Thursday, August 04, 2005

Wednesday, August 3rd Update

This morning we started the day by visiting a school in a settlement known as Kolonije. Situated on the outskirts of Gjakove, the area is home to several Roma families.

Often referred to as Gypsies, the Roma are viewed with great disdain in much of Europe. There are several thousand scattered in shanty-town settlements across Kosovo. Here they are afraid to live in town so instead they live in squalid conditions.

The brightest part of the Kolonije's Roma neighborhood is a school in the shadows of a chocolate factory. It is a relatively new school. In fact, its facilities are much nicer than other schools I have visited in Kosovo. A number of American non-profit organizations fund Roma education projects in Europe, hence the new building.

Dozens of children sitting in tiny wooden chairs outside cheered and waved as our caravan arrived. Some were dressed in rags while others were dressed in what might be their best outfits. Two of the little girls were wearing white frilly satin dresses. They looked like ballerinas but I must say they also looked a bit out of place.

Our plan for the morning was similar to all of the other places we have visited. Our youth and adults divided up and set up shop. Ric and Lori took charge of music. Jon and Neva turned a classroom into an art studio. The Korpis and Mike set-up the eye and medical clinic and Doreen, with the help of several Muscatine youth and SMF volunteers, set up a t-shirt tie-dying class outside.

It was great fun.

As you can imagine the children loved the tie-dying process and art. Many students proudly wore their t-shirts (still dripping wet!) and beamingly showed off their artwork. But, the Kolonije students also really loved the music classes. Even some of the oldest kids hanging around (in their late teens) were engaged in the music sessions. It was great to see these teenage boys sing and play the hand-clapping game, "Miss Mary Mack."

The biggest challenge during each one of these school visits is finding ways to keep the children busy until every one of them has an opportunity to visit the eye and medical clinics. So as time wore on and Doreen had run out of shirts and Jon had run out of paper, our youths took over. Michaella Calzaretta and Ben Rivera showed off their tap dancing skills. Hanna Porter, Emma Smith and Kate Johnson (among others) taught the Roma kids how to braid friendship bracelets. Others engaged the kids with duck-duck-goose and other group games outside.

Doreen wrapped up our visit by handing out little stickers to the children. But, she made each one say "please" before giving them one. One boy came up to me and stuck his sticker directly on my skin near the base of my throat.

Unlike some of the other places we have visited, these children seemed to have more medical problems. Mike said he saw "lots and lots" of head lice. Of course as soon as he told us that, many of us started scratching our heads! (I don't think anyone caught lice but just the mere mention makes me itch). Dr Korpi brought dozens of pairs of prescription glasses but he still runs into some special cases that he can't handle with what he has brought along. This was the case with one little Kolonije girl. He dilated her eyes to make sure he could determine her needed prescription as best he could. He told me he will make her a pair of glasses when he returns home and will ship them back here. Because her eyes were dilated, she needed to wear sunglasses outdoors. She was quite proud of those glasses.

(I've posted photos from Kolonije in a separate message below)

Happy Birthday Dr. Smith!
We left the school well after 1pm and returned to the house where Ric Smith is staying. Wednesday was his birthday and the group had been planning a party since before we left the States.

Cynthia Smith, Karen Morgan, Anne Olson and Janet Barry had spend the entire morning preparing lunch, decorating the house with balloons and streamers, and a special treat for the Muscatine and SMF groups. Cynthia, Karen and Anne made spaghetti and macaroni and cheese at their house while Janet baked brownies at our house.

I wasn't there to see how Janet made the brownies but I know it was quite a culinary adventure. She had brought three brownie mixes from the States but there was no room to pack baking pans. So she combined two of the mixes into a large, deep metal serving tray we found in our basement. She baked the third box in a smaller, but similar pan.

I must say, they managed to make some of the best spaghetti, macaroni and cheese and brownies I have ever tasted. The brownies were served with ice cream (scooped into small plastic drinking cups).

Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and Ric received cards, a Shropshire shirt signed by all of the youth and a few other items. I can't speak for Ric but I thought it was a cool way to celebrate his birthday.

(I've posted a few photos of the party in a separate message below)

Shopping Excursion
After Ric's party we had the rest of the afternoon off. Doreen and I decided to head to the old part of Gjakove to go shopping. Getting there was interesting. We had to walk several blocks to find a taxi and when we found one (an older Mercedes) the driver didn't speak English. Liz had said all we needed to tell the taxi driver "old town" and we would get there. Well Liz apparently doesn't know this taxi driver because he had no idea what we were saying.

We drove a few blocks before we made him stop and Doreen shouted out the window at any and everyone passing by looking for someone who spoke English. After several failed attempts to find someone to tell our driver where we wanted to go, we just paid him and started walking in the direction we thought we needed to go. It turns out that we were only a few blocks from the shops we wanted to visit...so in the end we could have just walked. Oh well...we now have another great travel story to tell.

Doreen and I shopped for a few hours and bought a few trinkets to bring back to the States. The shops are located near a few of the more popular "hang-outs" for the youth in Gjakove: a restaurant called the "Hard Rock Cafe" and the local "McDonalds." No...they are not the REAL thing but it is interesting to see American influence interpreted in other countries. The McDonald's sign looks very, very similar to some we would see in the US. I'm sure McDonald's would NOT approve.

After shopping I worked on the blog and a few photos before heading down to meet an number of other Muscatine participants at the "Oita" restaurant. This is the same place we ate the first night and the one that supplied the pizzas for our gathering last week. It has become one of our hang-outs. Good thing they have a generator. Just as Neva Baker and I were walking up to the restaurant the power went out (of course!).

Bring on the Rain!!!
Clouds started rolling into to Gjakove just before dinner and it started to lightning off in the distance as we left the restaurant and headed to our other favorite hang-out: the internet cafe.

I managed to get all of my computer work done just before the storm hit. But, it was raining when Doreen and I left the internet cafe. We couldn't find a taxi so I tucked her video camera under my shirt and started walking towards our house. Halfway home we flagged down a taxi.

I always love the first thunderstorm every spring but usually grow tired of them by the end of the summer. Not this time. I've never been so happy to hear thunder, see lighting and hear rain. Hopefully it will cool us off a bit!

I took a shower when I got home (we have to split shower time...half of us take one in the morning and the other half in the evening so everyone gets at least a little hot water). As soon as I was climbing into bed the power went off. I slept better last night then I have the entire trip!

Until next time....