Luckily, we had the opportunity to travel to the Dragash municipality yesterday and it was one of the best trips I have ever had in my life. Max, Nart, Blerina, Enis (AUK Security Guard) and I all traveled to the most southern region of Kosovo to a small village. Along the way we even stopped at this stream with mini waterfalls along the way and it was a nice scenic view. The village was called Pllajnik and it was somewhat difficult reach but was well worth it. The people were friendly, made us feel at home and helped us out. While there, the NINA surveys were being implemented and overall the village didn’t have a problem answering the questions of the survey. We spent a few hours in the village gathering data but we also were able to speak about politics and the current situation in Kosovo with Nart.

We spoke about Kosovo and what exactly is needed for it to make progress as a country. I met Nart last year when I was in Kosovo because we had class together so it was good to catch up. So during our small breaks we had in the village Max, Nart and I mostly spoke about Kosovo and the current situations within it. While visiting our last home of the day the family decided to cook us a meal even though we tried to say no, thank you. The meal they cooked was amazing and included all sorts of stuff from homemade bread and homemade yogurt to homemade cheese and salami. The meal hit the spot especially cause none of us had eaten all day. The atmosphere was also great because the whole family was at home and it sort of reminded me of my home. The trip was great and I was glad we actually had the chance to visit the Sharr mountains that I read so much about. Overall, we have been working hard but we also have been learning a great amount about different regions in Kosovo. I will be posting a video about what we saw along the way down to Pllajnik and what we experienced while in the Sharr mountains soon.

Thanks for reading,

Miguel

The weekend did not really go as we planned. We didn’t go to Mitrovica or Macedonia, but had a relaxing, work-free couple of days in Prishtina. We spent some quality time with people that we have really grown to care about here, and sometimes that’s much more important than exploring new lands. We found a Chinese food restaurant, which actually had real good food, and did some planning on how we would most efficiently utilize our last week in Kosovo. After having a conference call with Professor Myers, we were able to clarify some objectives for our remaining time here. One was to sit in on NINA interviews in villages in the Sharr Mountains for a day, another was to help the students here with making the two skeletons for the other surveys, and lastly to enter as many household surveys into SPSS as we could in our free time. We need to enter enough surveys to be able to have some usable data to present during our research symposium at RIT on August 12th. Overall, we have a lot to do in little time.

Monday, we entered about a quarter of the surveys we need to reach our goal, which we were pretty happy about. Yesterday, we were able to make it down to Dragash, a region in the Sharr Mountains. The region was very beautiful and again, was much different than the rest of the country. There was a whole lot more vegetation than anywhere in the country, great flowing streams, and big green rolling mountains as far as the eye could see. Small villages were perched among the mountains, isolated from each other and the modern life of Kosovo, almost as if they were within a completely different country.

Miguel and I were accompanied by Blerina, another student named Nart, and the driver, Enis, who also works as a mechanic, security guard, and steel cutter (very cool guy). Eventually, the wide, paved road that we were traveling on turned into a narrow, dirt road, and things got a bit more exciting. Apparently, no one really knew exactly where we were going so we’d stop at each village, most Albanian but some Serbian, along the road and ask where Pllajnik, our destination village, was. It was pretty obvious that our group surprised and intrigued the inhabitants in each village. We were composed of a middle-aged man in a suit, a good-looking young local woman, a local, but cultured young man, a tan skinned Dominican, and an Irish looking American. I found the situation more humorous than uncomfortable as I’ve been to a few other countries that I’ve been stared  at shamelessly (ie. Bhutan, Thailand, Laos).

Once we got to the target village we walked around searching for people, which at first was a difficult task. People were going about their daily life, doing work that needed to be done, and not many people were enthused about stopping to partake in a twenty minute survey. After a while we were led into a small coffee shop, where a few very friendly men came and completed the survey. One man had 18 family members in his household, which was surprising and at the same time expected for where we were. We had macchiatos and some of the best juice I have ever tasted, freshly made from hand-picked blueberries right outside the village. We noticed in this village that if there was only women home, they would either be not willing to partake in the survey, or else they would only allow Blerina to question them. So Miguel and I spent a lot of time talking to Nart about how it was being a college student in Kosovo, how he felt about the progress of the country (or lack there of), and his future aspirations. All topics very different from the life of an American college student. It truly is amazing how adaptable the spirit of young adults can be. Many of us in America have become so used to the easy lifestyle that we complicate very unimportant issues and take basic needs such as education, human rights, or even a daily food source for granted. Talking to Nart, who grew up in this war-torn country, just made me appreciate how good we have it in America, that’s all.

Still, even though most of these families barely live off what they make, they are generous enough to offer us food and drink when we are the ones taking up their time. One household would not take no for an answer and made a full, homemade, traditional meal for all four of us. Chile and cheese, sausage, eggs, yogurt, peppers, bread, and some other strong cheese were my American interpretations of what I was eating. Hands down the best food I have had here in Kosovo so far. We all had to force as much food as we could into our stomachs since they gave us so much and we did not want to waste anything. We stayed with this family for a while talking and then made our way back to the car, tired and full.

