Wednesday in Kosovo

Due to my lack of knowledge about blogger, this is a little out of order! This will be about the second thing we did on Wednesday! We visited Vladimir. He's become a special project of the Kosovo Forces (or KFOR as they're known here). He had an accident and now suffers from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)He lives out in the hills in a cluster of crumbling buildings. His little home is small, cramped, and full of garbage, but he's pretty happy. His goats live in the next room over, so they too can stay warm from the stove that KFOR gave him. The goats were out eating when we arrived, but they were wondering home as we were leaving. It was getting late...This is just one example of the amazing many amazing things that the people who serve in the Civil Affairs unit of the Army are doing for this country...taking care of those who need it the most.



The day was a little different. We didn't have any meetings, so we decided to deliver wood-burning stoves to some of the more outlying schools.



Although they were closed, we did manage to attract some Roma siblings. They are the minority cultural group in Kosovo, comprising between 2 and 3% of the population. Exact numbers are hard to come by because they haven't done a census in a long time. We gave them some cnady and the started a huge snowball fight.

The day ended with a visit to a Serbian Orthodox Monastery. It was there that we met Anatoli, a former Croatian that was serving in Kosovo. I don't have the name of the place, but I'll find out and be sure to post it. A lot of people are Orthodox here, so it was a great honor. When Anatoli was a young boy, his mother died. Anatoli learned a lot of English by watching movies and listening to music, so he was able to talk with us...although we had a Serbian translator, so it was easy.
The Monastery is in beautiful countryside, surrounded by mountains and fields. I can imagine how lush ot would be in the summer, however, it's winter here, so it's cold now.
The Monks don't use heat, because they believe they need to feel the extremeness of God. They cook on a hot stove, so I think that must be the happiest time of the day. After showing us the small chapel (await for photos) they invited us in for Turkish coffee. I was really happy to have worn long underwear that day. When we walked in to the small dark (no electricity in the buildings) dining room, sitting on the table was a small bottle with some liquid and a wooden cross blown into the bottle. Kris and I assumed it was holy water...not being very familiar with Serbian Orthodox religion. After we got our coffee they opened the bottle and poured me a small shot glass of the liquid. Turns out it was rakija, a local liquor. The Monks (only 5 of them presently live there) told us it would be helpful to ward off the cold, as it was about 25 degrees, with no heat. It was so strong, I think I'm still warm from it a day later! It allowed us to talk about religion and spirituality for over an hour.
As we were walking down the driveway, a small dusty 1980's VW bug chugged up the steep muddy driveway. Once it swung into park, a tall robust man with a long beard, (about 6'8") unfolded himself from the drivers seat. He was the main "father", or as our translator who knows him said, "The Big Daddy". He gave us each blessings that consisted of sloppy kisses on the forehead. He pressed small plastic crosses and candy into our hands and said a quick prayer and asked us to return soon.