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