Return to Kosovo

 27/01/25 Monday the 27th I went into work as usual. I had finished transcribing the interview with Michael McClellen, the American diplomat and moved onto another interview with an American. This was one with an anthropologist named Janet Reineck. The interview is reasonably long so I have been at it all week.  Janet is a dancer from California and when she was in her early 20s was drawn to the Balkans by the traditional music and dance. She fell in love with the Albanian culture through meeting groups of them whilst travelling through Yugoslavia. She spent 2 years living among the people in Kosovo as part of her master's work fro university, she has many interesting stories about the people she met and things she did whilst there. It was particularly interesting her talking about learning Albanian, as I know how hard it is first hand. The people write and talk in two different forms, so it is extremely hard to learn it from paper. Albanian also has its completely own strand ...

 Saturday 25th January Today I was travelling to the city of Peja, also known as Pec, located in the west of Kosovo, reasonably near to the Montenegro border. The city is only about an hour and a half from Pristina by coach, which is what I had booked. I had only booked one night in an AirBnb because I thought this would be enough time to do some exploring and get back for Sunday, ready for work on Monday.  I walked to the Pristina bus station, which is only about 15 minutes away from my flat, to set off for 9am. I arrived in Peja at about 10:30am and walked from the bus station through the city to find my AirBnb. One of my favourite things to do is to walk around a city that I have never been to by myself, it always feels like an exciting fresh start. The flat that I had booked was about a 25 minute walk from the bus station and found the block quite quickly, however I couldn't work out which building it was. This was when a little girl and boy came out of one of the gates an...

 Monday 20th January 2025 Today I went to work and continued transcribing the Michael McClellen interview. I have just got to the part of the interview where goes into the time just after the war, in the year 2000, when he returned and the UN had its base there. A this time he was trying to help set up an American English speaking university in Kosovo, he had spoken with Ibrahim Rugova about it in previous years but the idea got put on hold. The idea was to get both ethnically Albanian and Serbian students to come and be educated together, the English speaking meant both groups were forced to struggle to learn the new language and bring them together. The logic was that Albanian kids would never go to a Serbian speaking university in Serbia and vice versa for the Serbian kids, so having the American English speaking university gave them an equal handicap and would not be able to avoid learning together.  I grabbed lunch at Papirun after work, a sandwich place that does quick a...

 18/01/2025 Today was my first Saturday back in Prishtina, I took a stroll down to the local bakery and had a delicious breakfast. In the afternoon I walked to the sports centre, which is next to the football stadium. When I arrived, there were two handball teams warming up for a game, it was Georgia vs Great Britain! So, I wasn't going to miss that. I went for some food nearby in a local cafe to kill the time before the game, I got back just in time for the game. There weren't many people watching but I could go in for free, which was great. It was a good game but Georgia kept slowly pulling ahead and the game finished 34-27 to Georgia. I only found out after that it was a 4 day international tournament that finished today, so I managed to catch the last game which was lucky. My first full handball game was a good experience despite GB losing.  It is a Saturday and the Premier League continues, despite me leaving the country. I am an Arsenal fan and they were playing at 6:30p...

 First day at work  I think I forgot to mention the difference in weather from my previous time here, it was 30-degree heat in the height of summer last time, 6 months later Prishtina is covered in snow and ice. I got up for work and wrapped up warm, the office is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. I was welcomed by my colleagues and friends, Anita, Ana and Donjet. We had a lovely catch up and then they gave me a rundown of the project and what they need help with. They also told me more about what the organisation is involved with, currently they are trying to partner with an animation company that can create interactive videos of the stories they have gained. Hopefully ending with an exhibition. They are still doing their school house project which they started last summer, this is about the schools that were set up around Prishtina in the 90s to teach Kosovar children about their history. At this time, it was Yugoslavia, and they were not taught their own history...

 Preparing to return  Hi! I am writing this blog to record my trip to Kosovo. I am a student from Bournemouth University, in the UK and currently completing a working placement year between my second and third years of study. I have already completed 20 weeks of work, starting in summer 2024. My first placement was to work as an intern in Kosovo for an NGO called Oral History Kosovo, read my previous blog to find out about that trip. Anyway, I am now preparing to return to Prishtina, Kosovo to work for Oral History Kosovo once again. This will be 4 weeks of volunteer work to support this important and interesting organisation who record and archive personal stories of lives that impacted the social and cultural status of the country. Getting ready to leave has been less pressure than my previous visit as I have more knowledge of what to expect and already know the lovely people I will be working with. However, this time I will be travelling alone, on my last visit I...