Day 16: Priština- the Problems and the Pretty

5/22/22

We started our day with a meeting with an NGO, the Center for Peace and Tolerance, located in the Serb municipality of Gracanica. This organization advocates for the rights of minorities, primarily Serbs in Kosovo. They also promote their traditions and cultural activities such as art and music.

Our speaker described how Kosovo Serbs are mostly banned from private sector jobs because of the language barrier. It's crazy to me that they don't learn each other's languages, and the he said how the destruction of Yugoslavia meant that the fantastic education system went with it.

Now, the Serbian community is completely isolated. One of the largest issues is keeping young people here. The percent of youth who move to get work elsewhere is staggering and increases constantly. One of the programs CPT offers is an internship on Albanian language for non-native speakers, where students can also learn about the political/legal system of Kosovo. Then, the Kosovo government accepts this certificate as proof of high school and university (they often do not recognize Serbian student's degrees from what I understand) and 70% of interns find job in Kosovo after the program.

Though there is less violence these days, there is pressure instead- Albanians are buying Serbs' property for a good amount of money. Despite the Serb families being there for hundreds of years and it is their family's land as much as their Albanian neighbors have claim to theirs, there is a push for a monoethnic state. Kosovo is a tough place to be if you are a Serb, and this understanding underscores why Serbia wants special protections for this population as part of Serbia-Kosovo negotiations.

Right in the center of Gracanica is a living monastery! A couple was taking wedding photos, and we got to see (and hear) the start of a baptism. The Orthodox priest was chant/singing in Serbian and sounding pretty good too, and of course the kid was wailing and crying as children at baptisms typically do. Then they closed the doors... the rest was a private secret.

Elderflower Fanta is so refreshing. Yum!

The Kosovo Library- Very clearly brutalist architecture. As bizarre as the building may look from the outside, it's because the inside has a purpose- I am told the white domes provide bright natural light and the honeycombs make shadow shapes in the library that change depending on the time of day.

An Orthodox church started in the 80's that didn't get finished and probably won't anymore given the political climate.

The oldest mosque in Priština!

The imam would climb to the top of the tall minaret to deliver the call to prayer. That's a lot of little spiral stairs five times a day!

Today they use loudspeakers.

Here's a call to prayer! First time I think I've experienced this. Pretty cool.

The center of town is developed and has a nice pedestrian street like all the other cities we have seen. However, off the main street, it turns into a less safe, less clean, more impoverished area pretty quickly. The letters "NEWBORN" signify Kosovo is a very young country, and they paint them each year with another theme. This time, it was women's appreciation!

There was an ice cream place with a very funny server. See for yourself!

My more broad observations:

Driving through northern Kosovo, there are lots of open spaces with brand new houses, some of them identical. My advisor says that families may build copies of the house next to each other so their kids and their family can have it.

Many people tell me that Kosovo is propped up primarily by money laundering, and all of Europe goes there to do so. I was expecting a war-torn country, and when asked where the money for all the new development came from, this was the answer. All the dealerships and gas stations... brand new, and there was not much industry visible.

Like there's a crazy amount of headstone shops and then also very well maintained guarded cemeteries, which I has to do with the close family connections in the culture.

Some headstones sold with Albanian eagle as principle shape, outline of Kosovo or both. This seems a bit bizarre to me, and may further underscore the nationalistic atmosphere.

The cities have lots of beautiful gowns/formal dress shops, both in western and middle eastern styles. I also counted five large outdoor plant nurseries within 40 minutes of each other along the road, and noticed lots of flowers around people's homes. Kosovars seem to have an appreciation of beauty. :)

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Happy Birthday, Andora. <3

We got a bunch of good food and drinks for about ten dollars a person. Got to bond more as a group!

Ćao for now!