10 December 2009

Life just doesn’t hold still!

So much seems to have happened in the last several weeks! In slow moments we pinch ourselves and wonder how we got to be so involved in a country worlds away from home. Yes, the anticipated 6-month period of culture stress arrived, but we have always remained grateful to be here! (Photo: overnight snowfall)

Our Thanksgiving was great, complete with two turkey feasts and American friends! E. Coli apparently hit us for the next week, though. The long hours in bed put us behind on several plans but also gave us a needed reminder that we are finite and depend on an infinite God.

Landon’s Grandpa Hochstetler passed away on Dec 4. His health was in decline and he was due to start dialysis soon. Thankfully we spent some quality time together this spring before we moved. His passing brought a mix of peace, pride and nostalgia. We're so grateful for Skype!

Kokërr e Ëmbël (Sweet Bean), our bakery, is progressing toward the target opening date of January 4. We have hired 6 students from 25 applicants. A visit to IKEA in Greece earlier this month gave us a huge boost in equipment/supplies/furnishings. Please remember our staff training next week in prayer. Challenging and enabling the employees is the whole point of this shop. We’ve already met disappointments preparing for that, but it’s one “hill” we’re willing to “die on”.


Amidst all the above, our Leadership Club conducted an anti-smoking campaign at the high school this week. This project was selected, planned and executed by club members (with coaching from us). The centerpiece of their effort is a 9-minute documentary that we showed several times every day. A little over 600 students have viewed it so far.

Considering the kind of shortages/challenges in their lives, we're all proud as our students look with satisfaction on project that they ran from conception to execution. The process has brought us lots of “teachable moments” about leadership, character and faith. And non-smoking is a great cause in a country where one in three smoke!

Highlight: after one showing in the high school, the first guy to stand up during Q&A muttered an expletive and lit his pack of Marlboro's on fire so everyone could see he was serious about quitting! Afterward he stayed behind to tell us he appreciated the help meant what he said.
A. B. C.
D. E.
A. Introducing a showing at the Qiriazi Center to students off the street. B. Inviting passers-by to come in to the Qiriazi Center and watch the show. C. Club members on duty between showings at high school. D. The documentary projected on the wall of a classroom. E.The guy who was so persuaded he spontaneously burned his pack of cigarettes.

Landon spends time almost every evening practicing his hobby of fire-tending. The wood stove may be dirty, but it’s sure warm and a great way to unwind me after a long day!

04 November 2009

An American Coffeehouse for Entrepreneurship Training

An American Coffeehouse and Business Training Lab for Peja!

Next month we are launching an American coffeehouse with a built-in leadership training program for youth. Name: "Kokërr e Ëmbël," or "Sweet Bean." While it will be registered and run as a for-profit, it will give employees/trainees a practical understanding of how businesses are started and operated, specifically in Kosovo. The Kokërr e Ëmbël program is intended to demystify the business-creation process for young Kosovars, empowering them to launch (preferably value-creating) ventures of their own.

Banner translation: Coming in January 2010. Sweet Bean: American Coffeehouse for entrepreneurship training

The Specifics
Each semester we will hire new students to staff the coffeehouse part-time. As employees they will have significant responsibility for management, accounting, marketing, and daily operations in the café; as trainees they will also receive about 20 hours of explanation and training in business from the Yoders and others. As each semester ends we’ll hire new staff and start over!

The Strategy
Like Qendra Qiriazi (where we also work), the mission of the coffeehouse is to enable local young people to tackle challenges in their society. Qiriazi has the capacity to train large numbers of students but the coffeehouse aims to deeply influence 5-8 students per semester. The coffeehouse's goal of empowerment focuses narrowly on honest entrepreneurship skills. We are facing near-50% unemployment and corrupt hiring and admissions practices. (College graduates spend an average of 10 years between school and full-time employment.)

If successful, the bakery will grow in the next year into an “entrepreneurship laboratory” that funds itself and possibly even other organizations. Some call this double-bottom-line business or social entrepreneurship. We call it a wild ride!

