Macedonian Haircut!

I went to a barber who spoke no english today just for fun. . .

Skopje's Stara Carsija

Greetings from Skopje!
For far the city has treated me really well! It seems wonderfully relaxed and a cool place to live, although many locals I've met don't seem to agree with me. Already I have bought some wonderfully authentic Macedonian apparel and have had what is certainly the best burek in town. I even have an appointment at a (very) reputable Macedonian hair salon which is a little nerve wracking but shouldn't end in disaster since they cut my Academic Director's hair and did it quite well I must say.

This morning I woke up early and went on a three hour personal photo excursion to the "Stara Carsija" which is the historical Turkish-style bazaar here. Here is a VERY small sample of what I found. . .

Mitrovica, "The Curse of Kosovo," & Photos

Yesterday we went to Mitrovica, a divided city separated by the Ibar River. It is one of the most volatile areas of Kosovo and has been the site of numerous violent incidents. I actually don't have any photos from my visit their because quite frankly I didn't feel comfortable having my camera vi sable. The Southern (Albanian) part of the city was fairly normal and we met a cool NGO called "CBM" (Community Building Mitrovica) that runs a rock-and-roll school that brings together both Albanian and Serbian youth. We decided to cross the bridge into Northern (Serbian) Mitrovica. Immediately you are transported to the 1970's in Yugoslavia. Everything is only in Cyrillic and only Dinars are accepted. There was a sense that people were looking for just the smallest excuse to beat the living daylight out of us. We sat at a cafe and within 10 minutes the two tables nearest to us were packed with intimidating and thuggish Serbian men. It was no coincidence and I must say I felt far more tension than I've felt in even the worst of New York's neighborhoods.

On the way back to Prishtina we stopped at the site of "The Battle of Kosovo" where the Serbians defeated the Ottomans and also Milosevic made a famous speech that ignited the current situation in Kosovo. There is a (heavily guarded) monument to the Serbian soldiers which bares the following inscription:

Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,

And of Serb blood and heritage, And comes not to fight at Kosovo, May he never have the progeny his heart desires, Neither son nor daughter! May nothing grow that his hand sows, Neither dark wine nor white wheat!

Here are some photos from Kosovo. . .

Gjakove Kolonija

Today was a very intense and busy day. First we visited the OSCE in Gračanica, a Serb enclave 20 minutes from Prishtina. Every time we drive anywhere, I feel as if I am on the edge of death. The custom for passing a car here is to wait until there is a solid white line and an approaching car in the other lane. You next swerve into the other lane and accelerate at fullforce towards the approaching car until you change back at the very last second. In Gračanica, we visited the monastery, which is under constant armed guard, and surrounded by barbed wire. We also saw a refugee settlement there built from Russian shipping containers. The conditions were terrible, but little did I know what was coming next....

We drove for two hours to Gjakovë, possibly one of the most bombed areas of Kosovo during the war. We drove past countless roadside gravestones: here it seems like the war was just yesterday, and the only thing that reminded me that it was about 10 years ago were the trees growing out of the rubble of many bombed-out buildings that we passed by. We turned down a dirt road into the Ashkali\Egyptian\Roma settlement of Gjakovë, by far one of the poorest in Kosovo, if not in all the Balkans. There we visited the Bethany Christian Services which is doing good work in attempting to promote education in the community.

What is particularly disturbing about the settlement is that it is built quite literally in the very middle of a toxic pile of constantly burning rubbish. Although the trash fumes have killed 7 people in the community since the war, it is also really the only means of survival for the community, whose children sift through it to find scrap metal to sell or sometimes even food to eat. The only water sources are wells located perhaps 10 feet between improvised outhouses and the trash-pile. The children of the community were quite open with us, but there was a sense with the adult residents that we were just another group of foreigners to roll in and out without offering a solution to their problems. Supposedly the government will give the community houses to replace the current make-shift shanties, but I am very skeptical and think it won't happen has they promise. Even if it does, it won't solve the water supply issues.

Selected Photos

(Preshevo Valley, Serbia)

(Montenegro)

Boka Kotorska

(Njegusi, Montenegro)

(Montenegro)

VETËVENDOSJE!

Quote from Albanian communist music text: "The great deal of the cultural artistic traditions of our people are a direct expression of the great care which the Party of Labour of Albania, and Comrade Enver Hoxha personally, have shown towards them."

