My school year ended on June 5th, but for many of the volunteers in elementary school, it ended on Friday, June 20th or officially on Monday, June 23rd. On Saturday, a celebration marking the end of the school year took place in Prizren. We had a grill out at a volunteer's home, and those who could and wanted to travel came. There are many volunteers whose sites are located near Prizren, and so a sizable gathering took place. It is always nice to meet and talk with all the volunteers.
The best part is that there was a special hike on Sunday sponsored by the Prizren Hiking Club. The meeting point was at one of the bridges in Prizren. Our hiking group was planning to go to Shkoder for a Saturday-to-Sunday camping and hiking trip. We were not going on to do the Shkoder hike. We were excited to have another option we could join, so we got an apartment near the meeting point and spent Saturday night in Prizren.
We put the message out to other volunteers who like to hike, especially our new volunteers in the Prizren area. Hiking has been a great way to meet people and to get to know our community better, and we believe that other volunteers will find it beneficial to hike with the hiking groups in their communities. On Friday, we found out that two members of our hiking club in Kaçanik were going to do the Prizren hike instead of the hike in Shkoder. We let them know we were planning to hike, but would already be in Prizren. They offered to pick us up at the bridge in Prizren and drive us to the trailhead. They would also drive us back to Kaçanik at the end of the hike.
Four other Peace Corps volunteers joined the hike: Mike, Birgid, Matthew, and Steven. Mike's brother, Jeff, was visiting him. So Jeff came as well as Steven's girlfriend, who was also visiting from Denmark. We got up on Sunday morning to meet the guys from our hiking group. When we got there, they were already talking with our Peace Corps friends. Our Peace Corps friends had a ride to the trailhead on the bus, so we left ahead of the bus with Ekrem. It was an interesting drive to the trailhead that went up a mountain road through small villages. This was a well-attended event with hiking groups from all over Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Albania. There were two options for hiking so after hiking for a while, some of us headed for Vertop Peak, and others took a less steep hike to a mountain lake. We chose to walk to the peak for the views from the top.
It was a great hike, and it was fun to have the other volunteers on the hike. We met a lot of people as well. On one of our breaks, there was a young lady from Tirana who currently lives in Prishtina sitting next to us. We started talking with her, and while she often hikes with the Prishtina group, for this hike she came by herself. Birgid and I talked with a man who was a former English teacher, and he talked about the problems with the educational system in Kosovo. It was interesting to hear him say these things, as they are the same things I have been feeling while I have been teaching at the school here in Kaçanik.
The hiking group in Prizren covered the cost of the bus plus they provided snacks for the trail and then grilled sandwiches at the end of the hike. It was a beautiful hike on a beautiful day. The hiking community continues to be one of the things I enjoy most in Kosovo.
It was especially nice to have a ride back from Prizren. We took the newly paved road that goes through the mountain and the town of Prevalle. The road had been dirt from Prizren to Prevalle. Last winter, it was paved, making it easier to get from Prizren to Kaçanik.
I am settling into my summer schedule with Albanian lessons on Thursday, morning and evening walks around Kaçanik, and an occasional coffee at a cafe. Last week, I worked on getting craft projects ready for a summer camp, I am helping with in July. This week, I will finish my quarterly Peace Corps reports and walk to the various utilities to pay my bills.
Photos from the Hike
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