The planning stage truly ended, and the start-up was born in early October. Since then we have:
  • Contracted to rent the property (pictured below)
  • Obtained the services of a lawyer, secured a business license and tax ID number
  • Coordinated with friends who can contribute a lot with design and product development
  • Distributed 30 of 60 applications with schools and individuals
  • Researched and started to formulate a "training-through-work" curriculum for employees
  • Recruited people from the community to teach some employee training sessions
  • Shopped (many hours!) for all kinds of supplies; made a host of contacts

Storefront with banners.

We hope to serve you here at Kokërr e Ëmbël in the not-so-distant future.

20 October 2009

Home From a Break, Qiriazi in Full Swing

Back Home from Greece
In the last week of September and early October we took a wonderful getaway to Greece to meet Lacey’s folks. Getting there involved several modes of transportation and travel through countries that are unfriendly with each other. But the company and weather in Greece were more than worth the effort! We made fantastic memories, but were still glad to get home to the people and work in Peja.

Winter rolled into town on Wednesday, sort of rushing fall a bit. There’s snow on the mountains and elsewhere in Kosovo. So far, however, Peja has only had heavy drizzling for a few days straight.


Qiriazi Update: Leadership Club, English, Ladies Night, & Social Events All Ongoing


Students have been attending the Leadership Club consistently and seriously! This past week they choose as their semester project an activity proposal that some students drafted at summer camp: an anti-smoking campaign targeting the Peja general high school. (There are separate high schools here for different career tracks. Qiriazi has and continues to work most with the “general” school that is viewed as the more competitive one.)

We’ve also found a rhythm for English classes. Between 5-10 students come, and we usually teach a stand-alone lesson that doesn’t build on the previous weeks.

These regular activities (plus coffee appointments) bring us together with several specific students multiple times each week. In small ways, they often demonstrate that they’re learning and growing through our activities. That's inspiring! Last weekend we held a Scottish dance evening with help from a Scottish friend here. It was our friend's first exposure to our students (at least in a while) and it was our students' first exposure to Scottish dancing. He took care to teach not only the steps but also the ways of "chivalry." Since then he's been singing the students' praises for their teachability and overall maturity - much different than many of their peers'. Encouragement like that helps us remember what we're working toward.


1 2 3

1. Leadership Club students explore principles of time management by "making it all fit" into a glass jar. 2. Snow over the mountains. 3. Strong attendance even though it gets dark during Club meetings (notice how coats are even worn inside during winter!).


23 September 2009

Leadership Club, Prishtaina, & Treasure Hunt

Leadership Club Kicks Off

At the Qiriazi Center we try to mimic a good science class: plenty of conceptual instruction as well as safe laboratory practice. The Leadership Club is the single biggest "lab" activity on our calendar, and it started last Thursday evening.

Fifteen students (a good crowd) came, and we pitched the club to them as a great opportunity for anyone who is willing to seriously commit for the 12 weeks. Throughout the course we'll have a combination of hands-on lessons (like simulations and games) and sessions for them to lead their own service project. The Qiriazi Center will provide €200 toward the project, but it's up to them to agree upon, plan, research, organize troubleshoot, and seek outside support if it is needed. Last year the Leadership Club organized a soccer tournament for high school students.

Opportunities like this are surprisingly rare for students here. Schools offer no extracurricular activities. There are very few club sports, and nothing like the boy scouts, summer camp, shop class or cooking class. Just this afternoon we explained the vision to a student's dad, and he liked the idea so much that he offered to pitch in €50 to the project budget. We're excited by the possibilities for solid outcomes and growth in the students.


Business Trip to Prishtina

Before dawn on Friday morning, we boarded the train to Prishtina. We hoped and intended to pick up Qiriazi's certificate of registration that our colleagues applied for in May. Unfortunately the individual we dealt with was unwilling to grant it even though we had a very deserving application. Imagine trying to get work done at a DMV where the documentation requirements are not in writing and there is no guarantee that the staff even want you to succeed. Hopefully the end to that process is not far away.


We still had a good productive with an American colleague as well as several Kosovar university students who participated in the summer programs. In recent weeks, Prishtina has seen street protests against the foreign government and military missions that still chaperon Kosovo's government. Those who feel strongly about self determination feel that specific actions by the EU mission have violated Kosovo's sovereignty. This hasn't affected us in the least, but it's another aspect of the country we make a point of watching and understanding.