Today we had a wonderful lecture from a professor from The New School who was the former Media Regulation Minister (0r something like that) in Kosovo. We learned all about "The Brooklyn Connection," which I never had heard of before. Apparently when Kosovo was left out from the Dayton Accords, the subsequent revolution was financed by Albanian immigrants in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Yonkers. There were even plenty of Albanian immigrants who travelled back to Kosovo to fight with the KLA for independence.
After the lecture we took a cab into the city to goto what I assumed was another NGO visit. The cab driver came pretty close to kicking us out (if not worse) because he thought Kumjana, my teacher, was Serbian. After she volunteered that she was Macedonian he opened up a lot and we somehow found out that he spoke Turkish, so I had a conversation with him. We pulled up to the NGO (?) and met a guy who worked there. We had a pretty normal chat in the garden about how his organization, "VETËVENDOSJE!" advocates -and translates to- "self determination." In other words they'd like UNMIK and other international orgs to allow Kosovo to govern itself. After his presentation, it began to pour and so we went inside to look at photos from the group's... events.

It turned out this was no NGO, but actually one of the most infamous activist groups in Kosovo with quite an intense reputation. They deface UN cars by changing the lettering to "FUND," the Albanian word for "The End." They also forced the UNMIK building to evacuate and have thrown paint "malatov cocktails" at it. They even cut off the air-stalks from all the UN vehicle tires and mailed them to the UN with an "illegal parking" notice. We all got fantastic Alabanian\Kosovar nationalistic teeshirts courtesy of SIT. Mine says, in Albanian, "We are one," and then lists all the provinces of Greater Albania. The guy presenting has a court-date in 2 days... when we wished him luck, he laughed and says he doesn't acknowledge the legitimacy of the courts and wouldn't be going.

After the presentation, I met my accordion teacher Raif's friend Ylber, who is a very prominant local musician, conductor, and producer. It looks like through him I'll be meeting the Minister of Culture later this week and also be able to goto a taping of a popular local TV show. I post on those things if and when they happen though.

Nis to Prishtina

Nationalist phrase of the day: "Serbia from Beograd to Tokyo"

On the second to last day in Nis the Roma community threw a big party with us. It was great fun and was complete with American hiphop, but also classic Roma music like "RedBull SexyBull" and "Duma Duma Ja." I also got a chance to play my accordion for everyone and one friend of mine, Sali, sang a bit (although he was reluctant).

The next day we went to the Preshevo Valley, an Albanian enclave within the borders of Serbia. The police and army presence was VERY noticeable as we walked to the OSCE (A European security watchdog org) mission to Serbia office in Bujanovic. We learned about what they do and how they try to prevent violent spillover from Kosovo. It was also interesting to learn that the media is a primary security issue for the area since they sensationalize any potentially ethnic-related issues. We also went to an English language library that was interestingly staffed only by people who lacked any knowlege what-so-ever in English. Finally we visited a bilingual media outlet. We couldn't eat in the main kafana cafe because it was a security risk as it's owned by the local Serbian Radical Party leader.

The bus back to Nis was a bit late to the bus-station so my Academic Director, Kumjana, asked a guy at the station "Is the bus late, is something wrong?"
He Replied: "It will come"
Kumjana: "Is it late?"
Offical: "Of course it's late"
Kumjana: "How do you know it will come?"
Offical: "Because it's always late"

Kumjana then asked why they just don't change the timetable, which I thought was an intelligent question. Anyway... the next day (this morning) we left for Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo as the Tour D' Serbia began in the Nis city center. The drive was uneventful although the border was rather intense. Serbia doesn't officially recognize the border since they still consider Kosovo as part of Serbia. There is only a small police checkpoint on the Serbian side where a guard saw my accordion and asked if we are a band. Soon after, we found ourselves surrounded by barbed wire and heavily armed soldiers. In kosovo it seems like every other building and every other vehicle belongs to an international organization: the UN, UNMIK, OSCE, KFOR, etc... Our hotel is very nice and right next to the American University. It did take a few minutes, however, to clear the cows from the hotel driveway to allow us to pull in. The night set in to the sounds of a call-to-prayer and later a Roma wedding on the next block playing Tallava synthesizer music.