On July 17th, Thom and I left Kosovo for a visit to the U.S. For me, it was to be an 11-day visit primarily visiting my niece's family in Independence, Kentucky with a side trip back to the Madison area for a couple days and a chance to see my daughter Kim and her partner's new house.
As we left the airport in Cincinnati and arrived at my niece’s neighborhood, it is hard not to make some comparisons. The big one is that there is not trash laying all over the place. Even a long the highway, there was only a rare piece of trash. In Kosovo, trash is everywhere. The other big comparison is there are far fewer smokers around and smokers don't smoke indoors in public places. These are two things I will not miss about Kosovo.
Our visit in Independence was spent with days at the playground, Cincinnati Zoo, church, and watching the girls play in the blow up swimming pool, which was all enjoyable. If you haven’t been to the Cincinnati Zoo and you have the chance, you should go, as it is one of the best zoos I have ever been to. They continue to update all the exhibits, but one of the best parts of the zoo is their detail to landscaping and the beautiful vegetation that fills the pathways between displays. My niece has a membeship at the zoo, so we go every time we visit. We always feel comfortable staying with my niece, Megan, and her husband, Josiah. The girls, Rori (6) and Maggie (3) consider us their grandparents.
Along with hanging out with Megan and her family, we had a chance to visit with one of my second cousins. I haven’t talked with her in a long time and it was good to catch up. Several weeks ago, her 97-year old mother died. Her mother was my grandmother's youngest sister…with her passing it is a shift as my second cousin is now the matriarch of the family.
On Thursday of that week my niece, her girls, Thom, and I made the exhausting 8 hour trip to Oregon, Wisconsin (a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin). This is where my daughter’s house is located. Megan, the girls, and I stayed in a nearby hotel as my daughter and her partner are still working on their second bathroom and didn’t have room for all of us. Thom stayed with our daughter.
When we arrived, Kim had a treasure hunt for the girls around the house. Their house has a really nice location in the country, but still close enough to the quaint community of Oregon. They have done a lot of work on the house since they bought it last December and it looks really nice.. Their back yard is full of black raspberry bushes and I look forward to helping her pick them next summer.
On Friday, we did a true south-central Wisconsin day. We packed up a picnic lunch and headed to our daughter’s house and then, we took off through the rolling green farmland to the Merrimac Ferry to cross the Wisconsin River. The Merrimac Ferry is a free ferry which is an extension of Highway 113, offering an alternative to the bridge located in Sauk Prairie. It is open from March to November, but closes during the winter months when there can be ice on the river. The ferry ride is only 7 minutes and the ferry holds 15 cars. The girls enjoyed the ferry ride.
Next we headed for a hike in Parfrey’s Glen. Parfrey’s Glen is the first State Natural Area in Wisconsin. The trail runs along the river and eventually ends near a waterfall where you have to walk in the small creek to make it to the pool of water at the end of the waterfall. For two girls, ages 3 and 6, this was a definite highlight.
Next it was on to Devil’s Lake for a picnic and a swim in the lake. Devil’s Lake is the state’s most popular park with a beautiful lake carved by ancient glaciers surrounded by forest and high cliffs. The girls loved the beach as well. After swimming for the afternoon, we headed back to the ferry and grabbed Chocolate Shoppe ice cream from the ice cream shop by the ferry entrance. Chocolate Shoppe is a local to Wisconsin premium ice cream and they have the best ever dairy-free ice creams. (Although they did not have my favorite, which is Raspberry Nebula).
Saturday dawned cloudy, humid and rainy. We planned to take the girls to the hotel swimming pool in the morning, but it was closed for cleaning due to some messy guests. We instead took the girls to PlayNWisconsin. This is a company in Middleton which makes outdoor play structures. They have an indoor display room which they open from 10 am to 2 pm where you can bring your kids to play on the structures. This was also a big hit.
This was my first trip back to Middleton since leaving Wisconsin in February of 2024. It was weird. Our house is rented out, so I didn’t even go by the house. The whole day was a little gloomy, but we did have an enjoyable meal at the Albanian restaurant in Middleton. The girls had a rest and an afternoon swim and then we headed to Kim’s to build a fire in the fire pit.
On Sunday, we drove back to Independence without Thom, who is staying in the Madison area for a while. The girls did well on both long drives. On the way there, we included two nice stops at a park and a rest area with a playground. On the way back, the girls were sufficiently worn and no long stop was needed.
After returning to Independence, I started to pack and prepare myself for the trip back to Kosovo. My visit seemed to fly by and it was hard to think about leaving in two days. I spent the day with the 6-year old on Monday, while my niece and her husband worked. The 3-year old went to day care.
During the day, however; my niece found out that her dad (my older brother) was back in the hospital. My brother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last winter. From her conversation with his partner, she felt that things were not looking good. She and I took an evening walk and he called while we were walking. He told her that he was back at home and he sounded pretty good. The next morning, we found out that he did not make it through the night. This was Tuesday, July 29th and I was to leave for Kosovo in the afternoon.
Here, I need to interject a little background. My brother and I have not seen each other since he left Megan when she was three to be raised by my parents. Megan did not have a relationship with her father until about 9 years ago when she located him and reconnected. She met up with him in Tennessee (where my brother was living at the time) when she was there for a wedding. She welcomed his phone calls during this time and tried to establish a relationship, however; even though he was invited to come and meet his grandkids, he chose not to do so. I commend Megan on allowing my brother into her life on his terms. The past week has been much harder for her than me. I think it is particularly hard, because she now knows that he will never meet her family or be a larger part of her life.
That being said, I am my brother's oldest sibling and my parents are both gone, so I did take care of the necessary arrangements with the funeral home. My brother had moved to Arkansas and had a good circle of friends there. We did not have a funeral service. His friend in Arkansas will spread his ashes at a lake, which was one of his favorite spots.
The Peace Corps staff in Kosovo have been great and Peace Corps allowed me to extend my stay in Independence. I have an additional 11 days. As I write this, I have 3 ½ days left here and do feel it is time for me to return. There are things I want to complete and I have only 8 ½ months left of service. My grant to establish the English language lab has been fully funded and I will have some things to do for it before school starts in September.
The weather over the last few days has been spectacular. It has cooled down and the humidity is much less. When we first arrived, it felt like 100% humidity levels and the temperatures were in the high 80s to 90s. Kacanik was really dry and so adjusting to the high humidity levels was a bit of a challenge. One night, as a storm front passed through northern Kentucky, the tornado sirens went off and then all of our phones started going off. If you choose to have the early warning app on your phone, it will signal you when there is a severe storm in the area. The girls were just getting settled in for bed and we grabbed them and headed to the basement. Their basement is finished and we all gathered on the couch until the all clear alert sounded. There was a tornado touch down in Independence, but fortunately it was not close to us.
Photos from US Visit
Rori on the steel drum and Maggie performing
Playing hide n seek with Maggie, she's easy to find as she can't stop talking
Maggie and the cheetah from Viva Fresh in Kosovo
At the manatee exhibit
Rori tries to coax a swallowtail into her finger
Maggie is dancing, Rori is posing
A break at Lake of the Woods on our way to Wisconsin
Kim and Maggie at Parfrey's Glen
Fire pit at Kim's
A sandhill crane standing on a car in the hotel parking lot
On a break on as we travel back to Independence
A beautiful evening sunset
After playing many games of dominoes with Rori
Field day with Maggie at day care
A great day to fly a kite
