So this week, I have been busy with a little programming in Python and Javascript. Another volunteer is doing a Python course in Prizren and wanted to try working virtually with several students that missed a class and I knew of a young lady that lives in a village near Kaçanik that is also interested in learning Python. All three students did very well and the class went well. But is much easier with only three students and two teachers. I didn't do much, as the other volunteer had it under control. I will continue to work with the one student. I also met a student at one of the camps in Ferizaj and I have been helping him with some Javascript. This we do mostly by messaging through his mom's viber account. When he gets stuck, he lets me know and then I help him trouble shoot.
I also attended several Gjethi meetings this week on Tuesday. One was with the other group that is working on the anti-littering campaign. For this meeting, we went to Drenas where one of our Peace Corps volunteers is serving and the other non-profit (CEDE, Center for Education and Development of Environment) is located. It was a chance to go to a new place, even though we didn't spend a lot of time outside of the meeting and dinner. On Thursday, another non-profit (Let's Do It Peja, an environmental organization) came to Kaçanik for a discussion on the problems with the Lepenci and Nerodime Rivers. Gjethi is involved with this as well and the meeting involved representatives from the municipality of Kaçanik and mayors of villages that border these rivers. The problems with the rivers are both the pollution and sewage going into the rivers and hydropower dams that have substantially impacted the flow of water in the Lepenci. Once again, I learned a lot (thanks to Sami who translated) and it was great to be invited with Gjethi.
We expected to find some challenges in living in a developing countries. For the most part, the challenges have been very few. Lately, however; there is a shortage of water. It did not rain much in July and the weather was fairly warm. There is also an increased population in many areas of Kosovo as the diaspora have returned for their summer vacations. Last week, the German diaspora arrived in large numbers as the German schools just closed for the their summer break. Due to the increased population coupled with the lack of rain, the water is being shut off every night from around 11:30 to around 6 am. This has been going on for around 3 weeks. Recently, the water is also going off during the day. You can never quite be sure when it will happen, but most often it is during the late afternoon until around 9 pm.
When it first started happening, I wasn't prepared and I found it challenging to make dinner without water. Now, we keep a water supply on hand and we also take 2 liter bottles to the nearby spring to refill for drinking water. Typically, I keep electric kettle full of water at all times and small pitcher in the kitchen. In the bathroom, I have a large plastic water bottle and tub of water at all times. Whatever we use when the water is off, we refill as soon as it comes back on. Today, I wanted to make pitas and falafel, so we had water this morning. I decided to make them for lunch. It was so much easier to make them with a good water supply and it was a nice lunch treat. Tonight, we will have salad and left overs for dinner.
Water being shut off nightly happens in other cities as well. It is not just Kaçanik. I understand that it happens in Prishtina and Ferizaj. Ferizaj started periodically shutting off the water back in May. So we are pretty fortunate that we have not had this problem very long.
One thing that I don't understand is with the water shortage, people are still watering the sidewalks. Many business and some homeowners, spray water on the sidewalks during the day to keep the dust down. However, the air has been so dry that the sidewalks quickly dry and are probably dusty again within a short period of time. The people doing the watering don't seem to care that there is a lack of water. So when the water is on they continue to water the sidewalks.
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