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.
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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.