Kosova Journal: Week 1, 29 June - 7 July

::DISCLAIMER:: The content of this journal is mostly original, but with minor omissions due to privacy, stupidity, or plain boringness.

29 June

"Mommy, do you think everybody is going to disney world?" - An eager child asks his mother in Lambert Saint Louis International Airport. Well, far from it, actually.

30 June

Sure, I am being forced to operate between 2 and 5 AM body time, but its been pleasant and lacking complications from Dallas-Fort Worth to London Gatwick [DFW -> LGW]. I sat next to an elderly, kindly gentleman named, "Harvey." I don't know if he snored or not because the Lunesta knocked me out for four straight hours. I totally the dig the Britishness - the accents, expressions, fashion. Once again, my inner anglophile is coming out. LGW likes to a wait a while before revealing the assigned gate for one's flight. I anticipated anxiously, paced, shopped, read. Only to find that the meager 5-minute intervals brought no remedy to the constant departure monitor notifcation:

Pristina - BA 2880 - Please WaitMy departing gate at London-Gatwick.

Eventually my instructions came. My first notion of uncertainty [aka American Ignorance] came with the currency exchange. *Just in case* I acquired 15 euros in exchange for $25. I don't know if they took advantage of my ignorance or not. Later, I was charged $5.32 for a drink at Starbucks. Sheesh. I had a little scare at the baggage claim in Pristina but finally it came.

[About the American Team] Everybody else's outgoingness and overwhelming super, wide-smiled, "get-to-know-you-right-away" personalities make up for my "quasi-stand back, smile, and casually wait to engage the conversation" personality.
My first encounter with my host family: They welcomed us and moved us to a cooler part of the house. Pajazit, the father, sat down across the coffee table, and offered us cigarettes and carbonated water. And then, the COFFEE. After adding sugar, it was tolerable, I guess. Maybe even better than tolerable. I even recall thinking, "gee, this stuff for a month might not be that bad."

My housemates:
Josh [my roommate]: From PA
Chae [Korean]: From Houston, TX
David [Older gentleman]: From PA, as well.
Both Josh and David are from the Blue Church team. All are nice fellas. We had an excellent first dinner together. Seeing Mark and Trish has been lovely. I like the culture here, but still have no idea what the names of my hosts are.

1 July

Went on a prayer walk today. It was personally revealing to see how much scripture some people can so simply and automatically recite during prayer; a tendency I haven't assumed as of yet. During the morning we had specific Lypjan orientation. Later in the day, we had camp orientation, instruction, and preparation. After our meeting and Better Life Center [BLC] prayer walk, I helped with decorations for the set. We painted lots of Island Scenery [rainbows, clouds, sun] and taped it up to the netting in the gym. Dinner was excellent, I checked email, and got to know some people better. We hung out at Ciao's - a coffeeshop and local hangout. The World Cup is pretty popular here, so when all else conversation fails, talking about futbol is usually an acceptable last resort. I won a bet with Bonita since France beat Brazil [I didn't think they would either], and got a free coffee and ice-cream as a result. :-)

Josh and Sam playing in front of the newly-constructed Island [skit stage].

2 July

Sunday! The worship service this morning was pleasant. We sang, prayed, and Mark preached about being obstinate and stubborn in sharing our faith. During free time, we assembled the ancient ARMY tents, I helped Kerry finish lining the point board, and hung out at the center. At night, Jeff and Deb had POTC:CBP set up at Ciao's to watch on the big screen, but my housemates and I left early to rest at home. Since we returned considerably early, we got some serious bonding time with my host family. I played trumpet for them, a bit. It wasn't that most enjoyable of functional instrument, but I think they appreciated the effort. Next, they offered me a beer. I gladly accepted. Skopsko is the name of the Kosovar beer [which I later found out was Macedonian.] During this time, I finally learned the family's names [they wrote them down] and listened as Leonita eagerly taught me shqip words for my belongings on the table [my light, watch, lighter, beer, etc...] and a number of pictures in a school book of hers. The power went out tonight, so I washed my hair in a flashlight-illuminated bathroom. I slept great.

Assembling the ancient ARMY tents;
Rumor has it they date back to the Korean War!

3 July

The first day of camp! Kids were excited, and overwhelmingly cooperative; I was impressed. It rained today which somewhat dampened the joyous spirits. My kids are great. Since none spoke English, we had somewhat awkward/silent beginnings. Though, their efforts are respectable. My kids are: Donika, Gresa, Labinota, Albrim, and Jeton. Tania and Joanne had the other two teams which comprised our group: the Blue Circles. The kids really are adorable. I helped with the afternoon game time which was so much fun. We played "Blob" and other run-around games. I was again impressed with the children's cooperation, as many of them were kids who were unable to register for camp due to number restrictions.

My Kids [1st Camp]: Jeton, Albrim, Labinota, Gresa/Diellza, and Donika

4 July

Happy Independence Day! Today, I went on my first family visit. Amanda, Dan, Agron [the translator], and I went to Albrim's house. As this was my first visit, ever, so I was naturally nervous. Well, we showed up and neither of his parents are home, only a cousin and his aunt. So, the beginning was a little awkward, but soon the aunt left and only albrim, his little sister, and their cousin [a 14 year old girl who we all seriously thought was 20] remained. So, Agron helped the conversation, but it was really just a very youthful visit - talking about her, me, Dan, Albrim, lots of jokes and humor, and it turned out to be a very comfortable and fun visit. I was nervous at the beginning, but I think it came together nicely.

