Week 2 - A bit more action

 Week 2 

I arrive at work Monday morning and continue proof reading English translations of an interview. This told the story of Shahadije, a woman who had been protesting for Kosovan independence since she was 15 years old when she took part in the student protests of 1981. In 1982 she helped create an organised activist group, called Shote Galica, as the group got bigger they used chains of three people at a time so not even they knew who was involved in the group to keep them anonymous and safe - or as safe as they could be! She was arrested many times and eventually had to flee the country to Albania when the war started, in Albania she took in many refugees from Kosovo to her own home, helping feed and clothe them before moving them on the proper camps where they could wait out the war. A truly amazing person.

I decided to go on an explore by myself after work, I walked up through the older Muslim section of the centre and saw some beautiful mosques. I continued up the east side of the city and stumbled across a burial site on a large hill overlooking some of the city. It turns out these were memorials for war heroes that died fighting for Kosovo’s independence – including the ex-president, Ibrahim Rugova’s burial. Also whilst on this explore I think I figured out the roads, or how to cross them, just go for it and hope they stop! It seems pedestrians always have right of way, in a better way to the UK, although I have almost been run over a few times😅.

Today is Tuesday the 9th of July. I was invited to attend an interview for work, this was for the school houses project, the interviewee was an elderly man who was a teacher working in this system in the 90s. We travelled to his house in the outskirts of Pristina and were greeted by a man that I believe was his son. They invited us in and we set up in the garden where we were introduced to Xhafer Murtezi the man we would be interviewing. He didn't speak any English and with my very limited Albanian I couldn't really interact, but I did my best to make introductions. I really just came to observe the processes of the interview and hope to learn anything notable about the human interactions, my anthropological mind really took over. Before the interview we sat around the table and Anita explained in more detail who we were, the function of Oral History and what the interview would be used for. This is the formalities that will happen before any interview just to have a conversation with the interviewee to make them more comfortable. Ana then set up her camera and microphone with Xhafer in front of the camera and the three of us behind it. Although I could not understand the interview I was noting how he seemed to speak, when is tone changed, use of gestures, his ease of response to questions etc. Anita runs the interview by asking a directed question but letting them speak for long periods of time to allow them to tell whatever story they deem relevant. As the interview went on he seemed to become more comfortable and gain confidence, Anita explained that this is normally the case and their answers tend to become more fluid as they go on. This allows for a more personal natured interview. We stopped recording and his son brought us some delicious cherry juice, Anita then spoke to him more and the interactions were extremely friendly. I suppose he had near enough just told us his life story so was it was a nice environment to be in - albeit not understanding the conversation😂. 

The next day at work it was Ana's job to start editing the video of the interview, including length, sound, lighting etc, which I got a simple understanding of. This takes a surprisingly long time as it you have to keep watching the interview to pick out the the improvements of quality that need to be made. The rest of the working day consisted of me writing summaries of the interviews I had read over to be used for the English translation of the website, this also included picking out powerful quotes from the interviews.

Besides working, the 10^th was another interesting day, we decided to go inside the Saint Mother Teresa Cathedral, inside I donated and lit a candle, although I’m not Christian it got me in the spirit – an elderly Kosovan lady asked me to help her light some candles, which I did graciously. With the little English she knew combined with the even less Albanian I knew, she told me she used to be a teacher. She blessed me, then we left to go up the Cathedral’s tower. The photos show the view of Pristina from the top. 

The evening became even more interesting with England playing in the semi finals against Netherlands. Again we sat in fan zone, this time I’d say the fans were more equal and we met three English guys travelling the Balkans, so we sat with them for the game. The beers were seemingly going down easier than usual and we got to celebrate another English win in Kosovo, which most of the locals seemed happy about. 

12/07/24 – Today the team interviewed another teacher that was a part of the school houses system in Kosovo. This was mainly in the 1990s that was a form of peaceful resistance to the Yugoslavian state and oppression of the Serbian law. This is the current project that Oral History are working on to bring light to the importance of education, especially in a place and time where children were not taught their own culture. Unfortunately I could not attend as it was quite a long drive and there was no space for me.

Weekend of 13/07/24

We took a bus journey into Prizren, a city about an hour and a half south west of Pristina. Driving through the open expanse at the edge of Pristina, whilst the sun was setting behind the distant mountain ridge that surrounds the city really was a site (first photo). Or so I thought, until we drove over/through the mountains and emerged on the south side which exposed the forest covered peaks of the less inhabited region (second photo).                                               

Prizren itself was beautiful, it contained much more historic buildings and architecture, including huge mosques and old bridges over the river, which is a main feature of the city (photos below). We were in Prizren for the Ngom festival, which is a yearly music festival hosted in the Prizren Fortress, called Kalaja e Prizrenit – which is effectively a castle looking over the entire city. The festival was so much fun, to our surprise (and delight) it went on until sunrise so we danced through the night. It also gave us a chance to see the city from the castle as the sun started to peak over the mountains (photo below) – a sight I definitely won’t forget. 

The next day consisted of travelling back to Pristina and recovering before the Euros final – England vs Spain. We attended the large fan zone again and managed to find decent seats, by chance we sat with two English brothers who were travelling the Balkans. This didn’t matter so much as many of the locals were supporting England, the energy was amazing and we were ready to celebrate...  didn't exactly turn out the way we hoped, with England losing after a lackluster performance. However, we had a good time and met some very funny Kosovans. The subtleties of Western influence showed as they would constantly refer to British memes, putting on scouse, Birmingham, south London accents etc, and they were pretty good at them! After what may have been a couple too many beers we went home and got some sleep before our third week.