Today we are helping Blerina create the skeleton for the NINA survey, which has more about three times as many variables as the household survey. This will take a while… Other than this, we have to help create the other household survey skeleton, input hundreds of the first type of surveys into SPSS, maybe visit Mitrovica one more time, and celebrate Miguel’s birthday this weekend! Sleep is for the weak…

Hopefully I’ll have time for another blog or two during the next week.

Take a look:

Miguel

Check them out:

Miguel

We have also been learning more about the NINA surveys, which will be conducted in two areas in Kosovo one being the Dragash municipality. The survey will be conducted in different villages, which have Albanian and Gorani inhabitants. We will be helping Blerina with the variables for the NINA survey too. This trip has been good in the sense of possible capstone projects especially after we saw the lead tailings in Mitrovica. Mitrovica allowed us to see the lead issue and how this is a tremendous problem in Mitrovica. Traveling through Prishtina, Prizren and Mitrovica has also allowed us to see the problem with poverty and unemployment in Kosovo and what exactly needs to be focused on to fix it. Overall, I feel that Max and I bring completely different skills to the table, which has benefited us as a team. Hopefully we will keep working together on future research projects after we get back to the states.

Best,

Miguel

The next day we took a bus south to Prizren, where a huge film festival was going on. There were thousands of young people there just walking around enjoying each other’s company, the live music, and the short films and documentaries being played around the city. It took us a bit of time to ask around and find a cheap motel but we finally got to one that  had a room that held six of us for only 5 euros a person. There was a Roma wedding going on at the motel which was very interesting to watch and we almost decided to stay instead of going out to the festival.

When we got to the center of town it was around 10 at night and the place was packed full of people everywhere. Walking around, sitting at cafes, dancing in clubs, dancing in the streets, just young people (many good-looking girls) everywhere. We found an outdoor party going on complete with a professional DJ, lights and all so we hung out and danced there for a while. Miguel split off from me and a few girls to meet up with a couple of other friends and discovered an amazing rock band from Macedonia that I was kind of bummed I missed out on. Although we didn’t watch any films at the festival, we still had a good time in Prizeren and came back to Prishtina ready to work.

Monday we started with our “hands-on” work of entering survey questions into a data compilation system, called SPSS. We had to take each question, about 65 in all, and and turn them all into usable variables that one would be able to make certain large scale, descriptive statistics about and scientific correlations and graphs out of. There are about 3000 surveys that need to be entered into the skeleton that Miguel and I made on Monday and Tuesday, so we had to be very careful about how we did things. We have two different surveys that we need to make skeletons for so that the data can easily be entered by users that may be less knowledgeable about the software. One is a revised energy efficiency survey, which has about 30 more questions than the original one (Around 90 questions). The other survey is a more general questionnaire about some different environmental problems in the Sharr mountains in southern Kosovo. This is being conducted by a group called NINA, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (see http://www.nina.no/ninaenglish/Start.aspx) and it ranges across a few Balkan countries including Macedonia and Albania. Their main goals are to assess the use and management of natural resources in the area and whether the use is sustainable. This will be where most of our time will go in the remaining two weeks we are here in Kosovo, along with teaching other students that live here how to enter the surveys into SPSS.

This weekend we were originally planning to return to Mitrovica to attend a celebratory festival for the success of the Roma relocation, but as tensions have risen in the area we have had to make other plans. It’s very lucky that we made our trip to Mitrovica on Friday, just a few days before the northern area became more dangerous. You can read more about the tensions on BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14303165). We will most likely join the AUK summer group in a trip to Macedonia, just to explore another Balkan country and relax.

More blogs and hopefully more pictures later this week!

Max, Blerina and I all agreed that the church was something of its own but decided it was time to go. As we took a view of it from the outside one last time we decided to travel a tad bit higher. We walked up this path and I saw something in the distance, it was some sort of structure. The structure looked odd and as always Max said we should go see it. We made our way up through a small trail and by the time you knew it we stood in front of it. All of a sudden it clicked and I wondered if this structure could be one of the structures that was built by Tito during the time of Yugoslavia. Josip Broz Tito was one of the presidents of former Yugoslavia and he built these structures to unify the people of the republic. Tito thought this could help unify the socialist republic and unify all the different people within it. I double-checked once I got back to the dorms and to my findings I was correct. I finally had the opportunity to see one of these structures that I had learned about through my research.

We also had the opportunity to meet some Albanian children who live in North Mitrovica, which is not very common. I was actually glad to see that there is hope for overall peace throughout Kosovo. Another very important thing that Max pointed out was some lead tailings he saw that Mitrovica is known for. The lead is so abundant in these lands that some people have serious health defects from it. I couldn’t believe how much we had seen in such a short amount of time. At that point in time I thought the trip could not get any more wonderful, strange and somewhat sad.

