Shopping

We took advantage of the last opportunity to walk to town on our own to do some final shopping and buy gifts for our hosts. The population in Kosova is much younger than in the UK and the streets are full of young people. The schools operate 2 half day shifts and so there are always lots of students about – usually fashionably dressed and very tall!. Some of the older men where a white round hat but you only see other traditional costumes in the shops. There are usually men playing chess in the main square. Alison got a good discount on a top, Martha bought some shirts and Eddie a map of Kosova (sad eh!)
31/5 12noon Eddie

Church Sunday morning.

As last week we went to Eternity church which is in an old house. We had a time of worship and prayer for about an hour and then Martha sang a couple of songs. Eddie preached; he started in Albanian language - just a few words he had been practising and they all seemed to understand him. There is always an interpreter there so today he translated Eddie’s talk into Albanian.
Everyone has a drink after the service much like our church but they take it one step further and anyone from church who wants to goes to a local restaurant and they have lunch together which is really nice and sociable. We had a free afternoon so we went back to the Smile centre to play board games.
30/5 4pm Alison

Peja
We returned back down the mountains to the city of Peja which is the second city of Kosova. We went to the one of only two Christian coffee shops in Kosova and enjoyed some English tea (which you can’t get in other cafes) we met a girl working on an Operation Mobilization team.

29/5 5pm Eddie

Black bears
At Rugova Camp we stopped and looked at the two black bears kept in captivity there. Sadly they don’t have a big compound but their fur looked in good condition. They came quite close to us on the other side of bars and growled a bit.

29/5 3pm Eddie

Rugova Mountains and Gorge

After a drink at a beautiful riverside cafe we headed up the mountains through the beautiful Rugova Gorge – a bit like Cheddar gorge but much longer and with tunnels and winding roads. We also passed a Serbian village which again was guarded by KFOR troops and a huge wall around the village. The road through the mountains was thankfully not as scary as we had feared
29/5 2pm Eddie

Visoki Decani Monastery

We made an early start and headed north to the small town of Decan. We drove up the beautiful Gorge to the Orthodox church and monastery. As with a number of Serbian sites it is guarded by KFOR troops (in this case Italian) with road blocks and sentry points guarding against revenge attacks by Albanian Kosovars. We could not go in until 11 so we went for a walk along the beautiful river where we threw pebbles. Returning to the monastery and church (built in the C14th) we had a look around. The church was beautiful but rather dark and the interior walls were covered with frescos. Some of the monks were walking around texting on their mobile phones!
29/5 12noon Eddie

Baby tortoise

Here is a picture of the baby tortoise that has been found where we are living.

28/5 9pm Martha

Final English school

After lunch at Berti’s house we paid our final visit to his English school in Rahovec. Eddie set to work on an article he is writing for ‘Reform’ magazine and the rest of the family helped with one to one teaching followed by educational games. We then went shopping and had a quiet night in. Tomorrow we are heading north to the mountains at Rugova

28/5 3pm Eddie

A bit of gardening

We visited the home of a widow and we dug over a small patch of earth in front of her house and planted some small plants. We hope that that she will enjoy them. It is not a big thing but sometimes little things can be important.

28/5 12noon Eddie

Evening meeting and meal

We went to a meeting at Eternity church where Eddie gave a short message and then we went out for a meal with Astrit, Emily and Hannah. Late start tomorrow morning so we get a welcome extra hour in bed.
27/5 10pm Eddie

The Fort at Prizren

We travelled back down the mountain to the town of Prizren which is the second largest town in Kosova and has much Ottoman architecture and history. The temperature has soared to 31/32 c. We climbed the steep hill to the fortress where the view was amazing. Ice creams were required when we arrived back at the bottom
27/5 4pm Eddie

Visit to school in mountains

High up in the mountains near Dragash we visited a small school where we chatted with the teachers and met the children. This area has its own type of language based on Serbian/Slavic rather than Albanian – this uses Cyrillic. In this area this is a different perspective on the war. Eddie and the boys played table tennis with the children and a teacher. We had lunch in the playground and a teacher gave us tennis equipment to play with. This village is very remote near the Albanian border and quite different to what we have experienced up to now. We gave the head teacher a bag of stationery and the letters and pictures from Orchard Schools

