From Blue Sky Days to Blackbird Fields: Peace Corps Kosovo Volunteers at their Finest...

On Friday, July 4th, we packed our bags and headed to Podujevë, Kosovo. It is approximately a 4-hour trip (by bus and on foot) from Kaçanik to this city, located north of Prishtina. By car, this is an 1.5 hour trip. We went to help with a Tennis Club / Summer Camp for young people in Podujevë held at the Manchester Peace Park.

Entrance to the Peace Park in Podujeve

The route from Kaçanik to Podujeve

4th of July on the shesh in Prishtina

There is a little historical background to the Manchester Peace Park that is important to share. The group Manchester Aid to Kosovo (MaK) started in 1999, when the founders sat watching the news from the war-torn Balkans in the area that is now known as Kosovo. They decided that something needed to be done and that they should be the ones to do it. They formed a non-profit organization that sent support and humanitarian aid. The following explains how this led to the Peace Park in Podujevë.

"MaK’s role altered as refugees started to be flown to the UK. In 1999 hundreds of traumatised Kosovars were evacuated to the UK. Manchester, with its excellent hospitals and with surgeons eager to help, received special needs medical evacuations. Amongst them were the Bogujevci family, children flown to Manchester with multiple gunshot injuries. The five cousins aged 6 to 13 years survived the massacre, in a domestic garden, of 21 women, children, and elderly men, in Podujeva, NE Kosovo. Eight members of their family and eight close friends died. The Bogujevcis asked us to create a peace park in their hometown of Podujeva. School and social support were provided in Manchester – a Manchester nightclub collected for a holiday. Friendships deepened." (From the MaK website)

Timeline of Events leading to the Peace Park, tennis court, and summer camp:

Origins: MAK was established in 1999 in Manchester as a response to the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
Aid and Support: The organization sent over 1,000 tons of aid and provided support to refugees, many of whom had experienced trauma.
Child Survivors: Child survivors of the conflict, including members of the Bogujevci family, played a key role in leading the charity.
Peace Park Concept: The children expressed a desire to create a space in their hometown that reflected the care they received in Manchester, leading to the idea of the Peace Park. The Peace Park was dedicated in 2009.
Summer Club: A summer club was started in the park for the surrounding children lead by MaK members
- Tennis Court Development: A British tennis coach, David Bryceland, volunteered at a MAK summer camp in Podujeva and noticed the lack of sporting facilities. He then spearheaded fundraising efforts, including a 24-hour tennis marathon, to build a tennis court at the Peace Park.

Peace Corps volunteers assigned to Podujevë have helped with the Summer Camp, and several volunteers helped with the camp last year. All of KOS 8 and 9 were invited to help with the camp this year, and this help was supported by our Peace Corps staff. Through the course of the week, a core group was there from Saturday, July 5th to Saturday, July 12th. Most of us had to leave for our sites on Saturday, as many of us do not have buses home on Sunday. Along with the core group, many volunteers dropped in for part of the week according to their schedules. The final count was approximately 17 volunteers from Peace Corps who supported the camp and its campers.

The park is beautiful except for a dry grassy area. The summer has been really dry and the grass is currently straw like. But it was a great area for doing relays, throwing frisbee, playing soccer, and playing games. It has a garden-like entrance, a single tennis court, a sand volleyball area, a playground, a parcourt, table tennis, chess area, and trails.

The week was a true example of what Peace Corps volunteers can do when they pull together and are asked to take the lead. The main leader of the camp is a woman from Manchester who has been leading the camp since its inception. This year, there were not additional volunteers from Manchester. We connected on WhatsApp where a few of us took leadership roles in planning for the camp. I originally did the camp because of the tennis, but when she said there was a need for an art leader, I gladly took on the role. The theme was Peace Parks around the world (which one of our volunteers helped to research). I quickly came up with some ideas for craft activities, including origami cranes, painted rocks, and a variety of crafts. Every volunteer who participated had something to contribute, and we all flexed a lot to help make the camp a success. Without tooting our horns too much, I would say that our volunteers were instrumental in the success of the camp.

The campers were absolutely fantastic, and they were some of the nicest kids I have ever met. They love the camp and can't wait for it every year. The assistants were former campers (high school or older middle school) who came back to help. They act as translators, leaders, and support. Many already have great leadership skills, while some are still learning.

Most of the volunteers stayed at the base camp, which was two floors of space above a clinic. It had multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. The owner and family of the clinic have supported the camp from its start. There was room to house most of our volunteers. Only a few bunked with a local volunteer whose home was close by. It was fun hanging with the volunteers, cooking communal meals, thrifting at local second-hand stores, going out on the shesh, and sitting around talking to fellow Americans with similar viewpoints. Challenges included no water in the evenings for the first 4 nights. It was hard to clean up after meals, and there were no evening showers at first after hanging out in the heat all day. Mid-week, there was a cool down and rain, so we had water again. Although we managed to cook some wonderful meals, the kitchen lacked large pots and pans, good knives, and other kitchen essentials.

Each day started with tennis from 8:30 to 9:30 am. Campers who were not interested in tennis arrived for a variety of planned and unplanned activities. The camp was about 5 to 6 hours a day (with a break to go home during the hottest part of the day). The kids all lived in Podujeve and walked to the camp.

There were many highlights of the week, but a few in particular were the peace trees, the station activity, the water games, the Peace Corps Rhino Skit, and the many hugs and smiles we received from campers. For the peace trees, we made tissue flowers to hang and strips of paper with wishes. Almost all were in English. The station activity was a flex in that we had no idea what to do for Friday's activities. A brainstorming session led a number of ideas, and we decided to use the whole park to do stations led by volunteers. Team leaders would walk their groups to the various stations. We did frisbee, chalk drawings, yoga, dance, chess, fitness, and ping pong. While most of us were winging it, it turned out to be a huge success. Water games (another flex) came about because the first few days of camp were super hot. Getting the kids wet was a great way to keep them cool. Thanks to our former camp counselor Hannah, our volunteers did a fun skit on a serious subject. The Peace Park in Africa is designed to protect endangered animals like the black rhinos, and campers enjoyed the performance and then wrote their own skit. The whole week was full of smiles and hugs.

This was definitely a week to remember.

Additional resources to learn more about the history of the Manchester Peace Park and MaK:

Voices of Kosovo in Manchester -- Oral histories of the refugees from the Kosovo War.
Massacre in Podujeve -- This is a Wikipedia link to information on the Spring 1999 massacre in Podujeve
Facebook Page for Manchester Aid to Kosovo -- The Facebook site for Manchester Aid to Kosovo

Photos from a week in Podujeve