Volume Two:

Kosova. North Park. Chicago. Life as an adult.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Kosova Journal: Week 4, 21 July - 27 July

21 July

Today I visited Granit's family with the Valentines, Sam, and Vjollca [our translator]. This was a very enjoyable visit. Granit's grandfather talked the entire time; that's my only complaint. He spoke alot of his 45 years of teaching. Tim knew him from last year and was able to guide the conversation more by asking the right questions. This reminded me of the importance of writing our information down and remembering it for next time you/I visit. I was slightly distracted by the constraints of time - I was supposed to meet Noli and Bonita to go see his parents - but I was confined to my visit as the russian tea [qaj] hadn't finished cooking yet. This made for a fast-paced walked to the center where I found they they had already left, which made me glad. I would not have wanted them to wait for me. The Grandpa was only 68 and his 96-year old mother was still alive. Wow! [He was her primary care-provider].
Here's Tim and Terri Valentine and myself. Tim is just a really cool guy, I got to have
a few valuable conversations with him. Same goes for his daughter, Terri, who is my age. We got along quite well.
22 July

Camp today was tough. I think that most everybody was irritated by something or some kid. Fatos did not show up for the 2nd straight day. Is it wrong to be happy about that? Yes, I think so. I went to the village of Bonulle with Terri to visit her kid Arlind. This was a fairly enjoyable visit. Their 17-year old son looked asian, seriously, and it was fun talking to him. I had little pears at this visit - they were okay; a little crunchy, but okay to eat. I also accompanied Arlind in a little wedding dance; it was foolish, but enjoyable, and they all got a chuckle out of it. I'm actually going to document this as the least-favored coffee of my trip so far. Shh! Don't tell. So, we were supposed to visit Fatos in addition to Arlind, but he wasn't in camp the past two days to tell me he would be out of town. So, shucks. Terri and I went to telnet [the other internet cafe] to kill the extra time and that was swell. Tonight we had small group debriefing. My group was, in fact, quite small - just Tim and me. But, we had a good time talking. He shared a short version of his testimony with me [which is miraculous and incredible] and we talked about his Kosova experiences, and my first one. It was a valuable time.

[Anecdote about Tim]
I didn't know it was possible for a man to break his collarbone in a hockey game, brush it off, continue the game, drive home, lay down, writhe in pain, finally call a taxi to take him to the hospital, call the taxi an hour later to assure them that it wasn't a joke/prank, get an ER examination, get a small sling, and, to save money, walk home 10 miles at 3 AM in the morning in the winter in Northern New York state. Man, this guy was hardcore.

Afterwards, Agron, Xhevat, and I hung out at Agron's place as we watched the 2nd section of "Man on Fire" until the power once again went out. Then we chilled with his family, drank tea, and had more dinner. Well, it was getting late, so I thought I should get home. On our way, we ran into Josh and Tim at Ciao's chatting with Besnik, Noli, and Mentor - another religion discussion! They soon ended because it was getting late, but the best part about this was that after deeply sharing out opposing viewpoints with each other, we're still friends, unoffended. I'm told that not many muslims act in such a way after a discussion of religion. Tonight Josh mentioned that I'm a cool guy and a good roommate, and he was glad things had been working out. That was unexpected and benign of him. Since so much was on our minds [b/c of another deep islam/christianity discussion], we all had trouble going to sleep.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of Besnik, but Mentor [right of me] was part of the discussions,as well as Josh, my roommate. Hissouri [spell?] was a very friendly Albanian fella whom we got to know.
He owned a small hardward/repair shop.
23 July

Sunday. If I ever needed Sunday to be a day of rest, I needed it today and man, was it blissful. Church this morning was nice and Mark preached on selections from Ephesians using JENGA as a model - it was unique and memorable. Josh and I, all of a suddden with about five hours to kill after church, went to the cultural center to try to find the piano Noli told me about. It was all locked up unfortunately. So, as to not let our afternoon be of boredom and solidarity, we ventured to the guys' house and on the way i remembered that I had a photo for Svetlana and Miljana and we thought we'd go walking towards their house[s] to see if we could find them. well, as we're only about 200 feet into the road, we see 2 little girls sprinting towards us - its them! They were so thrilled to see us. I had my arms wide open, Svetlana had her arms wide open, just about to ready to embrace and ----- she runs right past me into a Josh. I would've have felt so bad had not Miljana done the same thing, but they did. It was really just hilarious. So, the invited for coffee at Miljana's house [where I had gone on a visit the previous camp] and we went, without a translator. But, they were so thrilled to see us, that it didn't really matter. We played cards, had coffee, and I WAS able to give them my picture. After a little while, we left to go to Svetlana's house which was nearby. So, we had more coffee and really good cookie-type snacks. We stayed there until about 2:30-3:00; it was so much fun. Sanja and Jelena [serbian language helpers] heard we were over there and came by to translate and play cards with us; it was just so great. And, Svetlana took pictures. I realized I only know 4 words in the serbian languague, but golly, can I milk them for all they're worth. Haha. So, we left to go to GOLDEN DAY because we were absolutely starving. So I had about an hour with Josh and a "Kosovare" Pizza [sausage, peppers, cheese - super good]. We discussed some personal family stuff os his - he's been through alot, and once again I fell grateful for the functionality of my family and my strong relationships with my siblings, it truly is a blessing. There is more, but an hour later we found ourselves at the miftari's house, as planned. This was a blast, so much fun. We got there and I greeted the girls, met their brother, and got to talk to Islam, their father, for a very long time. He had a very neat story about coming to America and getting a certificate of study from Johns Hopkins AND evacuating New Orleans 2 days before Katrina struck. Wow, jsut more evidence of God's providential care over lives. Well, I saw how to make flia, a delicious food item unique only to Kosova. Its a multi-layered dish of crepe-like layers with a crea/salt filling - and wow. The serving sizes tend to be enormous. They served baklava for dessert. Many people came on this visit as they're a popular family. I was mindful of my interactions, especially with the girls, and I did fairly well - just have fun and enjoy all the company, thats the gist of it. Roza taught me to make qaj [tea] which also prompted me to buy my mini-set, I don't think that I will regret it.

All in all, this was the best day in terms of releaxation and rejuvenation. Though, the trip to Skopje is a close, close second.



24 July

Monday. My kids were difficult today and I gave them only 8 points [possible 15]. I guess it comes with the knowledge that, "there IS no way we could win, so why try?" Oh well, we managed. This was also a bummer because Amanda was sick and couldn't teach us; we totally feed off each other and have a BLAST. Today was a little less-vibrant


posted by Peter @ 2:54 PM  

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