27/5 Eddie 1pm

Trip to the mountains to the Goran region

We made an early start and headed south via Prizren up to the mountains to the Goran. Initially the mountain roads were quite steep and scary but after a while we came to fields and rolling woodlands high up in the mountains – quite spectacular to look at.
27/5 12noon Eddie

Meal out

We went out for a nice meal and met Matthias from Sweden who runs a bible school in Albania and Alexander from Albania who had just arrived in Kosova. We had a good evening late into the night.
26/5 10pm Eddie

Radio Pandora

Eddie, Ali and Martha were interviewed on the local radio station Pandora for about half an hour. We spoke about why we had come and what we had experienced. Eddie said a short message of encouragement to the listeners.
26/5 8pm Eddie

Gjakove Girls Brigade

This is the first of the two Girls Brigade Company that have been set up and the captain is Emily Morina (nee Doubleday). Martha and I organised some English games and did some craft work with them. We watched them do drill and Martha sang to them. When we played the chocolate game with a knife and fork the girls were much more restrained than English players! The card from 1st Hythe GB was handed over to them. It is really good to see all these girls coming to GB over here; they really appreciate people doing things for just girls as there are many more things in this society for boys than girls. The GB has only been in existence since January of this year.
26/5 6pm Ali

Blind Association

Smile tries to respond to requests from various agencies for specific help and the male Boons paid a short visit to the Gjakove Blind Association to deliver a second hand printer and scanner for their office – hopefully all the drivers etc will be ok! Sam and Jake looked at the 3d pictures for the Blind
26/5 4pm Eddie

Visit to Big Family

We then visited a big family with the widow mum called Zoja Prenkaj in Dobrosh. She had 4 boys and 4 girls but her husband and two boys died in the war. We met her youngest son who was married and was 22 and a visitor who was 17. There was also her granddaughter who was 12, but she was the daughter of one of the sons that died. They gave us all Fanta and we talked to them, they were a lovely family and they were very friendly and the youngest son was amazing at football, but he just couldn’t afford the training to become professional. When we left the two boys, the mum, and the granddaughter gave me a kiss on both cheeks.
26/5 3pm Martha

Stationery

We are very grateful to our friends who donated stationery to bring with us – we collected about 70kg which was very heavy to carry at the airport (we got some funny looks at the airport car park). We are half way through our stay now and the pile is going down rapidly. The gifts may be small but they have been very much appreciated whenever we have given them
26/5 2pm Eddie

Widower

After lunch we visited Agran in the village of Meja whose wife had died in very sad circumstances a month ago. He has lots of qualifications in farming but it is hard to get work here. We met 2 of his children and his sisters. Smile supporters in the UK provide sponsorship for some families and they receive packs of basic essentials and school equipment and packs of toiletries which gives them a little extra help. One of the daughters is hoping to be a doctor. When we visit a home we are given fizzy drinks and Berti and I have had Turkish coffee – which is an interesting experience!
26/5 3pm Eddie

Picnic

For lunch we went with Berti and Hannah for a walk through a forest – it is very, very hot today so the suncream is finally getting some use. We had a picnic and played some ball games. Various people were arriving in cars to hang out there.
26/5 1pm Eddie

Ferdone’s museum

After a short morning meeting we went to a lady’s house in the town. In the war her husband and all 4 of her children were murdered. Only 2 sons’ bodies have yet been found (the youngest and the oldest). She has no one left. She has turned her home into a museum of war information, photos of her family and displays the clothes the 2 bodies were found in. Naturally, she is a very sad woman and said her life gets worse as the years go on, not better. It was hard to find any words of comfort and it was a very emotional visit. Widows are not expected to marry again, it would be frowned upon; you belong to your husband’s family. Her 2 older sons had both been married for 1 year when they were killed and she could have insisted her daughters-in-law stayed with her for life but she did a kind thing and released them. They both remarried a few years later and live in Switzerland and Germany; she cried when she told us. I guess she knew what her life would be like and set them free from that. Ferdone gave us a copy of her story and a poem
26/5 12noon Alison

Beautiful evening walk

After our evening meal we went walking in the fields near the Smile Centre it was very beautiful with a warm breeze. Jake and Sam picked flowers to take back to the centr. It has been hot and sunny here today (28c) but there is still snow on the mountains!!

25/5 8pm Eddie