We had already walked and hiked a good distance but decided to keep going to see what we could find. I really can’t recall when we saw the castle ruins from the distance but I knew what Max was thinking…ha-ha. After Max said he wanted to reach the castle ruins, we debated it for a while and some contemplation we decided to just go for it. So we kept trekking to our destination and also got some assistance from a native along the way. I still couldn’t believe we were going up to these ruins that seemed so far away. We also saw some homes that seemed to be affected by the war and never were fixed. The view reminded me of everything I had read about the conflict and how so many lives were lost, unfortunately. Afterwards we stopped farther along the road to take in the view. Once again I was left speechless because the view was phenomenal, it was so much to see all at once. The funny thing about seeing all these amazing places was that every single time we all said nothing. We all stopped talking to appreciate the view that we don’t get to see everyday.

We kept going and passed by many homes along the small road. It was always quiet and I couldn’t really imagine this area being loud, I always waited for a sound but nothing ever rang. As we walked I kept thinking how crazy it was to think we were actually going all the way up tho one of the highest points in Mitrovica. I felt as if the road was going to keep going and going but after a while we reached the end of it. When we stopped there was two ways to go. Right near the path there was also a graveyard of fallen Serbian soldiers. I just kept being reminded of how war never really has a victor but only death. Max took the left path and we followed as we started the ascent to the castle ruins from 1313.

I personally have never hiked up a real mountain so that was an experience all on it’s own. We went through many trees, shrubs and bushes. The journey to the castle ruins was tough but we kept on going. Halfway up the path it started getting rockier and was more difficult to climb to the top but we kept on going. By the time I knew it we were literally there all sweating and huffing but the view was more than worth it. We stood and just looked out to everything in front of our eyes. We made it up into the actual ruins and climbed up a little more to the highest point. I literally made a 360-degree turn as slowly as I could just so I could see everything and I actually forgot everything for that moment. I took in those images I had just scanned and embedded them into my memories. Once again I was left speechless and just appreciated the overall trip to a place many people will probably never get to see. Afterwards we all joked around, rested, took pictures and shot some videos. Soon a light rain arrived and we decided to head down but that rain was sure refreshing. Along our way down we saw a turtle, which was strange but funny at the same time, as turtles are not known for their mountain climbing ability. All I really can say is that the trip to Mitrovica was more than worth it and hopefully I can visit it again in the near future.

Thanks for reading,

Miguel

On Friday Miguel, Blerina (a local AUK student), and I went to Mitrovica, a city in the far north area of Kosovo, which is separated by a river in which one side are Kosovo Albanians and on the other are Serbians, who do not recognize themselves as Kosovars. We met with a very important and intelligent man, Lee Norgard, the head of Mercy Corps (see mercycorps.org) in Mitrovica. He was very busy but found time to talk to us a bit about the great problem of lead contamination in the area. The long and short of it is that huge piles of lead tailings have been left from years of mining and they have impacted the city of Mitrovica in big ways. According to Lee, the whole population has elevated levels of lead in their blood. This has great effects mainly seen in children, whose brains are still developing. The lead is dispersed through the wind, rain runoff, and also from the clothes of workers who smelt batteries. A particular population, the Roma, is being impacted most because they live extremely close to these tailings. They cannot move away, partly due to economic factors but mostly because many of them sided with the Serbians during the conflict and the Albanian Kosovars will not accept them. Incredibly, Mercy Corps has succeeded in moving over 80% of the Roma families out of their dangerous living conditions to more healthy areas over the past couple of years. There still remains the 20% of people and the problem of these uncapped piles of lead tailings to deal with, which may be a great area of research and work for Miguel and I to work with in the near future.

After talking to Lee, we explored Mitrovica and, with caution, crossed the bridge to the northern Serbian side. Everywhere we looked there were Serbian flags and it had a very different feel than the southern side. Almost more of a business-like, semi-tense feel rather than a laid back comfortable feeling I got from the southern side. We walked up a hill to a beautiful new Greek Orthodox church and were allowed to go inside and look around. Gorgeous murals covered the walls and painters were still in the process of completing murals on the ceiling. Although the kid, who was around our age, knew that we were Americans, he still was welcoming and even gave us each a card with a different religious figure. I don’t remember the names, but Miguel got the kid’s favorite one, Blerina got J.C. and I got one who protects and should also be protected. This was very meaningful to us and we were very grateful for his kindness.

After we left the church we explored some higher grounds where there was a monument. Kids wielding sticks and shirts covering their faces came out of the woods and starting yelling at us so we walked away farther from the bridge. We spotted a castle at the top of a small mountain and I convinced Blerina and Miguel to climb up the mountain to check it out. The castle was built in 1313 and was very cool to see up close. There was also a 360 degree view in which we could see all of Mitrovicia and also the mountains, many of which had lead tailings covering their sides. This was a great way to see the problem which we have read and heard so much about.

Anyways, this post is getting too long, so I will continue again in the next couple of days…