Captured Echos: Day 1 and 2: Travel/Exploration/Settling in/Training

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Day 1: We landed in Vienna in the early part of the morning (after the time change). We had to go through security again before our last flight. We finally landed in the late part of the morning. Berat and his family came to get us. We made it to Hotel Rozafa about an hour later, put our stuff down, and then ate lunch. By this time is was about 3:00 pm. We then took a little tour of the city to see the devastation of the war. At the end of walk, we took a hike up this little mountain to see the view of the city. At the top, we played a little frisbee too. We had dinner at the hotel too. I got pretty good at saying faleminderit which means "thank you".

Pristina, Kosovo airport

outside of the airport- You can see our bus in the background.

Random cows on the side of the road (no fence).

This view takes my breath away

We passed by some of the villages on the way to Suhareke

Our bathroom actually has doors!!! It still floods the floor though.

First dinner at the hotel

meat, oil, mayo, water (without gas), and ketchup are what Morgan and I will see at every meal for these three weeks

after our climb up the mountain (Morgan and Hannah)-with a view of Suhareke in the background

The 3 week team

playing a little frisbee

"If you're happy and you know it hug Berat"

Friday, June 1, 2012

The day started in a hectic rush. The alarm went off and we both fell back asleep only to wake up with three minutes left get ready for breakfast. We've been thankful for the nice breakfast provided for us each morning as it is not the custom of the Kosovars. We had omelets, bread, and cereal. After breakfast, we started training. Berat told us about the history of Kosovo and we watched two videos on the war. We then went to the bank to exchange money and to Ben-Af. Ben-Af is four stories and is like a super Wal-Mart with a bowling ally (resturant, bowling lines, pool tables, an arcade, and an area for kids on the top floor. The first floor is filled with the grocery/electronics/faster food place, the second floor has clothes, the third floor is appliances, toys an homegoods. We ate a nice little lunch there before a packed afternoon. Then the leaders went to get sim cards for our phones. After that we went over words to know and made connection points between things to help in our conversations. We seem to still be really jet lagged, so we took a break or two to wake up and even went to Oxxo to have our first taste of ice cream. I love walking around the city. It's wild to see the kids walking around without adults though. We had some pizza last night before our manuscript study. During ice cream and dinner I had some good conversations with Berat and Valdete as well as Jared and Sami (students who are dating). I got to meet a few more of the students who are attending camp. Their English was pretty good and we had lots of laughs. Our manuscript study went well. I had a really good group of girls and they opened up pretty easily. They are blowing me away with their understanding which challenges me even more! I had one of the girls, Hannah, come to me before bed to talk. Man I love this girl!! I had a hard time falling asleep though and laid there for a few hours.