Peja, Pristina and beyond...

Precious photo! An elderly Macedonian couple in the old city of Skopje, taking some time to relax...

Location: Peja, Pristina, Kosovo and Skopje, Macedonia

Date: December 24, 2009

Outside of the city of Peja is the region called Rugova, which is filled with beautiful snowy white mountains and tiny villages. I got the chance to drive out here with Skender and Ellen, and we explored a bit of the Gorge.

On Monday, I got the opportunity to accompany Ellen on one of her meetings to accredit an NGO. Most of the organizations she works with are Albanian, since 90% of the people in Kosovo are Albanian, but this time she was going to visit a Serbian NGO and she invited me along. Because of the war between the Serbians and Albanians, these two nationalities do not get along. Most of Kosovo was destroyed in the war in 1998 and 1999, and the relations are a long time in becoming repaired. Therefore, having the chance to see the Serbian side of things in predominately Albanian Kosovo was pretty exciting.

After the two hour meeting, we just got to chat with Zoran and Milivoje (Zoran only spoke Serbian so we had to use Milivoje as a translator, and this kind of communication can, at time, be frustrating). Zoran, the head of this Serbian NGO, got out a book to show us that he had saved since he was a child. He read us a bit of it in Serbian. As a person interesting in teaching reading, I was beyond thrilled that this book was such a treasure to him. He had it hanging from his office, stored safely in a plastic bag, and it was quite a privilege to have him read it to us!

Zoran reading to Ellen and I

After the meeting, Milivoje offered to take us into the Serbian side of town so that I could buy some books in Serbian. In each country, I have been buying children books in that native language to add to my library for my classroom. This Serbian part of town was a place I had not expected to go, since the Albanian sides and the Serbian sides do not usually have much interaction. Even Ellen, who has lived in Peja on and off for 6 years had not had this opportunity before! After the book store, Milivoje took us to the Serbian monastery, and we entered after greeting the Swedish guards at the gate.

Afterwards, we went into the capital of Kosovo, Pristina. Milivoje and his "brother," Dejan, who was actually his cousin, showed us great hospitality by driving us right into the city center. It seemed that Dejan did not come into the city much, because in the car, he was slouching the whole time, and made comments indicating that he was nervous because it wasn't a safe place for Serbians to come.

Later that afternoon, I spent more time with my new Albanian friends, back in Peja. It was so fascinating to be able to cross the border from Albanian to Serbian and then back again, and hear their stories.
One of the walls in the center of Pristina, showing family members that have been missing since the war in 1999.

Some of my book collection- including Portuguese, Spanish, Albanian, Serbian and Macedonian books!!!
I got the chance to go into another school called Lidhje Prizrenit in Kosovo before the kids were let out for winter vacation. This was a 1st grade class. I was totally impressed with the teaching- the teacher, Mrs. Bajri, was using all kinds of strategies to help the children learn- visual, auditory, sensory...she was having them count the syllables and put their fingers under their chins to feel what the word sounded like. Though there were 37 kids in the classroom, each of them was following along- just by listening to the teacher's instruction....as Joe would say, "Very cool."

This morning, I headed out to Skopje, Macedonia, to get more pages added to my passport. This is Peja this morning.
This is Skopje, Macedonia, a 4-5 hour bus drive from Peja. Unlike Kosovo, Macedonia is a predominately Orthodox country (and you can see the cross on the mountain).


Did you know?

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje!!! We went to the Mother Teresa memorial here.

Macedonian flag

This afternoon, after I finished getting pages added to my passport at the ridiculously giant, well protected American embassy in Skopje, I had to find my way back to the city center. Although I am picking up a few words in Albanian, Macedonian is a completely different language and I couldn't use anything I learned. I hailed a cab, got in, and described (and acted out) the GIANT Christmas tree that was in the city center. He seemed to know, but then pulled over a minute later and asked again where I needed to go. I got out a few receipts from the places I had been in the center, and again he nodded his head. But two minutes later, he pulled over again, dialed a number, and put me on his cell phone with his daughter, who knows "very good English." As I told his daughter I needed to go to the Christmas tree, she just kept saying that she didn't understand me, but after a few minutes, I got it across where I needed to go. Although it took a while to figure it all out, I got to where I needed to be. I think it will take a little getting used to not speaking the language, but it is definitely a challenge I am up to!

3 months of traveling already!!! I can't believe it.

Happy Holidays to all, and a warm New Year :)

Happy Birthday Joe Mirenna!