Tuesday, August 2nd Update

We started the day at the Zekina Rexha (or ZR) school. It was our group's second visit to the school near the outskirts of Gjakove. As with all of our other school or camps stops, we had a number of different activities set up in various classrooms.

Jon held art classes in one room, Lori and Ric led singing in another, and Anne Olson and Karen Morgan held a photography workshop. All of the Muscatine youth and SMF volunteers were assigned to rooms and they helped the kids rotate through the various exercises. The cacophony of sounds moving through the halls was spirited and filled with happiness.

While all of this was going on, Pete and Kristi Korpi were conducting eye exams and Mike Hartman was holding his health clinic. Both the eye and health clinics are popular and they always draw a crowd as word spreads through the neighborhoods that the clinics are free. Today we had to limit the exams to just the children who regularly attend Liz's program at the ZR school. I know Mike and the Korpi's wouldn't turn anyone away but there just isn't enough time to see everyone.

While we were waiting for the final kids to move through the eye and health screening line, the youth participants practiced for their upcoming concerts. I was sitting in a location far from the rehearsal room but I could still hear our youth loud and clear. I still get Goosebumps when I hear the Muscatine and Kosovar youth perform together.

I didn't come to this school when the group first visited last week so I was surprised when I arrived to find a picture of me on the wall near the main staircase! Liridona, one of Liz's students who visited Muscatine last summer, put together a few posters of pictures from her trip. One of them is the photo Liz took of me as the children presented me with a traditional Albanian wedding hat on the day of their final concert performance at Wesley United Methodist Church. I had never seen that photo so I guess this added to the shock value.

It was yet again another hot day and I could definitely tell some of our participants are starting to wear down from the heat and our always on-the-go schedule. Liz has reworked the schedule for the rest of this week to allow for some free time so our group can rest and relax a bit. We left the ZR school and walked a few short blocks to a place the locals call "Teqe".

Ali, one of the boys who visited Muscatine last summer, was our host. Teqe is the place of worship for the Dervish in the region. Dervish is a more mystical sect of the Muslim faith. I would say more about this visit but I am so unfamiliar with this sect that I am afraid I will say something that is not factually correct. I can tell you that Ali's father apparently runs the Teqe we visited but it's unclear to me how he got the position.

In the afternoon I spent nearly four hours working on updates for this blog, writing for the Journal and editing photos. At one point I brought the laptop downstairs to the dinner table and Janet Barry served dinner around me. Janet, by the way, has really been a big help in our house. She aids with the cooking (not just for our house but for BOTH the Muscatine and Kosovo groups at times). She makes do with what we find at the store and she still manages to serve great food.

Tuesday Night Music Club
Tonight we returned to Slovene Village for Liz's regular Tuesday evening classes. It was a chilly Tuesday night in 2002 at Slovene when Keith and I first saw Liz's program in action. Liz still holds class in the same stark white rectangular room in Slovene's "recreation" center (it is little more than a rat infested building with walls, two rooms and several desks and chairs). But unlike 2002, I DID NOT have to wear my winter coat tonight! It was already sweltering before the nearly 100 youth and adults in attendance crammed into the room.

Words cannot do justice to what I witnessed tonight. Liz started the evening by having the Muscatine youth perform for the Slovene kids. The Slovene kids were silent and wide-eyed with amazement throughout the performance. Then, Liz played guitar while the Slovene children sang for our group. Some of the Slovene children are barely old enough to walk but they still sit at the tables and do their best to mouth the words.

It was at this point that I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. I someone had told me three years ago that I would be standing in the same room hearing the same songs that the Slovene children performed when Keith and I first visited Slovene I would have told that person they were crazy. Never in my life did I think I would return here.

Keith and I made a CD of the music we recorded in Slovene in 2002 and since that time our youth have learned many of the songs. So it was extra special to see our youth singing side-by-side with the Slovene kids. But, our kids don't know all of the words to every song simply because Liz has had a few translated into Albanian.

One of those songs is "Supercalifragilicious"...the song from the movie Mary Poppins that everyone knows but cannot spell! (including me). I could see our youth wide-eyed with amazement when the Slovene kids started singing the second verse in Albanian.

Keith has already said this in an earlier message but I will say it again. It is classes like the one in Slovene where Liz is truly in her element. It doesn't matter how hot or how cold it is outside, Liz is always wearing a big smile when the kids perform. And she should wear a big smile. She personally set up this program and she deserves all of the credit for the magic we witnessed tonight. In many ways Liz is a modern day Mary Poppins. She has taken troubled youth and turned them into great kids (even if they are only on their best behavior when she's holding class).

I clapped along with everyone else when the song ended but then I had to leave the room. I was so overwhelmed after hearing that song that I didn't just cry... I sobbed...tears of joy. I knew I would lose all emotions at some point during this trip and that song sent me over the edge. Kristi Korpi came over and handed me Kleenex (many thanks!) and Jon gave me a big hug.

Both groups sang several more songs before Liz directed all of the children to the larger of the two rooms in the recreation center. Several adults wondered what was going on but I knew all along what was about to happen. Liz ended her class in 2002 with a great rendition of "Skip to My Lou" and that's exactly what she did last night. I sang along (as did many of the adults) as I watched the kids laugh and work into a frenzy as the verses got faster and faster. The floor in that room is SO dirty that many people (including myself) could easily slip and slide halfway across the room. But no one seemed to mind as they slipped across the floor.

The joyous atmosphere morphed into a large dance free-for-all after Liz and a few of her volunteers set-up a boom box and started playing a CD of traditional Albanian music. Liz told the group, "We're going to teach the Americans how to really dance." And that's exactly what happened. Dance lines started snaking through the room, the Albanian girls swiveled their hips and the Americans in the room (young and old) followed along. It got SO hot in that room that the two rickety windows in the room (that are nailed shut or stuck closed) started to fog over like the windows in Iowa houses do on very cold winter days. When I walked outside for some air my glasses fogged over. It must have been at least 20 degrees cooler outside!

The dancing continued for at least another hour. Liz told me that sometimes wedding celebrations in that room will last until 3AM. I can believe it. No one wanted to leave. We were just having too much fun.

Indeed, something very special happened here tonight.

(Note....I've posted some photos from the day below)

Until next time...