Day 14: Liberation Day

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The morning started with a healthy breakfast of cereal. The cereal I like the most is like cocoa puffs and is "the ultimate chocolate experience". We've also gone to Lab Com and Fructal for fruit because we have been craving it. Most of the students and adults eat kiwi, bananas, strawberries and/or apples every day. They seem to be extremely fresh here, but maybe that's because we are in need of fruit and/or veggies.

Today is Liberation Day and a day of freedom for the Kosovars. Berat first took us to the memorial of the police who was the first one to stand up to the Serbs, then we went to the memorial site. Berat said there are still 3,000 soliders who are missing. One of the new burial sites didn't look like the others with the marker but Berat told us the story of how a Serbian police had been having bad dreams for the past 12 years. He shot a man and buried him under the futbol field but the man wasn't ever found. The police ended up contacting the family and told them where the body was buried. They buried the body and then will cover it with flowers for a year. After a year, they will put the permanent burial site.

Jeremy had the honor of representing America and got to put down flowers for all the men who died in the war 12 years ago.

graves

walking around the memorial site

grave of the body that was recently found

As we were leaving the burial grounds, there were these men and young boys standing outside the gates. There sons and/or dads died in the war. Berat shook their hands and started talking to them. They were very thankful we came and for what America did for the Kosovars.

On the way out of the burial grounds Kada found us. Kada invited Emily, Cam, Morgan, Lauren, and me to her house for some fleja (Flea- uh). We took the bus to the village of Dubrave that was about 10 minutes away. We started by having Turkish coffee and Cola (Coke) and Fanta Exotic with little cookie-like biscuits (they tasted like the ones that are round and go on your finger). Then we moved to the table and had flea with jam, sweet pepers, homemade cheese from the cow, and lettuce/cabbage/tomato mix they call a salad. Fleja is lots of different tortilla-like layers and each layer is saturated in oil and cooked for 2+ hours. They went all out for us. We had a great time socializing with her family. She was our main translator. We finished with Russian tea and a variety of snacks then we went outside to look at the yard. We got to see the garden. Her parents picked the cucumbers and strawberries right off the vines and gave them to us. Then we got to see their three cows. I asked Kada what she would name the cow if she had to name it and she said "Lora" because that has something to do with cow here in Kosovo. I said, "Oh so I'm a cow?!" They got a kick out of it and laughed and laughed.

This was my piece! It's HUGE!

I couldn't finish it. I felt bad and didn't want them to get their feelings hurt, but I couldn't do it.

Another face?! Go Cam... this was after her fleja.

This was right before Morgan said, "If my belly had a face, it would be smiling".  Kadda and her family thought it was pretty funny!

Russian tea, ketchup chips, pizza flavored trail mix, biscuits, and peanuts.

Our camera was hijacked by our sons during their quality time with our technology

Beautiful, sweet Sami- Parker took this when we weren't in the room.

Then, we got to go hear and see some traditional Albanian music and dancing. 

Sam and friend

random cute kid with his cotton candy

Ready for the circle dance

te dua

Valdete, Lori, Meg, and Sharon with crazy sons in the background. 

Morgan, Valdete, and me with sons in the background

look at my hat mom!

We caught Cam making a face again!

the cotton candy looked more like cotton pillow stuffing but tasted delicious

grandsons trying to steal Gammy's cotton candy

Suave candystache

Valdete and Peyton with some of our friends. 

Mother and son, together again

Lona with me and Mo- She wanted a picture of us kissing her right before this! 

Lona with me and Katherine

love this little one

Ben and Kyle are recreating a scene from Lady and the Tramp... but with cotton candy. They didn't even realize that they were this close to each other because they were so focused on eating it!

Hannah and Anna with their dancing friends.