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

Mother Theresa

Statue of Mother Theresa (Who was Albanian) in the main square in Gjakove

25/5 4pm Eddie

Language School

After lunch we returned to Rahovec to run a 2 hour language class for some boys. They were at different levels so we worked individually with them using ‘American English’ workbooks’.

25/5 5pm Eddie

Visit to Lirija School in Fortesa

Visit to Lirija School in Fortesa
Today we went to Lirija School and it was really cool! When we got there all the kids were really excited and loud! They were very friendly and wanted to greet us all. We went into the Director’s room (Headteacher) and Jake and Sam presented him with the letters and pictures from Orchard Schools. We then went to visit an 8th Grade class. They were about 12/13 and they wanted to know lots! There was one girl called Rina who kept asking loads of questions about us and she was very good at English! At the end we had loads of photos taken and they all wanted my email address! And then I had to write my name on the board for them all to add me on Facebook. I really enjoyed the school and they were all very nice.
25/5 2:15pm Martha

Youth meeting

We grabbed some meat pastries and headed into Gjakove for a youth meeting where Martha performed some songs. It was one of the young people’s birthday so we shared a big cake together and the evening finished about 10pm.
24/5 10pm Eddie

Girls Brigade in Rugova

When we went to Girls Brigade we met in 1 room and there was about 20 girls and about 10 extras. We started with singing and praying. My mum then sorted out Tramp’s Tea Party where the girls had to sit down and try and roll a 6 and if they did they had to put on a cap and try and cut the chocolate with a knife and fork. Then they made friendship bracelets, and they were all very good at it! But outside there was a tiny, weeny kitten! It was so cute. At the end I presented the book that my Girls Brigade had given to us and all the girls joined round for a picture. Then the husband of the Captain took all the girls home in his van and one of the girls took the kitten because it didn’t have anywhere to go, and it was really small.
24/5 10pm Martha

Roma Colony

This morning we walked across the fields to a nearby Roma colony where UNICEF have built a social exclusion centre in partnership with other agencies to help those who are often marginalised. We met some children who are given extra curricular lessons and we helped them with their English. We then met the younger children who sang songs to us and we played a game. Afternoon is free time as we have a busy evening ahead (the weather is warm and sunny with a few clouds).

24/5 2.30pm Eddie