Last week

 Final week in Kosovo

I spent my final week in Kosovo at the office in Pristina, it was nice to get all the work I had been doing finished and ready to be uploaded to the Oral History archive. I went to all my usual spots for coffee, food and drinks which was really nice as it made me feel as if I had settled into this place and felt comfortable here. On one hand it is a bit of a shame that I am now leaving, as I have just started to really feel at home, but on the other hand I have done what I came here to do and now I have created a sort of base here that I could come back to. I will definitely be coming back as I now feel invested in the country and the people, they have all been completely open with me and it has really drawn me in as an outsider. My interest in the place will continue and I am excited to see where the country is going, I am grateful and honoured to have been able to work here at this time and be a small part of this new country moving forward and becoming a part of world.

I went out with my colleagues for a goodbye lunch after work on the Wednesday, this was a lovely way to end my time here. I couldn’t have asked for better people to work with, they took me under their wing, showed me how an NGO worked, and how oral history is such an important tool for understanding people and important events in history. You can learn any facts you want from a history book but personal, real life stories are the best way to really appreciate and connect with things that we did not experience ourselves. This is the same as travelling to another country, you can learn as many facts as you need about a country and its people from a book, but you will never fully understand a people, their culture, history, attitudes without actually going and being a part of it. This has done wonders for me personally, I already understood the concept different cultural perspectives from theory at uni but seeing it first hand is the only way to truly make it a part of your own perspective and attitude towards other people. I have taken a lot from this experience and has only made me hungrier to see more of the world and push myself more.

I flew back on the 14th of February 2025, with a layover in Geneva, the flights went smoothly, and I arrived back in England safely, and a better person.

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