I am not "in the company"

I have a friend named L, who was born in a village outside of Ohrid. He has told me several times that we should go out to visit the village together and I always tell him I will be there. Well, last week I had my first opportunity to go. This village isn't much different than other villages around Ohrid, but this would rank somewhere in the middle between abandoned and fully functional. While I was there, I learned that in 1953, the population was 1050 and last year there were only 95! That means that in 50 years, 90% of the people moved out of the village!
Anyway, it turns out that there is a special tradition for the village on the days following Orthodox Christmas and I happened to be there on the second day. My friend, L, was very excited about it and told me that the men "of the company" went house to house while the women stayed home the previous day, and the women "of the company" went house to house while the men stayed home the day I was there. As I already mentioned, this village is pretty much a dead town and there was absolutely no work in the town except farming and one convience store. When L said "of the company" I had no idea what he meant. So I asked him to clarify and he said that this village was made up of 5 companies (which confused me even more). After I asked him to clarify again, he said that there were sets of families in each company and his company had 8 families, but others had more or less. In the end I realized that he was basically explaining a gang. There were these set of families who hung out exclusively with each other, and not only that, but no one else in town was allowed to dine/drink coffee with them on these days (not even guests)! So after understanding what he was saying I was facinated and he started explaining it further. It turns out that every year there is someone like the "Godfather" of the group who hosts everyone for lunch and dinner and stays home all day for anyone of the gang who wants to come over for coffee. Every year, the role of Godfather rotates through the families. As we were walking through the town, he stopped someone and said (I am quoting this word for word ... well translated:) ) "This is my friend from America. I know the rules state that we are not allowed to have guests and he is not from the company, but he wanted to see what was going on, so would it be okay if he came to observe lunch?" The guy rubbed his chin and said, "If he is going to observe (implying not partaking) then he can."
Afterwards L told me he was the Godfather and we needed to get his permission. If he approved then no one else in the company could disagree. I loved it! So anyway, after meeting other people in the company throughout the afternoon and talking about the history of the village, I went to observe lunch. Surprisingly, the people enjoyed my company and allowed me to eat with them. It was obvious that some people were not used to having guests, so I kept trying to leave. But everyone kept reassuring me that I was welcome. It had to do more with the fact that I was American more than it did my charming personality. I heard several American jokes and constant references to former presidents and what they had done for Macedonia. Also surprisingly, we talked about "our faith" verses "your faith" in a good context. One man had a son in America and was impressed with "our faith." Although I didn't get to talk much about it, I was able to give them a good taste of "Protestantism."
At the end they told me that everyone in the company donates money to the company to help pay for dishes, utensils, and the necessary items. L told me that other companies even had their own house that they use and maybe one day they would buy their own company house, but he didn't think that would happen anytime soon. Before, I left I gave them $4 and I think I made friends for life. Pray for the people of this village.