From Blue Sky Days to Blackbird Fields: Cool Down and Some Rain...

Last week it was still in the 90s and very dry. The guys from Gjethi were worried about the cherries trees and if they would survive the lack of rain. This past weekend it started raining and it is now in the 80s. Of course it is humid as well, but hopefully this has happened soon enough for the trees. Early last week, there was not much going on. Thom is busy working on the litter awareness campaign that he is involved in, but I am not very busy.

Thursday, I attended a workshop by another non-profit and Gjethi with the purpose of educating a group of citizens in social auditing for projects in Kaçanik. The workshop works to give citizens the means by which to be involved in the decision-making process and the accountability for public projects done in their communities. It was interesting and I learned a lot about the rights and responsibilities of the people and municipalities of Kosovo. And because it seems as if some projects never get completely finished or they take forever to be finished, this is a much needed civic duty. This workshop as are many of the activities we attend, was held at Uda Restaurant, which is a really nice restaurant just north of Kaçanik in Doganaj. Uda was the first restaurant that Remsi took us to when we first visited Kaçanik.

At the workshop inside Uda

Outdoor eating area at Uda

Shaded outdoor eating area

On Friday, after out language lessons with Shpresim, we headed to Podujeve (see the map below), for the KOS 7 send off party. KOS 7 came in the Fall of 2022 and most are leaving starting as early as this week, while others are leaving in October. Cat, one of KOS 7, has signed on for 6 more months. Nancy, one of the KOS 7 volunteers, lives in a house in Podujeve and hosted the party. It is a diaspora house and the family that owns it lives in Ireland. Nancy has lived in the house by herself in a pretty small village, and while the house was nice and roomy, and has no issues with water, I would not want to be in such a small village.

Nancy was the first volunteer that we met in Kosovo as she was at the Hotel Amazona during our first week in Kosovo. She has way more energy that anyone you can imagine and she is definitely unforgettable and I am sure she will be really missed as will the other volunteers.

It was a pretty big group and we enjoyed a taco bar and weird array of side dishes such as potato salad, mixed vegetables, and cucumber salad. I was amazed to see the ingredients that people found and brought, but most were snagged in Prishtina on their way to the party. It was nice to get away to the quiet countryside, until three of the guys got sick during the night. They thought it was food poisoning, but it was probably a stomach flu. These guys had met the night before at Noah's place in Ferizaj and probably spread it there. By Sunday, several others had it, including me. It has taken me several days to shake it, but I doing good again and I can finally eat.

The UÇK Memorial in Podujeve

The Coca-cola and Santa pictures on a building on the way to Nancy's

KOS 7 (four were missing) and seven of the group did not make 2 years

We were supposed to go to a lake on Saturday morning, but it took a long time for some people to get moving and by the time we were going to go, some of us felt it would be too late for us to spend much time at the lake. The next bus wasn't until 1 pm and others agreed, so a group of us decided to head back to Prishtina for the afternoon. Thom contacted a couple (Gent and Jeta) that he met at an environmental workshop to see if we could meet for lunch. We had tried to meet up with them before and had not worked out, but they were available today and we decided to meet for lunch with them at Baba Ghanoush which is a restaurant that serves vegan specialties like falafel, hummus, buddha bowls, etc. I've eaten there twice and I really like it. Jeta is also vegan, so we already have that in common. While we were waiting for the couple, two more KOS 7 volunteers showed up at Baba Ghanoush, Annie and Joe. (Kosovo is a really small country) Annie was the volunteer that lived near us, but she is getting ready to leave soon to start a master program in the Fall. Joe will not be leaving until October. They were on their way to the lake to meet Nancy and those who went to the lake. They plan to spend the night at Nancy's. Annie and Joe joined us until the couple arrived and then left for the lake.

Jeta and Gent are an interesting couple, kind of modern day hippies. Jeta is the chief executive officer for a climate technology company called habitat. Gent is working on an app called 360 to create awareness and a community for sustainability. Gent's dad is the founder of "Let's Do It Peja", which I wrote about in an earlier blog. This is an environmental group in Peja that was also part of the river quality meeting that I sat in on several weeks ago. Let's Do It Peja has a thrift store and makes bags out of discarded textiles. They are also looking at making textile bricks. I really enjoyed lunch and then coffee with this amazing couple.

After lunch, we headed back to Kaçanik and it's been a pretty slow week for me as the stomach flu symptoms started Sunday night. The good news, the weather is cooler, there rain, and the river doesn't smell like Ferizaj at least right now.