March 10, 2024
The importance of bread in Kosova can not be overstated. If you asked our group of volunteers (or any group of volunteers most likely) what the common thread between meals is... it would be bread. It is served at all meals. We started learning food words last week in language class and when we discussed food and what we have to eat with our families, the most common word from all of us was "bukë" (Albanian for bread).
Bread is very inexpensive and it is used to sop up the leftovers on your plate, after you finish your meal. One volunteer has said that her family doesn't use silverware, but instead serves food family-style in the middle of the table and you grab the food with your fingers and use bread to grab sauce. Our family does eat some things family style (such a spinach pita and flia). Even though the rest of the family may eat family style sharing their food, Ganimete always serves our food on individual plates. I do think this might be for Covid reason and it is good right now, I think, as Amar (the 15 year son) has not been feeling well.
Bukë is the word that Ganimete uses when she calls us to dinner. If we are sitting in the salon (living room) and she is ready for us to come to the table, she comes in and says "bukë". On the day we arrived and our hosts picked us up at the community center; we stopped at the bakery for bread for dinner on our way to the house. It does seem that they buy their bread daily and in large quantities. I believe if it is not eaten it goes to the chickens. I have not been at home for lunch, but they may eat the leftover bread from dinner the night before for lunch. For dinner, there is typically a fresh loaf.
At first, Ganimete would always hand me a super large chunk of bread with dinner. The bread is a white flour bread and I am really not a bread person, especially bread made with white flour. I would tell her "pak" (a little) and she would make it only slightly smaller. As I mentioned before, I was happy to find whole wheat bread. She is now buying us thinly sliced whole wheat (although she will hand me three pieces with dinner). She also bought a rye bread last night to have with our supe pasul (bean soup). We have had bean soup twice already and it is really good. We have let Ganimete know that we do not eat as much bread for health reasons and I think she understands now.
At the restaurants, when you order a meal, there are always large basket of rolls (it is like the bread, but in the shaped of very large rolls). Yesterday, before our 6 mile hike, we went to have lunch with our volunteer group at a restaurant. Thom ordered a hamburger and the bun was so big (Think Fuddruckers, if you know the place).
After lunch, we took a hike out of Kamenice on a dirt road (path) that led to another village. We did not walk all the way to the other village, but we did take a big hike. It was a climb up a large hill or maybe mountain. From time to time, we had amazing views of Kamenice. We stopped for a bit on a green hillside that overlooked a valley. We could see a village on yet another hillside in the distance. While we hung out there for a bit, we heard the "call to pray" being broadcasts from the small village. While others in our group are closer to the mosques in town, we are not. Several in our group hear the call to pray around 4 or 5 am each morning. This is the first time we have heard the call to prayer since arriving here.
Our family went to visit Selver's brother last night. It seemed to be a last minute decision and they spent the night. We are here on our own, but they made sure we had what we needed before they left. They will not be back until the afternoon. This morning was the first time I have cooked since arriving. We had a interesting combination of scrambled eggs with sauteed peppers, tomatoes, and onion. We heated the leftover bean soup to eat on the side with a scoop of ajvar, which is a Serb condiment made of peppers and eggplant (and no bread for me). It was nice to cook again.
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