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."

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!

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.

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.