Train: Kosovo Railways is a much better alternative to the bus!

National Library: walking with a student through the (unmaintained) "park," which is also the the campus of Prishtina University.

Demonstration: a traditional (rural?) man demonstrating for Kosovo's sovereignty. Note how the library's domes were made to resemble the man's traditional wool hat. Photo by: Labinot Ibërdemaj, http://www.flickr.com/photos/labinotiberdemaj/1395038688/



Treasure Hunt for Students

Lastly, here are some pictures of the Saturday Treasure Hunt that was postponed two weeks ago. It was the first one most of them had ever done, and they enjoyed it a lot! It even gave an opportunity for the facilitators (us) to ask the students how tactics and choices they made might translate into leadership practices in "real life."

14 September 2009

English, Games, & "Cotton" Anniversary

ESL Update
The future of our English class that began two weeks ago is still uncertain, after another week of low attendance. We suspect that the Iftar dinner (when devout Muslim break their daily Ramadan fast) makes it difficult for interested students to actually come. Lacey continues to meet with one particularly devoted student for practice at a local cafe. Their meetings usually include conversation, review of written exercises from the prior week, and mentoring toward her academic and career goals. We've conceded that we might need to re-invent the course throughout the semester, and allow students to join based on their availability and proficiency levels. While English is a professional necessity for young Kosovars, it is just one of several leadership capacities that Qendra Qiriazi cultivates, so we are trying to continue ahead on those other areas.

Anniversary
On Wednesday (9/9/09) we celebrated our second ("cotton") wedding anniversary. We are so grateful to have one another as soulmates, companions and colleagues! Thanks to everyone who sent congratulations warm wishes.

Since we're planning a vacation to Greece later this month, we kept our celebration low key. We got dinner reservations at the only restaurant in town with a rotating rooftop cafe, which turned out to be funny because all of the other tables were empty.The waitstaff seemed torn between accommodating us and watching a real-life romantic dinner unfolding before their eyes!

Another interesting anniversary: on 9/9/99 I (Landon) visited Kosovo for the first time with my dad, to begin post-war reconstruction. On that visit we spent about 4 hours in Peja, at a landmine safety training that we still remember because of the colorful Danish official who led it and the disarmed landmines they showed us as cautionary examples. Who knew we would be living here a decade later?

Qiriazi Social Event

On Sat. Qendra Qiriazi (we) hosted an afternoon of games instead of a previously scheduled city-wide treasure. Surprisingly, 20 students came in spite of the rain and had a great time.

We're all looking forward to the treasure hunt next weekend (probably a first for . Besides being fun, it is an opportunity to apply the life skills of teamwork and problem solving and managing self-consciousness while doing something unusual in public!

07 September 2009

English Class Rough Takeoff, Mountain Leadership Adventure

English Class: Rough Takeoff But Flying
After two weeks of advertising around town and on Facebook, we had about 20 RSVP's for our first English class on Tue. evening. Lacey worked for weeks to prepare 14 lessons, rich with content and activities, and as 5:45 approached we printed a dozen handouts and setup the center for class.

Only 3.5 students showed up. (The age bracket was 15-25, which is why we only count 0.5 for the 11-year-old boy. He was only there because his dad asked for an exception for his son who was "fourteen years old".)

In spite of the initial disappointment, we went ahead and taught a stellar lesson to the little class. We met the next day with the guys and gals (separately) over coffee for conversation practice. On the way saw several of the other students who had RSVP'd, and they innocently asked, "You mean class started yesterday? But I can still come, right?" Sigh. Sadly, the whole experience is more the rule than the exception with work here. Despite high ideals, planning, and keeping one's word are rare at every level of business and government here, so we continue to train our students and try to account for that lag as we plan events.
(No pictures of class this week because the scene of two teachers and 4 students was too pitiful. : )

