The moring started early with a 7:30 visit over pastries and coffee with a Albanian friend who helped us with the Leadership Camps last summer. He is assisting some collegues with English classes funded through USAid.
We drove to the eastern border of Kosovo and visited two micro-finance clients who both began with initial loans of $500. One of them used the money to rent a small kiosk in the outdoor market and buy some things to sell there. Five years (and 6 loans later) he has three stores on the main thoroughfare in his town. The other man used his $500 to buy a dairy cow. He now has 60 cows, is helping others in neighboring villages get dairy cows and hopes to have 100 dairy cows and start a dairy plant where all the neighboring dairy farmers can have their milk processed. We are moving rather rapidly down the micro-finance learning curve.
On the visit at the dairy farmers home, they prepared a traditional Kosovar meal. It included the one food that is native ONLY to Kosova. It is "flia" - a batter, similar to that used for crepes, is spooned into a large round pan in a very thin layer. A lid, piled with coals, is then set over the pan and bakes the batter for about 5 minutes. The process is then repeated at least 10 times until the pan has a large multilayered delight. That was served with other traditional foods such as pickled peppers, fresh cheese, yougurt, roast, soup, etc. I slept in the back seat on the way home.
When we arrived in Prishtina, we packed up and headed to Peje. It was 4:30 and already almost dark. I told the guys that one of the most frightening things about driving at night here are the people wearing black and walking on the side of the road. Sure enough, it was lightly raining and before I knew it there were 2 people on the road (to stay out of the mud next to the road). I swerved at the last second and we all took a deep breath and gave thanks.
We are now in the place that is my second home. Tomorrow we will visit with the people at a branch of the Grameen Bank. It's founder, Muhammad Yunus, one the Nobel Peace prize last year for the unique approach taken by this bank in Bangladesh.
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