Sunday, we got a taxi to Ferizaj to catch a bus to Prishtina for KOS 08 & 09 Reconnect (training). KOS 08 came in October 2023 just ahead of us and has a group of 17 volunteers, so for this training we are now 27 volunteers. This is both a review and presentation of new materials and it is really helpful to talk to volunteers with a little time under their belts.
We arrived in Ferizaj a little early and went to the open market to look for hiking shoes. I found a nice pair of Salomon boots for 20 euros and I found them at one of the first booths that we went to. We then caught the bus to Prishtina with Noah (KOS 9) volunteer and his friend, David from Australia. We met two guys while waiting for the bus. One was back from the U.S. where he went to school for his undergraduate degree. He is back for a year before he returns to San Francisco to get his masters. The second guy was also from Ferizaj and talked with us a bit. We got on the bus and he paid for our fare. Everyone is always so nice.
We are in the same location that we were in for the Environmental Training last week (Hotel International Prishtina) and we are close to the Albi Mall. On Tuesday, after the day's event, we went to bowl at the Albi Mall. That was entertaining. At other times, we played cards and watched movies.
On Wednesday, Thom and I went in search of a Rotary Club, which appeared to have a meeting scheduled for 7 pm at the Garden Hotel. We arrived at 6:30 pm for social time and met the president of the club. Only 4 members showed up. It is an English speaking club as they are mostly internationals. The club has 9 countries represented. Last night, there was a guy from Australia, one from Germany, and another from Malta. The last was a Kosovar doctor, but he lived in the UK and study in Romania. It is a newly chartered club. These guys were in another club, but decided to form their own club. They talked a lot about potential projects and about their district conference coming up on the weekend. They did not have a speaker. They are in a district with roughly 35 clubs from Kosovo and Albania and the conference is in Tirana.
We had dinner with them afterward and found them to be a little judgy and very opinionated. We will probably not joined them again. The dinner was good as they had a nice vegan burger on the menu.
Prishtina is a nice city and the hotel is as nice as hotels we have stayed in other European countries. However; the air conditioning does work well and it has been warm this week. We had language lessons and these have been good and overall it was a good training week.
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