Nearing the End...

Last week was the Close of Service Conference for KOS 9 volunteers on Thursday and Friday, which is the group of 10 of us who arrived in Kosovo to serve on February 26, 2024.  This felt too early to be thinking about our close of service, as we still have around 3 1/2 to 4 months of service.  Our official close of service date is April 29th, but typically, there are three dates in April that we will be able to leave on.  I would like to return on one of the earlier dates, but we will not know those dates until January.  The staff here in Kosovo is gearing up for the next group of volunteers who will be arriving in early March.  The dates we are given will be based on the training schedule. 

Entrance of the Hotel Prishtina decorated for the Holidays

Thank you for your service cake

We learned at the conference that there is a checklist of things to complete for the close of service.  Many of which require a staff signature.  Our last day of service will be spent in Prishtina with members of the staff who will sign off on our checklist.  It is important to make sure that they are not scheduled for training with the new volunteers.  As with most government programs, there are many close-of-service items to complete, and most can not be completed until the last weeks of our service.

At the beginning of the conference, we had eight of the original ten in KOS 9 left.  One of our members left early in the first summer of service.  We also found out that two of our members are leaving early as they have jobs to go back to.  Noah has a job in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and will be leaving us in January.  Vincent has a remote job, but must return to the U.S. to take the position.  He will be leaving in a week.   We will be only six left of the original ten.  Link to the close of service reel.

Along with learning about our service completion, we got to spend two days with our cohort.  Getting out of our site, socializing with Americans, eating Japanese food, and taking a good, long, hot shower were just a few of the benefits of the conference.  Along with the discussions presented by staff, we did our final Language Proficiency exam.  Although I was so nervous, and definitely forgot much of what I know, I did manage to eke out an Intermediate High score (B1/B2) in Albanian language.  This was a welcome surprise, especially since I rarely speak Albanian.

After the completion of our close of service, four of us, plus Thom, headed to Peja for a weekend birthday party for one of our KOS 10 volunteers.  Jacob and his partner, Kalena, have an apartment near the city center in Peja.  We arrived in Peja around dinner time.  We found our rental apartment first and then met the group for dinner.  We were all tired.  After dinner, we headed back for the evening.

Saturday morning, we met David for breakfast and then headed to our book club meetup to discuss "Project Hail Mary," which was my pick.  The book was recommended by our daughter and Thom.  It is definitely a good read, and we had a good discussion.  

Then it was off to the party.  Kalena was the ultimate hostess as around 24 volunteers crowded into their apartment for a fabulous time.  Kalena had split us into teams with various games: trivia, scavenger hunt, Rubik's Cube, etc.  Snacks were provided (some from Danny, our fabulous chef volunteer).  My oatmeal-crusted brownies are always a hit.  We ended the day's event with several groups going to dinner at various restaurants.  We headed with a group to the restaurant at the Hotel Djukagjini.  It had a nice menu, but nothing special.  After that, we headed to the holiday market for mulled wine, hot chocolate, and live music.

Holiday decorations

The mountain view for Jacob and Kalena's apartment once the sun broke through around 2 pm

Breakfast at Seven Summits in Peja

Holiday decorations in a predominately Muslim country are associated with New Years

Hence the New Years tree at Seven Summits

A cow being chased up the street by dogs in big city of Peja (pop. ~82,000)

Two of the many dogs chasing and barking at the cow

With Hannah and Nadia at the Holiday Fest

Hannah, Nadia, Alyanna, Annie, Sarah, and Becca

The weather has taken a definite turn, but it is nowhere near as cold as Wisconsin was last weekend.  The air is damp and frosty.  The sun is struggling to break through the cloud, fog, and smog layer each day.  Hoarfrost clings to the trees, and it is hard to breathe outside.  Our air quality is better in Kaçanik than Prishtina, but the air quality has not been good throughout Kosovo.  On Sunday, we headed back to Prishtina with Danny and Alyanna.  Alyanna left us in Prishtina to catch a bus to her home.  Danny, Thom, and I headed back to Ferizaj, where our trusted taxi driver, Bedri, picked us up for the ride to Kaçanik.  

Monday and Tuesday are always my favorite days at school.  The students are calmer, and most are interested in doing the activities.  We did give students a test on Tuesday, but even those went better than normal.

Our constant battle right now is with mold in the apartment.  The style of construction of buildings, and persistent dampness this fall, has made the mold on the outer walls of our apartment much worse than last year.   These are the inside walls and a small portion of the ceiling closest to the windows.  The recommended treatment is a spray called Savo.  I am on my fourth bottle this fall.  I only use it when we are going to be gone for a few nights.  So Thursday morning, I got up a half hour early and got ready for the two-hour trip to Prishtina, hoping to arrive at the start at 10 am.  I made s

ure I was ready to go, and then I donned a mask and ball cap to start spraying.  There is an old sheet we used to block the sun last summer, and this I put on the floor and furniture before spraying.  It took the entire 1/2 hour.  In the end, I was the last volunteer to arrive for the conference at just after 10 am.  When we returned home, the apartment is much better.  Next week, we are leaving for a Christmas party in Prizren (with other volunteers), and then on to Malta for five days.  We will spray any new patches before we leave.  Hopefully, this will kill the mold for most of the winter.

Even with water issues, wand showers, electrical outages, a lackluster educational system, and mold, Kosovo has been a pretty easy location to serve in.

Low clouds and hoarfrost this week in Kaçanik