Greetings from England

Greetings to all our friends in Kosova

a few pics from todays worship service at Cornerstone Hythe

13/6 3pm Eddie

Car Wash

This is especially for Berti and Shkelzen who like to keep the cars clean - here is a pciture of Martha was cars when we arrived home

4/6 3pm Eddie

Back Home

And safely back home - Thanks for all those who have followed our blog and have supported us on our trip

A few pictures from England will appear in the next few days for the benefit of Kosovars following our blog
2/6 10pm Eddie

Back in Blighty
After a smooth 165minute flight we arrived back at London Gatwick and out the airport within 35minutes of landing!!!!
2/6 7.30pm Eddie

To the airport

After stopping for a picnic near a river we headed to Pristina airport – a journey of about 90 minutes. They are building a new road and this made it very slow and dusty through the roadworks of about 20miles! We checked in our luggage but after a while heard our names announced asking us to report to the departure gate. It turned out that the security wanted to manually search a suitcase containing cables, clock, pa system, batteries etc. They were very thorough, which is reassuring. It is a good job that I put all these items in one case otherwise they would have had to go through all five!!
2/6 4pm Eddie
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Last day

We spent the early morning packing – and thankfully everything went in the suitcases easily. We gave our hosts some gifts and took some final photos. We sorted the remainder of the stationary we brought here and the Smile workers will distribute this in due course. In the late morning we visited a large house which was about 200 years old.It has been turned into a museum showing tradition clothing and items from the house. The person who lived here must have been very rich as there was a primitive central heating system and the ceilings were carved out of wood.
2/6 12noon Eddie

Final evening meal

We showed our hosts a slide show of our photos before going out with Astrit, Emily, Berti, Hannah, Skelzen and Claudi for a final meal at Le Peshat our favourite restaurant – The steaks are massive! I know that Martha is going to miss Emily so much!
1/6 10pm Eddie

Radoniqi Lake

We gave the head teacher a lift most of the way back to his home and he mentioned they did not have much sports equipment. Jake gave him an impromptu gift of his football (one less thing to pack tomorrow!). We drove to the lake which is the main reservoir for the area and it was very beautiful for a picnic. Unlike UK reservoirs there is no boating of swimming allowed. We saw lots of lizards and bugs as we walked through the trees. We also drove past a big KFOR base (Italian) with its own runway and a house which still has bullet holes in it 11 years on from the war.
1/6 4pm Eddie

Visit to Kralan School

After a short Prayer meeting at Eternity Church we headed towards Pristina for a few miles and then up into a hill village. Their view was stunning and we were warmly welcomed at the village school. During the war there were 80 students and 50 of them lost their fathers. The conflict was particularly great here. The unemployment is very great here. It was a lovely happy school and we spent some time with the Head Teacher before meeting a class of the older pupils. We then went into the grounds of the school and played some volleyball. Some of the teachers joined in and it got very competitive – great fun. Jake and Sam presented the last of the letters and pictures from the Orchard Schools and we also gave the Director a gift of stationary. Smile are planning a summer holiday club at this school this year.
1/6 1pm Eddie

Youth meeting

We shared in our last youth meeting. We have been befriended by some lovely young people and t was a bit sad to think this was our last meeting during our stay. I think Martha, Jake and Sam are going to be missed by them also.
31/5 10pm Eddie

Girls Brigade at Rugove

We went back tonight to the Girls Brigade meeting we went to last Monday. Martha and I organised some games and craft and Martha told them the story of Noah. It was good fun and at the end of the evening it was funny to see all the girls pile into the pastor’s van as he dropped them all off at various places in the village. I love this country.!
It is good to see a room full of girls, many girls are not allowed out as they have to stay at home to do chores, to be available to help with the running of the home.
31/5 7pm Alison

FIlmed Interview

Emily Morina from Smile filmed an interview with us. We spoke of why we had come here, what we had done and what we have learned. WE managed it in one take!
31/5 3pm Eddie

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