My birthday weekend started on Friday with a day off from school (not that I mind school, but it's nice to change things up once in a while). We went to Prishtina to say "farewell" to our country director Carolyne who is leaving for Vietnam as their new country director. We had a farewell luncheon at Peace Corps Headquarters and many of the other volunteers attended. It was a nice event and we had good weather. We were able to eat outside in the courtyard at PC Kosovo Headquarters.
After that, we hung out at the Newborn Coffee Shop (think local very American-style coffee shop). It is always nice to hang with the rest of the volunteers. We later walked to Addy's apartment in Prishtina (Peace Corps response volunteer), before dinner at Margo's. After that, Thom and I headed back to Kaçanik.
Saturday was my birthday and to be a Kosovar birthday, you start by having no plans and then letting things just happen. We did have one plan and that was clipping the Japanese knotweed that is growing along the river. This is an ongoing project to eradicate this invasive weed. We met the Gjethi guys at noon at ETC coffee shop, as any event always starts with coffee, tea, or something to drink and some nice conversation. It is a chance to catch and is the investment in social currency that Kosovars do so well. After coffee, we headed out to the river to clip the knotweed. This did not take very long and the weather was so nice, that Thom, Valon, and I decided to walk for a bit. Sami left to go home. We decided to walk out to Guri i Shpum, but we made Sami and Valon's wives along the way. Valon's wife decided to walk with us, but Sami's wife needed to head home.
When we got to Guri i Shpum, Sami arrived in his car to get some photos of the stairway to the top of the rock face that was being done by the municipality. The stairway has some erosion issues and Gjethi is monitoring the progress. Sami wanted to take some photos of the project. Later, we walked up the steps, but unfortunately, there was a landslide blocking the stairway and we could not walk to the top. Erosion and landslides are a problem, that will likely keep the stairway from being safe for public use.
While everyone else walked further to get photos, I went up to Guri i Shpum Restaurant and replenished my supply of fresh rosemary. After that we started walking back. There is a house that sits close to the stairway at Guri i Shpum and Valon's wife knows the people who live in the house. It is three ladies, a mother, and her two daughters. She called up the daughter and we were invited in for coffee and a visit (another example of social currency and the abundant hospitality of the people in Kosovo). It seems the mother has seen Thom and me walking in the past (as we often walk to Guri i Shpum) and the mother had wondered who we were. Someone mentioned that it was my birthday and the daughter left and came back with a gift; a pair of warm fuzzy socks and some Milka candies.
We had no plan for the afternoon when we left to cut knotweed, but we ended up having a wonderful afternoon walking and visiting.
Sunday, we hiked with the hiking group. We took taxis south to our starting point and hiked back to Kaçanik. On the hike, there were beautiful views of Ljuboten Peak and we eventually walked to Lake Kotlina. Unfortunately, there were ATV's riding around the lake and tearing up the grass. We walked past the lake and to the meadow where we stopped for lunch in a meadow we walked to last May. There were three high schoolers from the gjimnaz hiking with us. One I met on the last meadow hike and another is my counterpart's daughter. The third is the son of a fellow teacher at my school site. It was once again another great winter hike with nice people and great views. It was a great way to spend my birthday weekend.
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