Leadership Camp "Mountain Adventure... before summer disappears!"
On Fri. we took a group of high school and college students up to a camp in the mountains for an overnight getaway and leadership training. To save space, we'll summarize it in bullets:
  • 28 students RSVP'd, still only 18 came (and we even confirmed w/ each one!)
  • Fee €5 to offset transport, and three meals
  • Transport: 3 off-road vehicles
  • 2 students sent home early Sat. morning for defying the rules overnight
  • Lacey woke up at 3:30 am to cook so two devout Muslim guys could one last meal before the Ramadan fast at sunrise.
  • Chaperons: L&L, Mark (Prishtina based), Jonathan & Clare (from Wales, who happened to be at camp and blended wonderfully into our group!)
On Sat. morning we led an hour-long simulation about leadership, debriefed the students, and elaborated on themes with a short lecture. It was so good and gratifying that it (almost) made us forget the conflict and three hours of sleep the night before.
1. 2.
3. 4.
1. Measuring their success on the 6 puzzles they were assigned in Round 1 of the simulation. 2.Lacey and Kimber in the kitchen. The camp is under construction and has nice balance of comfort and "rustic." 3. Loading the "Chelsea Tractor" (Land Rover) that we rented. 4. Artan receives a chorus similar to "Here Comes the Bride" while serving the other students coffee on a tray (Albanian men often take pride in their lack of domestic skills, which are handled by their mom or "bride").

The theme of the morning was that leading in peacetime can be trickier than leading during conflict. We helped the students recognize that they are the first generation of Kosovars in centuries to be building their society without a hostile occupier who is trying to thwart their efforts. Their parents' stories of organized resistance are heroic, but Kosovars today need new creativity and character to lead a society exhibiting serious symptoms of apathy, corruption, rivalry and passivity.

The simulation seemed to effectively deliver the principle at an intuitive level. The students listened with wide-eyed seriousness when we later explained that it represented the narrative of their history.











01 September 2009

Preachin', B&B and Disgruntled Customers

Preachin'
Landon spoke yesterday - in Albanian - at the local church we attend. This wasn't part of our Qiriazi job description, but it was an opportunity to contribute to a group that we appreciate and wish to succeed. I (Landon) talked for an hour about the role of "doing good" in Christianity. The topic is loaded because many here polarize between rigid religious requirements and "being good" independent of religion. Recently, for example, a friend let me know that Christians, in his view, have an "easier religion than his" because we have loose rules and few rituals to perform. Elsewhere, another acquaintance boasted about his own view that, "this world has only two types of people: good and bad," and religious conviction is not what determines that. On Sunday we started from those two views and looked at Christ's unique teaching that the moral standards are completely out of human reach, yet because of grace we can be in perfect standing with God and thus practice "doing good" out of gratitude and love.

The L&L B&B
Last night two ladies came to stay at our home for about two weeks. They aren't our first overnight guests, but we pushed hard this week to finish some painting and furnishing projects to get ready! One lady is Albanian-American and the other is American. They're moving to Peja to work with an organization that focuses on educating some of the poorer Albanian and Roma population. Lacey has seized the opportunity to test drive her dream of running a guesthouse!
Sunshine-golden paint, framed pictures, and new light fixtures in our hallway.


Real Estate
(Disgruntled Customers)
We've also helped for a few hours this week at a real estate office, which is owned by a friend who is currently in the US. The local staff have taught us some good things about customer relations and professionalism in this culture. Unfortunately, one of our go-to tasks (especially Landon's) is to handle hard-to-please, agitated customers. It's certainly not easy, but is a valuable learning opportunity! Overall, we really enjoy being part of their honest productivity in this society where half of the workforce is unemployed and many deal in the black/gray-market.
Krijesa e Re real estate in the bottom-left storefront.

22 August 2009

ESL, Count of Montenegro, & Boy Injured in River

Advertising for Fall English Course
We're just about one week away from the kick-off of Qendra Qiriazi's fall programs. Next Tue. evening our English language (ESL) class for beginners will meet for the first time in the semester. Lacey is spearheading the course, and has put in long hours recently compiling the curriculum and creating marketing material. Practically, ESL is a gateway that brings young folks from all over town into relationship with the Qendra Qiriazi staff and students and into familiarity with servant leadership, the core of our vision. And English also happens to be a vital professional skill, that we happen to know very well! Below are the two posters we made and hung, with help from students, around town.