My trumpet proved to be a unique way of entertaining or intriguing
Kosovars, both young and old. This is Albrim, at his visit.

5 June

Today was the third day of camp. Things are running more smoothely and naturally now. We started learning about shapes today, and sang the "shape song" which I helped Bonita, Amanda, and Dorinda write to the tune of "I've got Rhythm." The kids dig it. Today was filled with exciting experiences. The first two were my visits. For my first visit, I accompanied Tania and Daniella [the translator] to the Serbian part of town to visit Miljana. Svetlana, her best friend, accompanied us. This was a very enjoyable visit because the two girls are absolutely adorable. Svetlana is the more outgoing of the two, so she kept trying to correct my pronunciation of "Miljana" and her persistance [along with my errant attempts] was really hilarious. The girls pulled an english book out from their school, and showed off their English. It was very good, and in class they are shyer because they're Serbian. It's sad, because both are extremely bright.

Svetlana and Miljana (from Tania's group) are pretty much the most
adorable girls (they're Serbian) in Kosova. Here, we are playing "Hot Hands"

After the Serbian visit, I went back to the center and met Amanda and Vjollca to visit Donika. Donika has had a crush on me since day 1, and each day seemed to make it more evident. Anyway, the visit to her house was alot of fun, especially with Vjollca. Since she was sure that the family couldn't understand anything we were saying, she would take the liberty of asking me stuff, and saying "oh, don't worry, I won't translate that" if I said something embarrassingly stupid or something like that. I gave Donika a picture of myself, and she put it in a little photo album of hers. I'm getting more used the visits, and enjoying them more.

Donika, her family, Amanda, and myself in their apartment.

The third noteworthy happening from today came this evening. I came back to my host family somewhat early (10:15ish), and decided to sit down with them and chill for a while and finish watching the futbol game. Much to my suprise, they were just about to serve dinner. So, they quickly invited me to join them; I did. Well, the night before David told me about a meal he got to have with them and said it was terrific, though he warned me about the pepper and cheese dip, it's spicy. He said there were some green peppers that weren't hot which were also served. Well, I tried the dip, as he warned, it had a significant bite, but was doable. So, I pointed to the peppers, and asked if they were hot. I mean, C'mon, I'm a Schamp, we write the definition for hot stuff. They said, "No, no, no, no, no, no...not hot not hot" So, I took a bite out of one.

*ouch*

For 15 minutes I suffered, downing 8 glasses of water, stuffing gigantic chunks of bread in my mouth, panting, sweating, and trying desperately to make my lips and tongue stop stinging - it was the hottest thing I'd ever eaten. [Later, Trish told me that they probably understood "hot" in terms of temperature, not in terms of spicy - it was cooked, but cold.] The bright side? I got to three more Albanian words: Speci [pepper], Diex [sp? hot, spicy], and nxehte [hot, temperature.]

This would be the culprit.

6 July

No entry today :-(

But here are some pictures:

Skopsko, my first beer. I later found out CrossWorld frowns upon the
consumption of alcohol on the field. So, it was my last as well - for now.

Here is the Olluri family, along with my housemates: Josh, Chae, and David.
Ardian, Illirian, and Leonita are the three children. Leonita was a camper the first week.

Here's Milan and Xhevat, two of the BLC staff members.
They're cool fellas, I enjoyed chatting with them, playing basketball with them, and the like.

7 July

I am realizing more and more sensitively my own sin and lack of Christian understanding and "procedure" for lack of a better word [really, I have no better word]. Praying with Sam today before camp was encouraging and inspiring. Ought I feeling like praying needs to be a performance though? No, but I do need it. Today was rougher than the others - I think that is because everyone is tired. We lack patience, and let our goal of Serbian/Albanian unity sort of overtake the main point of letting the kids have fun. It’s funny that after a strong 20-minute prayer time, I have a bad day [in camp]. What made it more difficult? Miscommunication with other leaders, rowdy kids, and my visit. Stress: Gresa has now rescheduled for a 3rd time, now we need to do a visit on Tuesday and that urks me. I really love hearing other team members talk about God as their intimate friend - a level I am still hesitant to openly share or talk about. I DO think it makes the stronger though and that I would grow in strength from it. And yes, I need the strength - lust is catching up with me - lots of beautiful people here. I need to be mindful of how I interact with [a certain girl], a fairly attractive girl. I can't be the subject of judgement based on my actions, nor should I be the cause of a "sticky" situation. God, give me the strength to resist the temptation of the evil one and to grasp to your teachings of love and faithfulness to your commandments.
One bright note from today was my visit with Jeff and Deb. I chilled alot with Jeff, looked at pictures, talked about missions, his marriage [how it began...its a cool story - they've been friends since they were 3!] and other stuff of interest. An hour and a half passed very quickly. After supper and bombi at Ciao's, I went to the Edwards' apartment and called Dad via Skype. We talked for 12 minutes, it was a pleasant conversation and good to hear his voice. I conveniently interrupted him from a meeting. No basketball tonight as originally planned. Sad.
I absolutely ADORE our group hymnsings - even just one or two. For a group of musically laypeople, they are a lot for fun to harmonize with. I love my team. Everyone is inclusive and really great. Thanks, God.

The row of apartment buildings that line the walking street. Jeff and Deb's building is
front and center, right above Ciao's, which is the shop with the blue-ish awning.

Here's an example of Craft Class. Tyli [Natyra] led it, mostly in English.
We had to utilize a locker room becaus that was the only available room with enough space.