Helga in Kosovo

Hello!

Greetings from this oven called Gjakova. It is super-hot here, so it seems like summer really started now. Yesterday my sixth week started. I’m surprised how fast the time has gone. Also, yesterday I heard that I will travel to Ohrid, Macedonia after three weeks. Can’t wait for that trip, especially since I get to go swim then. 🙂  I have never visited Ohrid, and now this time I will be there for three nights. Ohrid is located next to a big lake that is between Macedonia and Albania. But once I’ve been there I will write more about the place.

I was thinking a lot what to write about in this entry. But then I thought, I have not written much about the town where I am working, Gjakova that is. Last week I went for a long walk around the city and took lots of pictures. However, the city is surprisingly large so I only managed to cover a small part. The reason why many cities over here seem big, is because people live in single houses instead of apartment buildings. I live in an apartment building, but there are not that many of them around here. In the beginning I was surprised to see that they keep the main door open all day and all night. But apparently everybody does, since there are not that many house robberies. People leave other people’s houses in peace.

During the Ottoman rule Gjakova was a trade center on the Shkodra-Istanbul route. There are still buildings left from that time, for example the old town (which was almost completely burned down in the Kosovo war) and the Hadum Mosque. Hadum Mosque was for example built in 1594, so it’s pretty old. I got the chance to visit the mosque, and it was very nice with all sorts of decorations. However, due to the war many parts of the town was almost completely destroyed. Here is a YouTube video where you can see what it looked like exactly 15 years ago in July (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpYfFDj9mSE). The video is about 16 minutes long, but if you just watch some parts of it, you will get a better understanding of the impact that the war had. Many places that are shown in the video are in the old town. Some of the houses are made of wood, which is the reason why they were even more destroyed when the town was lit on fire. After the war people rebuilt the bazars and houses with their own money. Of course it has taken a long time, but today the old town is very nice in my opinion. It is called Çarshia, which means bazar; the place is full of cafés and little stores.

Out of whole Kosovo Gjakova was hit the worst during the Kosovo War. Most of the people who died or are still missing, were from Gjakova. Even nowadays, mass graves have been found with victims from Gjakova. One grave was for example recently found on Serbia’s side under a house. I still don’t exactly understand the real reason why Gjakova was so badly hit, but I think it is because the town has mostly Albanians and they did not want to be part of Serbia. Along the road to Gjakova there are quite many memorials from the war with pictures of the fighters.

Gjakova has not only suffered from the Kosovo War, but also from the Balkan war. Some horrible violence has taken part here, and according to The New York Times in 1912, there was a long road with corps hanging from gallows, on both sides of the road. The way that went into the city was therefore called “gallows alley”.

Alright, enough with wars and killings…not everything has been bad here though, and today Gjakova is back to being one of the most important towns in Kosovo. It is the fifth largest city in Kosovo with a population of over 94 000 people (not everybody live in the town though). My mum who is working within the EU Twinning project, said that after they have visited schools around Kosovo, it seems like Gjakova is in its own class. Their teaching is much more developed, and they have more equipment in schools.

My boss told me that the reason why Gjakova has been able to rebuild itself so fast, is because people over here have the entrepreneurial spirit. Many people sacrificed their savings in order to fix the houses. Of course Gjakova has got international aid, but still people have been determined to build their city the way it was before. Also something I have noticed is that a lot of influential people are from Kosovo, for example the current President of Kosovo, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga.

So, as you can see Gjakova is quite a town… It is interesting for a Finnish person to come here, especially alone. I have never seen anything like this, and it is so far from my home. But I want to think of this experience as a once in a lifetime experience. I have learned a lot so far, and I am sure I will learn even more during these last five weeks. Have a great day and thank you for reading my blog!  🙂