The Count of Montenegro

On Wed.-Fri. of last week we visited Kosovo's three-year-old neighbor to the West, Montenegro. Our current status in Kosovo is something like "non-resident alien" which means that after 90 consecutive days we need to exit and re-enter the country. Much of the trip was experimental, and we came away wiser, glad to be in Kosovo, but still glad we went!

We took a bus from the Peja station and transferred in Podgorica. Even though the journey was only 70 miles, it took us nearly 7 hours of twisting through the rocky mountainous terrain. Ugh. Thankfully the buses had AC and the roads were reasonably smooth.

In our destination city of Budva, we stayed with a local Montenegrin-Serbian lady that we met at the bus station there. (It's common for locals in Adriatic tourist towns to offer tourists a sort of "bed & breakfast" at cheap prices, and we wanted to try it out!) Lubica was a nice lady who spoke a lot of broken English. For no extra charge at "check in," she read both of our fortunes from our passport numbers... both of us are very lucky. She told us "Saturn is my boss" and we answered that, "God is our boss, and we read his thoughts in the Bible, not in the stars."

Budva is pretty enough to have a calendar made about it, but our trip was nearly ruined by the crush of hedonistic tourists. The highlight of the trip was getting 6 lbs. of fresh figs - Lacey's favorite - and getting her first haircut since moving here! There was also a great beach with rock formations to climb on, sand for laying out and cold, blue-green water for cooling off.



(L) Picture borrowed from: Flickr.com/photos/shrubin . (R) Sunrise over inland Montenegro on the return trip.

Boy in the River with
Bleeding Foot
An odd thing happened Sat. afternoon that touched our hearts and seemed to bear spiritual meaning. A small crowd of kids on the bridge (pictured) was pointing and yelling toward the water at a little kid who had cut his foot. As the boy cried and his blood colored the rocks, several adults and kids yelled how he should walk toward the banks so they could help him. Within moments though, most of them would throw up their hands and curse the boy for stupidity because he just kept crying, "It hurts, it hurts!"

The crowd wavered between scorn and pity. I (Landon) stood there facing an ultimatum between the ice cream in my hand and the boy bleeding in the water. Before long, another boy climbed down to help him through the water and over the gravel to the bank, where I lifted him out. I then climbed down to get the the clothes he had left behind, but by the time I was up, the the police had taken him to the hospital. I had to leave them with some homeless Roma guys who seemed to know the boy (possibly a consequence of my lingering too long over the ice cream).

It was a picture of how stuck we can get ourselves in life and of the need for a gracious rescuer. It also reinforced in our minds that the most important event in our day might not be on on our calendars ahead of time!

17 August 2009

Last Weeks of Summer, Ramadan On The Way

Qiriazi Center
Last Tuesday we offered a workshop for students on the basics of applying to American colleges. In a sense the workshop was at their request. A recent U.N. survey found that 44% of young Kosovars (we would have guessed a higher) intend to leave Kosovo to live somewhere else. That outlook on life combined with the troubled higher education system here, explains why many students have asked us for help getting into US schools.

Since we're not experts on US student visa policy, we stuck to the topics we understand quite well from recent personal experience. We tried to help the students brace for the multitude of decisions they'll have to make in system made up of nearly 7,000 colleges that are all trying to find good students and also make a buck. Our aim was to enable the students to use key terms like admissions, tuition, financial aid, merit/need-basis, major, int'l student programs, etc. to navigate college websites so that they can begin making these decisions.

Social Time with Locals & Expatriates
This week we had significant social times with both Kosovars and fellow foreigners. We visited the home of one of our students on Wed. morning and spent nearly 3 hours conversing with his parents and eating various treats they prepared for us. We especially enjoyed discussing his father's stories about leading underground education and social welfare programs in the 1990s when Kosovar Albanians were heavily and violently repressed.

On Thur. evening we had a picnic in the mountains at a camp that some friends are building. We spent the night in tents, and the next morning pitched a few hours with the ambitious construction work that was underway.


