Helga in Kosovo

Greetings from Kosovo (Përshëndetje nga Kosova)!

I decided to write a blog about my stay in Gjakova, Kosovo. It is my first blog ever so we’ll see how this goes. I have now been here for a week and yesterday my second week started. My internship is 10 weeks long. I’m working at a Women’s business association which focuses on increasing the participation of women in the labor market. They also coach women entrepreneurs all around Kosovo.

I think it is important to speak about Kosovo, because many people do not know (me included) what exactly has happened here and why. I have been studying a bit the history and have asked local people who speak English about the war. People do talk about it and you can still see the war in the sense that there are several memorials around the country. Many streets are named after war heroes, my home street in Gjakova is named after the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK).

You might wonder what on earth a girl from Finland is doing in Kosovo. When I told my friends and some teachers at my school about coming here, many were wondering if it is safe here, since the Kosovo war ended 15 years ago and Kosovo got independent just a few years back. So far I have not had the need to be afraid. They say that Mitrovica and North Kosovo can be a bit dangerous even nowadays, because there they have lots of Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians mixed, which can be a bit challenging at times. However, the war was horrible here in Gjakova especially. Most of the victims of the war are from Gjakova. Many died and a lot of people are even today missing. They have found bodies in all kinds of strange places such as under houses, asphalt, under bridges inside cement and also in mines around the country. Yesterday one of my colleagues told me that her mother’s uncle and his four sons disappeared during the war and only two bodies have been found so far. I also saw a video of Gjakova after the war, and so much was destroyed, however, lots of it has been rebuilt and especially the old town looks nowadays great, even though it was burned down during the war. My colleague also told me that she was here during the war and her family tried to escape to Albania, but they were forced to stay here.

The culture is very different from what I’m used to, but I try to think of it as when you are outside of your comfort zone you will learn a lot. I am not completely alone here though… My mother lives about 80km from here, in Prishtina, the capital city. She is working as the RTA of the EU Twinning-project, which is working for the development of Kosovar schools. This is one reason why I wanted to do my internship in Kosovo. So far it has been very fascinating to be here and I feel like I learn many new things each day. Also, another reason why Kosovo and the Balkans in general interest me is because of my boyfriend who comes from Albania. For those who are not so familiar with neither Kosovo nor Albania, these countries have the same language (Albanian), however there are differences in dialects. I want to learn Albanian really bad, but oh dear, I have never heard such an interesting language. First time I ever heard my boyfriend speak Albanian I thought he was joking… But now when I have heard the language more it is not so strange anymore; difficult, but not impossible. Easier than French for sure. 😉

Last week begun promising: I got my apartment here in Gjakova and met my colleagues. There are only women working in this organization except for the driver. On Tuesday we went to a ‘Women and Commerce Conference’ hosted by USAID. It was very interesting and even the President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga held a speech there. For all of you who is not familiar with the name Atifete, I can tell you that she is a woman 😉 . The first female mayor (mayor of Gjakova) was also there along with the mission director of USAID Maureen Shauket. They had conducted a survey of gender equality in Kosovo. The results were really interesting, because they were the exact opposite of what they had heard before the survey. I also met a woman who is originally from Kosovo, but has lived most of her life in Sweden. We were able to communicate very well because I speak Swedish as well.

On Wednesday we visited a farm in South Mitrovica with 300 goats. The owner is a woman and she has taken part in a training held by the organization I work for. They had got a 42 000€ grant from EU in order to build the cattle shed for the goats and the milking machinery. I was surprised that the husband of the owner had been to Sweden in the nineties, so I was able to exchange some words with him. He said that his brother lives in Turku, Finland.

From the goat farm we went to another farm where they grow strawberries. The owners of that farm are women as well and they have gone through the entrepreneur training. We went there to buy and pick oh so great strawberries. Thursday and Friday was different, because my boss has been on vacation. Instead of being in Gjakova I followed my mother to Prizren and Prishtina and got to attend a meeting with teachers and principals of schools in Prizren.

For now, I will be in Gjakova and see what this week has to offer. Have a great day and thank you for reading my blog!

-Helga-