We have been told since we arrived in Kosovo, that it becomes a busy place in the summer. It is not a tourism hotspot, but it is because of the many people who left Kosovo to work in other countries return during the summer. It has been gradual as those who have children wait until school lets out. The German diaspora arrived this past week as school have just recently ended for summer break and this is the biggest crowd of people. It was noticeably much more busy this week and it was noticeably more noisy.
I am told that the retail business (restaurants, shops, markets) make most of their money for the year when the diaspora return. This is also a big time for weddings and the little flower shop across from our building is always decorating cars.
All week long there was loud traditional music playing from an apartment in our building. We could hear it all day long until midnight. I came to find out that this a pre-wedding tradition and that the groom's family lives in our building. They started celebrating 3 or 4 days before the wedding. On Friday around 1:30 pm, I heard the sounds of cars on our street honking their horns. This is also a wedding traditional. The grooms family goes to pick up the bride and bring her to their home. Typically, the groom's relatives are all involved and a long line of cars, honking their horns, drive (taking the longest route possible, I believe) to the groom's home.
This time the honking horns stopped in front of our building. There were dozens of cars on the street below our apartment and then a traditional band started playing. I went to the balcony to watch and saw men in traditional costumes playing drums and other traditional instruments. They whole time this was going on, both lanes of traffic were blocked. There was a car decorated for the bride and groom parked right in front of the door to our building and eventually the bride got out of the car and was slowly escorted inside the building. This is the video link to the watch the bride getting out of the car and the sounds of music from below.
On Friday, our language tutor came to Kaçanik and he got caught in the craziness. He eventually made to our apartment and I was able to ask him about it. He explained the details of the event.
Thursday was another trip to Prishtina for additional training on reporting what we do towards completing the goals of Peace Corps and how to apply for a Peace Corps grant. It was a uneventful trip, but with almost 2 hours of travel time each way, it makes for a long day. When we got home, when had an electrical issue which affected lights, some outlets, and the water heater. It is not good to be without hot water, especially since I like to was off the daily sunblock before going to bed. Thom sent the owner of our apartment a message and he couldn't find an electrician until Tuesday.
Friday, we planted more flowers (lavender and potentilla) with Gjethi Group. The flowers were planted near the memorial to victims of the war. Hopefully, they will grow a lot by next summer. Once all the plants were in the boxes, I took the empty plastic containers that the plants came in back to Te Dadini, so that they could reuse them. They were happy to get the plastic containers back and gave me around 10 more free plants. That is why they are my favorite market.
After planting the flowers, Thom went to a city meeting with Sami and Remzi. After it was over, Remzi found an electrician and he came over and fixed the electrical problem in a very short time. It was a fuse, but it was in a fuse box on the second floor of the apartment building. He didn't even charge us as we are volunteers.
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