Changing the way I look at the world

By Suzanne Broer

The trip back to the Netherlands was a lot quicker than our travels to Prishtina. This is, of course, nice on one hand, but on the other hand it caused me to not completely realize that we were actually leaving Kosovo after all this time. We arrived home, and all of a sudden it was over. Just as during the trip, events took some time to sink in, returning did as well. The boat trip through the Amsterdam canals on Saturday morning was perfectly timed: we didn’t have to miss each other for that long.

In the days following, we had some time to rest, although we also had to get back to the order of the day: I will be moving out on the 11^th of July and my search for a new place to stay in Amsterdam continued. Catching up with friends, meeting some friend before they will leave for the summer, celebrating Dormfest, and more – but also meeting up with the Peace Lab group. After having doing these things, the projects needed more attention. It was actually a really good process to work on your project and to make it into a final product: this makes the trip clearer in your head as well. With Louise and Nathan, my group members, we would meet to work on our project in the AB, but also we went to a café and sat outside in the sun to work on our project. 

With our project, combining all the pictures from all the different interviews and being able to compare the answers of different people was very interesting at this point: we had only met the people separately. When we were able to compare the pictures, the differences in personalities became clearer and it felt as if we got to know the people even better. Also, in the meantime, many of the people we interviewed we were able to find on Instagram or facebook, or they found us. It was enjoyable to also meet them through social media: you get to know a different part of someone. It is an example of how, again, the people from Kosovo are just like us: they put effort in creating a nice Instagram profile with photos of experiences, or you can see that they are clearly more into sharing selfies.

On Thursday and Friday we had the last classes. These classes took a long time, but it was good to see everyone again and it was wonderful to see all the projects and to experience Kosovo once again in this way. Kosovo was not really a holiday, and we have certainly learned a lot of things, but it was a lot of fun and I am really happy that I experienced it with this group of people. I am looking forward to the next reunion!

           

My uncle Frank, who likes biking, asked me if I would recommend Kosovo as a holiday destination. I think I would, it is a beautiful country, even though there’s a lot of things that aren’t as comfortable as they are back home. It has a unique charm, the people are lovely, the food is delicious, and the coffee is the best. I would, however, also try to visit NGOs: it is a very important part of Kosovo and the progress that it’s making. Maybe that should be a holiday thing in general: when travelling and visiting museums, perhaps also visit important organizations in that area.

As I am writing this blogpost, I am in the plane to Valencia, to celebrate graduation. Louise is actually also in the plane, a couple rows behind me. She’s also working on her blogpost. We can see if there’s some organizations that we can visit there J.

Kosovo has changed the way I look at the world: change apparently happens slowly but surely, and it is important to keep the faith. Moreover, just because a lot of infrastructure is not in perfect condition, or because there are stray dogs walking around, or your house is unfinished, that doesn’t mean that you will not be happy and can have dreams. The Kosovars are just like us. 

Thank you to everyone who was involved in the trip, Anne & Erik, Enver & Bardha, Chiara, all the organizations that we visited, and my fellow students. I hope to see everyone again someday!