Ramadan Begins this Week

Sometime late this week (depending on when the waning moon is sighted) the Islamic month of Ramadan begins. Kosovo's many Muslims will join Muslims worldwide in observing this month with fasting during daylight hours, practicing charity toward the poor, and seeking spiritual purification through prayers and and meditation on the Quran. We anticipate that during this month folks may be less active and less patient during the daily fast, and that there will be an indulgent, celebratory atmosphere in the evenings. We will also probably have a lot of conversations about the tenets of Islam and how these compare with the tenets of Christianity.

Everyday Life
We made two noteworthy purchases this week: last Sun. we got houseplants, four of them, at a nursery outside of town. We're very proud to report that they are all alive and well 7 days later! The second surprising purchase was a pair of great hiking/snow boots for Landon for €5. They were on display in a shop in one of Peja's old Ottomon-feeling neighborhoods, but the shopkeeper told us he actually imported used/overstocked clothes from Germany. As they say, "the world is flat" even over here!


08 August 2009

"Promotion," Swimming & Home Improvement

"Promotion" - On Wednesday Dr. Mark Bryant, professor at a local private college and Qiriazi Center's director for the past year, returned home to the US. The end of his year here came fast, but there's no questioning the big strides forward that his students and the Qiriazi Center took during that time. Our board of directors planned for this day at a meeting in July; as Mark transitions to being a board member, I (Landon) am replacing him as the center's acting director. It is an exciting opportunity to oversee the Center's operations and continue growing its effectiveness in developing servant leaders!
The Uni. servant leadership camp staff, with Mark at bottom left.


Swimming - On Tuesday, Mark's last day, we spent the afternoon with some of our high school students at Peja's newest pool. For a €1.5 entry fee we got gorgeous views in every direction and a huge pool full of clean cold water, perfect for the August heat! The students almost spent the whole four hours we were there trying to dunk or push one another into the pool... but we did also manage to have some deep good conversation about faith/religion (and a bit of politics).

Home Improvement - We've also passed some milestones this week in home decor, and, in my opinion, crossed the threshold of homeyness, even though it's still in progress. We replaced two bare light bulbs in the hall with fixtures to match the golden color paint Lacey put up earlier in the month.

Today we fixed choc. chip cookies and had our landlord's family over for their first visit and so that they could take away their stuff that was filling our second bedroom. In Lacey's words "I just made some chocolate chip cookies using a bag of Nestle chocolate chips that another American left behind :) The butter here is a bit...farm-y and there is no brown sugar--but I think they are going to turn out well. Our landlord and his family are coming over, a bit to visit and a bit to move some of their things our of our second room...finally :), so we'll host them 'Albanian-style' with tons of snacks, sweets, coffee, and juice."


A rainbow at sunrise!

Yesterday (8/7) morning we got a sprinkle of rain at sunrise (around 6:45 - while Lacey was on her jog) and a rainbow! These pictures show the view from our balcony. The white minaret is the closest of several mosques that serenade us 5 times each day with their call to prayer.

01 August 2009

Uni Camp Done Too! Post-Camp Excursion Was Today.

Hi again everyone! We've officially crossed the hump in our summer schedule - both leadership camps now done.

In the last six weeks many visions and plans of work here have been replaced by actual experiences. And incredibly, the realities have almost all been more positive than the anticipations.

We're in a transitional stage now. Several of our coworkers - both temporary volunteers and permanent staff - are returning home to the US and we're both adopting some of their responsibilities. In planning for fall, we're looking to continue some of the Center's standing activities and also to expand its impact with new activities.

We'll leave it somewhat vague for now until we get more time for a detailed update. : )

Enjoy these pictures from our excursion to Mirusha Falls today with students who participated in the University camp!


Lacey jumps from the lowest waterfall (L), while our group watches from their rock perch (R).


Lacey walks the path to the first waterfall.


A group of sweet little troublemakers sidled up to Lacey when she offered them snacks. Later they escorted us back to our vehicles and helped us pick up the blanket of litter beside the path.


This is the rock face on one side of the lake (footpaths are hidden throughout). Large plastic pipes supply a waterwheel (bottom R) that generates power for a boom box and refrigerator at the concession stands down near where we sat.


A student and Landon both enjoying the technical solution. If only Kosovo could harness natural forces to get reliable power for the entire country!


A partial group picture.