More pictures...Landscapes, Moons during the day and other Kosovo Images

Pictures

Friday

Today was the day of the big meeting! It went really well...that's the short version. Two major changes are in the works. The first is that the Army is in talks with the Irish military to go to Shtime, the institution, every Sunday, form relationships with the staff and the residents. They plan to try and do some recreation and act as providers for some of the more minor needs. That's really exciting, because Shtime is is a place in dire need of intervention. The second thing is that the Civil Affairs until will begin working on a plan to secure more medications for the Center for Mental Health. We'll see how that works. We did a big drive around, pricing out medications and working with the psychiatrist to see what would actually work, so it's cool to see that the recommendation was taken seriously, and acted on really quickly!
Um...I guess I don't have any good pictures for this particular topic!

Thursday morning

We had two very important meetings with key people in the mental health system here in Gjilan. We met with the director of the Center for Mental Health. There are 6 centers, out of the 7 municipalities (counties) here. It was a lovely building, with room for a ping pong table. As we entered, people were dancing to traditional Albanian music. It appears that there are a few really major issues here in Kosovo. The first is that the Ministry of health has decided that they no longer have a budget for medications, so most people go without the very expensive medications. The budget issues have caused many problems here, including decreased funding for the centers. They act as satellites, serving the surrounding areas. They have had to stop providing meals and travel costs for patients that live far distances, only being able to provide the main services for those nearby. The director is a very intelligent dedicated man. Interestingly, he serves people at Shtimle, the institution.
We then met with the psychiatrist from the main hospital here in Gjilan. He is dedicated to supporting both the centers here, and the Children's program. They have no inpatient program for children, only day services two days a week. Tomorrow is the main meeting, and I expect that it will be very interesting. I'm looking forward to it! I'll post the final report soon!

Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving!

The evening ended with a surprise visit to the Shtime Institute. It's been known for some pretty huge atrocities against its residents, however, they have tried to make the place better i recent years. We decided on a surprise visit. It was better than I expected, yet still heartbreaking when I consider the standards that we uphold in the US. There were large stark rooms that housed the majority of the 76 residents. The main room that most of the residents were sitting in was completely dark...very intimidating to enter at first, but people were very welcoming. Very little stimulation...but the few staff people that they employed had very good rapport with the patients and those staff have huge hearts to do the work that they do. The children's until was recently built in collaboration with WHO (World Health Organization). It was a brightly lit warm place with toys and color everywhere. Out of respect for the residents, we didn't take any photos, but I won't need any reminders to recall the images in my mind.

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.

Monday and Tuesday in Kosovo

Tuesday was filled with meetings. In the morning, I was supposed to visit the University in Gjilan and listen to a class on Sociology. Kris must have really talked me up, because when we arrived, they'd decided that I should give a speech on policy. It was actually really fun and interesting. It was to a full room of students and the asked really insightful questions. I was able to gain a lot more knowledge of how they feel and what they see as their big challenges. In the afternoon I was honored to meet with the Ministry of Social Welfare. They are the part of the ministry of health that is in charge of the Centers for Mental Health.
The electricity ran out and it started to get dark, so our meeting ended early, but they will be there at the main meeting on Friday.

Monday was a day of both fun and work. In the morning we met with the directors and social workers from the women's shelter in Gjilan.

Ther afternoon was spent in Letnica, which is the tine little farming town that boasts the church of the Black Madonna, where Mother Teresa was serving when she got her "call" to Calcutta.