one month down.

five to go?

Today marks the one month anniversary of my arrival in Kosovo, and this time seems to have gone very fast when I try to remember all that has happened in just four weeks. Or, more accurately, it's not that so much has happened per say, but that so much is now different from what it was only a month ago. We 'celebrated' today by doing more work on the UN missing persons project, visiting two highschools in the south-western towns of Gjakova and Suhareka. For three hours of workshops, we did three hours of driving, but the view was interesting enough to make the long car ride worthwhile... especially the mountains, which seemed particularly striking, perhaps because it was a typically Vancouver-ish day in terms of brooding weather with dark grey skies and rain?

The workshops, too, were interesting, and quite different from what we experienced in the elementary schools two weeks ago. In Gjakova, we met with only seven kids (and by kids I mean juniors and seniors), but all of them were greatly and directly affected by the war: they were all missing either fathers or uncles, or both. Some of their families had had the bodies returned to them, but some were still waiting to hear about the fate of their missing loved ones. It is most likely they are waiting for bodies to be found and/or identified, but who am I to challenge the hopes of a seventeen-year old who believes that his father might be alive, hidden in a secret jail in Serbia (one so secret that no one has found it for six years)? Really, though, it is easy to understand why such ideas, based on small threads of truth, are so common here and in the many other countries where people have similarly "disappeared" without a trace.

On a lighter note, potholes in Kosovo are psychotic! With perfectly coordinated timing, I just received a small article clipped out of the Vancouver Sun on the mystery of potholes. You see, Vancouver roads were overly unprepared for the full one week of winter temperatures that struck the city this year and that article was sent as a joke in response to my fascination with the city's plethora of newly formed potholes :) Well, instead of getting away from them, I have moved to Kosovo, where potholes are permanent fixtures on some roads. Of course, when I say potholes, I'm talking tank-sized things the likes of which are unimaginable in North America. Psycho, I'm telling you!

Otherwise, I'm just bracing myself for another quiet weekend in Pristina. I have high hopes for more sun so I can go for a walk, because, sadly, you end up somewhat starved not only for exercise but just for opportunities to be outside around here. I know that with warmer weather will come the immensely popular outdoor cafe phenomenon, but until then, I've got to get my kicks where I can. And on the exercise front, I might have to give up and join a gym, because walking up stairs back and forth from my apartment to the office just isn't enough. But, don't worry... I promise to keep you updated about such fabulously exciting aspects of my life here in Pristina.