to Thethi as volunteers on the project. Thethi is an ancient village in the northern alps of Albania. The literal translation of Shqiperi, the Albanians' name for their country, is "land of the eagles", and eagles, along with wolves and bears, still live in the Shala Valley. In summer the meadows are a mass of alpine flowers, but the valley is a tough place to live. Not for nothing are these limestone crags referred to as "accursed mountains" in winter, when the village is often cut off by snow.
My interest in Albania began with a play I was writing about the country's former dictator Enver Hoxha and his double. In the course of my research, I ran into an anthropologist called Antonia Young, who has long been fascinated by the country.
With her husband Nigel and colleagues in the region, she has been instrumental in setting up the Balkans Peace Park Project (B3P), a charity which aims to connect the adjoining mountain areas of Kosovo and Montenegro with the valleys of northern Albania, and the Thethi Summer Programme, which teaches local people basic English, is part of that project.
When Antonia told me that the village of Thethi needs tourists if it is to survive as a community, it was all the encouragement my wife and I needed. We agreed to sign up as volunteers on the pilot summer programme. Our two boys, Laurie, eight, and Owen, five, had had their quota of holidays in shallow, Spanish surf, so we told them we were going to do something different for a change.
And how different it turned out to be. The farm of Prek Harusha and his extended family was as far as you could get from shallow Spanish surf. Our journey began in Shköder, the regional capital of northern Albania where Rozafa Castle looks out from limestone crags across to Lake Shköder, and after a three-hour drive over the mountains in a minibus shared with 12 locals and four beehives, we arrived in Thethi.
After a delicious lunch of lamb, vegetables, yoghurt and honey, all produced on Prek's farm, we became aware of a small army of curious children waiting outside. Laurie picked up the football we'd bought in Shköder and went over to them. Three hours later, they were all still out there on the cracked concrete square that passed for the school playground - 20 dusty kids playing footie.
The programme ran for two months, with classes taught by foreign volunteers alongside paid Albanian translators. Accommodation with local families was arranged, and volunteers paid their own way. Though all volunteers had experience of teaching English as a second language, a qualification was not necessary. Some volunteers didn't teach but gave one-to-one conversation practice, ran games or music activities, or helped renovate local wooden bridges. Mary and I spent some time documenting the project for the B3P website.
We arrived in June, two weeks in, and the school was welcoming an increasing number of children every day. "You can see them walking in from up and down the valley," said Chris, one of the British teachers. "They're just so keen to learn." We spent our first morning writing a song about Thethi with the children, while our boys showed pictures of their school in Leeds. There were young people of all ages in the classes, which were conducted in English and Albanian, and our kids loved being part of it.
After lunch, the young Albanians returned to the fields while we were free to siesta or go for walks on the lower slopes where streams tumble through beechwoods and glades of wild strawberries. There are plenty of paths and guides of all ages willing to show you around.
One afternoon we walked up to a waterfall, past the still-working medieval mill, and cooled ourselves in the fine spray. Later, under the chestnut tree next to the church, there was volleyball and football. Each day closed back at Prek's farm with a glass of local raki or a cup of mountain tea made with dried oregano.
What did the programme achieve? It taught local children some English. And this is vital, for if they can't speak with foreigners, Thethians won't be able to host the tourists on whom their community's survival depends.
With great trekking and spectacular bio-diversity, the potential for tourism here is enormous. But opportunities are balanced by dangers. Many villagers still find the idea of charging guests unfamiliar and unfriendly, and the inexperience of local people leaves them open to exploitation. The hope is that organisations like the B3P can help Thethi develop at its own pace.
When it was time to leave we kissed Prek and his family goodbye and the minibus pulled away. Waving us off were all the friends our boys had made. In the distance, the last people we saw as we rounded the hairpin bend were Pashka and Sofia, still waving by the house. And when the programme reopens this June, they will be there, waiting for the school door to open.
Way to go
Getting there
British Airways (0844 493 0787, ba.com) flies from Gatwick to Tirana from £190 return including tax.
Volunteering
Thethi Summer Programme runs 22 June-22 August and is recruiting teachers and other volunteers, preferably for a three-week commitment. Volunteers pay for board and lodging (€20 per night with a family) plus travel.
Further information